Appendix 4 to esa ao/1-9225/18/NL/FF/gp

HAPPIEST study (UNILEON)

Starting in 2017, HAPPIEST is an ESA GSP study to analyse the impact of the irruption of HAPS into the telecommunications market, currently covered by space and terrestrial networks. The study also included a relevant effort to investigate complementary application in the Earth observation and navigations fields. As a conclusion of this work, a well-grounded view of the European landscape for HAPS, an analysis of the existing gaps between needs and capabilities and a recommended development roadmap for all the involved systems were produced. Although stand-alone HAPS capabilities were studied, satellite synergies were always considered to find the most promising scenarios. Many of the models developed and the techniques to establish scenario comparison criteria can be adapted to the present study. As the core of the team is essentially the same, the working network is already established and fully functional.

1. 
   SANCHO Programme (UNILEON)
   

SANCHO is a HAPS platform development programme carried out by ULE (2005-2012) under mandate and sponsorship of Spanish Ministry of Defence through its companies INSA and ISDEFE, with collaborations from INTA and CAB (Spanish Astrobiology Centre). The first prototype is a 22-m, 300-m³ blimp with 100-hours flight time dedicated to Earth observation. The second prototype is a 32-m, 600 m³ blimp, with 100 kg payload to be flown up to 3500-m above sea level. Madrid’s Government funded a study to provide HAPS services to the region (~8000 km²), both communications and remote sensing. Mediterranean and Canary Islands surveillance studies were also awarded by different Spanish regional authorities.

2. 
   BOEING Atmospheric Model (UNILEON)
   

A sequence of three projects (ATLANTIDA/AENEAS/AIRPORTS, 2007 to today) aims at developing high-resolution and high refreshing frequency digital meteorological forecasts ad nowcasting customised for air traffic management. The service is funded by BOEING Research & Technology Europe, Isdefe and the Spanish R&D competitive programs issued by CDTI. The engine developed includes the most modern techniques to obtain meteorological variables in the near and medium future, including utilisation of satellite data, assimilation of available worldwide information from meteo stations and a full-physic parallel propagator. Moreover, simulations are repeatedly launched with perturbed initial conditions to analyse the spread pattern of the forecasts, inferring confidence levels on the predicted variables. HAPS are under consideration as realtime meteo data providers. A modern Lidar instrument has been acquired to develop validation campaigns for micro-meteorological models and it is available for the current project.
Stratobus^TM is a High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) that fills the operational gap between Satellite and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). This airship-based platform can operate above the weather and the commercial airplanes at 65,000 ft (20 km), in the low layers of the stratosphere. With multi mission and powerful payloads of 250 kilograms and 5,000 Watt as standard,

Stratobus^TM offers real time, stationary satellite-like capabilities over wide areas of more than 100,000 km2 at low-cost (no launcher is needed). Exclusively powered by solar energy, it flies autonomously for up to one year, storing its energy for the night. Its unique envelope rotation feature towards the sun allows maximum energy collection all year long.

Stratobus^TM provides permanent surveillance, telecommunication and monitoring services for both defence and civil applications. Thales Alenia Space is currently adapting existing payloads to offer solutions to the customers as early as 2021, and is also planning to develop a new generation of high resolution imaging payloads with improved performances, to further increase the solutions and services to the customers.
The operational lifetime is ten years, with annual ground maintenance of few days and a major overhaul after 5 years of operation. Maintenance is also an opportunity to switch payloads for a different mission, or to embark newer payloads with more advanced technology. Stratobus^TM is easily be moved from its take off site to its operational station-keeping site within few days by using its electrical propellers. Stratobus^TM will continuously increase its mission performance by introducing new technologies as they mature such as solar cell improved efficiency, fuel cells additional power storage, electric engines improved performances ... Stratobus^TM is easily connected to satellites and drones, or inter connected to other Stratobus^TM, via an RF or laser link for combination of multiple sensors over different areas to achieve global missions.

2. 
   Third Party’s concepts/products relevant to the activity and/or to be used
   

None

3. 
   Other technical achievements relevant to the activity and/or to be used
   

[Should any of the above elements be subject to Intellectual Property Rights, these are to be identified in Section 4 hereinafter (Contract Conditions Part), with their status at the time of the foreseen execution of the proposed activity]

None

4. 
   Background of the company(ies)
   

1. 
   NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research
   

NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research is an independent, non-profit institution established in 1969. Through its research, NILU increases the understanding of processes and effects of climate change, of the composition of the atmosphere, of air quality and of hazardous substances. Based on its research, NILU markets integrated services and products within the analytical, monitoring and consulting sectors. NILU is concerned with increasing public awareness about climate change and environmental pollution.

