ETRUSCO-GMES
ETRUSCO-GMES is an interdisciplinary research and technological development based on the Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) for unification and performance improvement of:
- European Union flagship Programs such as Galileo and GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security)
- Italian flagship Programs such as Cosmo-SkyMed (CS) and Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation (CSG) (together called COSMO)
These flagship programs are mainly space activities with space segments consisting of a constellation of satellites but also with important ground segments.
Galileo is one of the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) constellations and a GMES SatNav (Satellite Navigation) component. Cosmo-SkyMed is a SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) constellation and a GMES Space Component (GSC) as space segment for Earth Observation. Sentinel-1 is a SAR satellite of the ESA (European Space Agency) and part of the GSC. This line of research is framed in HORIZON 2020 under the sections “Competitive Industries” and “Better Society”.
The project acronym underlines the importance of the integration (unification) between GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), GMES and SLR positioning techniques. This project is aimed at optimizing the space and ground segments and integrating GMES/GNSS with SLR geodesy techniques.
Other purposes of ETRUSCO-GMES project are:
- general relativity tests performance
- space geodesy studies
- improvement of GNSS orbits accuracy
- enhancement of stability and distribution of ITFR to provide a more precise definition of its origin and scale.
It is important for the development of LRAs with Formation Flying Functionality (LRA-3F) capabilities which is possible thanks to the framework of the R&D activities of the INFN National Scientific Committee n. 5 (INFN-CSN5) and the national contracts with public Entities which even encouraged the development an orbit realistic SCF-Test for GNSS that we applied to Galileo IOV (In-Orbit Validation).
ETRUSCO-GMES is composed of:
- ETRUSCO-IOV: SCF-Test for Galileo IOV
- G-CALIMES: Unification of Galileo and Italian constellations for radar mapping of Earth surface
In view of the HORIZON 2020 program, GMES has been renamed “Copernicus”.