On 19 March, the European Commission and India’s Department of Space (DoS) signed an agreement to share Earth Observation (EO) from the European Union’s (EU) Sentinel series of satellites and ISRO’s EO satellites.
The agreement was signed in Bangalore by Mr Philippe Brunet, Director for Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence, on behalf of the European Commission and by Dr PG Diwakar, Scientific Secretary, ISRO on behalf of the DOS.
Under this arrangement, the EU will provide India with free, full and open access to the data from the Copernicus Sentinel family of satellites using high bandwidth connections from data hub to data hub.
Reciprocally the Indian DOS will provide the Copernicus programme and its participating states with a free, full and open access to the data from all of ISRO’s EO satellites including historical data sets. This comprises land, ocean and atmospheric series of ISRO’s civilian satellites (Oceansat-2, Megha-Tropiques, Scatsat-1, SARAL, INSAT-3D, INSAT-3DR) with the exception of commercial high-resolution satellites data.
In addition, the EU will provide ISRO with technical assistance for the establishment of high bandwidth connections between the two, in particular through setting up of mirror servers, data storage and archival facilities.
DOS will facilitate access to in situ data from its regional observatory networks of geophysical and meteorological data, to support the enhancement of the Copernicus data architecture and towards development of global products. ISRO will co-ordinate access to in situ data and promote the use of information and data provided by the Copernicus programme with various institutions and government agencies, particularly the environmental sector and all other users, including academia and the private sector.
