.. _about:

About
=====

FORCE is an all-in-one processing engine for medium-resolution Earth Observation image archives. FORCE uses the data cube concept to mass-generate Analysis Ready Data, and enables large area + time series applications. With FORCE, you can perform all essential tasks in a typical Earth Observation Analysis workflow, i.e. going from data to information.

FORCE natively supports the integrated processing and analysis of 

  * Landsat 4/5 TM, 
  * Landsat 7 ETM+, 
  * Landsat 8/9 OLI and 
  * Sentinel-2 A/B/C MSI.

Non-native data sources can also be processed, e.g. Sentinel-1 SAR data or environmental variables.

* **Integration of Landsat 4–9, and Sentinel-2 A-C as Virtual Constellation**

* **Data management of Landsat and Sentinel-2 Level 1 data + Download of Sentinel-2 data**

* **Near-realtime (NRT) processing capability**

* **Generation of Analysis Ready Data (ARD): Data Cubes**

  * Advanced cloud and cloud shadow detection. 
  * Quality screening. 
  * Integrated atmospheric and topographic correction: one algorithm for all sensors. 
  * Adjacency effect correction. 
  * BRDF correction. 
  * Resolution merge of Sentinel-2 bands: 20m –> 10m. 
  * Co-registration of Sentinel-2 and Landsat images
  * Data cubing: reprojection / gridding.

* **Generation of highly Analysis Ready Data (hARD): Large area. Gap free. Easy to use. Ideal input for Machine Learners!**

  * Best Available Pixel (BAP) composites. 
  * Phenology Adaptive Composites (PAC). 
  * Spectral Temporal Metrics (STM)
  * Time Series generation
  * Time series folding
  * Time series interpolation
  * Texture metrics
  * Landscape metrics

* **Generation of highly Analysis Ready Data plus (hARD+). Open in a GIS and analyze!**

  * Land Surface Phenology (LSP)
  * Trend analysis
  * Change, Aftereffect, Trend (CAT) analysis
  * Machine Learning regression
  * Machine Learning classification

* **Detailed data mining of the Clear Sky Observation (CSO) availability**

* **Data Fusion**

  * Improving spatial resolution of coarse continuous fields: MODIS LSP –> medium resolution LSP. 
  * Improving spatial resolution of lower resolution ARD using higher resolution ARD: 30m Landsat –> 10m using Sentinel-2 targets