Privacy and Data Protection Issues of the European Union Copernicus Border Surveillance Service

Transcription

1 Gérôme Aloisio Student ID: F Privacy and Data Protection Issues of the European Union Copernicus Border Surveillance Service Master in Space, Communication & Media Law Thesis supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mahulena Hofmann

2 Acknowledgements First of all I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Prof. Dr. Mahulena Hofmann, for supervising this thesis. Not only did she help me to narrow down the field of research for this thesis, she also encouraged me to choose this topic, which had not been much discussed to date, despite my hesitations. Also, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz for also helping me getting started with this thesis by providing me with her knowledgeable advice on the chosen topic. Finally, I would like to thank both Prof. Hofmann and Prof. Dr. Mark Cole for the setup of the new Master s programme in Space, Communication, & Media Law, which exceeded my expectations regarding both the content and the quality of the offered courses. It was a great honour to be among the students of the first year of this Master s programme, and to be taught by so many distinguished experts in the respective fields. Our visit of the 56 th session of the legal subcommittee of the UN COPUOS in Vienna was very interesting and a particularly nice end to this exciting year. Gérôme Aloisio 1

3 Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to shed light into data protection and privacy issues of the complicated and intertwined border surveillance service of the EU Copernicus programme, which is used for the surveillance of the EU s outer borders. Not only is this service complicated with regard to the organisational setup, involving a lot of different EU and Member State bodies, but even more so from a legal perspective. Risks to privacy and data protection shall be assessed, and the legal setup of the Copernicus border surveillance service will be reviewed with special regard to privacy and data protection rules and safeguards. It will be reviewed if the current framework protects these fundamental rights sufficiently, especially in light of the discovered threats to these rights, and any discovered deficiencies of this framework shall be highlighted. If so, this thesis shall try to offer practicable solutions to these problems. 2

4 Table of Contents Introduction... 6 Section 1: Satellite Remote Sensing & the EU Copernicus Programme... 8 I. Satellite Remote Sensing & Earth Observation... 8 A. The concept and definition of remote sensing... 8 B. Technical notions of satellite remote sensing... 9 C. A short historical background of satellite remote sensing II. The EU Copernicus Programme...16 A. General & historical information about the Copernicus programme B. The organization and setup of Copernicus The organizational and legal setup of Copernicus The technical setup of Copernicus a) The space component b) The in-situ component c) The services component C. Application domains of Copernicus D. The Copernicus data policy Section 2: The Use and Issues of Copernicus for Border Surveillance I. EU Outer Border Surveillance with Copernicus...32 A. About the Schengen area, smart borders, and refugee crises B. Organization and structure Frontex EUROSUR The EU Satellite Centre The European Maritime Safety Agency and the European Fisheries Control Agency.. 42 II. Privacy Issues of Border Surveillance with Copernicus...42 A. Privacy issues of the satellite imagery B. Privacy issues of in-situ data and ancillary data C. The combination of data in a Big Data world Section 3: The Legal Framework of the Copernicus Border Surveillance Service I. The Legal Framework applicable to EU Border Surveillance with Copernicus...52 A. International law International remote sensing provisions International privacy provisions B. European law C. European Union law The Foundation of Privacy and Data Protection in EU Law Data Protection in the framework governing Copernicus Border Surveillance a) The Copernicus regulation b) The Commission delegated regulation c) The Frontex regulation d) The EUROSUR regulation e) The EUROSUR Handbook Processing personal data in the field of border surveillance: a summary The EU s data protection instruments a) The General Data Protection Regulation b) The Law Enforcement Directive c) Regulation 45/ II. A critical Assessment of the applicable Framework...76 A. The shortcomings of the applicable legal framework The EUROSUR Regulation

5 a) About the concept of personal data b) The processing of personal data in the EUROSUR network: a controversy The scale of the surveillance and the lack of transparency Big Data & new technologies About sensitive data, refugee privacy & transfer of personal data to third countries.. 89 B. Solutions Balancing privacy vs. security What now? Conclusion

6 List of abbreviations CFREU: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union CJEU: Court of Justice of the European Union CPIP: Common Pre-frontier Intelligence Picture ECHR: European Convention on Human Rights ECtHR: European Court of Human Rights EEA: European Environment Agency EES: Entry/Exit System EMSA: European Maritime Safety Agency EO: Earth Observation ESA: European Space Agency ESP: European Situational Picture EU: European Union EUROSUR: European Border Surveillance System FRA: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation GSO: Geostationary Orbit JRC: Joint Research Centre of the European Commission LEO: Low Earth Orbit NCC: National Coordination Centre NSP: National Situational Picture RPA: Remotely Piloted Aircraft RTP: Registered Traveller Programme SAR: Synthetic Aperture Radar SatCen: EU Satellite Centre SEA: Support to EU External Action SIS: Schengen Information System TFEU: Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle UN: United Nations VHR: Very High Resolution 5

