The Copernicus Space Component (CSC) shall ensure an autonomous capacity of space borne observations to meet the objectives of the Copernicus programme, serving primarily the Copernicus Service Component. The Space Component shall consist of a Space Segment of Satellite missions and a Ground Segment to support these missions.

The Space Segment shall comprise two types of satellite missions, namely:

Dedicated Satellite Missions, called the Sentinels, organised into six different ‘families’, which are: Sentinel-1, -2 and -3 (each 4 units, Full Operation Capacity consisting of 2 units flying simultaneously, replaced by 2 units to ensure continuity of observations), Sentinel- 4 (2 units), Sentinel-5 (3 units), and Sentinel-6 (2 units). Additionally Jason-3 and Sentinel-5p are developed by third parties but operated by Copernicus; Third Party Missions, consisting of Earth Observation satellites of European, national or commercial organisations, i.e. the Copernicus Contributing Missions (CCM).

The Ground Segment shall operate the Sentinel missions, receive data from the satellites, process, archive and distribute them to the Copernicus services and user communities, and generate a coordinated data stream to satisfy Copernicus data needs.

The Copernicus Space Component shall include the following activities:

provision of space-borne observations from the dedicated missions. This includes the completion, maintenance, operation, validation and calibration of the Sentinels and related ground segment and data products and the protection of necessary frequency spectra; provision, archiving and dissemination of Contributing Mission data; preparatory activities related to the evolution of the Space Component in response to evolving needs, including the specification of new dedicated missions; protection of satellites against the risk of collision; safe decommissioning of the satellites at the end of life.

Activities funded under Regulation (EU) No 377/2014 shall include the operations of all Sentinels and Jason-3, procurement of the Sentinel-1, -2, -3 C and D units, procurement of Sentinel-5 B and C units, procurement of the Sentinel-6B unit, Launch Services, Data dissemination and the procurement of Contributing Mission data.

Activities funded under the Copernicus Agreement shall be closely interlinked with the activities funded by the ESA GMES Space Component Programme and the EUMETSAT Jason-3, -CS Optional programmes.

The implementation of most Copernicus Space Component activities shall be delegated to ESA and EUMETSAT.

The activities delegated to ESA shall include the overall technical coordination of the space component and the definition of the overall architecture of the space component. ESA shall be entrusted with the following tasks:

procurement and Development of the recurrent C and D units of Sentinel-1, -2, and -3 satellites; procurement of the B and C units of the Sentinel-5 instrument; procurement of the Sentinel-6B unit; procurement of launch services and launch preparation (including activities from Flight Acceptance Review to In Orbit Commissioning Review); operations of the Copernicus Space Component specified in section 3.5; data circulation and network services operations; dissemination of Sentinel-1, -2, -3 (partim land), and Sentinel-5p data, as well as Data and Information Access Services; data Access Procurement from Copernicus Contributing Missions; maintenance of relevant Copernicus Space Component elements; evolution of relevant Space Component Elements; support to the Commission in establishing user requirements, service specifications and service data requirements for the space infrastructure.

The activities delegated to EUMETSAT shall include the operation of dedicated missions and ensuring access to contributing mission data in line with its mandate and expertise. EUMETSAT shall be entrusted with the following tasks:

operations and maintenance of the Sentinel-3 satellite series in coordination with ESA; operations and maintenance of the Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 instruments included on the MTG and METOP-SG satellites; operations and maintenance of the Jason-3 satellite based on the cooperation with partner organisations; operation and maintenance of the Sentinel-6 mission in coordination with ESA and other partner organisations; provision of the ground segment, data access operations and data dissemination for Jason-3, Sentinel-3 (partim marine), -4, -5, and -6, as well as Data and Information Access Services; maintenance and evolution of the ground segment and infrastructure; provision of relevant data from selected contributing missions related to marine, atmosphere and climate change services; support to ESA for the development, launch and early Orbit phase of the C and D units of Sentinel-3 and the B unit of Sentinel-6; support to ESA for the development of the B and C units of Sentinel-5; support to the Commission in establishing user requirements, service specifications and service data requirements (upon request and subject to additional funding by the Commission); support to the Copernicus climate change monitoring service, reprocessing of EUMETSAT and agreed Copernicus and third party data (upon request and subject to additional funding by the Commission).

