Current operational Earth Observation (EO) services, including the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS), the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), and the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), rely primarily on ground-based processing pipelines. While these systems provide mature large-scale information products, they remain constrained by downlink latency, bandwidth limitations, and limited capability for autonomous observation prioritisation. The International Report for an Innovative Defence of Earth (IRIDE) programme is a national Earth observation initiative led by the Italian government to support public authorities through timely, objective information derived from spaceborne data. Rather than a single constellation, IRIDE is designed as a constellation of constellations, integrating heterogeneous sensing technologies within a unified service-oriented architecture. Within this framework, Hawk for Earth Observation (HEO) enables onboard generation of data products, allowing information extraction earlier in the processing chain. This paper examines the limitations of ground-only architectures and evaluates the added value of onboard processing at the operational service level. The IRIDE burnt-area mapping service is used as a representative case study to demonstrate how onboard intelligence can support higher spatial detail (sub-three-metre ground sampling distance), smaller detectable events (minimum mapping unit of three hectares), and improved system responsiveness. Rather than replacing existing Copernicus services, the IRIDE HEO capability is positioned as a complementary layer providing image-driven pre-classification to support downstream emergency and land-management workflows. This work highlights the operational value of onboard intelligence for emerging low-latency EO service architectures.

翻译：当前运营中的地球观测（EO）服务，包括哥白尼应急管理服务（CEMS）、欧洲森林火灾信息系统（EFFIS）和哥白尼土地监测服务（CLMS），主要依赖地面处理流水线。尽管这些系统能提供成熟的大尺度信息产品，但仍受限于下行链路延迟、带宽限制以及自主观测优先级排序能力不足。地球创新防御国际报告（IRIDE）计划是由意大利政府主导的国家级地球观测项目，旨在通过源自星载数据的及时、客观的信息为公共管理机构提供支持。IRIDE并非单一星座，而是设计为星座的星座，在统一面向服务架构中集成异构传感技术。在此框架下，鹰眼地球观测（HEO）系统可实现在轨数据产品生成，使信息提取阶段提前至处理链条前端。本文考察纯地面架构的局限性，并从运营服务层面评估星载处理的附加价值。以IRIDE火烧迹地制图服务为典型案例，论证星载智能如何支撑更高空间分辨率（优于三米地面采样距离）、更小可检测事件（最小制图单元三公顷）及更优系统响应能力。IRIDE HEO能力并非替代现有哥白尼服务，而是作为补充层，提供影像驱动的预分类功能以支撑下游应急与土地管理工作流程。本研究凸显了星载智能对新兴低延迟EO服务架构的运营价值。