7 Introduction In light of the constantly growing space industry, and the linked markets, the European Union (hereafter EU ) became aware of the opportunities of exploring outer space, and the EU s latest and most advanced initiatives are Galileo, the EU s Global Navigation Satellite System 1, and Copernicus, the EU s Earth Observation programme, which also is the World s most ambitious Earth observation programme to date 2. According to the European Commission, Copernicus will not only serve our society in a large variety of different fields, such as environment, climate change, insurance, tourism, transport, agriculture, disaster management, and security 3, but it will also foster research and innovation, and boost the European economy, with all its applications and new business opportunities. 4 Copernicus can be used in a very large variety of domains, which all are very interesting and innovative, thanks to the large processing capacities and technologies that we have nowadays in order to process the data that is gathered by satellites and other sensors. The domain that will be treated in more detail in this paper is the security domain, for which Copernicus is also used in a variety of different ways. More precisely, the focus of this paper shall be on the use of Copernicus for border surveillance activities at the 1 European Space Agency, Galileo Begins Serving the Globe, 15 December 2016, (Last visited on 10 th June 2017). 2 European Space Agency, Copernicus, (Last visited on 10 th June 2017). 3 European Commission, Copernicus Europe s eye on Earth, 2015, pp. 8-9, available at (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 4 European Commission, Copernicus Europe s eye on Earth, op. cit., pp

8 EU s borders, which is used to monitor illegal migration, cross border crime, such as the smuggling of people and illegal substances, and to save the lives of asylum seekers that are in distress at the high seas while trying to reach Europe. The Copernicus border surveillance service is a very controversial topic, and is criticised from a number of different angles, such as immigration politics, human rights, or the issue that shall be in our focus in this paper: privacy and data protection. This paper will explain the use of satellite-based, air-based and ground-based technologies in the surveillance of the EU s outer borders, and the privacy and data protection issues caused by the use of such technologies, and the massive gathering and processing of the data collected by these technologies, including satellite images and other data. It shall be examined under which legal framework the border surveillance with Copernicus takes place, and what safeguards for data protection this framework offers. For the assessment of these issues, this paper shall be divided into three sections. The first section shall explain the most important notions about satellite remote sensing, and about the EU Copernicus programme, which will be useful for the assessment of the issues discussed afterwards. The second section shall explain the use of Copernicus for the surveillance of EU borders, with its organisational setup, and highlight the privacy issues that are caused by this surveillance. The third and last section of this paper will analyse the legal framework that is applicable to the border surveillance service of Copernicus, and proceed to a critical assessment of this framework, highlighting its deficiencies and giving possible solutions. Finally, the paper will be ended with some concluding remarks. 7

9 Section 1: Satellite Remote Sensing & the EU Copernicus Programme This first section shall serve as an introduction to satellite remote sensing and Earth observation with satellite technologies, and offer some basic background knowledge that will help with the assessment of the issues that will be discussed later in this paper. In a first part, satellite remote sensing and Earth observation will be addressed from a general perspective (I). The second part shall address the European Union s Earth observation programme Copernicus (II). I. Satellite Remote Sensing & Earth Observation In order to fully understand the later developments on satellite remote sensing, and its legal implications, it is necessary to assess the concept and definition of remote sensing (A), as well as some basic technical notions (B), before finishing with a very brief historical background of these technologies, to put the current issues into perspective on a large scale (C). A. The concept and definition of remote sensing There have been numerous attempts to define the field of remote sensing, all of which seem to be influenced to some degree by the author of the respective definition. The definitions also change with multiple other influencing factors, such as for example the used technology, or the intended purpose of the remote sensing activity. 5 The analysis of all these definitions allows for an isolation of a concept that seems to be common to, and in the heart of, these various definitions: the gathering of information at a distance 6. In other words, remote sensing is a means to obtain the information on distant objects without having a direct physical interaction with them 7. Following this, 5 J.B. CAMPBELL, R.H. WYNNE, Introduction to Remote Sensing, 5 th edition, 2011, p. 5, table Idem, p I. Atusyo, Legal Aspects of Satellite Remote Sensing, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2011, p. 4. 8

