The “Operations of a Data Hub Relay” project is part of the Copernicus Earth observation programme, implemented by the European Space Agency (ESA) on behalf of the European Union.

Under this programme, there is a network of Data Hub Relays (DHRs) facilitating the mass transfer of COPERNICUS Earth observation satellite data from ESA operation centres to National Mirror Sites. The existing DHRs are operating in the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and Norway. The main objective of the project is to support and facilitate the mass delivery of Copernicus satellite data from the ESA operated hubs to the National Mirror Sites.

This DHR  – Greek Relay Hub with an estimated start of implementation around the end of 2020, will mainly serve the national mirror site https://sentinels.space.noa.gr/, which is also jointly operated by GRNET and ESA since 2014.

GRNET participates as a subcontractor to the National Observatory of Athens and is responsible to provide the necessary infrastructure to host a Data Hub Relay “as a service” for 18 months in Greece. 

GRNET is responsible to provide infrastructure storage, network access for data sharing without backlog  accumulation to the national Mirror site and the other DHRs, as well as sufficient compute resources to avoid operating interruptions of the Greek Relay Hub.

The project is implemented by the National Observatory of Athens (NOA – main contractor) in collaboration with GRNET (GRNET S.A.), which acts as a subcontractor.