Sentinel 2A Launch

Security Service
The Copernicus Security Service is part of the Copernicus Programme, which is an EU Programme
managed by the European Commission (EC) and implemented in partnership with the Member States,
the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological
Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU
Agencies and Mercator Océan. The Programme is aimed at developing a set of European information
services based on satellite Earth Observation and in-situ (non-space) data analyses.
What is the Copernicus
Services were tested and validated until early 2015
Security Service?
through two projects financed by the FP7 Research
The Copernicus Security Service aims to support related Framework Programme: G-NEXT, providing preoperational
European Union policies, by providing information in
services and G-SEXTANT, aimed at
response to the security challenges Europe is facing, bringing technology to a
namely improving crisis prevention, preparedness and level of maturity allowing
response capacities in the following key areas: operational deployment.
Support to EU External Actions;
Operationalisation of
Maritime surveillance;
services will be done
Border surveillance.
throughout 2015, in close
coordination with the
Support to EU External Actions European Union Satellite
Europe has a responsibility to promote stable Centre and the Emergency
conditions for human and economic development, Management Service,
human rights, democracy and fundamental freedoms. leading to a fully operational service by early 2016.
In this context, it assists non-EU countries in situations
of crisis or emerging crisis, for instance by undertaking
Maritime Surveillance
peacekeeping operations or assessing risks for global The extension of the EU maritime domain and the
and trans-regional threats leading to destabilisation. number of Member States with coastal or maritime
jurisdiction (23 out of 28) present a challenge to
The Copernicus Security Service can provide rapid, ondemand
surveillance operations. The challenge is significantly
geospatial information for the detection and increased when considering also EU economic activities
monitoring of events or activities outside Europe that across global oceans, such as transport and fisheries.
may have implications in European and global security. Maritime surveillance services are designed to support
The information provided by the Service, which is efforts to tackle piracy, drug trafficking, illegal fishing
also based on space-derived data, will contribute to activities or dumping of toxic waste, and to contribute
improve situational awareness and, consequently,
European capacities in crisis prevention, preparedness
and response.
Space
to safer maritime transport in remote areas.
Improved maritime surveillance through
complementary observations from space can
act as a deterrent to illegal actions and can
contribute to reducing the economic toll of
illegal activities and related accidents at sea,
while improving the planning of conventional
patrolling operations.
Several R&D and demonstration projects
paved the way for the definition of
Copernicus services in Maritime surveillance.
These include FP7 funded activities such
as the DOLPHIN, NEREIDS and SIMTISYS
projects, or the MARISS project funded by
ESA, which have contributed to engage the
maritime community in the usage of spacederived
data and related services.
The European Maritime Safety Agency
(EMSA) currently provides operational
maritime safety services and Copernicus
related services will have been operated by
the Agency fom as a natural extension of
their current capacities.
Border Surveillance
The objective of this Service is to support
the European Union’s external border
surveillance system (EUROSUR), an initiative
based on an EU-level approach to reinforcing
Member States’ control across the Schengen
border. The objective is to help reduce
the number of incidents related to illegal
immigration (e.g. death at sea) by improving
the intelligence available to coast and border
guards as well as port authorities and law
enforcement agencies, also with the use of
satellite imagery.
Copernicus is working with FRONTEX to
reinforce its intelligence capacities based
also on spaceborne observations.
Border Surveillance services entered a preoperational
phase in 2013 with the launch
of two FP7 projects: SAGRES, which focused
on the validation of the highly time-critical
EUROSUR components (vessel detection),
and LOBOS, which addressed the validation
of less time-critical components (monitoring
of ports, coasts and pre-frontier land areas).
Lessons learned from these projects drove
the definition of the operational services
through a Joint Operations concept, which
will involve close cooperation with Member
States’ National Coordination Centres but
also with EMSA (maritime surveillance) and
EUSC (land borders monitoring).
The system will be operated under the
aegis of Frontex as from mid-2015 and will
allow the seamless integration of satellite
observations into operational systems
run by FRONTEX and available to national
authorities through the EUROSUR network.
Geographic reference map
Situation awareness
Assessment map
Geographic reference map
Geographic reference map
Users can find out more about the support provided to EU External Actions, Maritime Surveillance, Border Surveillance on the Copernicus websites:
http://externalaction.security-copernicus.eu/ - http://maritimesurveillance.security-copernicus.eu/ - http://www.copernicus-sagres.eu/ - http://www.copernicus-lobos.eu/
Photo credits: Support to EU external action G-Next ©Cruz Roja Espanola; Maritime surveillance Fotolia ©scazza; Border surveillance ©N/A; Geographic reference maps and Assessment map are provided by G-NEXT project ©JR, INDRA, Planetek Hellas, SatCen, Telespazio Iberica, e-GEOS; Situation awareness map ©G-MOSAIC FP7 project; 5th Geographic reference map ©EC.