NILU’s near 180 researchers, technicians and other experts are primarily commissioned by the Research Council of Norway and by Norwegian and international industry and government agencies including the European Space Agency (ESA). The institute takes an active part in the EU’s research programs.
NILU has six departments. The Atmosphere and Climate (ATMOS) department, which contributes to this proposal, has a focus on regional to global air quality and climate. ATMOS as long experience in solar and thermal radiative transfer modelling, ground-based remote sensing of aerosols and trace gases, and analyses and validation of satellite data. NILU houses the ESA Cal/Val database EVDC – (ESA Atmospheric Validation Data Centre). The ATMOS department has contributed to numerous national and international projects with radiative transfer expertise, modelling, data analysis and measurements. Examples of relevant projects are ESASLight I and II, within which the much used and freely available libRadtran radiative transfer package (Emde et al. 2016, Mayer and Kylling 2005) was further developed to include simulation of passive observations by all current ESA satellite missions covering the solar or thermal spectral range. NILU coordinated the ESA-financed Volcanic Ash Strategic initiative Team (VAST) which used Earth Observation data of volcanic ash to improve on the existing monitoring and forecasting services for ash transport and its interaction with aviation and SAMIRA (SAtellite based Monitoring Initiative for Regional Air quality).
NILU is, and has been, involved in;


VANDAM: ESA AO Project activity to VAlidate Nitrogen Dioxide and Arctic Methane products from TROPOMI on-board Sentinel-5P. We aim to evaluate the quality of the CH4 and NO2 products from TROPOMI through a combination of comparisons against high-quality near-surface observations as well as inter-comparisons with satellite products of proven quality (relative and absolute validation).

SAMIRA: SAMIRA - SAtellite based Monitoring Initiative for Regional Air quality. ESA-funded project, SAMIRA aims to maximize project benefits by liaison with national and regional environmental protection agencies and health institutions, as well as related ESA and European initiatives such as the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services (CAMS).

VAST: The ESA project VAST was established involving teams from four European countries to improve the quality and use of EO based observations in numerical atmospheric dispersion models for the purpose of assisting global aviation.

VERIFY: VERIFY’s main objective is to quantify more accurately the fluxes of the greenhouse gases, CO2, CH4, and N2O based on observations. Improved knowledge of the fluxes will help constrain national greenhouse gas budgets and emission inventories. Moreover, VERIFY will develop a pre-operational system for emissions verification to deliver policy-relevant information to track progress of EU mitigation efforts. NILU’s expertise is in inverse modelling of both species.

CHE: CHE’s main objective is to develop methodologies for reconciling top-down and bottom-up estimates of CO2 emissions and to ultimately reduce the uncertainties in global anthropogenic emission estimates. This will be achieved through simulations of global CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations focusing on anthropogenic components. CHE will survey the ground-based observability including in situ networks and newly emerging technologies and integrate all research into a prototype system that can outline current capacity and future needs. NILU’s expertise is in inverse modelling and also high-resolution transport modelling.

Long Term Land Surface Temperature Validation: NILU worked in this ESA-funded project together with the University of Leicester. The project aimed towards developing best-practices and future strategies for long term Land Surface Temperature validation. While aimed initially at AATSR, the outcomes of the project later fed into the validation strategy for the SLSTR instrument on Sentinel-3.

WASMOS-ET: WAter Cycle Observation Multi-mission Strategy – EvapoTranspiration (WACMOS-ET) The main objective of this ESA-funded project was to advance the development of evapotranspiration estimates at global and regional scaled. The NILU contribution to the project primarily consisted of a comprehensive validation of the satellite-based Land Surface Temperature Component of the project using in situ data and inter-comparison with other satellite instruments.

SIOS – NSC: an international observing system for long-term measurements in and around the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard addressing Earth System Science questions. NILU is installing a Pandora spectrometer in Ny-Ålesund for use towards validation and trend studies.

ACTRIS-2: ACTRIS is the European Research Infrastructure for the observation of Aerosol, Clouds, and Trace gases. ACTRIS is composed of observing stations, exploratory platforms, instruments calibration centres, and a data centre. ACTRIS serves a vast community working on models and forecast systems by offering high quality data for atmospheric gases, clouds, and trace gases. NILUs roles in the project are both on the data center side (NILU leads the ACTRIS Data Centre http://actris.nilu.no), and with provision of data from the Norwegian stations in Arctic, Antartica and mainland Norway, and quality control, assurance and assessments of data.

MOCA: The MOCA project was set up to enhance understanding of the present atmospheric effects of methane released from dissociation of gas hydrates in Arctic seabed sediments, and inform on the future potential impacts in a warming climate on decadal to centennial timescales.

