Copernicus is the programme for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation, coordinated and managed by the European Commission. Copernicus provides accurate, timely and easily accessible information that enables the monitoring of the Earth, marine and atmospheric environments, understanding and mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring civil security.
e-GEOS and Telespazio are among the major industrial partners of the programme. The companies are involved in the space component ground segment development and operations (also through subsidiaries and group company, GAF, Telespazio VEGA UK and Telespazio Iberica) in emergency management, land and sea safety management, land resource management, and the monitoring of climate change; provides Earth observation data related to the Copernicus Contributing Missions COSMO-SkyMed and IRS; supports the EC and some Entrusted Entities in the “User Uptake” (aimed at further exploring and/or demonstrating the use of Copernicus products and services) and other “Cross-cutting” activities. Furthermore, since 2012 the e-GEOS Matera Space Centre is one of the three stations of the Core Ground Segment of Copernicus and receives the radar and optical data acquired by satellite missions Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2.
e-GEOS provides the European Commission with geospatial information and satellite maps of areas affected by emergencies, providing the civil protection and the competent authorities of the countries of the Union and international humanitarian Organizations, with the data necessary for the management of catastrophic events. e-GEOS can make available to the European Commission and any authorized user for each area of the world, within few hours of the onset of the emergency, also the pre-and post-event mapping, which facilitates the organisation and rescue operations. The service, available 24/7/365, has a production capacity dedicated to crisis situations (floods, earthquakes, fires, technological disasters) and is managed by e-GEOS, leading a consortium formed by the German subsidiary GAF, the German Space Agency (DLR), the Italian company Ithaca and the French SIRS and SERTIT.
Under this service, the European team, led by e-GEOS, is ready to quickly analyze data from any available SAR and optical satellites to generate and making available new maps supporting the decisions during emergencies; starting from April 2012, the rapid mapping service has been activated in more than 100 emergency situations including the most relevant disaster events like, in the recent period, the floods in Central Europe and in the Balkans or the typhoon hayan in the Philippines
Thanks to the reliability of COSMO-SkyMed and the all weather acquisition capability, the Italian Constellation is one of the most used satellite during floods and all other emergencies monitored by the Copernicus Emergency Programme, as well as in other Copernicus Core services.