What: India and EU Copernicus programme agreement
When: Marh 19, 2018
Where: Bengaluru
- India and the European Union (EU) on March 19, 2018 signed an agreement that will enable them to share earth observation data from each other’s satellites.
- The agreement was signed in Bengaluru by Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence, on behalf of the European Commission, and by Scientific Secretary, PG Diwakar.
- The Copernicus programme provides a wide range of applications like climate change, land, ocean and atmosphere monitoring as well as support in forecasting, management and mitigation of natural disasters.
- Content: Under this arrangement, Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO will share data from its earth observation satellites.
- The European Commission will provide India with free, full and open access to the data from the Copernicus Sentinel family of satellites using high bandwidth connections from data hub to data hub.
- This will provide both the sides, the data on climate change, weather forecasting and natural disasters.
What is Copernicus Programme?
- As per European Commission, Copernicus is the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, looking at our planet and its environment for the ultimate benefit of all European citizens. It offers information services based on satellite Earth Observation and in situ (non-space) data.
- The Programme is coordinated and managed by the European Commission. It is implemented in partnership with the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies and Mercator Océan.
