Two Plèiades satellites will be launched in 2010 and 2011 and will offer a spatial resolution at nadir of 0.7 m and a coverage capacity necessary for fine cartography needs, notably in urban regions. The Plèiades product list includes Ortho Images and Ortho Mosaics which due to their geographic map projections can be integrated into Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

PAT+ is an innovative technology for online data access to the Plèiades Ortho Products covering large geographical areas and will be supplied by EOX IT Services GmbH. A requirements analysis and design study was carried out by the EOX team jointly with the designated Plèiades data distributor, the French company Spot Image. The current status of this development (spring 2008) is that EOX has completed the architectural design and interface specifications. Available pilot and critical component implementations confirm the technical feasibility of PAT+ and the envisaged online data access functions. EOX plans to deliver and integrate the PAT+ system for pre-launch operations starting in 2009.

PAT+ is uniquely designed in that it combines features for:

• ingestion of TerraByte-volume ortho products;
• storage in a so-called Coverage Repository (i.e. generation and management of PAT Products as aggregated geocoded grid coverages in multi-resolution image pyramids);
• viewing on the Internet via Web browser providing optimum user experience;
• direct access delivery of PAT Products to dedicated client or user application software systems; this includes functionality for back-tracing of product generation history based on meta data;
• Identity-centric user access management for implementation of data policy.

The PAT+ development enables the EOX team to continue a long-term international cooperation strategy with the developers of satellite Earth Observation interoperability infrastructure and user service systems. The perspective of PAT+ fits into the European initiative for Heterogenous Mission Access and related space standardization efforts which will be essential for the success of GMES.