| The European Union (EU) has established the Copernicus Programme, formerly named GMES; an Earth monitoring user-driven initiative carried out in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and EU/ESA Member States. Copernicus is designed to ensure continuous provision of reliable data and information on environment and security related services, primarily to users responsible for making, implementing and monitoring the relevant policies in the EU and its Member States.
The Copernicus services rely on in-situ sensors and satellite data, the latter being provided by the Copernicus Space Component (CSC).
ESA is responsible for coordinating the CSC, i.e. the Sentinel Missions and the access to data from Contributing Missions, in collaboration with EUMETSAT.
The first dedicated Copernicus satellite mission, Sentinel-1A, was successfully launched on 3rd April 2014.
After completion of the Commissioning Phase (23 September 2014), the operations ramp-up phase started. This phase consists of a gradual ground segment system deployment and user product quality verification/calibration. During this phase the data provision has been extended. The remaining activities will be achieved before the Sentinel-1A Routine Operations Readiness Review, expected to take place in May 2015. This milestone will mark the completion of the mission operations qualification and the start of the routine operations of the satellite. The Full Operational Capability will be reached when two units of Sentinel-1 will enter routine operations simultaneously.
The next Sentinel missions, starting with the first unit of Sentinel-2 expected to be launched in May 2015, will be launched within the next years and will be progressively covering all domains of Earth Observation.
The successful uptake of the operational phase of the Copernicus Space Component, and the full economic benefits of the Copernicus programme will materialise only when the wealth of data from the whole series of Sentinel satellites will be accurately and timely delivered to users. |