Copernicus HR-S&I

Copernicus HR-S&I, the product

Copernicus is a European programme aimed to collect, process and update data on the condition of the Earth. The data collected concerns the environment, security, the maritime domain, disaster monitoring, agriculture, etc. These data are made available for autonomous European monitoring at different scales (local, regional, global). These data also contribute to monitoring and dealing with the effects of climate change.

Since 2020, the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) has been publishing its high-resolution snow and ice monitoring products (HR-S&I) in near-real time. Indeed, the presence of snow and ice on lakes and rivers is a relevant element to monitor because of their strong influence on the water cycle and surface energy fluxes. Rapid declines in the extent and duration of snow cover and increases in the number of extreme events are distinct indicators of global climate change. Therefore, the study of these parameters is crucial for a wide range of applications, both for the private sector, local authorities and scientific institutions.

In 2019, Magellium was awarded a contract by the European Environment Agency (EEA) to develop, operate and promote a new Copernicus Core Service. This service provides high-resolution monitoring of snow and ice in Europe and Turkey. From then on, the EO unit is in charge of the implementation of sustainable and operational snow and ice monitoring products.

Operations started in July 2020 on a 24-hour basis. A state-of-the-art automatic processing solution has been deployed on a European cloud (DIAS). This provides scalability capabilities. Production is triggered whenever Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 acquisitions are available and the resulting products are made available to users on average within 6 hours after the measurement. Campaigns to process the huge amount of data already acquired by the constellations have been carried out. More than one million products have been generated and are currently hosted on DIAS.

HR-S&I products in a few words :

• • • 550 Sentinel-2 products and 230 Sentinel-1 products
    • 2700 HR-S&I products processed each day
    • 5 snow products, 4 ice products
    • Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 archives already processed (since September 2016)
    • Various applications: hydrology, hydroelectricity, meteorology, security, research and development, etc.

The HR-S&I products can be viewed and downloaded free of charge on the DIAS WEkEO portal: https://www.wekeo.eu/.

Find more information on the Copernicus website.
Find more details on HR-S&I products on the specific Copernicus website.