The fourth annual Copernicus Masters competition is just around the corner. Ideas for services, business concepts and applications based on satellite Earth observation data can be submitted starting on 15 April.

Since 2011, the competition awards prizes to innovative solutions for business and society based on Earth observation data. With a prize pool of over €300,000 in cash prizes, technical support, data packages and business incubation, it aims to foster product development and entrepreneurship.

Participants can choose from a total of eight Challenges covering topics such as environmental monitoring, transportation logistics, agriculture and forestry, civil security, cloud computing and mobile services, as well as the innovative use of high-resolution satellite imagery and radar data.

Earth observation with radar data recently entered a new era with the 3 April launch of Sentinel-1A - the first in the Copernicus programme's two-satellite 'radar vision mission'.