The management of these activities shall include the day-to-day operational interactions with the relevant services providers and users, the management of risks, the communication activities and support to the Commission in its interactions with Copernicus Stakeholders.

Coordination between ESA and EUMETSAT shall be managed through a Joint Operations Management Plan (JOMP).

The CSC Space segment activities and tasks with relevance to the MFF (2014-2020) funding shall be implemented in a multi-annual perspective, in particular the procurement programme of the recurrent units.

The major milestones for the CSC component shall include the milestones and accomplishments as depicted in the following figure.

The schedule shall be updated following the technical implementation of activities and evaluation of programmatic options.

The use of the data shall be subject to a legal notice which shall indicate that:

users have a free, full and open access to Copernicus Sentinel Data and Service Information without any express or implied warranty, including as regards quality and suitability for any purpose; Union law grants free access to Copernicus Sentinel Data and Service Information for the purpose of the following use in so far as it is lawful: reproduction; distribution; communication to the public; adaptation, modification and combination with other data and information; any combination of points (1) to (4). by using Sentinel Data or Service Information the user shall acknowledge that these conditions are applicable to him/her and that the user renounces to any claims for damages against the Union and the providers of that data and information.

The spatial data products and information generated within the Copernicus space component activities shall be compatible and interoperable with the data and spatial information systems provided by Member States in accordance with Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Regulations (EC) No 1205/2008, (EU) No 1089/2010 and (EC) No 976/2009.

Implementation of the CSC activities shall be monitored by the Commission. Both ESA and EUMETSAT shall report on the progress of the implementation of the activities entrusted to them on a quarterly basis. The Commission shall process the reports and shall request clarifications in case needed. The quarterly reports shall contain, amongst others, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which shall be used to monitor the implementation of the Copernicus Space Component. KPIs shall include:

number of Sentinel Missions and number of flying Sentinel units; number of missions having reached full operational capacity (2 units flying simultaneously in the case of Sentinel1, -2, and -3); number of recurrent units under development; availability of Sentinel units and instruments; volume of data distributed to users; number of users; end-to-end availability and continuity of the Sentinel Data Access Service; end-to-end availability of Contributing Mission Data Access Service; data Access volume from Copernicus Contributing Missions; licenses signed regarding Copernicus Contributing Missions; timeliness of Data delivery; user support and help desk performance.

KPIs shall be reported by both EUMETSAT and ESA in accordance with their entrusted activities.

Apart from the operational monitoring of the performance of the Space Component, the achievement of the objectives of all the tasks financed by Copernicus at the level of their results and impacts, their European added value and on the efficiency of the use of resources shall be evaluated. This evaluation shall be conducted in close cooperation with the Copernicus operators (ESA and EUMETSAT for the Space Component) and the Copernicus users.

The dedicated missions shall consist of a space segment and a ground segment, each with its own functions and characteristics. The space segment shall include the satellite and/or instrument and the ground segment shall include all infrastructure located on the earth, including receiving stations, processing centres, flight operations segments and mission performance centres.

The ground segment assets under control of ESA shall be provided as a service. Operations of both the space and ground segment shall be Copernicus funded.

A detailed description of all technical elements of the Copernicus Space component shall be made publicly available.

The EUMETSAT Ground Segment shall rely on the services implemented and provided by ESA, including Core Ground Stations for the reception of Sentinel-3. The Copernicus ground segment implemented at EUMETSAT may include functions and infrastructure shared with the other, non-Copernicus missions as part of EUMETSAT programmes. The EUMETSAT Copernicus ground segment shall provide data from dedicated (Sentinel-3 Marine, -4, -5, -6 and Jason-3) and contributing missions, including access by the users. The datasets and services provided by EUMETSAT shall be documented in the Service Level Specifications (SLS).

The European Data Relay System (EDRS) service shall provide the capability for the acquisition of Sentinels data complementary to the X-band core ground stations, allowing to support in particular quasi-real time observation needs (QRT is defined as products having timeliness of less than 1 hour). In particular EDRS shall provide the following capabilities:

introduce flexibility in the overall data acquisition scenario leading to an increased availability of Sentinel data; allow to downlink data to ground while the Sentinels are outside the visibility of the X-band core ground stations; in combination with the X-Band core station network, support and improve the end to end availability and reliability of data provision to the end user; provide additional flexibility to accommodate Copernicus security-related requirements by ‘protecting’ the mission data reception via the encrypted EDRS Ka-band downlink.

