Copernicus: the EU's Earth Observation Success Story

RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to an excellent overview of the European Union's Copernicus programme on Valentine’s Day at the British School of Brussels. On the evening of Tuesday 14 February Dr Peter Breger talked to an enthusiastic crowd about Europe's Earth Observation system and its Sentinel satellites. The talk was fascinating and illustrated with many impressive images of the Earth.

Few people are aware of the wealth of data and insights provided by Earth observation satellites. Fewer still know how successful Europe has been in realising the most ambitious Earth observation programme yet: Copernicus.

In a personal view, Dr. Peter Breger (above) presented the progress made over the last decade, gave a brief overview of the satellites flying, what they measure and what information they already make available to all of us on a daily basis, for free.

Public services

Peter gave examples of the various public services Copernicus provide covering will be shown. Supporting emergency response during natural catastrophes has been one of the early success stories. The programme also tracks land use and its changes, which aids better management of our environment. Together with its forecasts of air quality and ocean dynamics it can inform us of impending pollution events, and support marine and maritime applications. He also briefly alluded to the non-public defence and security role of Copernicus.

Copernicus' latest addition - a climate change service - compiles projections of climate change and their impacts on environment and thus on economic activities. For an example consider the map below that shows the potential for wine making in the UK in 20250!

Peter certainly showed how the service provides  a mass of authoritative data, of particular significance and importance in this current era that seems to be beset by 'post truth' and 'alternative facts'.

Wealth of links

If you want to know more about the Copernicus programme and how to access its wealth of data see the links below that Peter has provided. And you can download Peter's presentation here (7.2 MB file).

Copernicus

The main website is at www.copernicus.eu and you can follow the programme on Twitter:    @CopernicusEU and Facebook Copernicus EU too

All the Copernicus services links can be found here: http://copernicus.eu/main/services
or individually at:

Land: http://land.copernicus.eu/

Marine: http://marine.copernicus.eu/

Atmosphere: http://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/

Emergency: http://emergency.copernicus.eu/

Climate: http://climate.copernicus.eu/

Sentinel satellites descriptions
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-1
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-2
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-3
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-4
https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/missions/sentinel-5

Other Space documents

The European Union's Space Strategy for Europe (2016)  http://ec.europa.eu/news/2016/10/20161026_en.htm

The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) database of satellites:
http://database.eohandbook.com/

First photo from space:
http://www.airspacemag.com/space/the-first-photo-from-space-13721411

iPhone app - Where are our Sentinel satellites?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/esa-sentinel/id1036738151?mt=8

Ocean modelling and satellite observations by EUMETSAT
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/oceans-from-space

Other links of interest

Ocean floats
http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/

Baltic Algal bloom and nutrient circulation
http://www.uhrwerk-ozean.de/expedition/zeppelin/index.html.en

Air quality forecasts

http://macc-raq.copernicus-atmosphere.eu/index.php?category=ensemble&subensemble=hourly_ensemble&date=LAST&calculation-model=ENSEMBLE&species=o3&level=SFC&offset=000

Interesting apps on air quality
http://www.airtext.info/
https://plumelabs.com/en/
http://www.pigeonairpatrol.com/

Climate change service – proof of concept tools for exploring ideas 
http://swicca.climate.copernicus.eu/

RSC Belgium explores Mars!

On Tuesday 26 November a packed Swoosh Lounge at the British School of Brussels heard about the exploration of Mars from Dr. Ann Carine Vandaele of the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomie (BISA). The fascinating talk took RSC members and friends through the long history of humanity’s missions to Mars. And then brought us up-to-date with the next planned explorations in which Ann herself is involved.

Ann (below) is Head of Planetary Aeronomie at the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomie based at the Uccle Observatory and is the Principal Investigator for the NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery) spectrometer suite that will identify components of the Martian atmosphere on board the planned 2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Mission.

Ann started her talk by comparing the Earth and Mars and their atmospheres and then outlined the history and objectives of the various missions that have been sent to Mars since the 1960s – including some heroic failures and the many notable successes.

The first flights to Mars were made by Soviet craft but the first real success was the US Mariner 9 flight in 1971. The Viking landers followed in 1975 and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers in 2003. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) first mission was the Mars Express in 2005.

All these missions have given us growing evidence that there was a large amount of water on Mars in the past and, indeed, there is a reasonable supply on the planet still – just not on the surface.

The latest mission is of course the NASA Curiosity rover with its powerful array of chemical instruments in what is essentially a mobile science lab.

ExoMars
The ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is the next major scientific mission to Mars and will be searching for that elusive ‘biosignature’ of Martian life past or present. The Viking missions sent back data that may or may not have indicated that (bacterial) life is present now on Mars. The ExoMars mission is currently under development by the European and Russian Space Agencies (ESA and Roscosmos) having been originally planned as a NASA-ESA joint venture. The ExoMars programme includes several elements that will probably be sent to Mars on two launches in 2016 and 2018.

NOMAD, the “Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery” European instrument was selected as part of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission for 2016. It will conduct a spectroscopic survey of the atmosphere of Mars in the ultraviolet (UV), visible and infrared (IR) spectral regions. Its primary objective will be to improve our knowledge of the vertical structure and composition of the atmosphere of the ‘red planet’.

All in all this was an extremely interesting talk that kept an audience of well over 40 members and friends enthralled. Plenty of questions were asked and the discussion continued over drinks and light refreshments.