InGOS: InGOS was an EU FP7 funded Integrating Activity (IA) project, supporting the integration of and access to existing national research infrastructures, targeted at improving and extending the European observation capacity for non-CO2 greenhouse gases. The project was coordinated by ECN in the Netherlands, and involves 38 partners from 16 countries. InGOS addresses the big need to support and integrate the observing capacity of Europe for non-CO2 greenhouse gases.

2. 
   University of León (UNILEON)
   

University of León is a medium-size 14,000-student Spanish public university, offering official education in Aeronautics and Space engineering. The Area of Aerospace Research was established in 2005 in partnership with the national company INSA. Throughout the last decade, staff from ULE have managed the R&D plans of the company (1-2 MEur/year) and executed top-level R&D aerospace projects funded by INSA and other public and private institutions. In 2013, Spanish government discontinued INSA operations, keeping ULE most of the know-how, key personnel and funding sources in the HAPS operations, remote sensing and avionics. Dr. Gonzalo, former head of the R&D department at INSA and project manager of most of its aerospace initiatives (ESA and EC programmes), is now the head of the Aerospace Research Group at ULE, leading a powerful and enthusiastic group of PhD aerospace engineers with strong heritage from INSA’s expertise.

León is located in the North-West of Spain, in a low populated area were aerospace R&D activities are operationally possible. ULE maintains agreements with the Spanish Ministry of Defence and private investors for the utilisation of two airport facilities for R&D purposes, as well as for the support in the logistics and operations. ULE has developed successful R&D programmes in the aerospace sector, the tests of which have been developed in these outstanding facilities. As a matter of example, Boeing Research & Technology Europe carried out its test flights for trajectory optimisation in these premises in collaboration with ULE and using our dedicated meteorological model.

From 2005, ULE aerospace research is focused on stratospheric systems, mainly aerostatic. First, the SANCHO programme (funded by national public organisations) allowed the operation of prototypes and subsystem tests for more than 5 years. Later in 2016, ULE was awarded with ESA HAPPIEST project, a GSP study for the analysis of HAPS applications in telecommunications and other complementary areas. Apart from the management, ULE was also the leader of the Earth observation work packages in this study, which can be consider the precursor of the current project. In parallel, the development of an end-to-end simulator for Earth observation stratospheric system is currently in progress.

There are a number of activities where the ULE group has developed from feasibility studies to final products, always very close to the end users. Besides, some of those present direct applicability to the tasks required in the present study. Moreover, given its limited size (four co-located PhD full-time aerospace senior engineers, four part-time professional experts, laboratory support technicians and several PhD students), the management overhead is minimum and the accommodation of decisions derived from the partial results throughout the projects, typical in conceptual or feasibility studies, can be performed in a quick and agile manner.
The background of the ULE aerospace research group can be split into two parts: activities developed under INSA’s framework contract until its dissolution in 2012 and activities developed to other specific customers. Some of them are here below listed for reference:

Project	Contents	End client	ULE role
FUEGOSAT (1994-2005)	Constellation of small satellites for forest fire management support. Many ESA and EC projects (won in competitive calls): FOS- FUEGO-FUEGO2-FUEGOSAT-FFEWALG-FUEGOSYS-CDMC	ESA EC FP-IV	J. Gonzalo co-author of patent J. Gonzalo lead engineer (>1994) and programme manager (>2002)
REMFIRESAT (2005-2009)	Demonstration of the combined utilisation of space-based technologies in the management of natural disasters	ESA	J. Gonzalo technical programme manager
PREVIEW (2005-2008)	Prevention, information and early warning pre- operational services to support the management of risks Extensive use of sat imagery to develop algorithms for risk management services.	EC FP-IV	J. Gonzalo Local IP for forest fire management
SANCHO (2005-2012)	HAPS platform development programme. Tests and Feasibility studies for Madrid Regional Government	INSA-ISDEFE-INTA-CAB-Madrid Gov.	Project management Market studies Specification, design, implementation and tests
LANZA (2010-2012)	Feasibility and preliminary design of an aero-ejected launcher for nanosatellites	INTA - INSA	Project management Specification Guidance system
ATLANTIDA (2007-2011)	Organisation of flight campaigns for the test of new trajectory management algorithms in autonomous flight	INSA	Flight plans Logistics and support Data processing
SINTONIA (2008-2012)	Analytical methods for the optimisation of autonomous flight trajectories in real wind fields	INSA	Algorithm development
ADAM (2011-2014)	Deterministic atmospheric model for air traffic management support	BOEING R&T Europe	Algorithm development and proof of concept
AIRPORTS (2015-2018)	Probabilistic atmospheric model for air traffic management support	BOEING R&T Europe	Product development Interfaces
FIRESAT (2016-2018)	Constellation of satellites for fire management support	Beyond Sensors	Scientific advisor
HAPPIEST (2016-2017)	High Altitude Platforms to provide telecommunications and other complementary services in synergy with satellites and terrestrial systems	ESA	Project management EO work package leader
ECOSAT (2018-2020)	Scientific advisory for the development of a stratospheric airship program focused on communications services for unconnected areas	ALTRAN	Scientific leadership

