Terms and Conditions

The GNSS Science Support Centre (gssc.esa.int) is an initiative by ESA’s Navigation Science Office to foster the consolidation of a world-wide reference centre for the GNSS scientific community. The GSSC integrates a wide range of GNSS assets including data, products and tools in a single environment to promote innovation in GNSS Earth Sciences, Space Science, Metrology and Fundamental Physics domains.  

In the following Terms and Conditions statement:

• ‘Platform‘ means the https://gssc.esa.int/ web portal, its content and associated services.
• ‘Content’ means all software, pages, screens, information and materials included in or accessible throughout the platform. 
• ‘you’, ‘your’ and ‘yours’ means you, the person(s) accessing our Platform and related services, and the party on whose behalf you are doing so.
• ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ means the European Space Agency (ESA).
• ‘Contribution’, means all content provided you.

DISCLAIMER

Access to, and use of, the platform constitutes acceptance of the following general terms and conditions.

Neither ESA nor any other party involved in creating, producing or delivering the platform and its contents and associated services shall be liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect or punitive damages arising out of users’ access to, or use of, the platform. The platform does not guarantee the accuracy of information provided by external sources and accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of such data.

Though ESA uses the best technical standards to control the platform, material on the platform may inadvertently include technical inaccuracies or other errors. We should be grateful if users could notify us of any errors or inaccuracies they may find. Please note that users browse and use the platform at their own risk. ESA does not warrant that the functional aspects of the platform will be uninterrupted or error free or that this platform, or the servers that makes it available, are free of viruses or other harmful components. ESA may change material on the platform without prior notice.

ACCESS AND AVAILABILITY OF SERVICE AND LINKS

The platform may contain links and references to third-party websites. These are provided for the convenience and interest of users and on the part of ESA this implies neither responsibility for, nor approval of, information contained in these websites. ESA makes no warranty, either express or implied, as to the accuracy, availability or content of information, text, graphics which are not under the ‘esa.int’ domain. ESA has not tested any software located on other websites and does not make any representation as to the quality, safety, reliability or suitability of such software.

PERSONAL DATA PRIVACY

By accessing the platform, certain information about users, such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, navigation through the platform, software used and time spent, as well as other similar information, will be stored on ESA servers. These will not specifically identify users and the information will be used internally for traffic analysis only. If users provide unique identifying information, such as name, address and other information on forms stored on the platform, this information will be used for statistical purposes only and will not be published or made available for general access.

ESA does not sell or rent its platform users’ names, addresses, email addresses or other personal information.

For further details please refer to our Privacy Policy.

USE OF IP ADDRESS

The IP address is a number that is automatically given to your computer when you are surfing on the internet. Servers that host web pages, automatically identify your computer through its IP number. ESA uses IP addresses in order to carry out statistics, however, as IP addresses and personal identification are not linked to each other users remain anonymous.

USE OF COOKIES

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to an individual hard drive for record-keeping purposes; passwords are not saved in cookies. Cookies help ESA to know which pages are visited most often and helps ESA to ensure that the platform responds to users’ needs.

If you do not wish to receive a cookie, or if you wish your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, you may use the option on your web browser to disable cookies. Click on the ‘help’ section of your browser to learn how to change cookie preferences. However, please note that if you disable all cookies you may not be able to take advantage of all the features available on the platform.

ESA does not use personal identification details transferred through cookies either for promotion or marketing purposes, nor will such information be shared with a third party.

For further details please refer to our Cookie Policy.

FORUMS AND BLOGS

From time to time the environmnet contains forums and blogs or other services enabling posts and commenting (collectively termed ‘forums’). Users agree to use forums only to send and receive messages and materials that are strictly related to the particular forum.

When using an ESA forum, users agree not to do any of the following:

• Users may not download, distribute or otherwise publish through the environmnet any content which is libellous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive or in any way violates any laws.
• Forums are for non-commercial use only. Users should not distribute or otherwise publish any material containing any solicitation for funding, advertising or solicitation for goods or services without requesting and receiving prior written approval from ESA.
• Users shall not delete any author attributions, legal notices, proprietary designations or labels from any file that is downloaded nor falsify the origin or source of software or other material contained in a file that is downloaded.

ESA does not and cannot review every message posted by users on forums and is not responsible for the content of any messages posted. ESA reserves the right to delete, move or edit, at its sole discretion, messages that it deems abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright laws or unacceptable. Users shall remain solely responsible for the content of their messages.

Users acknowledge that any submissions may be edited, removed, modified, published, transmitted and displayed by ESA.

