The Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem was launched in January 2023 to provide the largest EO data offering in the world, with outstanding discovery and download capabilities, and a set of data processing tools. Since then, it has been continuously developed. CloudFerro, CREODIAS operator, plays a key role in a Consortium that is building the new service.

Here are some new features introduced recently that users can take advantage from:

  • New Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem portal with enriched UI design.
  • Major functional upgrade for Copernicus Browser – improved UI, new product types are available for searching, and the Browser is now available for non-registered users.
  • S3 API available – one can now use S3 to access Earth Observation data on Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.
  • On-Demand Production API for non-ESA IPF processors. The first release of the ordering of product generation through the API is available.
  • Sentinel products started to be traced. Users will be able to track the lifecycle of a data product. The lifecycle begins when the product is created, it includes the copying to a number of archives and a possible deletion thereof, and it will ultimately end when a product is marked as obsolete. The trace information is now available for currently ingested new EO products and will be gradually generated for the remaining products in the repository.

Next major functional upgrades of the platform are planned for July 2023.

CREODIAS users can now have commercial access to a new range of VHR (very high resolution) images of satellites managed by AxelSpace GRUS, a Japanese microsatellite company.

AxelSpace's GRUS constellation is designed to provide high-resolution optical imagery of the Earth's surface, focusing on frequent revisits to any point on the planet. The satellites are equipped with high-resolution optical cameras capable of capturing images with a resolution of up to 2.5 meters. By adding AxelSpace GRUS imagery to its platform, Creodias will be able to offer customers an even wider range of Earth observation data for a variety of applications, including agriculture, forestry, urban planning, and disaster response.

The GRUS constellation is designed to provide frequent revisits to any point on the Earth's surface, with a target of a daily revisit frequency. This makes it an ideal tool for monitoring changes on the Earth's surface, such as crop growth, deforestation, and urbanization, as well as for disaster response and management.

AxelSpace plans to expand the GRUS constellation in the future, with a goal of having over 50 satellites in orbit by 2025. This will further increase the revisit frequency and coverage area of the constellation, allowing it to provide even more valuable data for Earth observation and analysis.

Specification of GRUS constellation:

  • Satellite size and weight: Each GRUS satellite measures 50 cm x 50 cm x 70 cm and weighs about 100 kg.
  • Orbit: The GRUS satellites are placed in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of around 500 km.
  • 5 spectral bands, including Blue, Green, Red, Red-edge, and Near-infrared.
  • Imaging capabilities: The satellites are equipped with high-resolution optical cameras that can capture images with a resolution of up to 2.5 meters. The cameras are capable of capturing multispectral images in the visible and near-infrared ranges.
  • Revisit time: The constellation is designed to provide frequent revisits to any point on the Earth's surface, with a target of a daily revisit frequency.
  • Mission lifetime: The expected mission lifetime for each satellite is about 5 years.

Check the entire VHR EODATA+ offer.

A new virtual machine image with Sen4CAP version 3.2 is available on the CREODIAS platform. It comes with many bugfixes and improvements:

  • An update to a new CREODIAS API for data discovery and download
  • A resolved issue with the generation of level-3 and level-4 products before the level-2 (pre-processed) products were available for the past vegetation seasons
  • The USGS data source was adjusted to retrieve products after 20 October 2022 (API changes)
  • Automatic verification of Sentinel-1B data availability and suitable adjustment of the master/slave interval (6/12 days) during Sentinel-1 coherence computation
  • Availability of additional statistics for marker database i.e. median, 25 & 75 percentiles
  • Enhanced site creation dialogue in the web interface.

Funding for Sen4CAP service on the CREODIAS platform is available through the ESA Network of Resources (NoR) scheme as a Data processing as a Service (DPaaS).

For more information, please us at sales@creodias.eu.

Reprocessed Sentinel-2 products (Level-1C and Level-2A) generated by ESA Copernicus Ground Segment are available for data for December 2021 and older. This data is gradually released as it is generated as part of the Sentinel-2 reprocessing campaign. Reprocessing is implemented by ACRI and will be completed by Q4 2023.

More information about the campaign can be found here Copernicus Sentinel-2 Collection-1 Availability Status - Sentinel Online. Processed products have a baseline processing version N0500: User Guides - Sentinel-2 MSI - Naming Convention - Sentinel Online - Sentinel Online (copernicus.eu).