1.4.1.3 Thales Alenia Space
Combining more than forty years of experience and a unique diversity in term of expertise, talents and cultures the architects of Thales Alenia Space design and deliver innovative solutions for telecommunications, navigation, observation of the Earth and management of the environment, exploration, science and the orbital infrastructures. Institutions, governments and companies count on Thales Alenia Space to design, realize and deliver satellite systems: for geo localization and connect the people and the objects all around the world; to observe our Planet; to optimize the use of the resources of the Earth as well as those of our Solar system. Thales Alenia Space has the conviction that the space and near space bring a new dimension to the humanity to build a better and more sustainable life on Earth.

Thales Alenia Space is the leader of consortium developing the Stratobus HAPS LTA (Lighter than Air), with other partners including Airstar Aerospace, CNIM, Solution F, Tronico ... The Stratobus development contract has been signed on April 24th 2016 with BPIFrance, a national bank which is in charge to establish and manage contracts on behalf of the French Ministry of Industry. This contract is the result of a two years selection process managed by the Ministry aiming at supporting the most innovative, business promising and value added projects. Stratobus has been selected among many projects and together with 30 other initiatives in very different areas including transport, IT technology, health, durable cities, etc… The contract will carry all the full scale development activities up to CDR (Critical Design Review) which is scheduled end 2018. The first steps SRR (System Requirement Review) and PDR (Preliminary Design Review) have been successfully passed in begin 2017 and begin 2018.

The flight tests of the full scale Stratobus (named Protoflight Model) will start in early 2021, starting with limited flight test to qualify the basic functions of the Stratobus platform, and progressively extend the content of the testing to finally validate the full flight domain of Stratobus and demonstrate missions, and first operational services could be expected by 2021-2022.
1.4.1.4 DEIMOS
DEIMOS has a wide experience in the definition, implementation and operation of European Earth Observation and Science missions. DEIMOS has a leading role in EO and Science mission analysis, and a very strong background in mission design and analysis.DEIMOS has participated in the Earth Observation Envelope Programme (EOEP), GMES/Copernicus and Science (e.g. Cosmic Vision) programmes since the company creation. The effort devoted to different areas of the programmes, from Mission Analysis in Phase 0/A/B/C/D studies to Ground Segment operational SW systems, has led to the consolidation of the company in terms of market presence at European level.
This experience has been employed in the development of DEIMOS’ own series of EO satellites, DEIMOS-1 and DEIMOS-2, being the first European private company to launch and operate its own EO satellites. In particular, for the medium-resolution wide-swath DEIMOS-1 satellite (launched in 2009 and operational), DEIMOS has been responsible for the Mission Analysis and for the Ground Segment set-up, consisting of a dual X/S band station, a reduced FOS (MCS and Flight Dynamics), as well as a PDGS (acquisition, processing, archiving, distribution, mission planning, calibration, monitoring, etc.). For the high-resolution agile DEIMOS-2 satellite (launched in 2014 and operational), DEIMOS has been in charge of the Mission Analysis and AOCS Engineering Support, and it has developed its own Ground Segment core systems (MCS, FDS, MPS, data processing and calibration, etc.) and embedded them in a modular tool suite called GS4EO.
Most relevant background experience in system studies for EO missions covers:

