OBSERVER: 10 research projects preparing for the future of Copernicus
OBSERVER: 10 research projects preparing for the future of Copernicus
evan
Thu, 16/01/2025 – 11:09
Since 2012, Copernicus has provided data and services to users worldwide, supporting advancements in Earth Observation (EO) and addressing environmental, emergency, and security challenges. As these challenges continue to evolve, this key component of the EU Space Programme must adapt to effectively address them.
To drive this effort, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), which is entrusted with the management of Horizon 2020 projects in the field of space, has funded an array of projects aiming to speed up progress by addressing key research challenges.
A recently published CORDIS Results Pack presents the work of ten of these EU-funded projects which aimed at leveraging the latest scientific and technological advances to enable each of the six Copernicus services to better respond to emerging user requirements and policy needs.
In this week’s Observer, we take a look at these ten projects, their key achievements, and their contributions to the evolution of Copernicus.
Improving ecosystem monitoring with AI
The Arctic is losing 74,000 square kilometres of summer sea ice annually, representing a nearly 13% decline per decade. As the Arctic’s sea ice continues to decline, the region becomes more accessible for maritime activities such as shipping and fishing, which generate risks such as overfishing and environmental damage from resource extraction. Monitoring these threats is increasingly challenging, as the Arctic’s extreme weather, rapidly changing sea conditions, and melting sea ice create safety risks and logistical hurdles for on-site researchers.
To address these challenges, the ARCOS project looked at ways to improve how the region is monitored. Within the project, researchers created a monitoring system which combines EO data from Copernicus Sentinel satellites with in situ measurements, expert analyses, and advanced AI techniques. The end goal was to improve the EU’s situational awareness of the Arctic’s vital environmental parameters. The resulting system improves monitoring of Arctic trends, such as changes in vessel traffic, industrial activity, and ice conditions, providing early warnings for environmental and security risks.
Beyond the Arctic, other important habitats face threats on many fronts. In Europe, urban sprawl, unsustainable farming, and pollution put ecosystems at risk. Meanwhile, South America lost around 20,000 square kilometres of mature tropical forest in 2023—an area about the size of Slovenia.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery showing deforestation in Brazil. Credit: European Union.
EO data can play an important role in understanding and monitoring such changes in the Earth’s environment and land use. The RapidAI4EO project took this one step farther by combining remote sensing with advances in AI to improve how we monitor land use and land cover around the world.
For AI models to detect land cover changes effectively, they must be trained using sequences of satellite images with high temporal frequency and multi-sensor data. Recognising a lack of existing datasets which satisfy these requirements, the RapidAI4EO consortium developed the RapidAI4EO corpus—a training dataset containing satellite imagery for some half a million locations distributed across Europe. The data used to create this corpus were taken from the Sentinel-2 satellite mission and Planet Fusion, a commercial high-resolution satellite data product. The RapidAI4EO corpus dataset is freely available for download to anyone interested. Originally designed to train AI models for land use and land cover classification, it supports a range of research applications, including change detection and environmental monitoring.
Building on the capabilities of CMEMS for better ocean monitoring
Our oceans play a critical role in supporting life on Earth. They absorb 30% of carbon emissions and 90% of excess heat while providing 17% of the world’s animal protein. Protecting them is crucial for marine life and food security. The Copernicus Marine Service (CMEMS) delivers essential ocean data, forming the backbone of many marine models used to forecast and monitor physical and biogeochemical processes and phenomena such as algal blooms, temperature changes, and sea level rise. However, these models struggle to predict harmful events with precision.
Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery of an algal bloom in the Gulf of Finland. Credit: European Union.
The SEAMLESS project set out to improve CMEMS’ capabilities by developing new methods to combine satellite (EO) and in situ data, addressing existing gaps in the predictive ability of models. By using new data assimilation techniques to handle model uncertainty, the prototype system better connects different simulated processes and variables. This helps link key ecosystem indicators such as plankton dynamics and carbon cycling with other important processes.
Harmonising data for better water quality monitoring
Europe’s water resources are under serious pressure. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), in 2021, less than 40% of surface waters, such as rivers and lakes, were classified as having good or high ecological status under the Water Framework Directive.
EO data helps monitor oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers, which provide drinking water to communities. However, scientists face challenges in choosing the right Copernicus service, as water-quality data made available by three services: CMEMS, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), and the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS).
