CEMS is one of the six services provided by Copernicus, the European Union's Earth Observation Programme. Created using satellite, in-situ, and model data, CEMS products support all actors involved in the management of natural and man-made disasters throughout the disaster lifecycle. This includes prevention, preparedness, response and recovery activities.

CEMS has been operational since 2012 and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre is responsible for the management, technical implementation and evolution of the service.

CEMS consists of three components:

  • On-demand mapping that provides satellite-based maps on the extent and impact of disasters for specific worldwide events upon request of eligible users;
  • Early Warning and Monitoring that provides overviews of near real-time and early warning information for ongoing and forecasted events in relation to floods, droughts and forest fires with European and global coverage;
  • Exposure mapping, providing highly accurate information on the presence of settlements, its related infrastructure and population.

CEMS flood early warning and monitoring component comprises the Global and European Flood Awareness Systems (GloFAS and EFAS) as well as the Global Flood Monitoring product. CEMS fire early warning and monitoring component is composed of the European Forest Fire Information Service (EFFIS) and the Global Wildfire Information Service (GWIS - under development).

ECMWF is the designated contractor to implement the operational functionalities of the CEMS Hydrological Forecast Centre – Computation and to implement the EFFIS fire danger forecasts. The CEMS Hydrological Forecast Centre – Computation has the task to execute the EFAS and GloFAS forecasts and hosts the relevant EFAS and GloFAS webpages. 

CEMS-Floods in brief

The European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) became operational in 2012 and several European organisations are responsible for producing and providing the flood informatioccn. It provides pan-European overview maps of flood probabilities up to 15 days in advance, seasonal streamflow outlooks up to 4 months ahead, and flash-flood risk.

Click here for the User documentation on CEMS-Floods

CEMS-Fire in brief

At the end of 2017, ECMWF became the computational centre for the Copernicus Emergency Management Service - Fire. This activity is undertaken in collaboration with Météo‐France.

ECMWF provides fire danger calculations from high-resolution and ensemble forecasts up to 15 days ahead on a daily basis. The data feeds into the European Forest Fire information System (EFFIS) . Twice a week and every month we also provide temperature and precipitation anomalies from the extended-range and seasonal system.

EFFIS was established to support the national authorities responsible for management of forest fires in the European Union and neighbouring countries, as well as to provide the European Commission and the European Parliament with reliable information on trends associated with these incidents.

Click here for the User documentation for CEMS-Fire