In the framework of its Earth Observation Programmes the European Space Agency (ESA) carries out a number of ground-based and airborne campaigns to support geophysical algorithm development, calibration/validation and the simulation of future spaceborne earth observation missions for applications development related to land, oceans and atmosphere.
This document deals with the development and data acquisition aspects of the ESA experimental campaign DESIREX 2008 (Dual-use European Security IR Experiment 2008)carried out in support of the proposed activities for the Reorientation of the Fuegosat Consolidation Phase of the Earth Watch Programme [RD1].

DESIREX was conceived as an experimental campaign in the Madrid city (Spain) during the period June-July 2008.

The DESIREX 2008 campaign combines the collection of quality and coordinated airborne hyper-spectral, spaceborne and in-situ measurements to generate spectrally, geometrically and radiometrically representative dataset to address specific needs of the reorientation of the FUEGOSAT mission definition, notably to address observational requirements for Urban Heat Islands (UHI) and Urban Thermography (UT) monitoring and assessment of an operational system. The period June-July 2008 was chosen to optimise good weather conditions in Madrid (Spain), where the campaign was carried out. During this period, the INTA airborne optical surveys, as well as the University of Valencia, LSIIT, CIEMAT, Madrid City Council, AEMET, UAM, UCM, LABEIN, UVIGO, and CNRM, related to ground measurements support, acquired data to cope with the campaign objectives.

The data produced during the DESIREX 2008 campaign will serve the following main objectives of the "Urban Heat Island and Urban Thermography" project:

• Analysis of necessary datasets to perform a preliminary mission analysis for a dedicated TIR sensor (within Fuegosat Programme reorientation) that would feature the necessary higher spatial resolution and revisiting time for a more adequate provision of LST retrievals in the metropolitan areas of European cities.
• Land Surface Temperatures and Air Temperatures retrieval of urban and surrounding rural areas, at a high spatial resolution (10 to 30m) in order to study in details the spatial variability of UHI in metropolitan areas.
• Analysis of comprehensive validation data sets – together with the data from the urban weather stations and from ad-hoc field campaigns - for the quality assessment of the UHI information products.
• Study of energy balancing of the cities for a better response to the energy efficiency policies.