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The study relied on various state-of-the-art numerical tools (RT model, assimilation OSSE and NWP forecast systems) to explore the possible impact of a Geosounder mission on the retrieval of humidity and forecast. The study showcases that some specifications are valid for such an endeavor and some needs to be refined. Future works should be directed towards a more complex information content analysis with an all sky OSSE set up and maybe a multispectral/hyperspectral perspective on the channel selection.

The objective of the study was twofold: i) to analyse the new dynamics of desertification in Southern African region (southern Mozambique, southern Zimbabwe and Northern South Africa) through main achievements of the DesertWatch-Extension; ii) to propose new methods for integration of EO data with different spatial and spectral resolutions, namely the new ESA Proba-V mission, and new field data, in particular, the map of risks on natural disasters in Mozambique.

In the context of Earth Observation missions the development of end-to-end simulators (E2ES) has proven to be a useful tool to assess the mission performance and support the consolidation of the technical requirements and conceptual design, as well as to allow end-users assessing the fulfillment of requirements by the mission. For Space Science missions the development of performance simulators is not as extended, and it is usually done externally to the Agency, directly by the scientific community, and mostly for independent instrument chains

The overall objective of this study is to assess constellations of two pairs of satellites for the retrieval of time-variable gravity field information for best quality scientific monitoring of mass distribution and transport in the Earth system. Before embarking on this study the geodetic community and space agencies have come to realize that weaknesses in current single-pair gravimetric satellite missions such as GRACE or GRACE-FO (to be launched in 2017) would significantly be alleviated by having a second GRACE-type pair in space simultaneously.