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Full catalog/ccm-optical
ccm-optical·dataset

Commercial high-resolution camera satellite imagery (Copernicus)

Copernicus Contributing Missions Optical
land ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. Detailed optical pictures of the Earth's surface taken across a wide range of light wavelengths, capturing how different surfaces reflect sunlight. The imagery is high resolution, meaning small features on the ground can be seen clearly.

How it's made. Sourced by ESA Copernicus from a network of commercial satellite operators, called the Copernicus Contributing Missions, that supply imagery to fill gaps left by Europe's own Sentinel fleet.

How & where you'd use it. Helps map land, respond to emergencies and disasters, support security operations, and monitor coastal and marine areas. It is a building block that feeds Copernicus services rather than a finished map on its own.

What's measured

CopernicusESAEUImageryOpticalReflectanceSatelliteCCM

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span1998-01-19 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-83.711914, -35.5704748260475, 65.787712, 80.984856

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

Optical data from the Copernicus Contributing Missions (CCM) consist of high-resolution satellite imagery provided by commercial mission operators. These datasets support the Copernicus programme in areas such as land monitoring, emergency response, security, and marine environment. The imagery covers a broad spectral range and is tailored for diverse operational and analytical applications.

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["ccm-optical"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.