The use of the EDRS service in support of the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions shall provide further opportunities for product timeliness improvements, including beyond the current formal Near-Real Time commitment, defined as product timeliness of three hours.

EDRS shall allow performing fast downlink of data acquired outside the X-Band core stations visibility. Data shall be downlinked in pass-through mode via EDRS when observing such areas. This should in turn enhance the achieved product timeliness associated to core products. In addition, this should allow collaborative partners to generate products in QRT/NRT.

EDRS should be used to downlink a high percentage of data recorded in memory, outside X-band core stations visibility. This will in turn increase the volume of data downlinked and thus the volume of NRT data generated by the CSC ground segment.

The main functional tasks performed by the EDRS service shall be:

sentinel-1 and -2 satellites data transmission via Optical (Laser) link between the OCP on-board the LEO satellites and the equivalent unit on-board the GEO satellites (EDRS-A and EDRS-C); mission data relay between the GEO satellites and the Ka-band ground receiving terminals; mission Data reception, decommutation and provision to the service interface point, including data circulation network.

The service shall be relevant to Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions (other Sentinels shall not carry on-board the necessary Optical Communication Payload). The geographical coverage area for downloading the Sentinel data to the EDRS receiving stations shall cover Europe as a minimum.

The service provided by EDRS shall be procured via a dedicated Service level Agreement contract, managed according to a set of stringent performance indicators.

The operations strategy for all Sentinels shall have the following objectives:

to provide data to Copernicus and other users according to the specified requirements; to ensure systematic and routine operational activities with a high level of automation and with pre-defined operation to the maximum extent possible.

The Sentinel operations strategy shall be documented in a High Level Operations Plan (HLOP) which shall be made publicly available. The HLOP shall include information on observation/planning, acquisition, processing and dissemination.

The High Level Operations Plan shall be defined based upon the observation requirements from primarily the Copernicus Services, national requirements from Copernicus Participating States, relevant Union Institutions and other users including based on international agreements, scientific use and commercial value-adding. Based upon the collected observation requirements, a series of simulations shall be performed to elaborate the observation scenarios taking into account the priority schemes and technical constraints. Consultation with the Copernicus Participating states on both the collection of observation requirements and observation plans shall be done typically once every year at the User Forum.

The acquisition strategy shall adhere to the following principles:

sentinel-1 acquisitions shall be performed according to a mission background plan; sentinel-2 shall be acquired systematically between 56° S and 84° North over land, coastal areas as well as larger islands; sentinel-3, -5p, -5 and -6 shall systematically acquire data over the entire globe; sentinel-4 shall systematically acquire data over Europe from a geostationary orbit.

Data acquired by the Sentinels shall be automatically downlinked to the core ground stations and systematically processed by the Payload Data Ground Segment. The data shall be systematically processed to generate a set of pre-defined core products (called Level 0, Level 1 and Level 2). These core products shall be made available to the Copernicus users (‘user products’) according to well defined timeliness ranging from Near-Real Time (NRT) to Non-Time Critical (NTC), available typically within 3 to 24 or 48 hours after being sensed by the satellite.

Table 3 lists the Data products that shall be made available from the Copernicus Dedicated Missions. The user products for Sentinel-4, -5 and -6 shall be specified during the development phase. A detailed list of all products shall be made publicly available.

