Great Britain joins in again despite Brexit: Copernicus gets more satellites
Because the UK is once again participating in the funding despite Brexit, the world's most powerful earth observation program is growing.
(Image: ESA)
Because the United Kingdom is once again participating financially despite its withdrawal from the EU, the European Copernicus earth observation program can be expanded to include several ambitious missions. This was announced by the European Space Agency ESA on Thursday. With the funding now secured, a total of 13 satellites could be completed and launched to help research climate change, secure food production, monitor resources and protect the polar ice caps. They will significantly expand the capabilities of the Earth observation program. The collaboration was agreed a year ago and the UK has now officially rejoined.
Very different objectives
The missions that have now been secured include CO2M, in which a total of three satellites are to measure the concentration of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere. The aim is to identify the biggest polluters and monitor compliance with the Paris Climate Agreement. At CIMR, on the other hand, two satellites will monitor the ice cover and surface temperature of the oceans. CHIME also consists of two satellites and is intended to support agriculture with data on plant health or yield forecasts, while LSTM and two other satellites will support large-scale water management. CRISTAL will also use two satellites to measure the thickness of ice masses, while ROSE-L will also use two devices to measure the moisture content in soils and soil subsidence. Overall, the aim is to obtain a wide range of precise data on the state of our home planet.
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Following the launch of Sentinel-2C, the Copernicus program currently comprises nine satellites, which bear the name Sentinel and are numbered. In total, they are grouped into six core groups. They continuously collect data on the Earth's surface, the oceans, the atmosphere and climate change. The data is freely available on the Internet, including the satellite images taken regularly at a resolution of 10 meters. The data from the expansion missions is also to be made open and freely available. There are already dozens of petabytes of data that can be accessed on a central platform.
(mho)