10 very general, definition of remote sensing, the simple fact of looking at an object, with the naked human eye, in order to find out certain properties of this object, would also qualify as remote sensing. A more technologically oriented definition could be: Remote sensing is the science of extracting information from an object through the analysis of data acquired by a sensor that is not in direct contact with that area. 8. Although the human eye could possibly also be qualified as a sensor, it seems clear that in this environment a sensor is meant to be some kind of a technical device that detects or measures certain properties of the sensed object. For the purpose of this paper the focus shall be on satellite remote sensing, as opposed to aerial remote sensing, and the term remote sensing shall refer to satellite remote sensing, meaning remote sensing activities for which the sensor is mounted on a satellite, which is on the Earth s orbit, as opposed to being mounted on an aerial vessel like a plane or a balloon. Also, this paper is going to limit on satellite remote sensing of the Earth, including objects or people on the surface of the Earth, as opposed to satellite remote sensing of other celestial bodies, such as the Moon. 9 For these reasons, the term Earth observation (hereafter EO ) will be used as a synonym for the terms satellite remote sensing and remote sensing throughout this paper. B. Technical notions of satellite remote sensing In order to fully understand the later developments, it is important to be familiar with some basic technical notions of satellite remote sensing. We will limit this analysis of the technical background of remote sensing to the necessary basics. Since the sensor is not in direct contact with the sensed object, whether it is the Earth s surface, or any object or creature on it, remote sensing makes use of the properties of electromagnetic waves emitted, reflected or diffracted by the sensed objects 10. The use 8 Idem, p Idem, p Principles Relating to Remote Sensing of the Earth from Outer Space, UNGA Res. 41/65, of 3 December 1986, principle 1. 9

11 of electromagnetic waves allows for a contactless sensing of objects, over large distances, since all physical objects interact with electromagnetic waves in different wavelengths and this enables us to detect and differentiate the object by analysing the reflected or emitted energy 11. In the case of optical sensors, taking some kind of images of the sensed object, satellite remote sensing today uses electronic photosensitive sensors to take imagery in a digital format. Unlike a film that needs to be retrieved physically for processing, the information collected through this electronic process is assigned a digital value and transmitted via a radio communications link to the ground where it is reconstructed into imagery. 12 The sensors that are used to collect the data are either passive or active sensors. A passive sensor detects the radiation that is emitted by or reflected off the sensed object, such as for example sunlight that is reflected off a sensed object and captured by an optical sensor. This is the case for a camera for example. Such sensors have the disadvantage that they only work during the day, since they rely on the sunlight, or any other source of light on the Earth, in order to take images. As opposed to passive sensors, active instruments transmit energy toward the target and then record the reflected or backscattered energy from the object 13. Therefore, active sensors such as radar, including synthetic aperture radar, have the advantage over passive remote sensing because they enable monitoring even at night, can penetrate cloud cover and rain, and are largely unaffected by the weather 14. Another advantage of synthetic aperture radar (hereafter SAR ) is that they can penetrate foliage and thus also be used to monitor objects underneath the tree foliage of woodlands. 15 All satellites that circle around the Earth, for all different purposes, need to be placed into certain defined orbital trajectories around the Earth. For remote sensing satellites, two different orbits are commonly used: the geostationary orbit (hereafter GSO ) and the low-earth orbit (hereafter LEO ). 16 Unsurprisingly, the closer to the ground a 11 I. Atusyo, op. cit., p Ibidem. 13 Idem, p A. FLORINI, The opening skies: third-party imaging satellites and U.S. security, Journal of Macroeconomics, 2006, Vol. 28, Issue 2, p I. Atusyo, op. cit., p Ibidem. 10

12 sensor is, the better the ground resolution 17, although there are other factors influencing the ground resolution. The ground resolution or spatial resolution is referring to the size of the objects on the ground that a sensor can distinguish 18. Generally speaking, resolution is defined as the minimum distance between two white spots on a black background at which the sensor can distinguish the two white dots, but for electro-optical sensors, [such as cameras], resolution is often defined in a very different way, as the area on the ground that a single pixel sees at any given instant 19. When looking at a picture as a rough rule of thumb, it generally requires at least two-and-a-half pixels to distinguish an object 20. This leads to the fact that depending on what definition of resolution is used, a given sensor with a 10m resolution can either distinguish objects as small as 10 meter in size, or approximately 25 meters in size. Unfortunately, the word "resolution" is often bandied about with no clear indication as to which definition is being used 21, which leads to confusion as to how precisely a given sensor can actually distinguish a given object. To this adds the fact that ground resolution also depends on such additional factors as atmospheric conditions, the sensor's "noise," camera shake, and the amount of contrast in the scene being observed 22. To illustrate how far these factors can influence the resolution, one could mention one example where a sensor on the U.S. civilian Landsat satellite with a pixel resolution of about 80 meters has detected 14-meter objects with sharp linear contrast 23. Without going into further technical details, it is important to know that the perceived resolution, when looking at a picture taken by a remote sensing satellite, can differ from the official resolution of the given satellite, and the final result can be better, or worse, than what was expected when purely referring to the technical specifications of the used sensor. However, as a rule of thumb, at least for the scope of this paper, it can be agreed upon that an image with a spatial resolution of 1 metre means that the smallest object 17 A. FLORINI, op. cit., p Ibidem. 19 Ibidem. 20 Ibidem. 21 Ibidem. 22 Ibidem. 23 Ibidem. 11

