The AEB has overall responsibility for the development and maintenance of the ATSR Exploitation Plan (AEP) and the ATSR Communications Plan (ACP). It also debates future projects that are of particular interest and relevance to the member organisations with the intention of agreeing a co-ordinated funding and exploitation of ATSR data, to the mutual benefit of all parties.

The AEB broadens the scope of the AATSR Programme Steering Panel and ATSR-1 and -2 Boards that it replaces and provides a transition from UK-led governance of the historic programme to ESA-led governance of the future programme (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Governance: from experimental ATSR to operational SLSTR.

The AEB interacts with the QWG and SAG (see Figure 2) to determine where support from the funding agencies can best be directed to maximise the scientific and operational return of their investments and provides the forum to agree a mutually beneficial division of responsibilities for ATSR instrument operations (see Figure 3) and a co-ordinated data processing activity (see Figure 4).

Figure 2: Quality: maximising return on investment.

Figure 3: ATSR Instrument: in flight operations and support.

Figure 4: ATSR Data Processing: a co-operative effort.

Private area for AEB members