What the Copernicus Thematic Hubs Are and Which Topics They Cover

Updated

The Copernicus Thematic Hubs are focused entry points that bring together Copernicus Earth observation data and service products around a specific policy or societal topic. On copernicus.eu, five hubs are listed: Health, Coastal, Energy, Arctic, and Heritage. Each hub gathers relevant data, interactive maps, and use cases so that users working in that domain can find material without searching across every Copernicus service. They are aimed at supporting decision-making and sustainable practices in their respective fields.

Note that copernicus.eu now describes its main website as an archive; current news items such as the Copernicus Image of the Day and the EU Space Observer are published on the new EU Space website. The hub descriptions below reflect what is presented on the archived site.

The five hubs and their topics

Hub Topic focus What the site says it offers
Health Hub Health, including physical health, mental health, and well-being Brings together all Copernicus environmental data and products pertinent to health
Coastal Hub Coastal zones Open and free access to a selection of coastal Earth observation data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellites and all Copernicus Services
Energy Hub Green energy transition Connects environmental data and Earth observations to the green energy transition
Arctic Hub The Arctic Access to data and information in the Arctic, interactive maps, and thematic use cases to support decision-making and sustainable practices
Heritage Hub Cultural and natural heritage sites A centralised, purpose-built platform for using Copernicus and other data to monitor, preserve, and manage heritage sites

How the hubs differ from the Copernicus services

The hubs do not replace the Copernicus services (Atmosphere, Marine, Land, Climate Change, Security, and Emergency). Instead, they cut across them. The Coastal Hub, for example, explicitly draws on data from the Sentinel satellites and all Copernicus Services, while the Health Hub aggregates environmental data and products relevant to health from across the programme. If you already know which service produces the product you need, go to that service; if your question is framed around a topic such as coastal management or energy planning, a hub is the more direct starting point.

What you can actually do in a hub

Based on the site's descriptions, typical hub content includes:

  • Curated data access — selections of Sentinel and service data relevant to the topic (stated explicitly for the Coastal Hub as open and free access).
  • Interactive maps — named for the Arctic Hub and described as a general feature of the hubs.
  • Thematic use cases — worked examples showing how the data is applied. The Arctic Hub description names these directly, and the site's broader use-case section illustrates the pattern, such as drift modelling to investigate solidified vegetable oil stranding on Finland's Hanko Peninsula, or a maritime surveillance decision-support system for law enforcement, search operations, and pollution control.

Choosing the right hub

  • Public health, well-being, or environmental health questions → Health Hub.
  • Coastline, marine litter, or coastal resilience work → Coastal Hub.
  • Renewable energy siting or transition planning → Energy Hub.
  • Arctic monitoring, maps, and regional decision support → Arctic Hub.
  • Monitoring or managing a cultural or natural heritage site → Heritage Hub.

If your topic spans several of these, start with the hub closest to your policy question and follow its links into the underlying services for the specific products.

Practical notes

  • The hub pages sit on copernicus.eu, which the site now labels an archive. For current news and observer articles, the site points to the new EU Space website; the hubs themselves are described as active platforms.
  • The site does not state pricing or login requirements for the hubs beyond describing the Coastal Hub's data as open and free. Check each hub's own access terms before relying on a dataset for operational use.
  • For a full list of information products behind any hub, the Copernicus services catalogue is the authoritative index.