Users should be aware that all forums and discussion groups are public and not private communications. Further, users acknowledge that chats, postings, conferences and any other form of communication by other users are not endorsed by ESA, and that such communications shall not be considered as having been reviewed, screened or approved by ESA.

COPYRIGHTS

The contents of the platform are intended for the personal and non-commercial use of its users. ESA grants permission to users to visit the platform, and to download and copy information, images, documents and materials from the platform for users’ personal non-commercial use. ESA does not grant the right to resell or redistribute any information, documents, images or material from the platform or to compile or create derivative works from material on the platform. Use of material on the platform is subject to the terms and conditions outlined below.

All material published on the platform is protected by copyright and owned or controlled by ESA or the party credited as the provider of the content, software or other material.

Users may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display or in any way exploit any of the content, software, material or services, in whole or in part, without obtaining prior written authorisation.

CONTRIBUTIONS  

Your contributions to the platform shall be created by you or you shall have a license to use them. Your contribution may be removed if you’ve stepped over the line and used content without permission. Of course, this also means someone else’s contribution may be removed if they’ve “borrowed” from your work. If you believe your intellectual property has been infringed by another developer on the platform, submit a claim via our GSSC Service Desk . Laws differ in different countries, but at the very least, make sure to avoid the following common errors:

• Generally: Don’t use protected third-party material such as trademarks, copyrighted works, or patented ideas in your contribution without permission, and don’t include misleading, false, or copycat representations, names, or metadata in your contribution. Contributions should be submitted by the person or legal entity that owns or has licensed the intellectual property and other relevant rights.
• Third-Party Sites/Services: If your contribution uses, accesses, or displays content from a third-party service, ensure that you are specifically permitted to do so under the service’s terms of use. Authorization must be provided upon request.
• File Downloading: Contributions should not facilitate illegal file sharing or include the ability to save, convert, or download media from third-party sources  without explicit authorization from those sources. File streaming may also violate Terms of Use, so be sure to check before your contribution accesses those services. Documentation must be provided upon request.
• ESA endorsements: Don’t suggest or imply that ESA is a source or supplier of the contribution, or that ESA endorses any particular representation regarding quality or functionality. 

CITATION POLICY

Whenever your use of GSSC resources results in, or contributes to, a publication, please include a citation. “Navarro, V., del Rio, S., Millán, M. del M., Messina, A., Ventura-Traveset, J. (2024). GSSC Now: ESA Thematic exploitation platform for navigation digital transformation. Enhancing GNSS scientific research. Advances in Space Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2024.02.016“

Please add following reference to the acknowledgement section of any paper or presentation using GSSC resources:

COMPUTE POLICY

The Platform enables users to create and use computing elements (known as datalabs) to carry out on-the-fly, interactive data analysis without the need to download the data.

The Platform currently allows 5 datalabs running in parallel for each user:

• Users’ requests for additional datalabs will be considered and can be submitted to GSSC Service Desk.
• The platform will automatically pause datalabs if they remain inactive and are not accessed (from “DATALABS” menu) for a continuous period of 3 days. Pausing a datalab temporarily suspends its resource allocation and stops any ongoing computations. Paused datalabs can be resumed by the user whenever needed, and the platform will retain the data and configurations associated with the datalab during the pause period.
• The Platform reserves the right to delete datalabs not accessed (from “DATALABS” menu) in 90 days without prior notification.

STORAGE POLICY

The Platform provides persistent storage connected to a user’s computing element:

• The Platform currently allocates 10 GB of persistent storage for each user.
• Users’ requests for additional persistent storage will be considered and can be submitted to GSSC Service Desk.
• The Platform reserves the right to delete persistent data older than 365 days with a minimum notification period of 90 days.

NON-COMERCIAL USE POLICY

Our services, products, data, or content are intended for scientific research purposes only. Our users are prohibited from using our services, products, data, or content for any commercial purpose or for the benefit of any commercial entity without our prior written consent. Our services, products, data, or content may not be resold, repurposed, or redistributed for any commercial gain.

By accessing and using the platform, users agree to comply with these terms and conditions. Violation of this clause may result in termination of the user’s account and legal action. We reserve the right to amend, modify or terminate this clause at any time without notice. 

USE OF ESA LOGO

The ESA logo is owned by ESA and protected by trademarks and under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. You may not modify or create derivatives of the ESA logo. Any use, reproduction, publication, display, transmission, making available to the public or exploitation of the ESA logo requires prior written authorisation. For authorisation, please contact: corporatedesign@esa.int

RELATED TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Please note that, the use of this Platform implies the acknowledgement and acceptance of ESA Terms and Conditions. Additionally, as a COSMOS Portal user, alongside this Terms And Conditions statement following COSMOS Portal Terms and Conditions apply.