Join the Copernicus Data Access Revolution!

Join the Copernicus Data Access revolution!

1 / 6

You can participate in the development of Data Information Access Service of EUMETSAT and its partners.

Sometimes we tend to take new technologies for granted. We forget what life was like when there were no smartphones, no satellite navigation, and no mobile apps to guide us through our daily lives.

Similarly, it is easy to forget what it was like before the Copernicus Programme was launched with the numerous benefits it brought to the scientific community, entrepreneurs and large businesses, decision makers and individual citizens. Let’s have a quick recap of the Programme:

The first Copernicus services were declared operational in the spring of 2012 when the Land Monitoring and Emergency Management services started delivering data The Marine Environment Monitoring Service and the Atmosphere Monitoring Service entered full-scale operations in the Spring of 2015 Climate Change and Security went operational in 2017 The first of our Sentinel satellites, Sentinel-1A, was commissioned in September 2014 Sentinel-2A followed in 2015 Sentinel-3A was launched in July 2016 And Sentinel-2B was launched in June 2017

2 / 6

Initially, the founding fathers of the GMES initiative (former name of the Copernicus Programme) had mainly foreseen the delivery of space-enabled environmental and security-related information to a few thousands of public decision-makers in the EU institutions and the Member States. But as it happens with many technologies, it went beyond the expectations of the founders. Thanks to the development of computing and processing capabilities, to the internet revolution, and the full, free and open data policy of the Programme, the benefits are reaching more people globally and much faster than anyone could have forecasted. But we’re only scratching the surface of the possibilities.

Copernicus Sentinel satellites are making millions of observations every day. This translates to petabytes of raw data scattered among several portals and websites, with different look, different access mechanisms and registration processes. To facilitate access and exploitation of Copernicus data and information, the European Commission (COM) set up a plan to develop several Copernicus Data and Information Access Services (also known under the DIAS acronym), an initiative which Copernicus Observer reported about in the 26 May 2017 issue.

For this initiative, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) will join forces with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring (CAMS) and Climate

3 / 6

Change Monitoring (C3S) Services operated by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and with the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS), operated by Mercator Océan. Together, the three partners will design and operate one DIAS platform which will benefit from their experience while other DIAS will be procured by the European Space Agency.

EUMETSAT is an important partner in the Copernicus programme albeit its role is often less known than ESA’s:

EUMETSAT is responsible for providing data, products and support to the Copernicus information services and user communities, with a focus on the marine, atmosphere and climate areas. This involves delivering Earth Observation data services to Copernicus from the Sentinel satellites, from its own Metop and Meteosat missions, from the ocean- monitoring Jason-2 and Jason-3 satellites, and from missions of its international partners (e.g. USA, China, India and Japan). EUMETSAT is also responsible for operating the Sentinel-3 satellites (with ESA support), and delivering the marine data. It will also operate the Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 instruments, and the Sentinel-6 satellite, and make their

4 / 6

products available to users.

On 10 November, the three partners will hold an Information Day for the European industry, representatives of other Copernicus service providers and future users of the DIAS platforms. The event will be held at EUMETSAT’s Darmstadt headquarters.

If you’re a company or an institution who is interested in cooperating with or using the DIAS platforms, (i.e. from other Copernicus services, from entities interested in making their ‘non- Copernicus’ data accessible through or processed on the DIAS) – then the event is for you.

During the event, there will be a presentation of the tentative schedule for the release of invitations to tender after their approval by the EC and a showcase of the foreseen DIAS functionalities.

Ready to join the Copernicus Data Access revolution? Then click here to register for the event.

5 / 6