BELSPO (the Federal Science Policy Office) has launched Terrascope, Belgium's contribution to the Sentinel Collaborative Ground Segment (CollGS). The CollGS is a series of agreements between ESA and its Member States and international partners to offer data distribution platforms for the Sentinel missions.
Copernicus Sentinel data is freely available to everyone, but the standard data products offered by ESA may require further elaboration for dedicated user requirements. The Collaborative Ground Segment was created to offer specialised data to address these needs in different regions. The aim is to provide easy-to-use products, imagery and hosting.
Terrascope was created by BELSPO following an agreement between ESA and Belgium in September. It takes advantage of existing infrastructure that Belgium built up for the SPOT-VEGETATION and Proba-V missions. The platform offers users the following products and services:
- Sentinel imagery
- Information products derived from Sentinel imagery
- Computing power for third parties to use to generate their own information products
Terrascope is intended to be a flexible and dynamic platform which should allow for new developments resulting from collaboration between Belgian partners in dialogue with BELSPO.
Belgium as seen by Sentinel-2