Vendée Globe 2020: CLS official partner and ice vigil

CLS is a global company and pioneer provider of monitoring and surveillance solutions for the Earth, created in 1986. We are subsidiary of the French Space Agency (CNES) and CNP, an investment firm. Our mission is to create innovative space-based solutions to understand and protect our planet and to manage its resources sustainably.

Vendée Globe 2020: CLS official partner

The company is providing the Vendée Globe with its expertise in processing satellite radar and altimetry data (measuring sea level) and modeling ocean currents to detect the presence and predict the drift of icebergs around Antarctica.

Over the last three editions of the Vendée Globe, several dozen icebergs, which could threaten the skippers’ course, have been detected by CLS. CLS’s mission is to detect the most dangerous zones. In collaboration with the race management, they define the exclusive Antarctic zone.

VIGISAT, ice vigil for the 2020 Vendée Globe race

From its operations center in Toulouse, France, CLS collects data from nearly 130 satellites. Thanks to its VIGISAT station, a unique infrastructure in France, CLS acquires high-resolution radar satellite images, it detects icebergs thanks to algorithms developed for ice with the sharp and trained eye of expert iceberg detection analysts.

CLS, an international satellite observation and surveillance company

CLS employs 750 people at our headquarters in Toulouse (France) and in 28 other sites around the world. The company works in five strategic markets: sustainable fisheries management, environmental monitoring, maritime surveillance, fleet management, and energy & mining.