DEIMOS is currently responsible for the Mission Analysis, Re-Entry Analysis, Ground Segment Specification, Flight Operations Concept and Support to Ground Processing Concept in the Phase A/B1 of SKIM Earth Explorer Fast Track Mission (Earth Explorer 9). DEIMOS is currently responsible for the Re-Entry Analysis, Ground Segment Specification and Flight Operations Concept in the Phase A/B1 of FORUM Earth Explorer Fast Track Mission (Earth Explorer 9). DEIMOS is currently responsible for the Mission Analysis and the FOS Interface Definition in the Phase A/B1 Studies of the High Spatio-Temporal Resolution Land Surface Temperature (LST) Monitoring Mission and HyperSpectral Imaging Mission (Expansion Sentinels). DEIMOS is currently responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Phase A/B/C of the OptiSAR and UrtheDaily Constellations, and it is involved in the OptiSAR AOCS engineering and in the OptiSAR Cross-Cueing On-Board Planner (COP) design and development activities.
DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis, the Re-Entry Analysis and the Mission Planning for the BIOMASS Earth Explorer Core Mission Phase B1 System Study. DEIMOS is has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in the FLEX and CarbonSat Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission Phase A/B1 System Studies. DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Phase C/D study for Copernicus Sentinel-3, after undertaking the same responsibility in the Definition Study and in the Phase B2 Study.
DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the in-orbit capability assessment & new mission identification in Disaster Risk Reduction using Innovative Data Exploitation Methods and Space Assets. DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in Copernicus Sentinel-5 Phase B2, after undertaking the same responsibility in Phase A/B1. DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in Phase B2 of the Copernicus Sentinel-4/UVN instrument to be embarked on MTG, after undertaking the same responsibility in Phase A & B1.
DEIMOS is currently responsible for the Mission Analysis of the Landmapper-HD CubeSat Mission Concept. DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Terminal for Small Satellite Application Phase-C study. DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Assessment of Satellite Constellations for Monitoring the Variations in Earth’s Gravity Field.
DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis, the formation-flying, GNC/AOCS and image processing technologies, and the operational concepts definition in the H2020 Operational Network of Individual Observation Nodes (ONION). DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis and Simulation of the Deimos-2 satellite (from Phase 0 to Phase E1), successfully launched on June 19^th 2014 and currently operational. DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in the study in the Security Dimension of GMES: Preliminary Investigation on Space Infrastructure & Concepts of Operation.
DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in the GNSS-R-Feasibility Study (Phase A) (PARIS IOD Mission). DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis and the ADCS engineering support in E-GEM: European GNSS-R Environment Monitoring. DEIMOS has recently been responsible for Mission Analysis in the Study into Ka-Band SAR.
DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis and the Mission Planning in the Phase A/A+ System Study for BIOMASS Earth Explorer Core Mission and in the Phase A System Study for CoReH2O Earth Explorer Core Mission. DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Phase A System Study for PREMIER Earth Explorer Core Mission.
DEIMOS has recently been responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Assessment and System Concept Consolidation Studies of a Next Generation Gravity Mission for Monitoring the Variations of Earth’s Gravity Field. DEIMOS was responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Phase 0 study for a Laser Occultation Demonstration Mission. DEIMOS was responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Phase 0 study for the Post-EPS (EUMETSAT Polar System) Mission.
DEIMOS was responsible for the Mission Analysis in the Phase 0 study for the 7^th round of Earth Explorers, with responsibilities for all six missions under study (A-SCOPE, BIOMASS, CoReH2O, FLEX, PREMIER, TRAQ). DEIMOS was responsible for the Mission Analysis of the Deimos-1 satellite (from Phase 0 to Phase E1), successfully launched on July 29^th 2009 and currently operational. DEIMOS was responsible for the Technical Support for INTA MicroSat Mission Analysis and AOCS.

DEIMOS has participated in several Earth Observation Phase A and Pre-Phase A studies, including the Phase 0 Study for Copernicus Sentinels 4 & 5, the Pre-Phase A and Phase A/A+ Studies for the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG), EarthCARE Phase A, SPECTRA Phase A, the Study of Innovative Radar Altimeter Mission, GMES 1 Pre-Phase A, GMES Mission Status and Evolution Architecture Study, Study on Remote Sensing S/C with Electric Propulsion, Study on Combined Telecommunication and EO Mission driven Option for Small Hall Effect Thrusters Propulsion.

Development of Ground Segment systems. It is one of the key activities of DEIMOS, having a large presence in the ESA EOEP programme. In particular, DEIMOS has developed operational systems, supported integration and overall validation for Ground Segment Systems for different ESA EO missions, such as ENVISAT, ALOS, the Earth Explorers (Cryosat 1/2, GOCE, SMOS, Aeolus, Swarm) and the Sentinels (1, 2 and 3). Among others, DEIMOS has been responsible for the mission planning and calibration, monitoring and performance analysis tools. In the last years, DEIMOS has been deeply involved in data processing activities, both in the definition of ground processor prototypes (e.g. for SMOS, Sentinel 3, MetOp-SG), the implementation of end-to-end mission performance simulators (EarthCARE, Sentinel 3, Biomass, CoreH2O, FLEX, CarbonSat), and the development of operational processors (e.g. SMOS, Sentinel-2 IPF). DEIMOS has also undertaken a leading role in the definition of Ground Segment architectures for the Spanish SEOSAT / Ingenio and PAZ satellites.

5. 
   TECHNICAL RESERVATIONS – TECHNICAL COMPLIANCE:
   

1. 
   Reservations
   

This proposal includes neither reservations nor non-conformances with respect to the technical requirements of the ITT.

