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User Requirements for a Copernicus Polar Observing System Phase 3 Report - Towards Operational Products and Services

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User Requirements for a Copernicus Polar Observing System Phase 3 Report - Towards Operational Products and Services USER REQUIREMENTS FOR A COPERNICUS POLAR OBSERVING SYSTEM PHASE 3 REPORT - TOWARDS OPERATIONAL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES DEFIS Contact information European Commission Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space How to cite this report: Nordbeck O., Duchossois G., Kohlhammer G., Andersson E., Diehl T., Dinessen F., Eriksson P., Flett D., Garric G., Gros J-C., Jacq F., Molch K., Nagler T., Nicolas J., Strobl P. (2021) User Requirements for a Copernicus Polar Observing System– Phase 3 Report - Towards Operational Products and Services. ISBN: 978-92-76-34378-3 DOI 10.2889/90647 HV-NC-29-144-EN-N. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2021 © European Union, 2021 Reuse is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of European Commission documents is regulated by Decision 2011/833/EU (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39). For any use or reproduction of photos or other material that is not under the EU copyright, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holders. All images unless otherwise stated © European Union 2021 EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL DEFENCE INDUSTRY AND SPACE USER REQUIREMENTS FOR A COPERNICUS POLAR OBSERVING SYSTEM PHASE 3 REPORT - TOWARDS OPERATIONAL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES EN 2021 4 POLAR EXPERT GROUP III REPORT • 2021 is best suited to support the fight against climate change. And importantly, it places the EU and the FOREWORD European space sector at the heart of this fight. This has also helped define potential new satellite missions relevant to the Arctic. ESA is currently as- Copernicus is a world leader in providing Earth Ob- sessing six new satellite missions, of which three servation (EO) space data and information to user could have a clear added value for the Arctic. The communities worldwide, based on state-of-the-art decision on which missions will be selected will be space technologies and world-leading expertise. taken later in 2021. The output information is channelled through the Copernicus Services and tailored to the needs of The current Copernicus polar activities and planned policy makers to help them understand the contin- enhanced EO capabilities are crucial for under- uous changes to our environment. standing the impact of climate change in the Arctic, Antarctica and Greenland. They also serve the EU’s With Arctic air temperatures rising twice as fast as political priorities. I refer to the call for the EU to global temperatures, the importance of EO data and support the fight against climate change in the information to understand both long and short-term EU’s Arctic Policy (“An integrated European Union environmental changes in the Arctic is clear. Arctic Policy for the Arctic” 2016) and in the Council of populations are being faced with new challenges. the European Union’s conclusions (“Space solutions For example indigenous people need to plan safe for a sustainable Arctic” of November 2019). The journeys for their migrating herds. At the same time, importance of the Polar Regions in Europe was new opportunities are being created for the shipping reaffirmed at the highest political level with the industry with the Northern Sea Route becoming announcement of the European Green Deal and increasingly ice-free during summer. the European Climate Pact adopted in 2020 by the Council. The Arctic Policy’s relevance was also reiter- Copernicus currently has eight operational satellites, ated in President von der Leyen’s State of the Union known as the Sentinels, which measure and acquire address of 2020, and was spelled out in the 2021 large amounts of data over most of the polar ar- Commission Work Programme under the thematic eas. This is then translated into a broad range of pillar “A stronger Europe in the world”. The case is actionable information by the Copernicus Services. therefore clear for ensuring that the EU, through Nevertheless, Copernicus remains partially reliant its space programme, takes all necessary steps to on third-party satellite missions to complement deliver space services that meet the needs of user the Sentinels, essentially exploiting research satel- communities in the polar regions. It will also help lites via international data exchange agreements. the EU to support scientific endeavours, which are However, this way of operating is mainly based on of fundamental importance to improve the obser- a best-effort approach and not sufficiently reliable vation of the environment in these remote regions, for operational services. Indeed, many users in the and have far-reaching implications for all of Europe, downstream and research sectors have