The IRIDE constellation, Italy’s national Earth observation infrastructure, began offering its first geospatial services to public bodies on 1 October 2026, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) announced. The system is owned by ASI and was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with ASI.
At launch, 18 services and 110 products became available. They make it possible to monitor coastal water quality, ground movement caused by landslides and earthquakes, drought and water resources, urban heat islands, air quality and gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. There are also elevation models of the whole of Italy at 1-metre resolution.
On request, the system can map burned areas after wildfires and, in emergencies such as floods, earthquakes or tsunamis, outline the affected zones, assess damage to buildings and estimate water depth. The services are run by the Italian companies Planetek Italia and e-GEOS, with other partners.
The programme is funded by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan. ASI says this is only a first phase and that more services and products will be added gradually.