Summary Copernicus Dedicated Missions Data Products list

The generation of Sentinel-2 Level 2 data shall be made available through the Sentinels Core Ground Segment or shall be enabled through a toolbox running at the users' side.
	User Product Category	Product content/Description
Sentinel-1
	SAR Level 0	Compressed unfocused SAR raw data
	SAR Level 1 Single Look Complex	Focused SAR Complex data, georeferenced, provided in slant-range geometry
	SAR Level 1 Ground Range Detected Full Resolution	Focussed SAR complex data, georeferenced, multi-looked and projected to ground range geometry
	SAR Level 2 Ocean Product	Geolocated geophysical parameters (e.g. Ocean Wind Field, Wave Spectra and Radial Velocity)
Sentinel-2
	Multi-spectral instrument Level-1	Top of Atmosphere Reflectance's in Cartographic Geometry
	Multi-spectral instrument Level-2	Bottom of Atmosphere Reflectance's in Cartographic Geometry
Sentinel-3 (common for Marine and Land)
	Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) Level 1	OLCI Top of Atmosphere Radiances, ortho-geolocated and re-sampled
	Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) Level 1	SLSTR Brightness temperatures and Top of Atmosphere Radiances ortho-geolocated and re-sampled
Sentinel-3 partim Marine
	Surface Topography Mission (STM) Level 2	Geophysical parameters over ocean (e.g. surface backscatter, sea surface height, significant wave height, ocean depth, tide height, sea ice concentration, sea ice freeboard, sea surface wind speed, rain rate)
	OLCI Level 2	Geophysical parameters over ocean (e.g. sea surface reflectance, algal pigment concentration, suspended matter concentrations)
	SLSTR Level-2	Sea Surface Temperature
Sentinel-3 partim Land
	Surface Topography Mission (STM) Level 2	Geophysical parameters over land (e.g. surface backscatter, altimetry range, surface height, snow density and depth)
	OLCI Level 2	Geophysical parameters over land (e.g. photosynthetically active radiation, global vegetation index)
	SLSTR Level-2	Land Surface Temperature
	OLCI and SLSTR Synergy products	Geophysical parameters over land (Land surface reflectance's and aerosol load over land)
Sentinel-5p
	TROPOMI instrument level-2	Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide, Sulphur Dioxide, Formaldehyde, Carbon Monoxide, Methane, Aerosols, Clouds
Jason-3 (Europe-US cooperation mission, operations are funded by Copernicus)
	Geophysical Data Records Level 2	Geocoded products corresponding to altimetry parameters.

Changes (excluding policy changes that are agreed on a political level) in response to new or evolving user requirements that could be addressed through an incremental evolution of the current Copernicus Space Component Infrastructure may include:

upgrade processing and dissemination infrastructure to increase performance; production of new products based on existing capacities; procurement of new datasets based on existing third party missions.

Short-term updates of the Copernicus Space Component shall follow a change management process including the following generic steps:

identification of needed changes; initiation of the Change Request by either the Commission, ESA or EUMETSAT; analysis of the Change Request, including an analysis of impact (technical, cost, schedule); agreement by the Commission on the implementation of the proposed changes; implementation of the changes.

In ensuring the protection of Copernicus satellites against the risk of collision ESA and EUMETSAT shall take into account the Union Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) support framework established under Decision No 541/2014/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council. The respective measures shall have their bearing on the Copernicus Space Component with the inclusion of a function to provide SST services to spacecraft operators and public authorities.

‘Copernicus Contributing Missions’ (CCM) shall mean space-based Earth observation missions providing data to Copernicus complementing data from the dedicated missions.

Data from CCMs shall be obtained by Copernicus to fulfil the data requirements as described in section 1, whenever these cannot be met by the Sentinels.

Data from CCMs could be either free of charge or could be procured under specific licensing conditions.

For datasets under restrictive dissemination conditions by the CCMs, the following user categories shall be applied:

Copernicus Services; Institutions and bodies of the Union; Participants to a research project financed under the Union research programmes; Public authorities of EU Member States and Copernicus Participating States; International Organisations and international NGOs; The general Public.

On the basis of the Data Warehouse Document (see section 1) ESA and EUMETSAT shall undertake a joint analysis to identify which datasets would need to be procured, and which datasets could be provided without procurement through third party missions. The results of this analysis shall be documented in the joint Data Warehouse Traceability Document. The datasets shall be further described in the Data Access Portfolio (DAP) document, for what concerns the datasets provided by ESA, and the Service Level Specification (SLS) document, for what concerns the datasets provided by EUMETSAT. The uptake of the datasets shall be reported by ESA and EUMETSAT on a quarterly basis. Depending upon the uptake of the data and an analysis of the needs, the procurement/pursuing of third party data shall be adapted, as appropriate.

Licensing conditions for data shall be negotiated with contributing mission data providers for data that needs to be procured. These licensing conditions could depart from the open data policy.

