Preliminary design, project plan & costing for Copernicus OC-SVC infrastructure

The OC-SVC Infrastructure has to satisfy the Copernicus long-term perspective and current and evolving user needs for products and services. Funded by the European Commissions, the study was a second step of EUMETSAT’s Copernicus OC-SVC activities. The 'Requirements for Copernicus Ocean Colour Vicarious Calibration Infrastructure' developed by the Step-1 activities were used as a baseline for this preliminary design study, Step 2, and were fully applicable for the preliminary design and planning.

Overview

This preliminary design study specified a conceptual architecture of the Copernicus OC-SVC Infrastructure project. The study includes the design of:

• Infrastructure location, the site’s environmental characterisation and logistics.
• Optical system and calibration.
• Deployment structure.
• Data processing services — ground segment.
• Infrastructure operations.
• Total uncertainty budget.

The project planning defined the Copernicus OC-SVC development tasks, schedules, deliverables and review processes for the infrastructure’s field and ground segments for the remaining three steps of the project:

• Technical definition, specifications and engineering design.
• Development, testing, and demonstration in the field.
• Operations.

The costing provided the preliminary costing for the Copernicus OC-SVC Infrastructure project. The costs are itemised for field and ground segments and cover all the tasks within:

• Technical definition, specifications and engineering design.
• Development, testing, and demonstration in the field.
• Operations.

The work was realised through two parallel studies by:

• Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche (F), Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (GR), ACRI-ST (F), National Physical Laboratory (GB), Univeristy of Tartu (EST), CIMEL Electronique (F) (Figure 1)
• Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (I), AEQUORA (P), ENEA (I) and SOLVO (F) (Figure 2)

Preliminary costing estimates between the two OC-SVC Preliminary Designs:

• Phase 4 Detailed design, technical definition, and specifications – 0.6 - 1.5 MEUR
• Phase 5 Development and demonstration in the field – 8 - 10 MEUR, with more than 50% of costs in hardware and services
• Phase 6 Operations – 1.2 - 2.2 MEUR/year