European institutions procuring intelligence services face a question that goes beyond technical capability. The question is who controls the data, under what legal framework, and what guarantees exist that this will not change.
These are not abstract concerns. They are operational requirements for organisations that bear genuine responsibility for public safety, national security, and critical infrastructure.
The Copernicus guarantee
The Copernicus Earth Observation Programme, established under EU Regulation 377/2014, provides free and unrestricted access to satellite data from six Sentinel satellite families. This access is guaranteed by European treaty law.
Unlike commercial satellite data, Copernicus data cannot be subject to pricing changes, licence revocations, or access restrictions by a foreign government or commercial operator. The legal framework is European. The data is European. The governance is European.
What this means in practice
Every piece of satellite data that underpins a Fractalysium analysis is sourced from the Copernicus programme. This means that the sensing layer of our platform is subject to the same legal frameworks as the institutions that use it.
We have built the cognitive intelligence layer on top of this foundation. The data is open. The analysis is not. But the foundation on which our analysis rests is legally stable, institutionally trusted, and governed in a way that European institutions can audit and understand.
Copernicus data in numbers
The programme provides optical imagery at 10 metre resolution with a five day revisit cycle from Sentinel-2. Radar data from Sentinel-1 provides coverage in all weather conditions. Sentinel-5P produces daily atmospheric maps. Sentinel-3 provides ocean and land surface temperature data. The Meteosat constellation operated by EUMETSAT adds geostationary coverage with 15 minute refresh cycles.
The combined data volume is extraordinary. The cost to European institutions is zero. The legal framework is European treaty law.
This is the correct foundation for sovereign intelligence systems.