2. 
   Technical Compliance Matrix (Statement of Work / Technical Requirements)
   

REQUIREMENT (*)	COMPLIANT (Y/N/P) (**)	REMARKS (***)
[R-1] The contractor shall identify a representative list of urban and local scale air quality stakeholders that will support the project team. This list shall include experts from the following areas: a. Representatives of regulatory bodies, such as city or regional environmental protection agencies. b. Scientific experts working on urban to local scale air quality or GHG issues. c. Experts on local to regional scale air quality or GHG modelling. d. Experts on remote sensing of air pollution or GHG.	Y
[R-2] The contractor shall describe their approach for the collection of User Requirements from the stakeholders for one or more distinctive target applications.	Y
[R-3] The contractor shall identify user requirements for urban and local scale air quality or GHG data covering one or more of the following domains: a. Verification and/or assimilation of urban, local and/or regional scale air quality or GHG models. b. Verification of emission inventories. c. Near real-time information on air pollution or GHG to regional and city stakeholders. d. Validation of satellite air quality or GHG data.	Y
[R-4] The main categories of the user requirements shall be identified as result of the user consultation, but shall at minimum include requirements related to the a. atmospheric composition constituents, b. horizontal resolution, c. vertical resolution, d. geographical coverage, e. observation frequency, f. data latency, g. product error characterization. This shall be provided by user category (e.g., local scale, urban, regional scale modelling). Each requirement shall include a priority level (e.g., high/medium/low or threshold/breakthrough/goal).	Y
[R-5] In case of air quality, the contractor shall at least consider one of the following air pollutants in detail: a. Nitrogen Oxides, NO2 and NOx b. Ozone, O3 c. Particulate Matter PM2.5 and PM10 The contractor can propose other trace gases provided a sound justification for their consideration.	Y
[R-6] In case of GHG, the contractor shall at least consider one of the following GHG in detail: a. Carbon dioxide, CO2 b. Methane, CH4 The contractor can propose GHG provided a sound justification for their consideration.	Y
[R-7] The contractor shall identify completed and on-going national and international activities investigating the needs for urban/local scale air quality or GHG data and analyse the corresponding findings and recommendations for applicability to the project. Note that in particular in the EU Framework Programmes/Horizon 2020 a number of projects have been performed.	Y
[R-08] The contractor shall provide a review of HAPS platform technologies that are under development or already operational, identifying the main payload limitations including size, power, weight, data transfer, payload position and field-of-view.	Y
[R-09] The contractor shall identify instruments under development or existing that provide information on Air Quality or GHG while fitting the requirements for HAPS platforms identified in [R-08] and the environmental conditions in the lower stratosphere.	Y
[R-10] The contractor shall document the results from the HAPS platforms and Air Quality instruments reviews as well as the concepts for Air Quality HAPS demonstration flights in the Technical Note “HAPS platforms, Air Quality instruments and Air Quality HAPS demonstration flights”.	Y
[R-11] The contractor shall develop first preliminary concepts for Air Quality HAPS demonstration flights based on the review of HAPS platforms and Air Quality instruments as well as the User Requirements collection.	Y
[R-12] The contractor shall summarize the findings in a User Requirements Document (URD). The aim of the URD is to provide a sound basis for the definition of scenarios used in the development of HAPS mission requirements without imposing a technical implementation. The User Requirements need to be traceable to user requests, recommendations from the user community(ies), publications of related completed or on-going projects. Each User Requirement shall be identified by a unique ID.	Y
[R-13] The contractor shall review the User Requirements on a regular basis during the project and update the document as needed.	Y
[R-14] The contractor shall develop HAPS User Cases based on the User Requirements identified in Task 1. The project has to demonstrate along the HAPS use cases the impact of data provided by air quality or GHG observing HAPSs.	Y
[R-15] The contractor shall demonstrate in the development of the use cases the synergy or complementarity with the existing or planned European Earth Observation satellite fleet providing information on air quality and GHG, in particular related to: ESA’s Earth Explorers, Copernicus Sentinels, ESA/EUMETSAT Meteorological missions.	Y
[R-16] The Contractor shall identify at least two urban or industrialized areas for the HAPS use cases. At least one of the urban areas shall be in a member State of the European Space Agency. The choice of the urban or industrialized areas needs to be justified at minimum by: a. the impact of air quality or GHG issues on the population or climate, b. the assessment of the pollution level by the EEA [AIDE, 2017], the WHO [WHO, 2016] datasets or equivalent datasets, c. the availability of operational urban and local air quality or GHG models, as well as d. facilitating factors, e.g., direct contact to local stakeholders or favourable aviation regulations.	Y
