EU’s ₧610-M space data center to help PHL manage risks

By Malou Talosig-Bartolome

FOR the past few years, images taken from space by Europe’s satellites were shared with the Philippine government to manage the impact of disasters such as typhoons, the eruption of Taal Volcano and recently, the oil spill in Mindoro.

T he European Union of fered the Philippine government access to more of their space data images by building a national Copernicus data center in the country.

T he Philippines, considered as one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, agreed to take on the offer and became the first in Southeast Asia to partner with the EU on a space program.

O n Monday (April 24), the EU Mission in Manila officially announced and launched a landmark space deal called the Copernicus Capacity Support Action Programme for the Philippines (CopPhil).

Under the deal, the Philippines can access EU’s data gathered by its satellites from its Earth’s Observation Program called Copernicus.

A wealth of environment and climate data derived from a constellation of Copernicus satellites—the Sentinels— will be made available to Philippine authorities. The Sentinels monitor the Earth and its many ecosystems 24 hours daily. A Copernicus national mirror site will be established for the Philippine government. A centralized Copernicus data storage and processing center (essentially a highperformance server) will be built at the Philippine Space Agency. Multiple government agencies will be linked via dedicated high speed links for fast data download and processing.

“ With this new Copernicus center, the Philippine authorities will be better equipped to help people respond to natural disasters and climate change.

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