Tasking
Open Cosmos provides a satellite tasking service to acquire images from the Open Constellation and third-party satellites. The DataCosmos data platform features an interface where users are able to submit requests to task satellite instruments. Details about the tasking requests are available on the service description page. The tasking tool allows users to:
- Create manual Tasking Requests comprised of a set of satellite Activities.
- Search for Opportunities in which a satellite has visibility over a specified area of interest, up to 3 months into the future.
- Task multiple satellites and instruments in a single request.
- Filter instruments by data type and GSD.
- View the status of existing tasking requests.
- Make updates to existing tasking requests.
- View data products for successful activities.
Tasking request types
Two tasking modes are available with the following differences.
| Feature | Automated Tasking (recommended) | Manual Tasking |
|---|---|---|
| Swath Selection | Open Cosmos selects optimal swaths based on customer's area of interest and constraints | Customer selects specific swaths |
| Pricing Calculation | Depends on area of interest, satellite, product, priority, and constraints | Depends on total swath area, satellite, product, and priority |
| Weather Guarantees | In the future (not available yet) | No |
| Billing | Payment collected upon placing the request | Amount displayed at request, charged upon activity confirmation |
| Changes to Activities | N/A | Allowed until confirmation |
| Recurrent Tasking | Available | Not available |
Table 1. Feature comparison between Automated Tasking mode and Manual Tasking mode.
Customers submit Tasking Requests. Manual Tasking Requests are submitted with Tasking Activities, while Automated Tasking Requests are submitted without them. Tasking Activities will appear as Open Cosmos schedules them to fulfil the Tasking Request.
Accessing the Tool
The tasking interface can be accessed from the OpenApp homepage, under DataCosmos:
Weather forecast
Weather forecasts are integrated into the platform to offer features such as cloud cover prediction. For example, in Manual Tasking mode, users can see the cloud cover forecast for the area of interest and request time for each of the available Opportunities. The system will also filter out Opportunities based on the cloud cover filter the user has selected. Once the request has been placed, the cloud cover prediction for each activity will be calculated and updated regularly until the time of the acquisition. In addition this information is also used our AI planning solution and operators to produce the most effective satellite plan possible when the user chooses Automated Tasking.
Open Cosmos uses the Open Meteo model that combines weather information from other models (including ECMWF, GFS, CFS, etc), radars, and sensors into a more accurate prediction. Using this model, Open Cosmos is able to estimate the cloud cover of each planned satellite acquisition up to 16 days in advance, with updates up to every 6 hours.
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