[R-17] The contractor shall define for each use case HAPS operations concepts/CONOPS. The operation concepts can consist of one individual or a constellation of HAPS, as well as any combination of air quality observation or GHG capabilities providing geophysical air quality data. These concepts need to be identified by a well-defined characteristic coverage, horizontal resolution, observation frequency, data latency and error characteristic over a target area.	Y
[R-18] The impact of the HAPS operations concepts shall be demonstrated by quantitatively analysing the response of the urban/local scale air quality or GHG modelling or monitoring system to the HAPS operations concepts. At least the following parameters shall be considered: a. Different pollutants or GHG b. Varying urban/local scale data coverage, i.e., data covering only partially the area of interest c. Data input spatial resolution ranging from satellite pixel size to the resolution of local scale models. d. Representative pollution or GHG regimes for the selected urban area e. Representative meteorological regimes representative for the urban area selected f. Integration with regional scale air quality or GHG satellite data	Y
[R-19] The contractor shall document the use cases in the HAPS Use Case Document (UCD), which will be the basis for the identification of the Mission Requirements. The document needs to include a detailed description and justification of the HAPS use cases with their traceability to the URD, the method for assessing the quantitatively response, as well as the results for the individual and combined use cases resulting from [R-18].	Y
[R-20] The air quality or GHG HAPS Mission Objectives and Requirements shall be documented in the Mission Requirements Document (MRD), including at minimum the sections provided in Annex B.	Y
[R-21] The air quality or GHG HAPS Mission Objectives and Requirements shall be traceable to the URD and UCD.	Y
[R-22] The contractor shall consider a system implementation that can be based on one or several instruments carried by one or several HAPS identified.	Y
[R-23] The contractor shall ensure that the Mission Requirements take into account the synergies and complementarities of the Air Quality or GHG HAPS with the satellite component.	Y
[R-24] The contractor shall provide Level 2 product geophysical requirements that allow fulfilling the mission objectives. The Level 2 product requirements need to be traceable to the mission objectives, quantitative, justified and include a level of priority.	Y
[R-25] The contractor shall provide Level 1 observation requirements that allow fulfilling the Level 2 geophysical requirements. The Level 1 requirements need to be traceable to the Level 2 requirements, quantitative, justified and include a level of priority.	Y
[R-26] The contractor shall develop one or more end-to-end system concepts that can fulfil the Level 1 measurement requirements and the Level 2 geophysical requirements, as well as the interface to the data users. The system concept(s) shall specify options for all relevant system components, including: Airborne component (i.e., HAPS platform), Instrument(s) (i.e., HAPS payload) Ground segment (e.g. data downlink, processing strategy, etc.) Auxiliary data needs (e.g., on-ground reference measurements) Satellite component Operational concept(s) including HAPS positioning, observation frequency, data latency. The proposed system concepts shall be critically analysed and systematically presented using risk analysis tools (e.g., SWOT analysis, Risk Matrix).	Y
[R-27] The contractor shall clearly identify the limitations of the air quality or GHG HAPS Mission, i.e., User Requirements that cannot be met with the proposed system.	Y
[R-28] The contractor shall identify potential existing solutions as well as technological and scientific gaps related to each critical item in the system concept(s). This includes HAPS, instruments, algorithms, data transfer, data processing and interfaces to the user community.	Y
[R-29] The contractor shall provide recommendations on the development or evolution of critical items identified in the gap analysis, providing a prioritization of the proposed activities.	Y
[R-30] The contractor shall provide proposals for an initial implementation, including demonstration activities and campaigns, based on the end-to-end system concepts ([R-26]), the scientific and technological gap analysis ([R-28]), as well as the recommendation for system developments and evolution ([R-29]),	Y
[R-31] The contractor shall provide promotional material for all aspects of the air quality or GHG HAPS study, e.g.: Executive summaries of the scenarios in plain language addressing nonexperts Visual representations (e.g., infographics) describing Air Quality HAPS Presentations Web articles	Y
[R-32] All public relation material shall be available for unlimited public distribution by ESA.	Y
[R-33] The contractor shall support ESA in the communication of information related to the activity, Air Quality or GHG, and HAPS in general.	Y

