Societal challenges like climate change and adaptation, digitalisation, mobility, renewable energy, sustainability and civil security are the main topics, for which the German Earth Observation Programme is striving to deliver contributions and solutions. As the largest contributor to the European Earth Observation Programmes at ESA, Eumetsat and EC, Germany is shaping together with our international partners a user-driven, well-balanced, technological outstanding and long-term EO landscape for Earth science, operational services and downstream business. The German National EO Programme complements the European activities in terms of data exploitation, service development, technology preparation and mission development and operations. The TerraSAR-X and the TanDEM-X missions as the closest-ever in-orbit formation delivered a digital elevation model of all land masses enabling Earth System Science based on a homogeneous topographic data base. The German-US GRACE FO mission already demonstrated its capability to continue and enhance the successful GRACE mission. DESIS is delivering hyperspectral data from the ISS. With the hyperspectral EnMAP mission and the German-French MERLIN mission further elements of a German mission portfolio, complementary to ESA’s Earth Explorers, to the Copernicus Sentinels and to the EUMETSAT missions will be placed in orbit in the next years. In addition, with the in-kind contribution of the MetImage instrument to EUMETSAT’s post-EPS satellite system this operational satellite series will be able to provide indispensable data for Earth Observation applications. At the same time, new trends in EO like New Space, online platforms and cloud processing, AI and HAPS are offering new potentials for service opportunities, which are explored in our programme.
With the long-term data and service continuity as one of the major user requirements the strategy of Germany for its next generation of high-resolution radar, gravity, Lidar, optical, infrared and hyperspectral space activities is of utmost importance. These plans and the role of these missions in the future global Earth Observation System will be introduced.

The “Advanced Optical Satellite” (ALOS-3, nick-named “DAICHI-3”) is the next high-resolution optical mission as a successor of the optical mission by the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS, “DAICHI”) in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). ALOS-3 is now under testing the flight model and the launch preparations will be completed soon. ALOS-3 is scheduled to be launched by March 2022.
The major mission objectives are (1) to contribute safe and secure social including provisions for natural disasters, and (2) to create and update geospatial information in land and coastal areas. The “WIde-Swath and High-resolution optical imager” (WISH, as a tentative name) will be mounted on ALOS-3, which consists of 0.8 m resolution of the panchromatic band and 3.2 m resolution of multispectral six bands with 70 km of observation swath width. This paper describes overviews of ALOS-3’s mission and products, and the updated calibration and validation plan of WISH, which will be conducted after the launch.
Regarding two major mission objectives of ALOS-3, JAXA expects to utilize the following various applications and outcomes by ALOS-3.
1. Safe and secure social including provision for natural disasters
For responding to natural disasters not only in Japan but also worldwide, disaster-related information e.g., damaged area and volume estimations, damage assessment associated with rescue activities will be provided as soon as after happening the event. To accommodate this requirement, ALOS-3 had requested its observation agility. For analyzing the acquired data, this is a change detection between before and after the event, therefore an observation repeatedly and the archiving data is important before the event as well. This is also able to contribute to maintaining and updating the hazard maps in the prevention phase. In the emergency phase, multi-satellite responses by ALOS-3 and ALOS-2 if it is still in operating, and ALOS-4 as the next Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mission will be considered for the quick response and valuable information extractions.
2. Geo-spatial information in land and coastal areas
The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) is responsible for official national topographic map generation and update with 1/25,000 scales. To contribute to this requirement, at least 5 m geometric accuracy must be guaranteed. To identify surface textures, land-use and land-cover (LULC) and their changes to update the map as well, image readability and quality are also important. In addition, terrain height estimation i.e., digital elevation model (DEM) or digital surface model (DSM) is important to create contour lines in the map. This function may also contribute to activities in the natural disaster responses.
The latest information including the results of the launch and the Initial Check Out will be presented in the presentation.

