PhilSA inks Copernicus arrangement

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) signed the Copernicus cooperation agreement on June 30 to implement a capacity-building program for the Philippines funded by the European Commission.

The agreement will facilitate the exchange of satellite data, which is useful for long-term monitoring of marine and coastal areas, water resource management, disaster risk reduction, food security, rural development and public health.

“The agreement that we signed with the European Commission on data access supports the creation of value-added information and the development of new data products and downstream services from Copernicus Earth observation satellites. The agreement also facilitates the establishment of the Copernicus Mirror Site in the country under the Copernicus Capacity Support Action Program for the Philippines, targeting data on a national and regional scale,” PhilSA director-general Joel Joseph Marciano Jr. said.

PhilSA plans to set up a data hub to distribute Copernicus Sentinel data and information across the region and support pilot projects using Copernicus. The Copernicus, part of the European Union’s space program, aims to monitor the planet and maintain a global information service to improve quality of life.

Similar arrangements have been signed in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Panama, India, the African Union, Serbia and Ukraine.