The services of Copernicus, the European Earth Observation (EO) address six thematic areas, each of which is described in detail below.

Each thematic area covers a wide range of market segments – many of which are described in detail in our EO and GNSS Market Report. These include environmental protection, managing urban areas, regional and local planning, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, health, transport, climate change, sustainable development, civil protection and tourism, amongst others. 

You can learn about how Copernicus data and services support these market segments by visiting here and by downloading the latest edition of the EO and GNSS Market Report.

Atmosphere

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provides consistent and quality-controlled information related to air pollution and health, solar energy, greenhouse gases and climate forcing, everywhere in the world.

Marine

The Copernicus Marine Service (or CMEMS) is the marine component of the Copernicus Programme of the European Union. It provides free, regular and systematic authoritative information on the state of the Blue (physical), White (sea ice) and Green (biogeochemical) ocean, on a global and regional scale.

Land

The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) provides geospatial information on land cover and its changes, land use, vegetation state, water cycle and Earth's surface energy variables to a broad range of users in Europe and across the World in the field of environmental terrestrial applications.

Climate change

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) supports society by providing authoritative information about the past, present and future climate in Europe and the rest of the world. The C3S mission is to support the European Union’s adaptation and mitigation policies by providing consistent and authoritative information about climate change. 

Security

The Copernicus Service for Security Applications aims to support European Union policies by providing information in response to Europe’s security challenges. It improves crisis prevention, preparedness and response in four key areas: Border surveillance; Maritime surveillance; Support to EU External and Security Actions, and R&D for EO Security.

Emergency

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) supports all actors involved in the management of natural or manmade disasters by providing geospatial data and images for informed decision-making. CEMS constantly monitors Europe and the globe for signals of an impending disaster or evidence of one happening in real time. The service immediately notifies national authorities of their findings or can be activated on-demand and offers to provide them with maps, time series or other relevant information to better manage disaster risk. CEMS products are created using satellite, in-situ (non-space) and model data.

Earth Observation (EO) is the process of gathering information about the Earth’s surface, waters and atmosphere via ground-based, airborne and/or satellite remote sensing platforms.

The acquired data are processed and analysed to extract different types of information that can be used to monitor and assess the status of – and changes in – both the natural and human-made environments.

EO data serves a very wide range of applications and industries, including: environmental protection, energy, managing urban areas, regional and local planning, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, health, transport, climate change, sustainable development, civil protection, tourism – and more.

Europe’s Earth Observation programme is called Copernicus. Using a combination of satellites, in-situ sensors and air- and sea-borne sensors, Copernicus looks at our planet and its environment and provides data and information that benefits all European citizens.

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Open Service (OS)

The free and publicly available Open Service improves the accuracy of such GNSS systems as GPS and, soon, Galileo. In fact, continuous monitoring of the EGNOS open signal has shown that it improves the accuracy of GPS to within 1 – 2 metres and is available 99% of the time. In comparison, someone using a GPS receiver that is not EGNOS-enabled will typically get position errors around 5 meters in open sky conditions.This level of accuracy makes the service ideal for mass-market receivers and everyday applications, including those used for personal navigation, the tracking of goods and precision farming. 

To provide their customers with the benefits of this improved level of performance, all receiver manufacturers and application developers have to do is add EGNOS capability to their products. No authorisation or receiver-specific certification is required.

EGNOS Data Access Service (EDAS)

EDAS offers ground-based access to EGNOS data through the internet on a controlled access basis. As a result, users can access the same data broadcast by the EGNOS satellites (EGNOS Message) in near real-time.

In addition to the EGNOS Message, the service also provides GPS and GLONASS measurements at all stations in the EGNOS monitoring network, as well as DGNSS corrections and RTK messages. Data is provided to EDAS users upon registration.

EDAS serves as the single point of access for the data collected and generated by the EGNOS ground infrastructure, namely the Ranging and Integrity Monitoring Stations (RIMS) and Navigation Land Earth Stations (NLES) that are distributed across Europe and North Africa.

