The European Earth Observation initiative Copernicus is a world-leading userdriven programme for the collection and dissemination of data on the Earth's environment, climate and security (Copernicus 2017). Data collection is largely carried out using satellites. Copernicus data are processed and provided freely and openly. This data policy also includes data delivered in the form of useradapted services. Copernicus currently has six thematic services that meet data and information needs in the areas of climate, marine, land and freshwater, atmosphere, emergency management and security. The services can be adapted to local and regional needs. One important area of use of Copernicus data is climate change adaptation. Copernicus has a long-term planning horizon. This is a prerequisite for the reliable detection and assessment of environmental changes, which then can underpin informed decisions. In order to create societal benefits, the programme's data and services need to be widely used. This report helps users in the field of climate change adaptation discover Copernicus and provides some concrete examples of how the programme can support Swedish work on climate change adaptation.
Sweden is covered several times a week by satellites that observe the marine, terrestrial and atmospheric environment. The European space organizations ESA and EUMETSAT have the mandate of the European Commission to collect, store and provide satellite data from Copernicus as a basis for a wide range of applications, research and data-driven innovation. All data on Swedish territory are transferred automatically from ESA to the Swedish platform Swea, run by the Swedish National Space Board (Swedish National Space Board 2017). Swea is a satellite data portal containing a web interface and an open application programming interface (API). It is possible to search for and download data from Sentinel satellites (Sentinel 1-3) and the US Landsat satellites free of charge. Data in Swea are geo-corrected according to Swedish reference systems, elevation models and map projections, facilitating use and processing of satellite images in various geographic information systems and image processing programs applied by Swedish users.
The European Commission is also preparing its own central data infrastructure – Copernicus Data and Information Access Services (DIAS). DIAS will ensure fast and secure access to data as well as access to computational capacity to process large amounts of data.
Satellite images from Copernicus provide comprehensive and continuous information about the state of the environment, infrastructure and urban areas. This makes it possible to detect and follow long-term trends and changes in terrestrial or aquatic environments. An example of this is the large forest fire in Västmanland in 2014 when the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) took advantage of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service to get tailormade scenarios and interpretations on the fire area. Another example is drought where satellite images can identify changes in vegetation, but also in areas that dry out due to changes in water levels. Copernicus also provides information about water properties such as temperature, algal blooms, chlorophyll, suspended matter and humus which can support the assessment of water quality.
The national land cover data project (NMD) coordinated by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Swedish EPA) aims at creating and managing information about the landscape and how it changes (Swedish EPA 2017a). Data from this project will be nationwide, updated every five years and hence be comparable. NMD will support climate change adaptation in various societal sectors on issues such as nature protection and conservation, urban environments and fire risks.
Several Copernicus thematic services provide data and information of relevance to climate change adaptation. The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service hosts, among other, data on European land cover as well as high-resolution data on permanent water bodies, wetlands, forests and impervious surfaces. Main application areas for the Copernicus Marine Environmental Monitoring Service are maritime safety, observation of coastal and marine environments, planning support, marine resources and support to weather prediction, seasonal forecasts and climate observations. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service offers daily and delayed-mode computations of atmospheric composition, air quality and atmospheric pollen contents. The combination of heat waves and poor air quality can cause major health problems, especially in urban environments. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service uses satellite images as its main data source and has worldwide coverage. In the event of a crisis, MSB can activate the service. The Emergency Management Service is an important tool for climate change adaptation and has been used by Sweden in response to storms, fires and floods.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service uses environment and climate observations from satellite and in-situ measurements combined with models of the Earth's atmosphere, sea, land, freshwater and ice. The Copernicus Climate Change Service will support work on climate change mitigation and in particular climate change adaptation in many sectors, including water management, coastal planning, agriculture and forestry, transport, energy, health, nature and ecosystems, infrastructure, risk reduction and disasters.
The EU Earth Observation programme Copernicus thus offers a rapidly expanding amount of data that can support climate change adaptation in many ways and in many areas. This report provides a brief and easy-to-understand overview of Copernicus and illustrates the use of Copernicus in climate change adaptation by some simple examples. The amount of Copernicus data in support of climate change adaptation will increase further. At the same time, access to and handling of Copernicus data will improve. This will in turn improve the opportunities for the use of Copernicus in climate change adaptation. However, in order to achieve a more widespread use of Copernicus data there is a need for complementary efforts on knowledge building, communication and good examples that focus on the specific needs and challenges encountered by climate change adaptation users. There is also a need for skills development so that today's users, from government to research and business, easily can benefit from Copernicus data and services.