GET INSPIRED
Copernicus is all about delivering products and services to manage and protect the environment and natural resources, and ensure civil security. The monitoring capacity of Copernicus will be used for the benefit of both Europe and the international community. Copernicus will provide services for a range of different applications such as air-quality forecasting, flood warnings, early detection of drought and desertification, early warnings of severe weather, oil-spill detection and drift prediction, sea-water quality, crop analysis, forest monitoring, land-use change, agriculture, food security and humanitarian aid – to name but a few. Copernicus services will provide essential information for six main domains: ocean, land and atmosphere monitoring, emergency response, security and climate change.
- Services relevant to the marine environment include monitoring for marine safety and transport, oil-spill detection, water quality, weather forecasting and the polar environment.
- Services relevant to the land environment include monitoring for water management, agriculture and food security, land-use change, forest monitoring, soil quality, urban planning and natural protection services.
- Services relevant to the atmospheric include monitoring for air quality and ultraviolet radiation forecasts, greenhouse gases and climate forcing.
- Services for emergency management response will help mitigating the effects of natural and manmade disasters such as floods, forest fires and earthquakes and contribute to humanitarian aid exercises.
- Services for security will support peace-keeping efforts, maritime surveillance and border control.
- Services for monitoring climate change cross-cut all of the above domains.
Copernicus services provide standardised multi-purpose information common to a broad range of application areas relevant to EU policies, many of which are implemented at national or regional levels aiming at sustainability. The evolution of these services, through from research to being operational is continuing steadily. In each of the service areas, the range of products designed to meet the needs of identifiable groups of users is growing. Development of products and services downstream of these Copernicus services is expected to serve specific national (or trans-national), regional or local information needs, as well as the needs of niche European and global markets. In each thematic area, projects designed to explore the scope for downstream use in specialised areas have been launched, widening the range of Copernicus products available. Source: ESA
THE COMPETITION
The tremendous amounts of data produced by the European Earth observation programme Copernicus and its Sentinel satellites hugely benefit science and public authorities and open the door to countless products and applications in a wide array of business sectors. The Copernicus Masters competition is inviting all interested participants to submit outstanding ideas, applications, and business concepts involving innovative uses of Earth observation data by 13 July 2015. In this year’s edition, prizes worth EUR 300,000 will be awarded in topic-specific challenges sponsored by a number of world-class partners, including: the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), T-Systems International GmbH, Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd., Greece’s National Cadastre and Mapping Agency (NCMA), CloudEO AG, and European Space Imaging GmbH. In addition, the new University Challenge specifically addresses students and research assistants around the world. Experts from the realms of research and industry will be tasked with selecting the winner of each challenge. The overall winner – the 2015 Copernicus Master – will receive (along with their challenge prize) EUR 20,000 in cash and a satellite data package worth a further EUR 60,000, which is being provided with the financial support of the European Commission. All of the winners will be announced this autumn and recognised as part of a festive awards ceremony. No matter where you are with your idea, project, service, or business innovation, compete for top prizes that will help you launch your business!
Submit your idea now at www.copernicus-masters.com