Safety of Life (SoL) Service

When human lives depend on the use of GNSS signals, the EGNOS SoL Service provides the necessary level of accuracy, integrity and continuity of service. Available since 2011, the SoL Service is primarily geared towards civil aviation and such applications as localiser performance with vertical guidance (LPV) operations, enabling precision approaches down to 200 feet for equipped aircrafts. Beyond aviation, the service has potential applicability to a wide range of market segments, including maritime, rail and road.

Safety of Life Assisted Service for Maritime users (ESMAS)

Satefy of Life Service Assisted for Maritime users (ESMAS) offers a service tailored to maritime users facilitating marine navigation in harbour entrances, harbour approaches and coastal waters of the European Union Member States and EGNOS contributing countries (Island, Norway and Switzerland) in line with IMO Resolution A.1046. 

The production of a user position by a GNSS receiver requires determining, at each instant, the satellite position and clock synchronization of each GNSS satellite. This is performed through prediction parameters which are broadcasted by the GNSS satellites to all user receivers through messages encoded into the GNSS signals. Such prediction parameters are in essence subject to inaccuracies, increasing over time.

Furthermore, the signals received from the GNSS satellites provide the user receivers with a measurement of the distance to each GNSS satellite, which is also necessary to compute the user position. However, as GNSS signals travel from space down to Earth and pass through the ionosphere (part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere), they can become delayed and distorted. If left uncorrected, this delay can significantly alter the accuracy of the measurements, resulting in positioning errors.

Satellite-based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) help resolve these GNSS positioning errors.

How SBAS works

SBAS improves the accuracy and reliability of GNSS positioning by correcting signal measurement errors and by providing integrity information allowing each user to get a highly reliable bound of its residual positioning error. In case such residual positioning error becomes too large, the user is alerted within a few seconds.

To do so, these regional systems use GNSS measurements taken by accurately located reference stations deployed across a country, region or continent. 

All measured GNSS errors are transferred to a central computing centre, where differential corrections and integrity messages are calculated. These calculations are then broadcast over the covered area using geostationary satellites that serve as an augmentation, or overlay, to the original GNSS message. For integrity alert messages, this process is performed in less than 6 seconds. 

Critical for safety-critical applications

SBAS is essential for applications where accuracy and integrity are critical.

In particular, SBAS is indispensable in situations where people’s lives are at stake or where a form of legal or commercial guarantee is required and GNSS is being used – such as is the case with aviation.

In the aviation sector, GPS does not satisfy the strict operational requirements set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for use in such critical flight stages as final approaches. The addition of SBAS satisfies these requirements.

Beyond the aviation sector, SBAS brings an important added layer of accuracy to such applications as precision farming, on-road vehicle fleet management and geodesy – to name only a few.  

SBAS near you

Many countries and regions have implemented their own Satellite-based Augmentation System. EGNOS is the European Union SBAS, covering the EU territory along with some neighbouring countries and regions.

In addition to EGNOS, several other SBAS are currently operational such as WAAS in the USA, GAGAN in India, MSAS in Japan or KASS in South Korea.

Each of these systems complies with a common global standard, meaning they are both:

• Compatible: the systems do not interfere with each other
• Interoperable: a user with a standard receiver can benefit from the same level of service and performance regardless of what coverage area they are in

Other systems are in different stages of development. These include BDSBAS (China), SDCM (Russia), ANGA (Africa) and SouthPAN (Australia and New Zealand).

IOV satellites

The first two operational Galileo satellites (GSAT0101, GSAT0102) were launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana in October 2011. This was followed by the launch of a second pair (GSAT0103, GSAT0104) in October 2012.

Once the In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase is completed, all remaining satellites are placed in orbit at regular intervals to reach Full Operational Capability (FOC).

FOC satellites

The first pair of Galileo’s FOC satellites (GSAT0201, GSAT0202) was launched in August 2014. Despite having been injected into an incorrect orbit, these were moved to an improved orbit at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015.

Subsequent FOC satellites were launched as follows:

• GSAT0203, GSAT0204 – March 2015
• GSAT0205, GSAT0206 – September 2015
• GSAT0208, GSAT0209 – December 2015
• GSAT0210, GSAT0211 – May 2016
• GSAT0207, GSAT0212, GSAT0213, GSAT0214 – November 2016
• GSAT0215, GSAT0216, GSAT0217, GSAT0218 – December 2017
• GSAT0219, GSAT0220, GSAT0221, GSAT0222 – July 2018
• GSAT0223, GSAT0224 – December 2021
• GSAT0225, GSAT0227 – April 2024
• GSAT0226, GSAT0232 – September 2024
• GSAT0233, GSAT0234 – December 2025

OS FOC satellites offer improved performance with respect to IOV satellites.

