Earth Observation Simulator (EO-Sim): An Open-Source Software for Observation Systems Design

This paper presents the Earth Observation Simulator (EO-Sim), a software framework which facilitates the design of novel observation systems. EO-Sim allows exploration of observing strategies by facilitating users to configure and simulate heterogenous satellite constellations. A set of potential observation opportunities and the associated observation metrics during mission-operations can be generated by the simulations. EO-Sim also incorporates an observation simulator to mock the operation of instruments taking into consideration the instrument specifications and observation geometry. A beta version has been made available to the public.