Objectives

The ROCS project aims to expand the “Copernicus Ground Segment” infrastructure in Romania and, at the same time, to be the foundation for establishing a strategic infrastructure in the geospatial field.

ROCS aims to develop the necessary concepts and provide appropriate technical solutions for creating an operational version of the national infrastructure for storing and processing Earth observation data (satellite, aerial, in-situ), with a focus on Copernicus Sentinel data. The objectives of the ROCS project are:

• Identifying, analyzing, and evaluating specific operational requirements and optimal architectural solutions, taking into account best practices and lessons learned from similar national or commercial implementations (e.g., CDSE, Microsoft Planetary Computer), as well as previously identified specific national needs.
• Designing a distributed and federated solution that integrates cloud-native storage formats and processing tools, according to CEOS and OGC recommendations, based entirely on open-source software applications.
• Designing a centralized security infrastructure that includes a robust authentication and authorization mechanism based on industry standards (e.g., OIDC).
• Developing tools for indexing raster and vector data based on spatio-temporal criteria, with registration in standardized catalogs, using OGC standards and others universally accepted by the community (e.g., STAC).
• Developing efficient solutions for data storage, replication, and distribution, using cloud-compatible formats (e.g., Amazon S3, GeoTIFF, Zarr).
• Implementing individualized, secure, and containerized workspaces for data management and processing execution.
• Developing a pre-operational version of the platform, integrating all relevant data and validating functionalities through specific case studies, demonstrating the platform’s ability to meet user requirements and efficiently process data.