In: Wagner W., Székely, B. (eds.): ISPRS TC VII Symposium - 100 Years ISPRS, Vienna, Austria, July 5-7, 2010, IAPRS, Voi. XXXVIII, Part 7B 
Products and services provided by the GEOLAND2 project will 
be available to users to the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) 
portal. 
1.2 The BioPar Core Mapping Service 
The goal of the Biogeophysical Parameters Core Mapping 
Service (BioPar CMS) is to set up pre-operational 
infrastructures for providing an extensive range of bio 
geophysical parameters on regional, European, and global 
scale, both in near-real-time (NRT) and off-line mode. The bio 
geophysical variables of the BioPar portfolio (see table 1) 
describe the vegetation state, the energy budget at the surface 
level, and the water cycle [1]. 
Product 
NRT 
Off 
line 
Spatial 
Resolution 
Spatial 
coverage 
Temporal 
Resolution 
Sensor 
(Back- 
UR) 
Continental Vegetation 
LAI, FCover, fAPAR, DMP, 
NDVI, Phenology 
NRT 
1 km 
Global 
10-days 
VGT 
(MODIS) 
Climatology : LAI, fAPAR, 
fCover 
Off 
line 
1 km 
Global 
Yearly 
VGT 
Times series of vegetation 
products 
Off 
line 
4 km 
Global 
10-days 
AVHRR 
+ VGT 
Burnt areas + seasonality 
NRT 
1 km 
Global 
Daily 
VGT 
MERIS FR biophysical 
variables 
NRT 
300 m 
Europe 
10-days 
MERIS 
HR biophysical products 
Off 
line 
10 m 
Pilot 
Areas 
4 
times/year 
SPOT 
Energy Budj 
'et 
Downwelling Shortwave 
Surface Flux Downwelling 
Longwave Surface Flux 
NRT 
~5 km 
Global 
3 hours 
XGEO + 
AVHRR 
Land Surface Temperature 
NRT 
~5 km 
Global 
3 hours, 
daily, 10- 
days 
XGEO + 
AVHRR 
Surface Albedo 
NRT 
1 km 
Global 
10-days 
VGT 
Surface Albedo 
NRT 
-5 km 
Global 
10-days 
XGEO + 
AVHRR 
Water cycle 
Water bodies + seasonality 
NRT 
1km 
250m 
Africa 
10-days 
VGT, 
MODIS 
Soil Moisture + Freeze/Thaw 
NRT 
0.1° 
Global 
Daily 
ASCAT 
Time scries of soil moisture 
products 
Off 
line 
25 km 
Global 
Daily 
ERS-1&2 
Scatt 
Table 1 : BioPar products characteristics 
CNES is involved in the development of the following products 
(see table 1): 
• Leaf Area Index (LAI), fraction of vegetation Cover 
(fCover), fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically 
Active Radiation (fAPAR), Normalized Density 
Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from SPOT/VGT 
data in NRT 
• The long time series of these vegetation variables 
derived from AVHRR and SPOT/VGT archives 
• The climatology of LAI, fAPAR and fCover variables 
• Soil Water Index (SWI) and Freeze / Thaw index 
derived from Metop/ASCAT data in NRT and from 
the ERS scatterometer archive 
• Surface albedo derived from SPOT/VGT data in 
NRT 
2. DEVELOPMENT OF PROCESSING LINES 
2.1 Organization 
The development concept relies on user product assessment 
and feedback : the development team implement algorithms 
specified by the definition team and generate test data sets for 
validation and user utility assessment. The user feedback is 
taken into account for the development of the second version. 
The research teams define the retrieval algorithms based upon 
existing and validated methodologies, improve them to match 
as well as possible the user requirements, and initiate 
innovative actions to adapt them to the technical specificities of 
the next generation of sensors in order to ensure the continuity 
of the service. Effort will be put on the compatibility between 
historic and current products so that long-time series are 
available after the reprocessing of existing EO archives. 
Independent teams perform the product validation, following a 
procedure established in close collaboration with the users, 
relying on comparison with ground measurements collected 
over site networks, on inter-comparison with existing similar 
satellite products, and on data assimilation techniques, with 
the aim to guaranty the scientific relevancy of the BioPar 
products. For such activity, we will test the usefulness of an 
innovative network of automatic sensors to monitor the 
vegetation variables on a long term basis. 
The development teams implement the algorithms in 
processing lines, and generate test data sets for user evaluation. 
The pre-operation centres perform the pre-operational 
production at regional, European and global scales, in NRT 
and in offline mode, with the periodicity required by the users. 
Finally, the resulting biogeophysical parameters will be 
disseminated by the Spatial Data Infrastructure cross-cutting 
issue, in a format in accordance with the INSPIRE directive. 
Table 2 shows the sharing of activities among the BioPar 
partner for the providing of vegetation and humidity products 
where CNES is involved. Definition, development, validation 
and production are shared between several European 
institutions from Austria, Belgium, France, Spain, Poland and 
Portugal. 
INRA (F), HYGEOS (F) & TU Wien (A) define the product 
content and produce the specification set (documentation, 
prototype, reference products). 
CNES (F) develop the processing lines and produces the test 
data set. 
EOLAB (Sp), INRA (F), IGiK (PI), Meteo-France & ECMWF 
validate the test data set and asses the scientific content of the 
product. 
VITO (Be), CNES (F) & IM (P) perform the operational 
production disseminated through the SDI portal. 
Product 
Type 
Definition 
Development 
& test data 
Product validation 
Production 
Vegetation variables : 
LAI. fCover. fAPAR. NDVI 
NRT 
INRA (F) 
HYGEOS (F) 
CNES (F) 
EOLAB (Sp) 
INRA ÍFI. IGiK (PII 
VITO (Be) 
Climatology: LAI, fAPAR, 
fCover, NDVI 
Off-line 
INRA (F) 
CNES (F) 
EOLAB (Sp) 
CNES (F) 
Time series of vegetation 
Droducts 
Off-line 
INRA (F) 
CNES (F) 
EOLAB (Sp) 
VITO (Be) 
Soil moisture & Freeze / 
Thaw 
NRT 
TU Wien (A) 
CNES (F) 
Meteo-France, ECMWF 
IM(Pt) 
Time series of soil moisture 
& Freeze / Thaw 
Off-line 
TU Wien (A) 
CNES (F) 
Meteo-France, ECMWF 
CNES (F) 
Table 2 : Activities sharing for vegetation and humidity 
product 
2.2 Inputs 
There are several inputs needed by CNES for the development 
phase and test data production. 
First the definition team provided Algorithm Theoretical Based 
Documents (ATBD) which describe in detail the algorithm to 
be implemented : methodology, formulas, input data 
description, processing steps, flowcharts, ...