Eric Doyle
– Earth observation engineer

Eric wanted to work in the Space Industry and the department of Physics at the university where he studied for his Master in Astrophysics was closely involved with the European Space Agency.

He started to work for the European Space Agency 11 years ago, when he was 25. The ESRIN establishment in Frascati, 20 km south-east of Rome, where Eric is based, monitors disasters, tracks forest fires and evaluates damage, warns about cyclones, assesses earthquake damage, monitors active volcanoes and maps floods. It protects the environment by calculating acid rain damage, tracks the hole in the ozone layer and detects oil spills at sea. It assists agriculture and industry, discovers new mineral and oil deposits and helps to improve land cultivation by collecting agricultural statistics at both national and European level.

Eric manages part of the earth observation ground infrastructure of the facilities supporting remote sensing operations. He sees the future challenge as continuing to supply smooth overall data handling from acquisition to end users, while reducing costs, yet improving the efficiency of the service to customers. Working daily with earth observation ground facilities makes him aware that achieving success is based on many teams addressing many different technical issues. “If you like the challenge and satisfaction of working in remote sensing, collaborating with teams in an international environment and seeing the data used on a global scale, then this is the job for you.” says Eric.