BEYOND/NOA is proud to be part of this high visibility European initiative.
In September 2018 and for the first time after 20 years, the EFFIS products responsibility has been transferred from JRC to an external consortium, comprising of Earth Observation industry e-GEOS, the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), the German Aerospace Agency (DLR) and Sertit SME. The start of this new era was marked in the EFFIS Kick-off Meeting that took place at JRC ISPRA on the 21st of September 2018, during which it was agreed that the new EFFIS operations will commence in mid-November 2018.
BEYOND Center of Excellence of NOA will be responsible in EFFIS for delivering a series of rapid damage assessment products covering entire Europe, North Africa and Middle East on a 24/7/365 basis. BEYOND will process data from its Satellite Antenna Ground Station installed in Penteli, Athens, Greece, and complemented by the Ground Station of the University of Dundee for covering this huge Area of Interest. The product portfolio includes active fire detections using medium resolution satellite sensor.
EFFIS, an important tool for the national agencies.
EFFIS is an important tool at the hands of the European Commission and the national agencies for the protection of human lives and their properties, natural ecosystem preservation, and climate change studies at European scale and beyond. Analysis of the historical fire records within the so-called EFFIS Fire Database, which includes detailed information of individual fire events provided by the EFFIS network countries combined with satellite observations, are a critical source of information for policy formulation, planning, risk reduction and mitigation, and reconstruction activities.
What is EFFIS?
The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS - http://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/) supports Civil Protection Agencies in charge of the protection of natural ecosystems against fires in the EU countries, and provides the European Commission services and the European Parliament with updated and reliable information on wildland fires in Europe. EFFIS was operated since 1998 by the Joint Research Center (JRC) - the EU Science Hub, and in 2015 became part of the Early Warning component of the Emergency Management Services in the EU Copernicus program.
More information on the entire portfolio of services, which is delivered by the BEYOND Center of Excellence for the management of wildfires, is found at FIREHUB
Contact person: Dr Haris Kontoes, National Observatory of Athens, Director of BEYOND Center of Excellence
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel.:210-3490086