Project BELLA benefits Copernicus, an Earth Observation project of the European Union

- 25/05/2021
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Imagine a system capable of monitoring the planet Earth, providing continuous real-time data and information on its characteristics, including air quality, ozone layer and ultraviolet radiation status, surface emissions and flows, solar radiation, and greenhouse gases. This is what Copernicus, an Earth Observation program by the European Union, does.

Created with the purpose of providing information services based on satellite and in situ (i.e., collected in their own land) data, the European program has the international cooperation of various countries, including Brazil, Colombia, and Chile, in Latin America.

Academic Networks also collaborate with the project: RedCLARA, which operates a regional network for Latin America, GÉANT, the pan-European regional network, and the National Education and Research Network (RNP). Together with other 8 national networks from Europe and Latin America, they participate in the BELLA (Building European Link with Latin America) association, which meets the long-term connectivity needs of research and education communities in Europe and Latin American.

Copernicus carries out a set of satellite missions named Sentinel, coordinated by the European Space Agency (ESA), in which each mission focuses on one aspect of Earth Observation, such as the atmosphere, oceans, and terrestrial coverage.

The data made available publicly and freely by Copernicus are of public interest and used in various activities of research and monitoring in Brazil and worldwide, including, for example, the monitoring of climate change and deforestation.

Among the main users of the Copernicus services are those in charge of formulating public policies on the environment and public authorities that oversee the enforcement of environmental legislation. Copernicus was responsible, for example, for detecting a decrease in air pollution during the Coronavirus pandemic. It is also important to know that access to the data captured by Copernicus is not restricted to governments and can be obtained freely by companies and individuals over the Internet.

Since 1988, the Brazilian government has, through the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), an Earth Observation program that uses satellites launched and operated by the United States and China. In 2018, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communications (MCTIC) and the European Commission entered a Cooperation Agreement to provide mutual access without cost to satellite observations by the two governments.

In the same year, the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), Inpe, and the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a Technical Cooperation Arrangement to determine Brazilian access to Copernicus data in exchange for data collected by Inpe. With validity until 2024, this arrangement provides that, in Brazil, Inpe operates as a regional hub in Latin America for access to Copernicus data.

Michael Stanton

"The international cooperation with Copernicus enriches the resources for Earth Observation available in our region while granting Europeans access to observations made by satellites monitored by Inpe, benefiting both partners. It is important to acknowledge that Copernicus also brought an investment of approximately 35% of the cost of the acquisition, throughout its lifecycle, which is estimated at 25 years, of a big portion (9%) of the entire capacity (72 Tb/s) of the new EllaLink cable between Brazil and Portugal, which starts operating in July of this year. In exchange, Copernicus gets a transatlantic channel of 100 Gb/s dedicated to its use. The alliance between communication infrastructure and its major users of public interest is an attractive model for financing the new research and education networks", considers Michael Stanton, a network scientist at RNP.

According to information of project BELLA, without connectivity to a National Network for Research and Education, a professional who works on climate emergencies in Latin America and maps an area of 500 km2 would have to wait 60 minutes to download critical data. With the completion of BELLA in 2021, the high-speed connectivity will provide the same data in just 7 minutes.

About project BELLA

Bella meets the long-term interconnectivity needs of European and Latin American research and education communities, achieved through two projects: BELLA-S, which guarantees spectrum rights in the underwater cable EllaLink and ensures "future-proof" connectivity requirements; and BELLA-T, which provides the completion of fiber connectivity to Latin American advanced networks, bringing the much-needed high-speed connectivity and equal access for research and education communities across the continent.

To learn more, access: https://www.bella-programme.eu/.

 

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