13 that can be discernible in the image is approximately 1m 24, while keeping in mind the mentioned influencing factors and deviations. The temporal resolution or revisit time defines how often a satellite can observe the same location and measure the change in observed phenomena 25. As an example a temporal resolution/revisit of 16 days means that a satellite passes over the same area for sensing every 16 days, which is suitable for monitoring slowly changing or seasonal phenomena, but insufficient for disaster monitoring, which requires observations of the same location at least daily to monitor the progress of the disaster and its aftermath 26. The lower the revisit time, the more often the satellite passes over a given area, and the closer the monitoring gets to real time monitoring. To avoid confusion it should be explained that temporal resolution and revisit time should not be used as exact synonyms, because the higher the temporal resolution, the lower the revisit time. If the revisit time of a given satellite changes from 16 days to 8 days for example, this means that the time between two passes of the satellite over the same spot of the Earth is decreased, and the temporal resolution is increased. 27 The swath width is the width of the Earth s surface that a satellite s sensors can observe 28, or in less technical terms one could explain it as the field of view of the sensor. The swath width and the spatial resolution are inversely proportional to each other, meaning that sensors with a large swath width typically have a lower resolution, and vice versa. At the same time a higher swath width means a lower revisit time, since the satellite has a larger field of view and it takes less time before it passes over a certain point another time. 29 For the scope of this paper it is crucial to understand that high resolution sensors limit the swath width to tens of kilometres, so a constellation of satellites is needed to achieve the combined capabilities of high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution simultaneously 30. With the technological advancement, 24 I. Atusyo, op. cit., p Ibidem. 26 Ibidem. 27 Uni Bonn, Temporal Resolution, (Last visited on 10th June 2017) 28 I. Atusyo, op. cit., p Temporal: The forgotten resolution, (Last visited on 10 th June 2017). 30 I. Atusyo, op. cit., p

14 leading to lower cost and smaller size for satellites, such constellations are increasingly used for different applications 31. Generally, one can say that the more satellites a constellation is formed of, the better the coverage and resolution of the surveillance is going to be. C. A short historical background of satellite remote sensing Before the era of satellite remote sensing, the first rudimentary attempts of remote sensing of the Earth were made by cameras mounted on balloons as early as Later on, during World War I, aerial photography was used as a reconnaissance tool by the military. 32 Remote sensing of the Earth via satellites only came up with the era of the space race between the Cold War rivals, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, and the development of space technologies and space faring capabilities as a result of this rivalry. It is known that in this period the two rivals spent intensely large funds on the development of weaponry and space technology, which resulted in a very fast development of the technology. In this context it seems rather unsurprising that the first remote sensing technologies were developed and used for the purposes of defence planning and intelligence gathering, and the two powers observed each other s territories extensively at altitudes between 150km and 350km 33. It is interesting to note that the U.S. Corona reconnaissance programme already utilized a camera with a resolution of 8 meters in 1960, which was extremely modern and technologically advanced at that time. However, defence planning and intelligence gathering was not the only purpose of the earliest applications of remote sensing. The first US weather satellite, called Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS-1), was launched in 1960 and provided 31 Ibidem. 32 NASA, New Tools for Diplomacy Remote Sensing Use in International Law, (Last visited on 10 th June 2017). 33 I. Atusyo, op. cit., p

15 information on weather conditions and cloud cover. The collected weather data was then used for monitoring storms and weather forecasting. 34 In the early 1970 s remote sensing began to be used for other civilian purposes, such as land observation. The US Landsat programme demonstrated the utility of remote sensing in different applications, including land use, natural resource management, agriculture, studying land cover change, and monitoring such Earth environment aspects as deforestation 35. The US started to work out agreements with other countries in order for them to collect raw data of the Landsat-1 satellite. From the mid 1980 s, spacefaring nations and intergovernmental organizations started to become interested and to engage in civil remote sensing programmes one after another 36. Countries like France, Japan and India launched their own civil remote sensing satellites, for land and marine monitoring. In 1991, the European Space Agency (hereafter ESA ) launched its first remote sensing satellite called the Earth Resource Satellite (ERS-1). 37 In the beginning of the remote sensing era, remote sensing was reserved by spacefaring nations primarily as a governmental activity to fulfil their own needs, as well as to observe the state of the Earth s environment 38. Later on national space agencies took their first steps towards commercialization of remote sensing data, which advanced rapidly. Remote sensing data was now no longer limited to governmental uses but opened up to a wider user community and range of applications 39. A further step into commercial satellite remote sensing was taken after the end of the Cold War, with the first private companies launching very high resolution satellites in the late 1990 s. In 1999 a company called Space Imaging released imagery with a spatial resolution of only 1 m, which was very remarkable at that time. With the very high spatial resolution of 1m or even higher, Earth observation data began having high commercial value. 40 Under these circumstances more and more private entities and states began to seek access to Earth observation data, and public-private partnerships have emerged Ibidem. 35 Idem, p Ibidem. 37 Idem, pp Idem, p Ibidem. 40 Idem, p Ibidem. 14