The paper presents the development status of PLATiNO platform with first four payloads and missions.
PLATiNO is a project initiated by the Italian space Agency with the aim of developing a multi-mission and multipurpose flexible and scalable platform developed by the industrial consortium composed by SITAEL, Thales Alenia Space in Italy, Leonardo and Airbus- Italia..
The multi-applicability has been proven through a joint and parallel development of a SAR mission and an optical Thermal Infrared Mission whose design is now completed and the program is undergoing the qualification phase. In addition, ASI has decided to develop additional optical EO missions to accomplish the national Optical Roadmap for the Earth Observation. Therefore, the national mission portfolio, based on PLATiNO platform, spans among a SAR mission (namely PLT-1), a TIR mission (namely PLT-2), a VNIR mission (namely PLT-3) and a Hyperspectral mission (namely PLT-4).
PLATiNO platform is a new all-electric propulsion small platform product in the mini-satellites class with total mass falling in the range of 250-350 kg (S/C launch mass), designed to be compatible with a wide range of applications (multi-applicability feature). The platform design features and technological solutions (i.e. electric propulsion for V-LEO orbits, mini-CMG for agile re-pointing, ISL for formation flying/constellations, high data rate active antenna for EO Data management) are at the state-of-art and strictly linked to the multi-purpose capability. While the platform is a standard product compatible with several payloads (EO – SAR, Optical – TLC – Science), the first four missions are all related to Earth Observation to meet the needs of the Agency in consolidating and expanding its capabilities in investigating and monitoring the changes and their causes occurring onto the Italian territory and the planet in general.
PLATiNO payloads and missions are presented, with focus on each of their specific performances.
The first mission, PLT-1, is a high resolution and compact SAR mission, that will be launched at the begin of 2023. PLT-1 SAR can perform stripmap bi-static and monostatic imaging, as well as Spotlight modes flying in formation with a Cosmo SkyMed satellite.
The second mission, PLT-2, is a hi-res Thermal InfraRed mission that will be launcher at the beginning of 2024 and which is able to observe the Earth both during day and night due to the chosen spectrum which covers the IR between 8 and 12 microns, i.e. in the emissivity region. The orbit will be an SSO with an altitude lower than 400 km.
The third mission, PLT-3, is a Visible and Near InfraRed Mission to be launched in mid 2025, which represents a step ahead in the Italian EO capabilities aimed at observing the Earth at high resolution and wide swath.
The fourth mission, PLT-4, is a Hyper Spectral mission to be launched in mid 2026 aimed at consolidating the Italian Hyperspectral observation capabilities also by the utilization of a small and agile platform.

Vegetation and Evironment New Micro-Satellite (VENµS) is an Earth observation space mission jointly ‎developed, manufactured, and operated by the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES, France) and ‎the Israel Space Agency (ISA). The satellite, launched in August 2017, crosses the equator at around ‎‎10:30 AM Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) through a sun-synchronous orbit at 720 km height with 98° ‎inclination. During its first phase, named VM1, the scientific goal of VENμS was to frequently acquire ‎images on 160 preselected sites with a two-day revisit time, a high spatial resolution of 5 m, and 12 ‎narrow bands, ranging from 424 to 909 nm. This band setting was designed to characterize vegetation ‎status, monitor water quality in coastal and inland waters, and estimate the aerosol optical depth and ‎the water vapor content of the atmosphere. To observe specific sites within its 27-km swath, the ‎satellite can be tilted up to 30 degrees along and across track. Uniquely, the preselected sites are ‎always observed with constant view azimuth and zenith angles. Four spectral bands were carefully set ‎in the red-edge region between the atmospheric absorption areas. Also, exceptionally, there are two ‎identical red bands located at both extremities of the focal plane. The 2.5-sec difference between the ‎first and the last red bands of the pushbroom scanner enables stereoscopic view and retrieves 3-‎dimensional measurements.‎

The presentation strives to demonstrate several applications derived from the VENµS unique ‎characteristics. The frequent revisit time enables creating a dense, high-quality, time series of crops ‎and, thus, accurately depicts different phenological stages (e.g., sowing, germination, vegetative, ‎mortality). It also enables the detection of near-real-time changes of constituents in water bodies, ‎glacier flow, and more. The red-edge inflection point (REIP) was proven to be a better index than ‎NDVI for field crops studies, including predicting leaf area index and chlorophyll and nitrogen contents. ‎The spectroscopic capability allows retrieving a digital surface model (DSM). DSM provides the altitude ‎of the natural terrain and features on the Earth's surface, such as trees, buildings, etc. Stereoscopy ‎also enables cloud classification based on their heights and enhances cloud-mask algorithms. The ‎multi-angular view capability is used for improving vegetation (and other ground features) monitoring ‎and modeling. ‎

VENµS is also used to prepare the next optical satellite missions to help determine the optimal revisit ‎time. For instance, it has been shown that the two-day revisit time enables the production of bi-‎monthly syntheses with a limited number of residual clouds. Additionally, VENµS is used to optimize ‎the revisit of a companion mission to Sentinel-2, named Sentinel-HR, that would bring metric or bi-‎metric resolution with a reduced revisit (~20 days). Consequently, VENµS is useful to benchmark the ‎spatio-temporal fusion methods for merging the benefit of the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-HR missions ‎and getting metric resolution images with a revisit of two days. These advantages will be enhanced ‎during the new phase of the mission, termed VM5, for which the orbit of VENµS will be at 560 km ‎altitude, with a new unique combination of features. i.e., a one-day revisit time and 4 m spatial ‎resolution. VM5 is planned to last two years, starting from January 2022.‎

