PARIS — Italy’s e-Geos Earth observation services provider on Feb. 20 said it had won a contract with the European Commission to provide emergency-service mapping imagery for the commission’s Copernicus environment monitoring program.

The contract, with annual renewals for up to four years, carries a value of up to 12 million euros ($15 million), Rome-based e-Geos said. Copernicus’ infrastructure includes the Sentinel series of Earth observation satellites.

The company, owned 80 percent by satellite services provider Telespazio and 20 percent by the Italian Space Agency, has been providing a similar service to the commission since 2012 as part of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service.

The service was activated for more than 100 natural disasters and other emergency events and produced more than 1,000 satellite maps covering 46 nations between 2012 and 2014, e-Geos said.
Civil protection and emergency service providers in Europe are given free access to the maps.

The German Aerospace Center, DLR, and Munich-based GAF, as well as SIRS and Sertit of France and Ithaca of Italy, are part of the e-Geos-led consortium providing the service.

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Peter B. de Selding was the Paris bureau chief for SpaceNews.