In short, the project shall design, develop, operate and demonstrate a vertical prototype for a cloud computing environment for the Earth Observation (EO) ground segment in the technical domain of Soil Moisture (SM) data processing. The system to be achieved is termed the Soil Moisture Demonstrator (SMD). The SMD is expected to

·         Demonstrate the viability of a typical Science and Services Exploitation Platform (SSEP) application on the future European Science Cloud;

·         Popularize the use of the Science Cloud among members of an international scientific community;

·         Provide the chosen initial cloud provider, the Facility for Climate and Environmental Monitoring from Space (CEMS) at Harwell, UK, with an early test case of its offerings in a core area of its targeted scope of activities;

·         Study issues arising in connection with interoperability of a cloud application between different cloud providers.

·         Attempt to partially re-use existing ESA information systems in a cloud setting; and

·         Deliver quick feedback on selected technical approaches in a representative but limited domain to facilitate full SSEP implementation by serving as an example for other domains.