Imaging spectroscopy in the VNIR/SWIR spectral range has demonstrated strong potential for the characterization of chemical and physical properties of Earth surface materials and processes. Earth observation applications based on imaging spectroscopy include the characterization of vegetation properties in natural and managed systems, top soil properties, water properties in coastal areas and inland water, urban land cover, industrial waste and air pollution or soil contamination. Following the Hyperion mission, space missions recently became operational (PRISMA), others will be launched soon (EnMAP), and global missions are under study (CHIME, SBG). Most of them have a ground sampling distance (GSD) of 30 m, a large swath and can therefore cover large areas on Earth to characterize different terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems with a revisit period ranging from 4 to 16 days. Such a spatial resolution is a limiting factor for an accurate discrimination of heterogeneous areas and the characterization of specific ecosystems, because it induces a large number of mixed pixels. The BIODIVERSITY (ex-HYPXIM) mission aims at complementing these space missions with a unique combination of characteristics including a GSD of 10 m, a revisit time of up to 5 days and a spectral range from 0.4 to 2.4 µm. It will thus provide answers to several scientific issues (e.g., Biodiversity monitoring, shallow water biodiversity monitoring, soil contamination monitoring...), which motivated the conception of the instrument.
To support BIODIVERSITY, the French scientific community focused on identifying the requirements for spectral resolution, radiometric resolution and absolute calibration, evaluated based on a set of applications covering aforementioned topics. For each topic, the illustration and the performance on the estimated variables are presented and the best configurations is deduced. These applications include:
• The characterization of vegetation traits in tree-level species assemblages; these traits are associated with the resilience of terrestrial ecosystems, anthropogenic influences, and ecosystem biodiversity in terms of species composition and assemblages. Illustrations will be given on the estimation of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV): classification of species of temperate forest and estimation of pigments (Chlab, carotenoids), leaf water content and Leaf Mass Area (LMA) of Mediterranean forest.
• The improved knowledge on biodiversity and bathymetry in shallow water for coastal areas and inland waters. Results will focus on the estimation of shallow water biodiversity and bathymetry.
• The characterization of top soil properties to assess soil pollution and soil quality at fine spatial resolution, providing information on the influence of soil management practices on environmental processes such as soil carbon sequestration, infiltration and retention, runoff and soil erosion. This will be illustrated with mineral discrimination and Soil Moisture Content (SMC) estimation.
• Imaging spectroscopy can monitor cities and industrial pollution to evaluate the urban sprawl or the quality of our environment. We show that this GSD will improve our understanding of urban areas and activities of industrial sites to retrieve the urban land cover, or the solid and liquid effluents and the atmospheric productions, aerosols and greenhouse gases, of industrial activities.

Landsat 9 is a partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that will continue the Landsat program’s critical role of repeat global observations for monitoring, understanding, and managing Earth’s natural resources. Since 1972, Landsat data have provided a unique resource for those who work in agriculture, geology, forestry, regional planning, education, mapping, and global-change research. Landsat images have also proved invaluable to the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters, supporting emergency response and disaster relief to save lives. With the addition of Landsat 9, the Landsat program’s record of land imaging will be extended to over half a century.

The successful launch of Landsat 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA on September 27, 2021 onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket represented a major milestone for a five-decade partnership between NASA and the USGS that continues to set the standard for high-quality Earth observations. During the 100-day commissioning phase, NASA monitored all aspects of the spacecraft as it traveled toward its final orbit height of 705 km (438 mi.) above the Earth. Spacecraft maneuvers and calibration were conducted throughout the commissioning phase to verify that all systems were operating nominally. At approximately 100 days, ownership of the Landsat 9 mission was transferred to the USGS which began the operations phase.

Landsat 9 collects as many as 750 scenes per day, and along with Landsat 8, the two satellites add nearly 1,500 new scenes each day to the USGS Landsat archive for access by the global user community from a free and open cloud-based architecture. Processed into USGS Landsat Collection 2, the Landsat 9 products promise to be more interoperable than ever with other datasets, such as those offered by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 missions. Additionally, the global network of Landsat international ground stations provides contingency operations and make available near real-time Landsat products to serve local and regional user needs.