Europe's meteorological satellite organization, Eumetsat, will provide ocean-altimetry data from the Jason-3, Sentinel-3 and follow-on satellites in support of the European Commission's Copernicus Earth observation program under a contract with the commission signed Nov. 7. Under the contract, the commission will pay Darmstadt, Germany-based Eumetsat 229 million euros ($286 million) for Eumetsat's exploitation of these satellites' data for the Copernicus marine service starting in 2015. The 30-nation Eumetsat has a major role in Copernicus alongside the commission, which owns the program; and the 20-nation European Space Agency, which is technical manager of the satellite segment under a 3.15-billion-euro contract signed Oct. 16.
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