When location matters: How EU space data supports everyday safety
From emergency calls to mountain rescues, EU satellite navigation helps locate people when every minute counts
Knowing exactly where someone is can decide how quickly help arrives. Whether a child becomes lost in a crowded park or a hiker is caught in dense fog, reliable location information allows emergency services to respond faster. Galileo, the EU’s satellite navigation system, helps compatible devices calculate their position and is now used in more than 4.5 billion devices worldwide.
The EU Agency for the Space Programme explains that Galileo plays a particularly important role in emergencies. When someone calls 112 from a smartphone, satellite signals, including Galileo, are combined with sources such as Wi-Fi to determine their location. This information helps emergency services identify the caller more quickly and send assistance to the correct place. In remote areas, Galileo satellites can also relay distress-beacon signals to authorities, while the Return Link Service confirms to the person in distress that the alert has been received.
Open data helps turn information collected through space technologies into resources that can be reused for practical purposes. Through the European Data Portal, users can discover resources such as the Copernicus Digital Elevation Model, CORINE Land Cover data and Sentinel-2 satellite imagery. These resources can support environmental monitoring, agriculture and spatial planning, while helping researchers, public authorities and businesses develop new services and make evidence-based decisions.
Want to discover what space data makes possible? Read about Galileo and its role in everyday safety and browse satellite-related datasets available on the European Data Portal.
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