--- title: "Copernicus Programme" chunk: 2/5 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus_Programme" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" date_saved: "2026-05-05T12:42:31.715966+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- === Timeline === 19 May 1998: institutions involved in the development of space activities in Europe give birth to GMES through a declaration known as "The Baveno Manifesto". At that time, GMES stands for "Global Monitoring for Environmental Security". Year 1999: the name is changed to "Global Monitoring for Environment and Security" (GMES), thus illustrating that the management of the environment also has security implications. 2001: at the occasion of the Gothenburg Summit, the Heads of State and Government request that "the Community contribute to establishing by 2008 a European capacity for Global Monitoring for Environment and Security". October 2002: the nature and scope of the "Security" component of GMES are defined as addressing prevention of and response to crises related to natural and technological risk, humanitarian aid and international cooperation, monitoring of compliance with international treaties for conflict prevention, humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and surveillance of EU borders. February 2004: the Commission Communication "GMES: Establishing a GMES capacity by 2008" introduces an Action Plan aimed at establishing a working GMES capacity by 2008. In 2004, a Framework Agreement is also signed between EC and ESA, thus providing the basis for a space component of GMES. May 2005: the Commission Communication "GMES: From Concept to Reality" establishes priorities for the roll-out of GMES services in 2008, the initial focus being on land monitoring, marine monitoring and emergency response services, also known as Fast Track Services (FTS). Later services, also known as Pilot Services, are expected to address atmosphere monitoring, security and climate change. June 2006: the EC establishes the GMES Bureau, with the primary objective of ensuring the delivery of the priority services by 2008. Other objectives of the GMES Bureau are to address the issues of the GMES governance structure and the long-term financial sustainability of the system. May 2007: adoption of the European Space Policy Communication, recognising GMES as a major flagship of the Space Policy. September 2008: official launch of the three FTS services and two Pilot services in their pre-operational version at the occasion of the GMES Forum held in Lille, France. November 2008: the Commission Communication "GMES: We care for a Safer Planet" establishes a basis for further discussions on the financing, operational infrastructure and effective management of GMES. May 2009: the Commission Proposal for a Regulation on "the European Earth Observation Programme (GMES) and its initial operations (2011-2013)" proposes a legal basis for the GMES programme and EC funding of its initial operations. November 2010: the regulation on "the European Earth Observation Programme (GMES) and its initial operations (2011-2013)" entered into force. June 2011: the Commission presents its proposal for the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) corresponding to the period 2014-2020 (Communication "A Budget for Europe 2020"). In this document, the Commission proposes to foresee the funding of the GMES programme outside the multiannual financial framework after 2014. November 2011: The Commission Communication on the "European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its operations (from 2014 onwards)" presents the commission's proposals for the future funding, governance and operations of the GMES programme for the period 2014–2020. In particular, the Commission proposes to opt for the creation of a specific GMES fund, similar to the model chosen for the European Development Fund, with financial contributions from all Member States, based on their gross national income (GNI). April 2012: The Emergency Management Service – Mapping ("EMS-Mapping") is declared the first fully operational service within the GMES Initial Operations. December 2012: the Commission announces the name change to Copernicus. October 2014: ESA and European Commission have established a budget for Copernicus Programme covering years 2014–2020 within Multiannual Financial Framework. Budget provided a total of €4.3 billion, including €3.15 billion for ESA to cover operations of the satellite network and construction of the remaining satellites. November 2020: launch of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich to enable the provision of high-precision and timely observations of the topography of the global ocean January 2021: the regulation (EU) 2021/696 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 April 2021 establishing the Union Space Programme entered into force establishing a budget of €5.421 billion under the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) corresponding to the period 2021-2027. January 2023: Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the new data access, processing and visualization gateway of the Copernicus Programme is launched. Compared to the earlier Copernicus Open Science Hub, this portal now provides new API-s for data access and download (OData, STAC, openEO, Sentinel Hub), a web browser-based visualization and analysis interface (Copernicus Browser), on-board coding interfaces (JupyterLab, openEO) and on-board cloud processing capacity. October 2024: UK's decision to re-enter Copernicus after Brexit has been essential to secure funding for the completion of the Copernicus Sentinel Expansion Missions. April 2026: ESA, NASA, and various academic institutions perform the Arctic field campaign called "Copernicus Expansion Missions Sea Ice Experiment" in support of the planned CIMR (Sentinel-11), CRISTAL (Sentinel-9), and ROSE-L (Sentinel-12) missions. == Sentinel missions == The European Space Agency (ESA) is currently operating seven missions under the Sentinel programme (Sentinel 1, 2, 3, 4, 5P, 5, 6). The Sentinel missions include radar and super-spectral imaging for land and ocean as well as atmospheric monitoring. Each Sentinel mission except Sentinel-5P is based on a constellation of at least two satellites to fulfill and revisit the coverage requirements for each mission, providing robust datasets for all Copernicus services. In preparation for the second-generation of Copernicus (Copernicus Sentinel Expansion Missions), six expansion missions (Sentinel-7 to 12) are being developed by ESA to address EU Policy and gaps in Copernicus user needs, and to increase the current capabilities of the Copernicus Space Component. The decision by the UK to re-enter the EU's Copernicus programme after Brexit has been essential to secure funding for completion of the Expansion Missions. === Sentinel-1 === Sentinel-1 provides all-weather, day and night radar imaging for land and ocean services with a maximum resolution of 5 m. The first two satellites were launched aboard Europeanised Soyuz rockets from Guiana Space Centre.