ICEYE to take part in world's largest satellite Earth observation programme

ICEYE, the global leader in persistent monitoring of the Earth with radar satellite imaging, today announced the signature of an agreement to become a Contributing Mission to the Copernicus Programme, the largest satellite Earth observation programme in the world. 

Copernicus services will now receive access to ICEYE’s synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imagery that can be used to enhance public safety, border control, security and maritime domain awareness.

The Copernicus Contributing Mission Activity, as part of the Copernicus Programme, is managed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on-behalf of the European Commission. The activity aims to provide very high resolution optical and SAR commercial satellite imagery from mission partners for use by the six Copernicus services and mainly by the Land, Emergency, Security and Marine services. These services are the primary users while other users, such as public authorities in Europe, can also benefit from the data. The new partnership with ICEYE will be funded by the European Commission and operated by ESA.

As a Contributing Mission, ICEYE will provide imaging data to all of Copernicus services enhancing their assessment and planning capacities. The data can be used for monitoring land use, marine and international border surveillance as well as improving public security.

Toni Tolker-Nielsen, the acting Director of Earth Observation Programmes at the European Space Agency, says:

“We are particularly proud at ESA to work with ICEYE, which is one the few New Space companies that we have in Europe in the field of Earth Observation. This is really exciting as it will help to complement the existing commercial Copernicus Contributing Mission data offer with further innovative SAR data from the ICEYE satellite constellation.”

Rafal Modrzewski, CEO and co-founder of ICEYE, says:

“This programme is a phenomenal tool for data users and shows European collaboration at its best. Copernicus services, research projects funded by the European Commission and public authority organizations in Europe will now be able to access some of our imagery through the Copernicus Contributing Mission programme.”

Unlike a traditional Earth imaging satellite, ICEYE’s constellation of SAR satellites bounce a powerful radar beam off the surface of the earth from approximately 550 kilometers in space, thereby painting a picture of what is happening on the ground below. The technology can see through clouds, smoke and even image the ground at night. This provides customers with persistent coverage of fast breaking events on the ground in all weather conditions.