Current Context : The European Union activated its emergency satellite mapping service at Iran’s request to locate a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi that crashed in East Azerbaijan.

ABOUT COPERNICUS EMS

• It is a rapid response mapping technology component of the Emergency Management Service (EMS).
• It was named after the renowned 15th-century scientist Nicolaus Copernicus.
• It is an initiative of European Union’s space for Earth observation.
• Copernicus provides geospatial information from satellite images and other data sources to help manage a wide range of emergencies resulting from natural or man-made disasters like flood, earthquake etc.
• The programme uses global data from satellites and ground-based airborne and sea-borne measurement systems.

It is complemented by a ground segment which includes in-situ sensors that provide access to the Sentinels and Contributing Missions data.