Copernicus contributing to mutilateral initiatives

Summary of the successful one year period of the Committee on Earth Observation satellites (CEOS) for the European Commission:

The European Commission has been a CEOS Member since 1994, this year (October 20 17 – October 2018) was the first opportunity for the European Commission to serve a term as Chair of the organisation. The CEOS chair term provided the Commission with an opportunity to set the agenda of Earth Observation related international initiatives and to focus on areas, which are key for us in the global domain: partnerships for CO2 monitoring; co-operation in data distribution, access and exchange; data-related standardisation and responding better to user needs. The 32nd CEOS Plenary marked the successful accomplishment of the Commission’s role as Chair of CEOS and the Commission reached all planned objectives.

The European Commission specifically pursued two dedicated priority initiatives during its mandate:

1. To lay the foundation for an international greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring system

2. To highlight the benefits of Future Data Architectures, identifying new targets

The meeting was a true success with 90 attendees representing a large number of CEOS Agencies and associates from across the globe. It was a great opportunity for the Commission to provide input to the event through the context of Copernicus, both in terms of policy and implementation. Copernicus is now acknowledged as the de facto global benchmark for Earth Observation. As Chair of the Committee of Earth Observation Satellites in 2018, the European Commission laid the foundation for coordination on a global greenhouse gas monitoring system to help implement the Paris Agreement. Key outcomes of the CEOS plenary include:

• The CEOS Plenary endorsed the ‘Statement reporting on progress by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) on a Coordinated Response to UNFCCC Needs for Global Observations’ for submission at COP-24

• The CEOS Plenary endorsed the report 'A Constellation Architecture for Monitoring Carbon Dioxide and Methane from Space.’

• The Plenary confirmed CEOS interest in establishing a dedicated coordination mechanism for green house gas monitoring, with adequate resources and activities. This is based on the identified roadmap of the report 'A Constellation Architecture for Monitoring Carbon Dioxide and Methane from Space.’

• Major advancements have been presented around the data activities with a lot of development demonstrated on Analysis Ready Data and Datacubes, with all of the implication for these of the interoperability of different agencies datasets.

• The CEOS Working Groups and Virtual Constellations have continued to demonstrate substantial amount of important activities, which provide the foundations for many of the CEOS priorities to be addressed.

• The National Institute of Environmental Research, Korea (NIER) and United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA) were accepted as the newest member agencies of CEOS