Record carbon emissions in Canada, overheating of the oceans or even a month of July listed as the hottest on record on Earth: all these alarming observations exist thanks to Copernicus, the Earth observation program of the European Union . But what is it?
Coordinated and managed by the European Commission, it collects and returns regularly updated data on the state of the planet. It is based on a system consisting of eight “Sentinel” satellites, as well as a dozen third-party satellites, which observe the planet day and night. Like a doctor and his patient, Copernicus examines the Earth from every angle. It has an annual budget of 2.1 billion euros, financed by EU member countries, 6.7 billion having been injected to set up this network of satellites.
These devices are responsible for different missions, six in all, such as monitoring the atmosphere, marine environments, land, climate change, emergency management and finally security-related services. For more precision and also to have complete data, Copernicus also relies on other sensors, located at sea, on land or in the air. The member countries of the European Union have several meteorological stations spread over their territory, making it possible to confirm the measurements taken from space.
If the first satellite, the Sentinel-1A, was launched in 2014, the birth of the program took place in 1998. Its objective at the time was to obtain new technological means to observe the Earth, but also to allow Europe to have its own means of accessing environmental data and collecting information.
From its inception, 25 years ago, Copernicus has also been presented as a public service mission, aiming to be completely transparent. Today, the data collected by the program is fully accessible and free to everyone.
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The objective of the program is simple: to help political leaders and administrations in decision-making to limit impacts on the environment, for example. Companies as well as citizens have access to it. Of course, the biggest beneficiaries of Copernicus data are scientists, who use them to generate statistics and topographic maps.
Copernicus is also ambitious for the future: by 2030, Europe wants to equip it with a system of around thirty operational satellites around the Earth.
