Going the extra mile for Sentinel data

By Dennis Clarijs 24 October 2017

To maximize the usability and uptake of Copernicus satellite data, ESA is setting up partnerships or collaborative ground segments in its member states. Today we are proud to announce that the Belgian Science Policy Office and VITO Remote Sensing will operate the
‘Collaborative Ground Segment’ for Belgium

Let me tell you what this means for you.

Free and usable data and information

Copernicus, the European Commission’s Earth Observation programme is the most ambitious in the world. The daily amount of data generated over Earth with the current Sentinel satellite constellation is comparable with the amount of pictures that is uploaded on a daily basis to Facebook. Therefore, it is quite a challenging task to get the most out of this data, both on the infrastructure and software side.

The goal is to get as much value out of the Sentinel data as possible. Not just for the research communities but for industrial players, public authorities and the general public as well. In other words, the data needs to be freely accessible and usable. That’s our goal with Terrascope’, ESA’s Collaborative Ground Segment in Belgium.


Serving the Belgian community

In the coming year, Terrascope will offer Sentinel 1 , Sentinel 2 and Sentinel 3 data as well as the SPOT-VEGETATION and PROBA-V archive. New value added products will become available, driven mainly by the Belgian user needs, both in the public and private sector. A lot of data and value added products, one online platform!
 
 

We want your input

To make sure the platform will take your requirements into account, please fill out the survey on Terrascope. This information will be used to expand and improve the future Terrascope portal. The Belgian Science Policy Office will send out this survey as well via their official channels.

In a world ruled by Android and iOS, the gateway to such data needs to be intuitive, fast, robust, secure and accessible. People expect no less and we will do what’s necessary to live up to these expectations!

 

In the meantime

You can already access Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B data over the Belgian territory on www.vito-eodata.be and via web services: WMTS, WMS and WCS.
These images are georeferenced and atmospherically corrected using our state-of-the-art iCOR processing workflow. You can access four vegetation indices:
  • LAI
  • fAPAR
  • fCOVER
  • NDVI
The entire Sentinel 2 archive above Belgium is also accessible in our PROBA-V virtual research environment. You can request a Virtual Machine and get started right away. More details can be found in our Sentinel 2 user manual.
 
BlogCGS_NDVI.png
NDVI derived from Sentinel 2 image of Mol, Balen, Lommel (Antwerp, BE)
© Copernicus Sentinel data (2017)
 
 
S2A_BlogCGS.png
 Sentinel 2 image of Northern Belgium with the Belgian coastline, the Scheldt River and 
the port of Antwerp - © Copernicus Sentinel data (2016)
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Dennis Clarijs
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Dennis Clarijs
Head of Platforms and Services
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