There is a need to harmonise these data and CERTO, another Horizon project, aimed to do just that. The project developed data-processing techniques to produce usable water-quality data and made it easily accessible on a dedicated experimental data visualisation platform.
In another project called WQeMS, researchers used Copernicus data to create a new water quality emergency monitoring service. Their goal was to help utility companies to remotely monitor open surface water reservoirs. To ensure it would build something that fits user needs, the team worked closely with water utilities and government agencies. The resulting WQeMS service can track flood events and send alerts about rapidly developing threats such as harmful algal blooms, mud inflows, and oil spills. It uses frequently updated data from the Sentinel-1 and -2 satellite missions and is now fully operational across Europe.
At the same time, the Water-ForCE project focused on using EO data to improve freshwater monitoring. The team assessed Copernicus’ services and proposed ways to improve water-related products, creating a roadmap for the future of improved Copernicus products and services. Water-ForCE’s guidelines analyse the water component of Copernicus, suggest ways to improve it, and offer recommendations to better support policymakers, researchers, international organisations, local authorities, industry, and the general public.
Screen capture showing the WQeMS Copernicus Assisted Lake Water Quality Emergency Monitoring Service. Credit: WQeMS H2020 project, YouTube.
Improving air quality forecasts with new datasets
As with water, the quality of the air we breathe plays an important role in our health and wellbeing. This brings us to the issue of air pollution, which has traditionally been assessed using ground-based data and statistical models. This data, however, tends to be difficult to evaluate and validate independently.
Projects such as SEEDS leverage Copernicus data to improve our ability to monitor and manage air quality. By using the advanced TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on the Sentinel-5P satellite, researchers within the project introduced new satellite-based emission datasets, improved air quality forecasts, and provided a proof of concept.
The team combined data from various sources to produce new estimates of pollutants including nitrogen oxide, ammonia, and ozone across Europe. They created 18 different datasets, available to all users via an interactive data portal. By merging land surface models with atmospheric data, the project improved understanding of how pollution affects ecosystems and laid the groundwork for real-time emissions monitoring with future satellites such as Sentinel-4.
Creating tools for a low-carbon future
As climate change continues to accelerate, it is more important than ever that the EU works towards mitigating its effects. This requires building resilience in communities, improving climate forecasts, and tracking emissions. Through various Horizon 2020 projects, researchers have shown that Copernicus data can help us achieve all of these goals.
With cities now home to over half of the global population, making them resilient to climate change is increasingly urgent. The Copernicus for Urban Resilience in Europe project (CURE) aimed to address this question. Scientists from the project wanted to see how they could turn Copernicus EO data into practical tools to be used by urban planners for building climate resilience. By processing data from various Copernicus and third-party sources, the team created 11 user-friendly applications. These tools tackle challenges such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, urban health, and economic development. Tested in ten pilot European cities, the apps provide actionable insights, such as identifying hotspots for developing cooling strategies and tracking emissions to inform greenhouse gas reduction plans.
Screen capture of the Urban Air Quality application showing a side-by-side comparison of NO2 and PM 1.0 levels in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Credit: CURE Project.
CONFESS is another climate action Horizon 2020 project which set out to advance climate forecasting with EO data. The rise in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events is one of the most visible signs of climate change. Therefore, accurate climate monitoring and forecasting have never been more crucial. CONFESS researchers created a multi-decadal aerosol record to help future seasonal forecasts and atmospheric reanalyses. The team also harmonised land use, land cover, and vegetation datasets, showing their key role in surface temperature trends and extremes. These improvements now support services such as the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) in providing better forecasts.
Reducing emissions is a key part of the EU’s strategy to transition to a low-carbon economy. To support this goal, the CoCO2 project focused on developing a system to track human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Between 2021 and 2023, the team developed prototype systems to monitor CO2 and CH4 emissions. They created a Monitoring and Verification Support (MVS) capacity under Copernicus, combining satellite data, in situ observations, and models to track emissions globally, regionally, and locally. By 2023, CoCO2 had delivered key elements of their MVS prototype, laying the foundation for a fully operational system which, with the data which will be made available by the upcoming CO2M Sentinel Expansion Mission, should become available in 2026.
More detailed information on these projects can be found in the CORDIS Results Pack on the evolution of Copernicus services.
Thu, 16/01/2025 – 12:00