Check the number of operational satellites

Galileo Satellite Metadata

Galileo offers the following high-performance services worldwide:

Open Service (OS)

The Galileo OS enables free-of-charge navigation, positioning and timing services to European citizens and users worldwide. It is the service used by, for example, smartphones and vehicle navigation systems.

High Accuracy Service (HAS)

The Galileo HAS is the free, globally available high-accuracy positioning service is aimed at applications requiring higher performance than what is offered by the Galileo OS.

Public Regulated Service (PRS)

The Galileo PRS is an encrypted navigation service for government-authorised users and sensitive applications that require high continuity. EUSPA actively contributes to the development of all areas of PRS user segment to continuously respond to user needs, and supports a wide and secure use of PRS in compliance with the PRS Decision 1104/2011.

PRS is similar to Galileo’s Open and Commercial GNSS services, but with some important differences:

• PRS will ensure better continuity of service to authorised users when access to other navigation services may be degraded (resilience).
• In cases of malicious interference, PRS increases the likelihood of the continuous availability of the Signal-in-Space (robustness).

Search and Rescue Service (SAR)

The Galileo SAR Service contributes to lifesaving missions by swiftly relaying radio beacon distress signals to relevant SAR crews through dedicated payloads on board Galileo satellites, which are supported by three ground stations strategically deployed across Europe.

Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA)

Free access service that complements the OS by delivering authentication data, assuring users that the received Galileo navigation message comes from the system itself and has not been modified.

OSNMA is authenticating data for geolocation information from the Open Service through the Navigation Message (I/NAV) broadcast on the E1-B signal component. This is realised by transmitting authentication-specific data in previously reserved fields of the E1 I/NAV message. By using these fields, OSNMA does not introduce any overhead to the system, thus the OS navigation performance remains untouched.

New services under development

Signal Authentication Service (SAS)

It will enable an authenticated positioning service by complementing the OSNMA with E6-based ranging authentication capabilities targeting to support civil applications.

Galileo Emergency Warning Satellite Service (EWSS)

The Galileo EWSS Service swiftly broadcasts alerts globally, allowing national civil protection authorities to directly transmit to smartphones (or any Galileo-enabled devices) for enhanced emergency response and resilient risk management.

Timing Service (TS)

A free-of-charge service that provides timing and synchronisation information, including monitoring of GST and UTC products.

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) refers to any satellite constellation that provides global positioning, navigation, and timing services.

Several GNSS are currently available:

• Galileo (EU)
• GPS (USA)
• GLONASS (Russia)
• BeiDou (China)

Using signals from space, each of these systems transmits ranging and timing data to GNSS-enabled receivers, which then use this data to determine location.

Assessing and improving performance

GNSS performance is assessed using four criteria:

1. Accuracy: the difference between a receiver’s measured and real position, speed or time.
2. Integrity: a system’s capacity to provide a threshold of confidence and, in the event of an anomaly in the positioning data, an alarm.
3. Continuity: a system’s ability to function without interruption.
4. Availability: the percentage of time a signal fulfils the above accuracy, integrity and continuity criteria.

This performance can be improved using regional Satellite-based Augmentation Systems (SBAS), such as the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).

Importance of GNSS in our economy

According to EUSPA EO and GNSS Market Report global revenues from GNSS and EO stood at approximately €260 billion and €3.4 billion, respectively, as of 2023. By 2033 GNSS global revenues are expected to reach €580 billion, with services enabled by GNSS devices generating more than 80% of total GNSS revenues. Furthermore, global GNSS shipments will hit 2 billion units per year by 2027, GNSS devices forecasted to reach nearly 9 billion by 2033.

Revenues from GNSS components and receivers, system integrators and software / added-value services are predominantly generated by companies based in the US and Europe. The US maintains the largest portion of the market (over 30%), followed closely by Europe (almost 25%).