16 During this period there was also a trend towards the emergence of coordinated services based on operational remote sensing; that is, a shift from data provision via a single satellite to data provision from integrated systems through international collaborative efforts, particularly for the purpose of disaster management 42. Different satellite operators cooperated, using a constellation of satellites or combination of several satellites that operate independently, ( ) to provide services in fulfilling the common objective of the coordinated EO programme for environmental protection and disaster response 43. Today, nearly 30 nations have remote sensing satellites, and their data is widely disseminated both on a commercial and non-commercial basis 44. The quantity of remote sensing satellites and programmes increased the availability of data and products to users considerably. 45 The data supply environment, also referred to as the data supply chain has become more complex, involving various entities in the collection, processing, value adding, and distribution of the data. In a nutshell data generators, such as space agencies, own and operate satellites and conduct the data collection. The image processing wholesaler conducts the processing of data to more advanced levels, including geometric and radiometric calibration. Value-added entities (also referred to as value-added resellers) conduct information extraction services that enhance the original data to produce derived products of greater value and utility to the end-user, such as maps and digital elevation models. Finally, data distributors disseminate the resulting products to the end users. 46 These new opportunities for remote sensing data are made possible by the rapid evolution of computers, which can process, link, and analyse very large and different data sets in very short periods of time. As a result, various data sources and different processing procedures are now combined to produce final products. The resulting products may be a synthesis of satellite data and aircraft data as well as other sources of information such as the Geographical Information System (GIS), GPS, and population data Ibidem. 43 Ibidem. 44 Idem, p F. TRONCHETTI, Legal aspects of satellite remote sensing, in F. VON DER DUNK (ed.), F. TRONCHETTI, Handbook of Space Law, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015, p I. Atusyo, op. cit., p Ibidem. 15

17 Another aspect of earth observation data that has changed over time is the users of such data. With the Internet, the access to EO data has been enhanced dramatically. Nearly everyone with an Internet access can access large amounts of EO data, which leads to the fact that data users are not only governments, space agencies, and private companies anymore, but literally every person or company with an Internet access. The emergence, in 2005, of Internet-based data viewers such as Google Earth, or Google Maps, surprised society at large by putting together different satellite images and aerial photos varying in spatial resolution to offer an interactive map of the whole globe that allowed any person to see images of any location with zoom, on demand 48. In the era of smartphones one does not even need a personal computer to access such services anymore, since every smartphone on the market can do so very easily. Although this has been unimaginable roughly two decades ago, these are still very primitive examples of the use of remote sensing data in today s environment, and much more elaborate examples will be analysed in the course of this paper. Having understood the most important technical notions of satellite remote sensing, and reviewed the historical background that helps seeing the contemporary aspects on the big scale, we shall now analyse the very recent and probably most advanced remote sensing programme of our times: the EU Copernicus programme. II. The EU Copernicus Programme Copernicus is the name of the European Union s Earth observation programme, named after Nicolaus Copernicus, famous astronomer who is well known for the heliocentric model of the universe, which he was the first scholar to explicitly describe in the early 16 th century, leading to the Copernican revolution and playing an important role in the scientific revolution. The Copernicus programme (hereafter Copernicus ) is a European Union Programme aimed at developing European information services based on satellite Earth Observation and in situ (non-space) data 49 and the most 48 Idem, p What is Copernicus, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 16

