101 UK Brexit Notes

Connemara Programme October 16 2018 pg. 95 Copernicus Before March 2019 Copernicus is the most ambitious Earth Observation programme to date. It is intended to provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security. The UK currently participates in the Copernicus Earth Observation space programme as an EU member state, as well as through our membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The UK contributes to Copernicus financially and UK industry and academia are involved in the delivery and operation of the programme. UK companies, researchers and public sector organisations use Copernicus data for a wide range of applications. Companies and researchers based in the EU currently also bid in open competition for contracts to design, build and operate both the physical infrastructure of the programme and its services. The UK is fully involved in the decision-making of the programme, for example as a member of the main governance Committee. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) leads for the UK government on the overall Copernicus policy. The UK Space Agency leads on the satellites and physical infrastructure. After March 2019 if there’s ‘no deal’ The UK will no longer be able to participate in the Copernicus programme as an EU member state and will have no role in how it is run. Implications Copernicus has a free and open data policy which means that the data produced by its satellites (Sentinels) and the Land, Marine Environment, Climate Change and Atmosphere services will continue to be freely available to UK users. The UK’s memberships of European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and Mercator Ocean are unaffected, therefore those organisations will retain access to high-bandwidth data that supports the Land, Marine Environment, Climate Change and Atmosphere services. Other UK users could lose the right to high-bandwidth access to the standard data from Copernicus Sentinels. The UK is clarifying the situation with the European Commission. The UK will lose access to data sourced by Copernicus from Contributing Missions. The UK is clarifying this with the ESA and the European Commission. UK-based businesses, academics and researchers will be unable to bid for future Copernicus contracts tendered through the EU, or through any other process using EU procurement rules. The government is seeking to clarify with the European Commission what this will mean for those UK-based businesses, academics and researchers holding Copernicus contracts with delivery dates that run past the date of the UK’s exit from the EU. EU-based users of Copernicus data and services will be unaffected in a ‘no deal’ scenario. EU-based businesses, academics and researchers will remain eligible to participate in all aspects of the design, build and operation of the Copernicus programme. The government is seeking to clarify with the European Commission whether EU businesses, academics and researchers involved in partnering arrangements with UK will be affected in any way. Actions for businesses and other stakeholders UK-based Copernicus data users may wish to consider the impact that losing access to any Copernicus data or information not sourced under the free and open data policy will have on their operations. Space Surveillance and Tracking Before March 2019 The EUSST programme was set up in 2014 to provide the EU with an autonomous Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) capability to protect EU Space Infrastructure (for example, satellites) from risks of collision with other orbital objects (other satellites and debris), and to provide civil contingency services with accurate data regarding debris re-entering the atmosphere. The programme currently provides three services to Member States and EU businesses and organisations:  Conjunction Analysis (i.e. Collision Avoidance);  Fragmentation Analysis (i.e. the analysis of in-orbit fragmentations from space vehicles, as well as the information about the fragmentation); and  Re-Entry warnings (i.e. satellites or debris coming back to earth on a scheduled or unscheduled basis). In the UK, the UK Space Agency distributes EU funding to UK organisations to carry out the necessary tasks to fulfil the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking programme. The UK National Operational Centre provides the Fragmentation service and provides a back-up service for Re-Entry services. EU Space Surveillance and Tracking has been partially operational and providing some data since July 2016, but it will take time until it is a fully functioning Space Surveillance and Tracking system.