Minister for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock TD, recently welcomed the announcement by the European Space Agency (ESA) that it has launched the first in a series of novel Earth Observation (EO) Sentinel satellites under the European Union’s Copernicus Programme.
The Launch, which took place from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, represents the first of a series of satellite launches of the most ambitious global civilian Earth Observation project ever conceived. A multi billion euro initiative, Ireland will benefit directly by accessing data, free of charge, collected by the Sentinel satellites. As an advanced radar mission, Sentinel-1 can image the surface of Earth through cloud and rain both day and night.
The Copernicus programme led by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with ESA and the European Environment Agency (EEA) will form a unified system through which vast amounts of data, acquired from space and from a multitude of ground-based sensors, will provide a range of thematic information services designed to benefit the environment, the way we live, address humanitarian needs and support effective policy-making for a more sustainable future. The services developed will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.
Welcoming the launch Minister Sherlock said: “Copernicus is unique in that nothing of this scale currently exists globally and Europe is now poised to lead in this area - the opportunity for Ireland to play its role in Earth Observation into the future couldn’t be greater given the scope to develop new downstream services to meet the ever increasing national and international demand in this sector”.
The Minister also noted that this data “will provide important new commercial opportunities for Irish SMEs to develop bespoke environmental monitoring services with strong potential for export across international markets leading to new job growth creation opportunities.”
Copernicus will open up business opportunities helping Europe's enterprises creating new jobs and business opportunities such as services for environmental data production and dissemination, as well as the space industry. The European Commission anticipates that Copernicus could generate a financial benefit of some €30 billion and create 50,000 jobs in Europe by 2030.
Dr Barry Fennell, Enterprise Ireland, National Delegate to ESA’s Earth Observation Board points to the numerous opportunities through which Ireland can benefit from the use of satellite derived data. He explains that “data collected from the Sentinels can, for example, be used to provide decision support tools for crop yield prediction for the agriculture sector; improve search and rescue operations and enhance maritime surveillance capabilities; provide emergency response mapping to aid civil defence and operational aid agencies in addition to providing damage assessment maps post disaster to the Insurance industry”.