18 ambitious operational Earth observation programme today. 50 After some general and historical information about Copernicus (A), we shall review its organization and setup (B), its uses (C) and its data policy (D). A. General & historical information about the Copernicus programme The creation of Copernicus dates back to Baveno, Italy, in 1998, where the European Commission (hereafter the Commission ), the ESA, and other participants of the space sector, such as representatives of national space agencies of European space faring nations, gathered in the context of environmental monitoring. The participants agreed on a long term commitment to the development of space-based environmental monitoring services, focussing initially on needs associated with some aspects of the Kyoto Protocol and taking advantage of skills and technologies resident in Europe 51. This was seen as a major wake-up call for a true European strategy in the field of global environment monitoring to be defined and implemented 52. In 2001 the Commission issued its first Communication on the new programme, which was back then called GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security). 53 In 2007, GMES was adopted as a flagship of the European Space Policy adopted in may After important funding by the ESA and the EU, in 2010, the adoption of the GMES Regulation 55 on the Initial Operations for the period has enabled the transition to operations of the GMES Earth monitoring programme 56. As mentioned in the proposal for the GMES regulation, the objectives of GMES are to: - enable sustainable Earth observation services tailored to the needs of users, including public policy-makers and private citizens. The GMES services will allow policy-makers in particular to: 50 J. ASCHBACHER, M. MILAGRO-PEREZ, The European Earth monitoring (GMES) programme: Status and perspectives, Remote Sensing of Environment, 2012, Vol. 120, p G. BRACHET, From initial ideas to a European plan: GMES as an exemplar of European space strategy, Space Policy, 2004, Issue 20, p Ibidem. 53 Idem, p J. ASCHBACHER, M. MILAGRO-PEREZ, op. cit., p Regulation (EU) No 911/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 on the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) and its initial operations (2011 to 2013), [OJ L 276], J. ASCHBACHER, M. MILAGRO-PEREZ, op. cit., p

19 - prepare national, European and international legislation on environmental matters, including climate change; - monitor implementation of this legislation; - have access to comprehensive and accurate information concerning security matters (e.g. for border surveillance) 5758 In December 2012, GMES was going to enter the operational phase soon, and was renamed to Copernicus. Following Antonio Tajani, Commission Vice-President at that time, Nicolaus Copernicus was the catalyst in the 16th century to better understand our world, so the European Earth Observation Programme gives us a thorough understanding of our changing planet, enabling concrete actions to improve the quality of life of the citizens 59. According to the European Commission the new name will help to raise awareness about Copernicus at all geographical and socio-economic levels - thus creating opportunities for growth and jobs 60. Understandably, the Commission did not only expect Copernicus to help us with its actual functions and services, and their products, but also to foster European economy, to boost the economic growth, and to create new jobs and opportunities. Alongside Copernicus, the EU also created Galileo, the EU s own satellite navigation system, which is also expected to bring economic growth and new opportunities for the European citizens. 61 In October 2014, the first Copernicus satellite, Sentinal-1A, which was launched in April of the same year from Kourou, French Guiana, has become operational. 62 This marked the beginning of Copernicus operational phase. 57 Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Earth observation programme (GMES) and its initial operations ( ), COM/2009/0223 final. 58 More information as to the goals of Copernicus can be found in European Commission, Copernicus Europe s eye on Earth, op. cit., pp European Commission, Copernicus: new name for European Earth Observation Programme, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 60 Ibidem. 61 European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency, Galileo is the European global satellite-based navigation system, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 62European Space Agency, First Copernicus Satellite Now Operational, 1/First_Copernicus_satellite_now_operational (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 18

20 B. The organization and setup of Copernicus This part shall be divided into an overview of the organizational and legal setup of Copernicus (1), and an explanation of its technical setup (2). 1. The organizational and legal setup of Copernicus Copernicus is a good example of a European collaborative endeavour. It is a civil programme that is coordinated and managed by the European Commission [and] it is implemented in partnership with the Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies and Mercator Océan 63. The European Commission oversees and coordinates the programme and ( ) is in charge of setting and developing the political vision of the Copernicus s programme 64. Also, together with the European Parliament and Council, the European Commission is responsible for the long-term financial commitment, ensuring the basis for the programme s sustainability. 65 The European Union owns the Sentinels, the satellites of the Copernicus programme. The European Space Agency has been delegated the development of the space component, such as the satellites, and also acts as the overall systems architect of the Space Component and ensures its technical coordination 66. The ESA is also responsible for the operations of the satellites, together with EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. 67 The European Member States (hereafter MS ) contribute to Copernicus by the socalled contributing missions, providing data from nationally owned space 63 What is Copernicus, op. cit. 64 European Commission, Copernicus Europe s eye on Earth, op. cit., p Ibidem. 66 Ibidem. 67 Ibidem. 19

