# Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/621 of 20 April 2018 on the technical specifications for the Copernicus space component pursuant to Regulation (EU) No 377/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance), Division 1: SCOPE OF THE SPACE COMPONENT TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

The Copernicus Space Component shall include the following activities:
(a) Development, Launch and Operations of dedicated Copernicus Satellites (Sentinels);
(b) Processing and generation of Sentinel Data Products based on the acquired data;
(c) Data Dissemination;
(d) Procurement and delivery of data from Third Party Satellite missions (Copernicus Contributing Missions), in case data requested by the Copernicus Services cannot be provided by the Sentinels.
The Satellite Data products shall be used by the Copernicus services and other users who, in combination with data from multiple sources, convert the data into uniform geophysical variables or higher level information products.
The Copernicus Space Component shall be designed following data and observation requirements from the Copernicus Core Users (Union institutions and bodies, European, national, regional or local authorities active in the domain of atmosphere monitoring, marine environment monitoring, land monitoring, climate change, emergency management and security). They shall form the basis for the definition of the Copernicus Space Component System Requirements.
The Copernicus requirements for space-based Earth Observation data covering the 2014-2020 period shall be documented in the ‘Data Warehouse Requirements document’ (version 2.x). It shall contain the requirements collected from Copernicus Services and Copernicus users requesting Earth Observation data. The updates of the document shall be taken into account for the evolution of the Copernicus Space Component. The data requirements are set out in Table 1.
Table 1
Summary table of the Copernicus Services Dataset requirements
The spatial resolution of Very High (VHR), High (HR), Medium 5MR) and Low Resolution (LR) images is defined as follows: VHR: <= 4 m; HR: > 4 m and <= 30 m; MR > 30 m and <= 300 m; LR > 300 m.
Main Data requirement
Potential Copernicus Data Sources
Land
Pan-European (EEA39) High Resolution (HR) cloud free image coverage
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Full European Very High Resolution (VHR) coverage over Europe (EEA39)
Contributing Missions
Optical worldwide High Resolution coverage
Dedicated missions
Optical Medium Resolution worldwide coverage
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
SAR Medium Resolution Worldwide coverage
Dedicated missions
SAR Low Resolution coverage
Contributing Missions
SAR Altimetry Medium Resolution Worldwide coverage
Dedicated missions
Marine
Sea Ice Monitoring Medium Resolution SAR
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Global/Regional Systematic Ocean Colour data
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Systematic Global and Regional sea surface temperature data
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Systematic Global and Regional Altimeter/Sea Level data
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Atmosphere
Data for aerosol monitoring and forecasting
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Data for sulphur dioxide (SO2) atmospheric composition monitoring and forecasting
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Data for formaldehyde (HCHO) atmospheric composition monitoring and forecasting
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Data for Ozone (O3) atmospheric composition monitoring and forecasting
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Data for Carbon Monoxide (CO) atmospheric composition monitoring and forecasting
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Data for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) atmospheric composition monitoring and forecasting
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Data for Methane (CH4) atmospheric composition monitoring and forecasting
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Data for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) atmospheric composition monitoring and forecasting
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Climate
Data for deriving Essential Climate Variables (ECVs)
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions
Emergency
Datasets with flexible specifications (rush mode, standard mode, high/very high resolution, optical/SAR, archive/new acquisitions)
Dedicated missions
Contributing Missions

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2018/621/annex/division/1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2018-621/annex/division-1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.