Czech User Forum 1

Wellcome speech -Deputy minister of Transport, Deputy Minister of Environment, Deputy Minister of Agriculture

update on CAMS and C3s with a special focus on agriculture/forestry, brief update on the status of both services (incl. ITTs) and presentation of some current and/or future products in support of the  agriculture and forestry users.

The Sentinels, backbone of the Copernicus Space Component is becoming reality. First satellites are providing data on sustainable operational mode. Some of the institutions and companies in the Czech Republic are starting to use the data or core services.

The Czech Republic see the great opportunity on Copernicus programme from many point of views – for governmental sector in case of supporting of agenda of respective institutions, for industry as a new source of data for downstream applications and for scientific projects of academia as well. Based on these assumptions, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Transport, who are responsible for Copernicus programme in the Czech Republic, intends in cooperation with other relevant subjects to support the implementation of Copernicus in the Czech Republic. The vision is to use core services and Copernicus data where it is beneficial. The goal is to maximize the benefits from Copernicus in the Czech Republic. In relation this, we decide to formulate the Implementation plan, which will define the roles on national level, e.g. in relation to core services and which will helps to turn our visions and goals into reality.

Invited speech

The Sentinel missions are Copernicus dedicated Earth Observation missions composing the essential elements of the Space Component. In the global Copernicus framework, they are complemented by other satellites made available by third-parties or by ESA and coordinated in the synergistic system through the Copernicus Data-Access system versus the Copernicus Services.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission provides continuity to services relying on multi-spectral high-resolution optical observations over global terrestrial surfaces. Sentinel-2 will capitalize on the technology and the vast experience acquired in Europe and the US to sustain the operational supply of data for services such as forest monitoring, land cover changes detection or natural disasters management.

The Sentinel-2 mission offers an unprecedented combination of the following capabilities:

Systematic global coverage of land surfaces: from 56°South to 84°North, coastal waters and Mediterranean sea;

High revisit: every 5 days at equator under the same viewing conditions with 2 satellites;

High spatial resolution: 10m, 20m and 60m;

Multi-spectral information with 13 bands in the visible, near infra-red and short wave infra-red part of the spectrum;

Wide field of view: 290 km.

The data from the Sentinel-2 mission are available openly and freely for all users with online easy access since December 2015. The presentation will give a status report on the Sentinel-2 mission, and outlook for the remaining ramp-up Phase, the completion of the constellation and a view to ongoing evolutions, and showcase some examples of Sentinel-2 used for agriculture.