The contract, identified as Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Rapid Mapping, will be active in the period 2015-2019. This is the operational service of the European Copernicus programme for Earth observation and is unique at a global level in the field of emergency.
Already in 2012 e-GEOS was awarded a contract by the European Commission for the provision of such services during 2012-2014. In this period, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service was activated in more than 100 events, and produced over 1,000 satellite maps relating to 46 countries in Europe and worldwide.
Under the new contract, the consortium will prepare and make available to the European Commission, in a short time after the activation of the service by the authorized user, satellite maps of areas affected by a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Rapid Mapping, active 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is operated by a consortium led by e-GEOS and composed of the German subsidiary GAF, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Italian company Ithaca and the French partners Sirs and Sertit. To provide the service on a global scale, the consortium uses a dedicated access to multi-mission satellite data activated between the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The European Commission makes available satellite maps, free of charge, to all users operating in Europe in the field of civil protection, emergency and land management, facilitating the damage assessment and the assistance intervention management. The Copernicus programme also assists international humanitarian relief operations, in collaboration with the United Nations, the World Bank and NGOs.
The results of the service in near real time are published on the Copernicus portal, directly managed by the European Commission and are made publicly available in accordance with the Copernicus policy on free and open data.