Climate-KIC and Copernicus explore relationship to accelerate use of EU satellite data for climate action

Climate-KIC and Europe’s earth observation programme Copernicus are to team up to look at how to get the best data to the right people faster, in an effort to step up the fight against climate change.
 

Understanding what data is available and how to use it is not trivial. To drive sustainable development, many stakeholders need to be brought together to unlock its potential. Critically, end users need to be informed of the potential of satellite data and information services to address their challenges and help leap-frog current technologies and ways of working.

Ian Short, Climate-KIC’s CEO said: “This is an exciting development.  We propose to work with Copernicus and their data throughout our entrepreneurial activities, especially in engaging cities within our community.  We hope this is the start of a growing and more ambitious collaboration.”

Climate-KIC provides a ready-made network of public and private organisations that are already taking action on climate change. Together with the European Union’s Earth observation programme Copernicus, Climate-KIC is establishing a collaborative programme to accelerate the use of Copernicus satellite data and information by entrepreneurs, universities, cities, regions and other stakeholders.

Agreement on pilot activities is being planned for this year, with initial focus on Climate-KIC’s education and outreach programmes, addressing demand and supply-side stakeholder needs for earth observation value-added data and information provided through the Sentinel satellites and Copernicus Services.

The first results of the collaboration will be announced in November at the COP22 climate summit in Marrakech, Morocco.

Photo: ESA

The main image at the top of this page, which shows the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago on the left, was captured on 28 April 2016 at 05:37 GMT (07:37 CEST) – just two hours after the satellite’s radar was switched on. Sentinel-1B lifted off on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 25 April at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). It joins its twin, Sentinel-1A, to provide more ‘radar vision’ for Europe’s environmental Copernicus programme.