2. 
   IMPLEMENTATION PART
   

2. 
   
   
   1. 
      TEAM ORGANISATION AND PERSONNEL
      

1. 
   Proposed team
   

1. 
   Overall team composition, key personnel
   

The HAPS team is made of four partners, each with their own expertise and work areas.

The consortium is led by NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research. The NILU team consists of Ann Mari Fjaeraa (coordinator), Kerstin Stebel, Arve Kylling and Philipp Schneider. William Lahoz will act as a senior supervisor in the team. The NILU team has broad expertise in data analysis from a multiple of satellite and ground based in-situ measurements and modelling, as well as user interaction and project management of larger infrastructure projects.
The TAS-F team has developed …
These sub-work package leaders have been assigned based on their competency and expertise in that particular domain. The consortium as a whole are leading in their fields and together they comprises a highly experienced project team with the full range of skills required to meet ESA’s requirements.
The consortium has extensive experience working on national and international projects, both in commercial and non-commercial sectors, and for EU and ESA projects and programs. The communication within the team will be made using e-mail and web-meeting platforms, and the project manager will be responsible for organisation of regular progress meetings. Exchange of data and documentation between the consortium will be using standard software systems. The project manager will be Ann Mari Fjaeraa, who has more than 10 years of experience with management of ESA and EU projects. She will act as the interface between ESA and the project team, and main responsible for all project reporting.
Individual subcontracts will be created between NILU and the other partners within the consortium, providing a flow down of the Agency’s Terms and Conditions.

Name	Organization	Position	Role in the project	Phone number E-mail	Time dedication
Dr. Jesús Gonzalo	ULE	Head of Aerospace Research Group	Leader of WP2000 Contributor to WP1000, WP3000 and WP4000	[phone] [e-mail]	38 % FTE
Dr. Diego Dominguez	ULE	Full-time lecturer and post-doc researcher	Contributor to WP1000, WP2000, WP3000 and WP4000	[phone] [e-mail]	14 % FTE
Ana Isabel García Prieto	ULE	Local contract officer	Contributor to WP5000		N/A
Catherine Desroches	TAS-F	Stratobus Design Authority Product Line	Technical Officer Contributor to WP1000, WP2000 WP3000 & WP4000	[phone] catherine.desroches @thalesaleniaspace.com	25% FTE
Marine Claeyman	TAS-F	Air Quality Expert	Technical Officer Contributor to WP1000, WP2000 & WP3000	marine.claeyman @thalesaleniaspace.com	15% FTE
Sergio Di Girolamo	TAS-F	Sells & Marketing	Contract officer	[phone] sergio.digirolamo @thalesaleniaspace.com	N/A
Dr. Stefania Tonetti	DEIMOS	Project Manager and Senior Mission Analyst in the Flight System Business Unit	Leader of WP3000, Contributor to WP1000, WP2000 and WP4000	[phone] [e-mail]
Fco-Jesús López-Honrubia	DEIMOS	Project Manager and Senior Engineer in the in the Ground Segment Business Unit	Contributor to WP1000, WP2000 and WP3000	[phone] [e-mail]

About Thales Alenia Space

Combining 40 years of experience and a unique diversity of expertise, talents and cultures, Thales Alenia Space architects design and deliver high technology solutions for telecommunications, navigation, Earth observation, environmental management, exploration, science and orbital infrastructures. Governments, institutions and companies rely on Thales Alenia Space to design, operate and deliver satellite-based systems that help them position and connect anyone or anything, everywhere, help observe our planet, help optimize the use of our planet's – and our solar system’s – resources. Thales Alenia Space believes in space as humankind’s new horizon, which will enable to build a better, more sustainable life on Earth. A joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), Thales Alenia Space also teams up with Telespazio to form the parent companies’ Space Alliance, which offers a complete range of services and solutions. Thales Alenia Space posted consolidated revenues of about 2.6 billion euros in 2017 and has 7,980 employees in nine countries.

The tables below describe the expertise (table x.x-1) and the role (table x.x-2) of TAS in the project, and the key persons (table x.x-3).

Expertise domain	TAS-F	Comments
LEO, MEO & GEO satellite design, integration and manufacturing	X	Provider of Earth Observation and Meteo Satellites since 40 years.
HAPS (LTA) design, manufacturing and CONOPS	X	Development of the STRATOBUS platform started in 2016.
Regulatory framework governing HAPS operations	X	Participation to ITU and OACI working groups on HAPS and other international working groups related to sub-orbital flights
HAPS EO payload provider	X	HAPS payload are mostly derived from airborne payloads for Earth Observation.
Laser communication operation	X	Aeronautical, inter-platform, Inter-satellite, ground <-> space
Maritime surveillance expertise	X	Involvement in maritime surveillance contracts for the French administration which manages the largest EEZ in the world.
Earth Observation instruments	X	Design, development, AIT of Earth Observation instruments.
Video Acquisition and Processing chains	X	Design, manufacturing and integration of video acquisition and processing chains, from the sensor down to on-board processing
Public relations and outreach	X	Dedicated in-house offices.
Citer des missions climate environment
Citer des missions climate environment

Table x.x-1: TAS field of expertize.

	Country	Main activity	Role in the project
TAS	France	World’s leading provider of telecommunications, earth observation and scientific solutions, satellites, platforms payloads and equipment. Leader of the Stratobus project (HAPS LTA). www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space	Contributor to WP1, WP2, WP3 & WP4