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This study utilises an exceptionally rich English administrative dataset, to estimate employment impacts from training voluntarily initiated by unemployed individuals. A Coarsened Exact Matching approach is adopted, in a dynamic evaluation framework, to estimate impacts up to 5 years from training start. We identify economically and statistically significant impacts, estimated separately for (i) all training starters, (ii) the partially, and (iii) fully treated. Investigation of possible endogenous selection into partial/full treatment, using distance to training provider as an instrumental variable, suggests inclusion of extensive employment and learning histories in a matching framework, justifies invocation of the conditional independence assumption for comparisons of full/partial treatment. The partially treated secure a return that is, on average, 2 percentage points lower than full treatment. Thus, an `intention to treat' approach would not alter conclusions on the efficacy of training; but using the partially treated to estimate counterfactual outcomes risks understating returns.

The paper provides the overview of the evolution of the Copernicus Sentinel-l Space Segment and the Spacecraft development status. Following the successful launch and in-orbit Commissioning of Sentinel-1A in 2014 and Sentinel-1B in 2016, ESA is currently developing the Sentinel-1C and −1D models. The paper addresses the improvements in system robustness and performance. In addition, it discusses the main characteristics of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) instrument to augment the SAR payload data for ship marine traffic applications and the Optical Communication Payload (OCP) for payload data downlink via inter-satellite laser-link with the European Data Relay System (EDRS). Finally, it will address the novel solutions to make Sentinel-lC and Sentinel-lD design fully compliant with the latest Space Debris code-of-conduct and the required casualty risks at re-entry.

Sentinel-1 C&D SAR instruments are designed to continue the observations beyond the lifetime of Sentinel-1 A & B. They are to a high degree rebuilds of S-lA&B and will have the same imaging modes and interfaces to ground. Changes have been implemented within the SAR antenna by using a new Tile Amplifier design, which will contribute to improved radiometric stability and accuracy. The new tile amplifiers simplify the internal calibration approach by reducing the number of internal measurements from five to three. Another improvement is the introduction of interleaved noise measurements during image acquisition in addition to noise acquisitions in preamble and postamble. This is important as the surface brightness temperature have a significant impact on the acquired noise and can change the measured levels by up to 1 dB. A first tile for S-lC with the new design has been successfully tested. Results confirm the updated design and indicate improved measurement accuracy.

The paper provides an overview of the evolution of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, which is part of the Copernicus European Earth Observation program. Following the successful launch and in-orbit Commissioning of Sentinel-1A in 2014 and Sentinel-1B in 2016, ESA is currently developing the Sentinel-1 C and D models. The paper addresses the expected improvements in system robustness and performance. In addition, it discusses the main characteristics of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) instrument to augment the SAR payload data for ship marine traffic applications and the Optical Communication Payload (OCP) for payload data downlink via inter-satellite laser-link with the European Data Relay System (EDRS). Finally, the design of Sentinel-1C and Sentinel-1D incorporates novel solutions that will make both satellites fully compliant with the latest Space Debris code-of-conduct and the required casualty risks at re-entry.

The paper provides an overview of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, which includes Sentinel-1A (S-1A) and Sentinel-1B (S-1B) satellites, and the characteristics of its SAR system. Sentinel-1 uses pre-programmed SAR mode operations to provide a high revisit frequency and systematic global SAR image coverage. This is mainly based upon the operational use of the novel TOPS (Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans in azimuth) SAR imaging mode. In particular, we present results of the SAR system performance analysis focusing on the instrument stability and the achieved radiometric accuracy, as well as the Noise Equivalent Sigma Zero (NESZ). In addition, we discuss the cross-S-1A/S-1B SAR Interferometry (InSAR) performance considering the effects of burst synchronization and SAR antenna pointing on the achievable common Doppler bandwidth. Results of differential cross interferograms are presented showing the coseismic surface displacement caused by the central Italy earthquake.

This short article illustrates the growth in the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) GIS tools in European archaeology. It draws mainly on the experience gained using the programs gvSIG CE and Survey2GIS. It demonstrates the advantages of open source software for archaeological research and fieldwork, while not ignoring the pitfalls and hazards to be avoided in the FOSS world.

In the frame of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Space Component programme, the European Space Agency (ESA) undertook the development of a European Radar Observatory (Sentinel-1), a polar orbiting two-satellite constellation for the continuation and improvement of SAR operational services and applications. Satellite and payload are being built to provide routine, day-and-night, all-weather medium (typically 10 m) resolution observation capability. Ground infrastructure is provided for planning, mission control, data processing, dissemination and archiving. Free and open data access is provided. Data quality of the Sentinel-1 data products is shown along with uncertainty estimation of retrieved information products confirming specified performance and indicating application growth potential. The unique data availability performance of the Sentinel-1 routine operations makes the mission particularly suitable for emergency response support, marine surveillance, ice monitoring and interferometric applications such as detection of subsidence and landslides.

This paper concerns the performance of the Flexible Dynamic Block Adaptive Quantizer (FDBAQ), the on-board data compression scheme used by Sentinel-1A (S-1), the C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system for Earth Observation launched on 3rd April 2014. FDBAQ has been designed to deal with the high instrument data rate due to the high spatial resolution and large swath width. S-1 SAR is able to acquire long data take, corresponding to large volumes of data stored on-board. Since FD-BAQ has been implemented for the first time on S-1, the capabilities of such a compression scheme have not been tested on real data before. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the analysis of real acquisitions acquired after the end of the Commissioning Phase, so in its full efficiency. FDBAQ is compared with the traditional Block Adaptive Quantizer (BAQ) compression scheme in terms of quantization noise level, average bit rate and signal to noise ratio.

Decision system analysis is a conceptually simple technique that maps the process of group decisions over time. The data is gathered in a variety of ways, but most often some form of protocol analysis is the foremost tool. The data is then condensed and depicted as a flowchart for a specific decision. If several such flowcharts can be assembled within an industry, they can be melded together to form a generic guide that is very useful to practitioners and very interesting to theorists. Here, a brief history of the development of the technique leads to a description of the process. This is followed by a comparison to cognitive mapping (a similar technique applied to mapping thought processes rather than physical processes), and an illustrative longitudinal example of DSA.