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CONTENTSREPORT ON THE 11TH CEOS PLENARY
News From the Working Group on Information Systems and Services
CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation
IGOS Strategic Implementation Team - Progress Report
The Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment
The Upper Air Measurements
Long-Term Continuity of Ozone Measurements
Ocean Biology
Global Observation of Forest Cover
Disaster Management Support ---This page
The Global Terrestrial Observing System
ISRO takes over CEOS Chair for 1998
Disaster Management Support
Helen M. Wood NOAA/NESDISThe world community could better mitigate the human and economic losses caused by disasters if data from current and planned Earth Observation (EO) satellites were used more effectively in disaster management support. Today, meteorological satellites are widely used to detect and track severe storms and to support other weather-driven events.
- However, operational application of data from these and other EO satellites
to support management of other types of disasters (e.g., oil spills, harmful
algae blooms, earthquakes, forest fires) is significantly less common.
And although there have been a great many research and operational demonstrations
which illustrate the potential usefulness of EO satellite data for other
hazards, a thorough understanding of the requirements of the diverse range
of users is needed as a first step toward planning for operational support
services derived from EO satellite data. The Disaster Management Support
project is working with emergency management authorities and other users
and data providers to develop and refine a set of requirements profiles
for this important application area. In addition prototype tools are being
developed to support access to data and information for these applications.
During 1997, four project meetings were held. These provided opportunities
to survey the extensive work conducted over a number of years that demonstrates
the use of EO satellite data for a wide variety of disaster types and phases.
A similar meeting was held earlier in the U.S. (Washington, D.C. January
1997) by the CEOS WGISS Hazards Response Task Team. This team has since
been folded into the IGOS disaster project and WGISS has created a liaison
function to ensure close ties to the project. Strong support for this project
has been expressed by CEOS agencies, user agencies and other organizations
that work closely with emergency management authorities. Participating
organizations include the UN IDNDR which involves authorities from more
than 140 countries, the EC DG XI Civil Protection Unit which works with
civil protection departments of EU member states, Japan's National Research
Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, the Council of Europe,
and the U.S. Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction. NOAA is hosting
a prototype information server to provide "one stop shopping" for locating
and acquiring EO satellite data. Several agencies are participating in
the development of this service. Hazard teams have been formed to address
the satellite data requirements for specific hazard areas, including drought,
earthquake, flooding, fires, oil spills, tropical cyclones, and volcanic
ash clouds. Agencies are invited to participate in the project, its hazard
teams, and development of the prototype information server. A project workshop
is planned for the week of March 30 near Washington, DC. For more information
contact: Helen M. Wood (chair), NOAA, Tel:1.301.457.5120, Fax: 1.301.457.5184,
E-mail: Helen.Wood@noaa.gov; Kenneth Inglis (vice chair), European Commission/KEMSAT,
Tel: 32.2.345.7190, E-mail: ken.inglis@club.innet.be or visit the Internet
server at www.ceos.noaa.gov.
(continued from Page 1)REPORT ON THE 11TH CEOS PLENARY
Plenary confirmed the need to revisit the definitions of the membership
categories described in the CEOS terms of reference in order to better
fit with the role now played by some participating agencies and by potential
newcomers. The Plenary charged the Secretariat to commission a small group
of CEOS members to further develop recommendations addressing CEOS partnership
and to report to the 12th Plenary.
Other Outstanding Events
The Plenary agreed on the principle of welcoming ISPRS as a new CEOS
observer. The 11th Plenary thanked Ms. Helen WOOD for her most dedicated
work as Chair of the Working Group on information Systems and Services
since its creation, and for her outstanding involvement in CEOS over a
long period and welcomed Dr. Takashi MORIYAMA as new Chair for WGISS. Also
the 11th Plenary thanked M. Yukio HARUYAMA for his excellent work in chairing
the Analysis Group. A revised version of the CD-ROM "Resources in Earth
Observation" published by CNES on behalf of CEOS was distributed. This
version was in free consultation in the demonstrations room, located next
to the Conference room, together with 10 other technical demonstrations
set up by some of the CEOS participating agencies: - Space PC AVHRR Processing
for Windows NT 4.0 by the European Commission
- Radarsat, Radiometric Calibration by the Canada Center for Remote
Sensing
- Global Observations of Forest Cover: a glimpse of the Future by the
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