Airbus Defence and Space, owner of the commercial distribution rights for TerraSAR-X data, and ESA have signed a contract securing the continued supply of TerraSAR-X data for the Copernicus Data Warehouse. The agreement is valid until the end of 2020, thus continuing the successful cooperation between Airbus Defence and Space and ESA for the provision of TerraSAR-X data to public institutions across Europe in place since 2008.
TerraSAR-X has been a key data source particularly for activities addressing emergency and security related issues, reliable monitoring needs, and land cover change, both in Europe and beyond. Its unique reliability and high accuracy make it an ideal data source within ESA’s multi-mission approach.
The Copernicus programme is set to make a step change by providing reliable, timely and accurate services to manage the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and help respond to crises. The success of this initiative relies on the provision of robust data, predominately from a fleet of Earth observation satellites called Sentinel and supplemented by data from Member States’ satellites (e.g. TerraSAR-X, Pléiades and SPOT). The Copernicus Data Warehouse provides comprehensive and coordinated access for all users to all Copernicus space data both from the Sentinel missions as well as the contributing missions through a single harmonised interface.
The agreement includes the provision of archived and newly acquired TerraSAR-X data for the Copernicus core datasets in the area of maritime monitoring, as well as additional datasets for further maritime applications particularly sea ice monitoring. The contract also includes the maintenance for the Copernicus-specific interfaces for the ordering, delivery and reporting process that have been established during the previous phases.