Recently, the European Union passed a resolution to delay the public release of data from the Copernicus programme’s Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites covering a small area of the Gulf of Oman by 24 hours. I did a quick search into the background of this story and found it quite interesting, so I would like to share it with you today.

News Background

The legal basis for this restriction is EU Council Decision 2026/1716, adopted on 13 July and published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 14 July, signed by Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and President of the Council. The decision requires the European Commission to delay the release of data acquired by Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 over a specific area of the Gulf of Oman by 24 hours from the moment of acquisition.

Key Timeline

  1. On 26 May, the United States submitted a request via diplomatic note under the framework of the "EU Space Threat Response Architecture".
  2. On 10 June, the EU Political and Security Committee expressed support for the measure.
  3. In mid-July, the Council formally adopted the decision, entrusting the European Commission with its implementation.

The officially stated reason is to prevent data from the EU Space Programme from being acquired by third countries and used to threaten the interests of the EU, its Member States or allies in the region.

Scope of Affected Data

Let us first look at the parameters of the two satellites. Sentinel-1 carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar, which offers strong penetration and all-weather capability, making it suitable for ship identification and infrastructure monitoring. Sentinel-2 provides optical imagery. Together, they serve applications such as maritime surveillance, news investigations, academic research, environmental analysis and open-source intelligence.

The area affected this time is primarily the Gulf of Oman, i.e. imagery of the Strait of Hormuz. According to official information from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, the nominal publication latency for Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 products is "up to 24 hours", but in practice it is often much faster. For most of 2023, the average publication time for Sentinel-1 was less than 3 hours. Now, for this specific area, it has been hard-capped at a minimum of 24 hours. Any emergency response or maritime monitoring services that previously relied on Sentinel are now essentially crippled.

Fake Openness

Copernicus has always advertised itself as "free, full and open", but this incident clearly demonstrates that openness comes with conditions. The EU Space Programme Regulation explicitly includes security exception clauses. In peacetime, they have little impact, to the point that most people have long regarded Copernicus as a stable and reliable public infrastructure.

Of course, what this really blocks are countries and institutions that lack their own satellites and are heavily dependent on Sentinel. China is not without alternatives. C-band SAR satellites comparable to Sentinel-1 include the Gaofen-3 series; for InSAR deformation monitoring, Lutan-1 can be used; for rapid response, there is also the Ludi Tance-4 satellite. In the optical domain, data sources such as Gaofen-1 and Gaofen-6 are available. I previously introduced these domestic SAR satellites in detail in Europe’s Sentinel-1 to Be Replaced: $1.1 Billion Contract Signed for Next-Generation SAR Satellite; those interested may refer to it.

Conclusion

I have a feeling that this 24-hour delay will not be an isolated incident. Satellite resolution is getting higher and higher, and AI capabilities are continuously evolving. Both Google and Esri have trained foundational geospatial AI models based on satellite imagery. Temporary delays, regional degradation or even access restrictions of open data may well become the norm going forward.

For GIS professionals, it is necessary to prepare on two fronts: on one hand, continue to make good use of international open data such as Sentinel; on the other hand, pay close attention to geospatial data security and maintain multi-source data backups. In future GIS projects, alongside technical capabilities, data assurance and data security must become mandatory parts of the upfront planning.

References

  1. The EU Put a 24-Hour Delay on Copernicus Data. Open Earth Observation Just Became Conditional：https://geoawesome.com/the-eu-put-a-24-hour-delay-on-copernicus-data-open-earth-observation-just-became-conditional/