21 infrastructures, or from so-called in situ structures, which are structures that collect data but are not in outer space. 68 More detailed information about the in situ infrastructures will be given in the next part, explaining the technical setup op Copernicus. Copernicus also involves a number of European agencies, such as the European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX), the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) or the European Satellite Centre (SatCen). 69 Additionally, other competent organisations involved are the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and Mercator Oce an. The provision of data from in situ infrastructure is coordinated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) 70. Being an European Union programme, the Copernicus programme is established by the so-called Copernicus Regulation 71, repealing the previously mentioned GMES regulation. Another important legislative act is a Commission delegated regulation (hereafter Commission Delegated Act ), on the registration and licensing conditions for Copernicus users, and on the access to Copernicus data, which will be reviewed in more detail later. 72 In October 2014, the Commission and ESA signed an agreement to manage and implement the Copernicus space component between 2014 and , securing Copernicus operations until Under this agreement about 3.15 billion of the money for Copernicus within the Framework will be delegated to ESA as coordinator 69 Ibidem. 70 Ibidem. 71 Regulation (EU) No 377/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 establishing the Copernicus Programme and repealing Regulation (EU) No 911/2010, [OJ L 122], Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1159/2013 of 12 July 2013 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 911/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Earth monitoring programme (GMES) by establishing registration and licensing conditions for GMES users and defining criteria for restricting access to GMES dedicated data and GMES service information, [OJ L 309], European Space Agency, Copernicus Operations Secured Until 2021, _2021 (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 20

22 of the space component, including the operation of the Sentinel satellites until mid and the building of follow-on units, which should last at least until The technical setup of Copernicus The technical setup of Copernicus is divided into three main components, which shall be examined hereafter: the space component (a), the in-situ component (b), and the services component (c). a) The space component Being a satellite remote sensing programme, Copernicus obviously relies on satellites, which are also referred to as the space component of Copernicus. The space component is formed by two missions, the dedicated Sentinel missions, specifically designed by ESA for Copernicus, and the contributing missions, which are existing EO satellites that have not been developed for Copernicus, but can provide additional data to the Copernicus programme. 75 The Sentinels, are owned by the EU and operated by ESA and EUMETSAT, as previously discussed. The plan is to place a constellation in orbit, that is formed by over a dozen satellites, of which by now 5 satellites are in orbit, with another two being planned to be launched this year. The Sentinels consist of six different families, Sentinel-1 to Sentinel-6, with each of the families having a precise function. 76 Sentinel- 1 and Sentinel-2 being used for security applications, we shall review these in a bit more detail. Sentinel-1 provides all-weather, day and night radar imagery for land and ocean services. The twin satellites Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B were respectively launched on 3 April 2014 and on 25 April The Sentinel-1 satellites have a 12 day revisit 74 Ibidem. 75 J. ASCHBACHER, M. MILAGRO-PEREZ, op. cit., p Sentinel Satellites, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 77 Ibidem. 21

23 time, which is why there are two exactly equal twin satellites, in order to achieve a combined revisit time of only 6 days. To achieve this, both twin satellites share the same orbit with exactly 180 orbital phasing. 78 Thanks to its radar sensors, they offer medium and high resolution imagery 79 in all weather conditions, and they are capable of obtaining night imagery and detecting small movement on the ground, which makes [them] useful for land and sea monitoring 80, as well as for security purposes. Each of the two satellites is expected to transmit Earth observation data for at least 7 years and have fuel on-board for 12 years 81 before reaching the end of their lifespan. The Sentinel-2 family is also formed by two twin satellites in the same orbit, phased 180 degrees to each other, like the Sentinel-1 satellites, for the same reason. In case of the Sentinel-2, the revisit time of 10 days can be halved to 5 days with this technique. Sentinel-2 provides high-resolution optical imagery for land services. It provides for example, imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas. Sentinel-2 also delivers information for emergency services. The twin satellites Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B were respectively launched on 22 June 2015 and on 7 March Combining a high temporal resolution with high-resolution imagery, the Sentinel-2 family lends itself perfectly for security services of Copernicus. 83 Both Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 are operated by ESA. 84 The remaining satellite families are used for environmental and climatic purposes, such as measuring sea- and land-surface temperatures, atmospheric composition, air quality, sea levels and many others. 78 European Space Agency, Sentinal Online Orbit, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 79 The resolution of the Sentinel-1 satellites can reach 5 meters, depending on the operating modes. 80 European Space agency, Sentinel-1, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 81 European Space Agency, Sentinel-1: Mission objectives, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 82 Sentinel Satellites, op. cit. 83 European Space Agency, Sentinel-1: Mission objectives, op. cit. 84 Sentinel Satellites, op. cit. 22

