An early detection of changing patterns and altering ecosystems in coastal wetlands can prevent irreversible biodiversity loss and assist in the identification of problematic areas. The Copernicus Sentinel missions are now providing vital information to help visualise and explain trends to policy makers.

The Peneda-Gerês National Park  in northeast Portugal has been home to wild ponies for around 2500 years. Today, it also provides a rich habitat for wolves, foxes, wild boars, ibex, and deer. It also hosts otters, fish, frogs, salamanders, 147 different bird species (many migratory) and 15 bat species. Data from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites are helping to safeguard this mountainous habitat.

Intertidal habitats can change rapidly, not just in spatial extent but also in vegetation type and cover. Newly created coastal managed realignment sites are a prime example where channels migrate and the vegetation changes from terrestrial to mud flats and saltmarshes.

Monitoring these changes is difficult due to their highly dynamic behaviour, inaccessible nature and risk of ecological damage caused by field work. Aerial photography is costly and thus usually restricted to once a year at best—however, Copernicus Sentinel data are changing things.

Remote sensing and satellite imagery have become common use in monitoring and modelling of various biological and physical characteristics of Earth - now Copernicus Sentinel-1 is giving a new approach for monitoring the evolution of shorelines.

One of the main threats for soil degradation is the decline of soil organic carbon—the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites are currently being exploited to monitor soil conditions in croplands, in turn supporting the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union.

The complete drying-up of Lake Aculeo in Chile was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, enabling scientists to follow the water surface extent at high frequency, and thus witness this dramatic loss.

The conservation and protection of biodiversity is a fundamental activity of protected areas, such as the Samaria National Park, in Greece. The use of data from the Copernicus Sentinels, combined with geodiversity variables, are proving to be fundamental in monitoring certain areas where the Podarcis cretensis endemic lizard is found.

An international group of scientists have published the first study using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 Delay-Doppler altimeter, to monitor Antarctic Ice Sheet change.

With two sensors now in orbit, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites could monitor some parts of the world almost daily. This capability could be crucial in monitoring rapidly developing events such as biotic/abiotic stress on crops and provide accurate and timely information from farmers to policy-makers, to develop appropriate mitigation strategies.

Located in the western Alps, between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions, the Gran Paradiso National Park is home to the original surviving Alpine ibex, chamois, mountain hares, weasels, marmots, foxes and many bird species, such as white ptarmigans and eagles—monitoring its grasslands with satellite data is helping to preserve them.

During 2016, two Finnish friends, Joni Norppa and Lauri Häme founded the company Satellio Ltd and received funding from the Finnish government for a project to monitor forestry by utilising satellite images. Over the last few years, they became experts in handling satellite data very efficiently.

Launched in late November 2018 by the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) and the Norwegian Space Centre (NSC), InSAR Norway is a service that aims to monitor and measure ground movements on a national scale, using Copernicus Sentinel-1 data.

Sentinel-2 is part of the family of EU-owned satellites, which are developed and operated in the context of Copernicus – the European Union's Earth Observation and Monitoring Programme.

Beginning in June 2017 in Indonesia and Malaysia, where development of palm oil plantations is a strong driver of tropical deforestation, the Starling service aims to provide a reliable and near real-time monitoring tool, in order to help companies all across the food supply chain to achieve their 'no deforestation' commitment.

Spring floods occur when snow melts over large areas in short time periods, often combined with rain-so-called rain-on-snow events that add water, further intensifying snow melt. As their name suggests, such floods typically occur in spring - except for a few weeks ago, when Southern Norway was struck with this phenomenon.

A team of experts from the French institutes IFREMER and CLS recently implemented a strategy with ESA, in order to acquire Sentinel-1 images over tropical cyclones, while developing an algorithm that enables the extraction of hurricane characteristics at a very high resolution from space. Information such as the ocean surface wind field provided at 1 km resolution could trigger perspectives for improving hurricane forecast information.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites are being used by a Portuguese company, together with drones, to improve resource efficiency in agriculture and forestry by early detection of diseases and pests, providing data and tools for precision management of crops.

While world-class scientists are meeting in the Azores to discuss how satellites have revealed changes in the height of the sea, ice, inland bodies of water and more, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite has new reasons to shine.

An innovative data analytics company in France is using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites to help track crude oil storage worldwide, bringing transparency to the energy markets.