expressed the world and indeed for life as we know it. significant concern regarding the lack of continuity of some crucial third-party missions, and have re- The findings in this report are timely and well elab- iterated their need for reliable solutions to support orated based on useful intelligence gathered from 2021 • their activities. the Copernicus entrusted entities. This material pro- vides an overview of key elements for a long-term Over the last few years, the Commission has car- operational Copernicus Polar Observing System and ried out various initiatives to capture EO needs for is highly valuable for upcoming programmatic de- data and value-added services related to the po- cisions of Copernicus. lar regions. The Copernicus Polar Expert Group’s work, in particular, has made an important con- tribution to the Copernicus programme. It has not only ensured that the requirements of the user Matthias Petschke communities in the Arctic are understood. It has also laid the groundwork for defining an operational REPORT III GROUP EXPERT POLAR Copernicus Polar Observing System, based both on space-based and in-situ observing assets, that 5 POLAR EXPERT GROUP I AND II EXECUTIVE In 2017, the European Commission set up two rounds of a Polar Expert Group (PEG) to define requirements for a Polar mission and its observation priorities. SUMMARY The first PEG was composed of representatives of national operational agencies and of Copernicus services and was complemented by staff from ESA and EUMETSAT in PEG II. The first report2 identified the POLAR EXPERT GROUP (PEG) III critical variables to be observed in polar areas namely REPORT floating ice, glaciers, caps and ice sheets, sea level, sea surface temperature, surface albedo, surface fresh Monitoring the rapid changes of the Arctic environ- water, snow and permafrost. ment and polar regions in general (including Greenland and Antarctica), is a high priority for the EU, as spelled The second report3 of the PEG recommended, as a out in the EU Space Programme entering into force in priority, a further set of microwave instrumentation, 2021. The assessment of the socio-economic conse- providing day-and-night and near all-weather quences of this evolution is highlighted as a priority observations, to best complement the existing Sentinels in the Council conclusions on “Space solutions for a so as to meet the user requirements. This microwave sustainable Arctic1” from November 2019 and, more instrumentation included a Passive Microwave recently, in the European Green Deal which further Radiometer (PMR), an advanced SAR interferometric highlights the geopolitical dimension of the Arctic and Altimeter and a Single Pass Interferometric Synthetic the need for an integrated European Union Policy for Aperture Radar (SP-InSAR). Out of the three types of the Polar regions. instrumentation, the imaging PMR was recommended as the most promising solution to meet the observation It is unanimously recognised that space-based ob- requirements for the priority variables. servations are essential tools to collect and provide continuous observations of this sensitive and harsh EVOLUTION OF THE environment, as basis, both, for reliable operational COPERNICUS SPACE services and for climate- and environmental modelling COMPONENT AND PLANS and forecasting. Consultations between the European Commission, ESA The Copernicus programme, with today eight and EUMETSAT, all three working on the evolution of operational Sentinels satellites in orbit and the Copernicus Space Component (CSC), concluded that, complemented by European and other third-party in order to meet emerging needs of users, additional Earth Observation missions, serves and encompasses High Priority Candidate Missions (HPCM), also called key operational services for the polar regions. This Expansion Missions, with planned launch in the 2026- high global and EU interest for the Arctic, combined 2028 timeframe prior to the Next Generation of Sentinels with evolving user needs, was a strong incentive for planned for the 2030s. Six HPCMs have been identified the Commission to regularly assess the needs and including three microwave ones which would complement requirements for space assets and applications. the existing Sentinels. The HPCMs are subject to change 2021 • based on a joint decision between the Commission and ESA foreseen to take place in the second half of 2021. 1 CMEMS: Copernicus Marine Environement Monitoring Service; C3S: Coperni- 2 https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/3682b- POLAR EXPERT GROUP III REPORT III GROUP EXPERT POLAR cus Climate Change Service fb3-946b-11e8-8bc1-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source- CLMS: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service; CMS: Copernicus Maritime search service; CEMS Copernicus Emergency Monitoring service; CAMS: Copernicus 3 https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/25ed00e2-946f-11e 6 Atmospheric Monitoring Service.
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