On Monday 6 March in Kourou, French Guiana, during the launch of a new European observation satellite, Philippe Burnet, Director of Space Policy, made a number of statements. Judging by the substance of them, the European Commission is currently examining the way in which the European terrestrial observation programme, Copernicus, could be used for security activities, such as managing migration flows and monitoring borders.
Ahead of the Sentinel-2B launch (see EUROPE 11740), the senior European official explained that extremely large quantities of data generated by the space programme could be used in more customary Community policies in the civilian field, such as agriculture and fishing but could also, “be used in border management soon”.
If the current characteristics of the programme are considered, this does not immediately appear obvious. At the present time, the optical accuracy of Sentinel-2A et Sentinel-2B, which operate binomially, oscillates between 10 and 60 metres. One industrial source informed us that this resolution is not sufficient for detecting and tracking small groups of individuals. This source also added that the observation trajectory and zones cannot be programmed either and that, “Copernicus satellites should be regarded as observation data harvesters”. This is because satellites remain on a heliosynchronous orbit and orbit in a way that solar hours remain constant and guarantee a stable luminosity that facilitates comparisons in time of the same geographic areas. Data is also only updated every five days.
Possibilities currently being explored. Based on these constraints, Mr Brunet explained that one idea would be to purchase high precision imaging from the private sector in the future (around 30 cm) and to intersect this imaging with data from Copernicus. He added that permanently generating data of this kind of precision would not be necessary or very expensive. Another industrial source emphasised that the product specifications for the next Sentinel optics would therefore currently remain the same.
Speaking on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), Simonetta Cheli, Head of Coordination Office Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, explained to EUROPE that the Copernicus programme could help anticipate migratory flows by analysing the natural resources of sensitive regions. She explained that, for example, by detecting a potential water shortage in a specific region, it would be possible to better anticipate flows of migrants due to the risk of famine.
Next multiannual financial framework in sight. Discussions have begun and will help to substantiate debates on the future Copernicus regulation in the context of the next multiannual financial framework. The “security” aspect has a significant chance of becoming more important, as the European space strategy adopted last October would suggest (see EUROPE 11655). Ms Cheli explained, “Today, there is, I believe, a significant change at a Union level … I believe that there is a basis for developing this ‘security’ aspect relating to the space programmes”. Another source, however, said that everything would depend on the ESA and EU member states.
Controversial “security” section goes back to programme origins. Herbert Allgeier, a former director of the Commission’s Joint Research Centre and one of the founding fathers of the Copernicus programme, explained to EUROPE, that introducing a security dimension to Copernicus is not a novelty. He pointed out to us that the programme launched in 1998 with the Baveno manifesto, did not originally bear the name of the Polish astronomer and was referred to as “Global monitoring for environment and security” (GMES), despite certain misgivings expressed by a number of member states, particularly those in Scandinavia, which preferred to restrict the programme’s activities to an exclusively civilian domain. According to Mr Allgeier, “It is for this reason that we prefer to talk about the global monitoring for environmental security”, in an effort to placate certain sensitivities”.
The latter also informed a small group of journalists that the idea of the future Baveno II manifesto for the 20 years of the programme was mooted for 2018, to mark 20 years of the European terrestrial observation programme. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)