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Image of Plymouth, UK. data acquired on 2nd June 2024 by Sentinel-2. Data courtesy of European Union/Copernicus, contains modified Copernicus Sentinel Data 2024.

At the International Astronautical Congress, which took place last week in Milan, Italy, the European Union (EU) confirmed that funding had been agreed for the development of all six Copernicus Sentinel Expansion Missions as part of its Earth Observation (EO) Programme.

It is interesting to note that the United Kingdom’s re-entry to the EU’s Copernicus programme and the associated funded, was highlighted as a key part of confirming this funding. For those of us in the UK, there is a bittersweet irony to this situation.

While, of course, as an EO company we are delighted to see the expansion of the Copernicus programme, however, we couldn’t help but be reminded of a blog post that we wrote just over four years that highlighted the lack of UK involvement in the programme when ESA awarded contracts worth over €2.55 billion for the initial development of these six new Copernicus satellite missions.

Of course, at time, we were six months into Brexit and so the UK couldn’t get a prime contractor role as it was no longer part of the EU. Even so, the sub-contracted roles for UK companies at the time were over thirty percent lower than expected; the UK Space Agency’s dismay was shown as they abstained in the committee vote on the contracts.

Given this history, there is a huge sense of irony that our rejoining of Copernicus has helped push these missions over the line for the full implementation. There is also an understanding of the huge loss of opportunities for work, funding, and collaboration that happened for UK companies in the EO industry due to Brexit. Something, that despite rejoining Copernicus, is nowhere near recovered.

Copernicus Sentinel Expansion Missions

Despite this, we are pleased to see the following six expansion missions go forward:

1. Copernicus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Monitoring (CO2M) is a constellation of three satellites that will focus on measuring atmospheric greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The first satellite in the constellation is expected to be launched next year and is likely to be the first of the six missions put into orbit.
2. Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer Mission (CIMR) will focus on the Arctic, and the twin satellites will carry the largest radiometer developed by European Space Agency to provide high-resolution measurements of sea-ice concentration, sea-surface temperature, sea-surface salinity and snow.
3. Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment (CHIME) will be another twin satellite mission that will carry a unique visible to shortwave infrared spectrometer to provide routine hyperspectral observations to support new and enhanced services for sustainable agricultural, biodiversity management, and soil management, all of which aim to help support the global issue of food security.
4. Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter (CRISTAL) is another twin satellite mission will carry a dual-frequency radar altimeter and microwave radiometer, that will measure and monitor sea-ice thickness, overlying snow depth and ice-sheet elevations. It is a follow on to ESA’s CryoSat mission will provide data continuity to support maritime operations in the polar oceans, contribute to improving understanding of climate processes, and providing observations of ocean topography.
5. Copernicus Land Surface Temperature Monitoring (LSTM) is also a twin satellite mission, carrying a high spatial-temporal resolution thermal infrared sensor to provide observations of land-surface temperature, to help support the management of water resources for agriculture, predict droughts and land degradation.
6. Copernicus Radar Observation System for Europe in L-band (ROSE-L) is again a twin satellite mission, and they will the ROSE-L Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), designed to provide high-resolution, all-weather imaging with a spatial resolution of 5–10 m across land, oceans and ice. Its data will support information on forests, land cover, soil moisture, and help detect geohazards.

Summary

The expansion of Copernicus programme is fantastic for the EO sector. It will be interesting to see how the involvement of the UK evolves regarding future work, contracts and collaboration on these, and other, Copernicus missions and activities.