US and European geospatial data policies: challenges of open data policy

The collection of data by Earth observation satellites represents an increa-singly important application of space technology, both in the US and in Europe. In the EU, the Copernicus program is being established to provide services in the fields of atmosphere-, marine- and land-monitoring, climate change, emergency management and security. In the US, the Land Remote-Sensing Satellite System (Landsat) is operational since 1972, but also other satellites are used for Earth observation.