New Copernicus data access service

The Commission welcomes the procurement of a new Copernicus data access service following the signature of a contract between the European Space Agency and a consortium led by T-Systems International.

This service will empower users with immediate access to extremely large amounts (petabytes) of earth observation digital data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellites constellation.

This new data access service will allow Copernicus to better serve its users with a variety of free data services on new and historical Sentinel images:

• Easy discovery, visualisation, download, and analysis of vast amounts of data will be possible;
• Users will benefit from a set of data processing tools made available to extract the information they need to conduct their public, private or commercial activities;
• Users may provide new downstream services using the resources and interfaces made available by this new service, hence enriching the Copernicus data space with a broader service offering.

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The challenges our society and economy are facing require higher volumes of quality data to be easily accessible for immediate analysis. Copernicus has established itself as the largest provider of earth observation data and information needed to conduct informed public policies in many key areas.

This new contract is signed as part of the Copernicus activities delegated by the Commission to the European Space Agency. It builds on the experience gained with the launch in 2017 of the Data and Information Access Services (DIAS). The winning consortium is composed of a mix of European cloud and earth observation service providers providing innovative solutions with a strong SMEs participation.

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Next steps

The new service will be fully operational in July 2023 after a progressive phase-in period corresponding to the phasing out of the current data distribution service, leaving time for users to migrate and familiarise themselves with the new service interfaces. Copernicus is also pursuing full interoperability with the Destination Earth future data infrastructures as well as with Member States’ earth observation data infrastructures.

The Copernicus data will be made immediately available through industry-led standard interfaces.

Source: European Commission