10 November 2011
VITO has successfully completed the development activities for interfacing the SPOT-VEGETATION Ground Segment with the Coordinated Data Access System (CDS). The core part of these activities was the implementation of machine-to-machine HMA catalogue interoperability, allowing users to browse the VEGETATION native collections via the GMES Client. Additionally, as a global systematic mission, VITO developed interfaces to support semi-automated reporting to CDS as well as automated ordering via HMA for CDS operators: these features are expected to partially relieve manual operations and to improve the overall system integration.
Rik Hendrix, from VITO, declared: "The HMA standards are complex, and the development was quite challenging. We managed to add HMA catalogue and ordering interfaces to our existing infrastructure without disrupting the daily service. The acquired experience is of great value even beyond the GSCDA project. The outcomes will be re-used, for instance for PROBA-V: a space mission providing continuity to the VEGETATION user community after expiration of the SPOT-VEGETATION mission. It was really a pleasure to work together with the different ESA teams involved!"