Data procurement activities shall be under the responsibility of ESA and shall focus on providing Earth Observation data from national or international missions, both private and institutional. CORE Datasets shall be procured on the basis of pre-defined specifications while ADDITIONAL datasets shall be procured through a quota mechanism and bulk agreements with data providers for the provision of data within a financial envelope.

Procurement activities shall include:

analysis of the requirements, derivation of specifications for data procurement and the selection of the relevant providers; procurement of the actual data on the basis of licenses or resource buy; integration/de-integration of Contributing Missions into the Copernicus Space Component ground infrastructure; harmonisation and homogenous provision of data even in cases of large collections of data from different missions.

Procured datasets may include data from the following contributing missions (non-exhaustive lists, full list available for http://spacedata.copernicus.eu): Pleiades 1 A/B, Deimos-2, Worldview-1/2, Radarsat-2, TerraSAR-X, COSMO-Skymed (1/2/3/4), RISAT-1, Proba-V, GeoEye-1, SPOT-5/6/7 etc.

Data Access to third party missions not involving data procurement shall be provided by ESA, including data from the Earth Explorers, and EUMETSAT, including data from the EUMETSAT missions.

EUMETSAT should ensure access to data from its own missions, as well as from selected third party missions related to the marine, atmosphere and climate change services. In this context, third party missions shall refer to missions operated by satellite operators with whom EUMETSAT has formal cooperation and/or data exchange agreements.

The activity shall encompass the following:

access and provision of Copernicus contributing Mission data to the Copernicus services and users; processing of such data into relevant products, when appropriate; dissemination of these data and products using the EUMETSAT multi-mission dissemination infrastructure and services.

Datasets under this header may include data from the following missions: Meteosat, Metop, Suomi-NPP, Landsat, Cryosat and others.

The Copernicus Space Component evolution concerns the adaptations of the Space component beyond 2020 and beyond the current MFF. This chapter details preparatory activities necessary to support a decision on the future evolution of the Copernicus Space Component, within the framework of the Space Strategy. It details user requirements activities which shall be carried out under the current MFF as preparatory actions for the Copernicus Space Component Evolution. These activities shall take into account, where appropriate, elements of the ESA Long-term Scenario. Adaptations could include:

Changes to the current Space Component Infrastructure; Development of Dedicated Copernicus Missions; Arrangements to obtain data from Contributing Missions.

User requirement activities to be conducted to scope the evolution of the Copernicus Space Component (Figure 2) shall include:

Identification of future observation requirements and gaps; Analysis of options to meet evolving observation needs, these options could include the adaptations listed above.

The identification of future observation requirements and gaps shall be a Commission-led process which shall be supported by evolution-related activities conducted by the Copernicus Entrusted Entities.

The process shall consist of three major activities:

Stakeholder consultation; User Requirements consolidation and prioritisation; Establishment of the observation requirements.

Figure 3 illustrates the overall process for establishing the Data Requirements and gaps.

Analysis of options to meet evolving data needs should consider:

Changes to the current Space Component infrastructure; Development of Dedicated Copernicus Missions and; Future arrangements to obtain data from Contributing Missions.

Changes to the current Space Component Infrastructure may include the addition of new products based upon on the existing Sentinels. Other potential adaptions may include the increase of a Sentinel constellation from 2 to 3 satellites post 2020 to address potential requirements for more frequent data.

Future arrangements to obtain data from Contributing Missions shall consider the Third Party data available and the identified observation needs.

Development of Dedicated Copernicus Missions shall consider:

Definition of Next Generation Sentinels for continuity of observations beyond 2030; Definition of Expansion Sentinels to address Observation gaps starting from 2022-2025.

Analysis of options to meet the established observation requirements shall also take into account the following elements:

Copernicus Technical Baseline and Space Component Technical Specifications; Outcome of the Mid-term evaluation of the Copernicus Programme; Impact Assessment of several evolution scenarios, including a cost benefit analysis.

Furthermore, the analysis shall take into account technical elements such as the availability of Third party missions and technology readiness levels.

Whenever the option for new dedicated missions is selected, a mission analysis shall be conducted which includes:

Elaboration of the Mission statement based on the Data requirements, including expected performance; Technical requirements specification; Identification of possible mission concepts; Assessment of programmatic aspects; Risk Assessment.

The outcome of this analysis shall be detailed in a Mission Requirements Document and forms the basis for possible further satellite development and operations phases.