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What is the economic value of satellite Imagery?

The first case report on Copernicus Sentinels’ Products Economic Value: A Case Study of Winter Navigation in the Baltic has just been published at the EARSC website case report – winter navigation in the baltic

Published on

We, EARSC and The Green Land, investigated the benefits brought by the use of satellite imagery in supporting winter navigation in the Baltic Sea.

According to our analysis, between €24m and €116m per annum of economic value is being generated in Finland and Sweden thanks to the use of satellite radar images.

To understand the reason of such a large range you should read tge report Copernicus Sentinels’ Products Economic Value: A Case Study of Winter Navigation in the Baltic published on EARSC website

Winter navigation in the Baltic has an outstanding importance for Finnish economy. Satellite radar (SAR) imagery is used to observe ice conditions in the Baltic by Finland and Sweden. With their synoptic view, satellites allow icebreakers to keep sea-lanes (“Motorways of the Sea”) and ports open more effectively. This allows reducing transit times and uncertainties, which in turn has positive impacts on ports operations and down to goods transportation and availability for the local population. Our approach consisted in finding identifiable impacts for each tier of such value chain.

This report is the first of a series of three cases in the frame of the study “Assessing the detailed economic benefits derived from Copernicus Earth Observation (EO) data within selected value chains”, undertaken by EARSC under an assignment from the European Space Agency (ESA).

case report – winter navigation in the baltic final.pdf