The EnMAP Mission Planning System

Abstract

The Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Program mission (EnMAP) is a German hyperspectral Earth observation mission, currently scheduled for launch in 2020. The EnMAP Mission Planning System (MPS), developed and operated by the German Space Operations Center (GSOC), is one of 15 subsystems constituting the EnMAP Ground Segment. Its main task is to compile and maintain a conflict-free timeline for routine operations that does not violate any constraints of the spacecraft (e.g. regarding power or onboard memory); this timeline will regularly be commanded to the spacecraft. This paper gives an overview of the current EnMAP MPS design, including the special requirements of the EnMAP mission, the components of the MPS and its most important external interfaces. The design of the EnMAP MPS largely builds on our experience gathered during the TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X mission and has been developed further. Novel technologies include the Reactive Planning framework, which particularly stands out due to its high responsiveness to user input. Particular attention is furthermore paid to the inclusion of cloud coverage and sunglint information into the planning process -- two challenges which are specific to EnMAP observing in the optical and near infrared part of the spectrum.