24 The contributing missions are around 30 EO satellites 85, which have not been implemented for Copernicus, but still deliver important data to Copernicus. These satellites are owned and operated by other European, national, or commercial entities. 86 The role of the contributing missions is essential, especially until all of the Sentinels are in orbit and operational, and they complement the observations made by the Sentinels. 87 But even when the Sentinels are all operational the Contributing Missions will continue to be essential, delivering complementary data to ensure that a whole range of observational requirements is satisfied 88. Especially in the field of security services of Copernicus, the contributing missions are of high importance, since they have a much higher optical resolution than the Sentinels, and since all of the satellites together form the constellation that is needed for a regular surveillance of certain geographical areas, with a high temporal resolution when combined all together, which could not be achieved by the Sentinels alone. b) The in-situ component The in-situ component is formed by airborne, ship/buoy-based, and ground-based monitoring networks, supporting Copernicus with large amounts of data. 89 These infrastructures are owned and operated at regional, national and international levels inside and outside the EU 90 and the European Environment Agency (EEA) is in the midst of a project aimed at documenting the required in-situ data, identifying gaps and developing a sustainable framework for open access to the sources of this data 91. The Commission has appointed the EAA as a technical coordinator for the Land Monitoring Service, and the Joint Research Center (JRC) for the Emergency Management Service Contributing missions, (Last visisted on 10th June 2017). 86 J. ASCHBACHER, M. MILAGRO-PEREZ op. cit., p R. Torres et. al., GMES Sentinel-1 mission, Remote Sensing of Environment, 2012, Issue 120, p Contributing missions, op. cit. 89 European Environment Agency, GMES briefing, p. 1, available at 90 J. ASCHBACHER, M. MILAGRO-PEREZ, op. cit., p J. ASCHBACHER, M. MILAGRO-PEREZ, op. cit., p European Environment Agency, GMES briefing, op. cit., p

25 The EAA also manages CORDA (Copernicus Reference Access Data), a single entry point node to the relevant national and regional geospatial reference data 93, which provides an index of URLs to the relevant for Copernicus services and digitally available national and regional reference data and services across Europe and is restricted to access by Copernicus services providers only 94. The Copernicus security service is one of the end-users of this data hub. 95 It is important to point out that the in-situ data does not only include data from various sensors, but also from land-based surveillance stations 96, and other reference and ancillary data, which refers to all data from sources other than remote sensing. 97 In situ data does for example include information such as transport networks (i.e. roads), hydrology (water bodies, rivers and streams) and even socio-economic data about populated areas 98. Regarding land border surveillance, in situ data includes data on settlements (both formal, such as rural and urban, and informal, such as displaced person camps and others), transport infrastructure, and so-called Point of Interest, which include schools, institutional buildings, and even places of worship. 99 Regarding maritime border surveillance, in situ data includes ship identification, tracking, information on ship position, course, and even its cargo, and more. c) The services component The Copernicus services transform the gathered satellite and in situ data into valueadded information by processing and analysing the data, integrating it with other 93 European Environment Agency, About CORDA, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 94 Ibidem. 95 Ibidem. 96 Fact sheet on Copernicus in situ data requirements, (Last visited on 10 th June 2017). 97 European Commission, Data collected on the ground, at sea, and in the air: The Copernicus in situ component, (Last visited on 10 th June 2017). 98 Ibidem. 99 Fact sheet on Copernicus in situ data requirements, op. cit. 24

26 sources and validating the results 100. Various datasets stretching back for years and decades are made comparable and searchable, thus ensuring the monitoring of changes; patterns are examined and used to create better forecasts, for example, of the ocean and the atmosphere. Maps are created from imagery, features and anomalies are identified and statistical information is extracted 101. The Copernicus value adding activities are streamlined through six thematic streams of Copernicus services: Atmosphere Monitoring, Marine Environment Monitoring, Land Monitoring, Climate Change, Emergency Management and Security 102. In the following part, we shall illustrate a few of the very many interesting and innovative application domains of Copernicus, which all fall within one or more of these services. C. Application domains of Copernicus There are a lot of different areas where Copernicus users, namely policy makers, researchers, commercial and private users, as well as the global scientific community, can profit from the information provided by the aforementioned different Copernicus services. These areas include agriculture, forestry & fisheries; biodiversity & environmental protection; climate & energy; tourism; public health; civil protection & humanitarian aid; transport & safety; and urban & regional planning. 103 While in the scope of this paper we cannot give a detailed overview of all of these different areas, a few most interesting examples are worth being mentioned. Copernicus is used in many areas where scientists and policy makers could really use a helping hand, since the related problems are of crucial importance to our society. Copernicus is for example used to monitor the climate change and melting ice caps, and rising sea levels, which is one of the world s biggest and most urgent problems at the moment. 100 European Commission, Copernicus Europe s eye on Earth, op. cit., p Ibidem. 102 Ibidem. 103 Application Domains, (Last visited on 10th June 2017). 25