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CONTENTSREPORT ON THE 11TH CEOS PLENARY
News From the Working Group on Information Systems and Services ---This page
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
The Global Terrestrial Observing System
ISRO takes over CEOS Chair for 1998
News From the Working Group on Information Systems and Services
Helen M. Wood, NOAA/NESDIS Jean Schiro-Zavela, NOAA/NESDISThe CEOS Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) held its fifth meeting in October 21-23, 1997 in Bangalore, hosted by the Indian Space Research Organization. It was preceded by the second meeting of the WGISS Strategy Task Team on October 20.
- Dr. Kasturirangan, Chairman of ISRO and the 1998 CEOS Chair, welcomed
the participants and presented an overview of India's current and planned
Earth observation satellites. He noted several aspects of data and information
that WGISS should work on, including guidelines for data archive management,
compatibility of data formats, network improvements, use of high resolution
data, and improving data availability and use in developing countries across
a range of technological levels.
WGISS members reaffirmed their interest in the six Integrated Global Observing Strategy projects, and proposed a more active liaison between WGISS and the projects. Because of similarities between the goals of the WGISS Ocean Color and WGISS Hazards and Emergency Response Task Teams and their counterpart IGOS projects, these two Task Teams will be discontinued and WGISS will instead concentrate on supporting the IGOS Disaster Management Support and Long-Term Ocean Biology Measurements projects.
WGISS endorsed the Strategy Task Team's recommendations for outreach to users. These included user involvement in WGISS efforts, emphasis on demonstration projects involving users, preparation of a product portfolio identifying WGISS data products and tools suitable for for distribution to (and adoption by) users, and an outreach campaign aimed at meetings of key external groups.
WGISS updated and approved the WGISS Five Year Plan, Version 2, for submission to the 1997 CEOS Plenary. WGISS also recommended to the Plenary that CEOS agencies extend the Global Land One Kilometer AVHRR Project to allow overlap with future sensors, provide data for the High Resolution Satellite Data Project, support the Developing Countries CD-ROM as an annual project, and participate actively in WGISS. (These recommendations were all subsequently endorsed by the Plenary.)
The Access Subgroup reported on its activities, including the third EO/GEO World Wide Web workshop to be held February 17-19 in Salzburg. The operational version of the Catalog Interoperability Protocol will be available by April 1998. The efforts of the Yellow Pages, InfoSys, and InfoNext Tasks will be folded into a new CEOS Information Infrastructure Task, which will work to develop a new home page and links among key information systems and resources.
The Data Subgroup is working on a wide range of activities, including the upcoming planned release of version 1 of the Format Guidelines document, following its approval by WGISS. The Archive Management Task Team has decided to focus on defining archive maintenance recommendations, formulating CEOS guidelines for archiving baseline data, defining an interchange format for baseline data, and identifying and recommending metadata required for archive. In early 1998, the Global Land One-kilometer Base Elevation data set will be released via CD-ROM and FTP server.
The Network Subgroup has been active in improving network connectivity and performance. The virtual CEOSnet has added a recent link to UNEP and plans a future link to ISRO. Network performance between NASA and NASDA was improved by prioritizing thte data traffic across the link. WGISS endorsed the CEOSnet Acceptable Use and Security Policies.
WGISS' new Chair, as of the end of the CEOS Plenary in November 1997, is Takashi Moriyama of NASDA. He will chair the next meeting of WGISS, to be held the week of May 11, hosted by ESA in Frascati.
The way ahead for WGISS
Takashi Moriyama, WGISS Chairman, NASDASince its establishment 2 years ago, the CEOS Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) has achieved a lot of practical progress - including the way in which activities are managed and monitored. We now have clearer visibility of everything which is ongoing under the WGISS umbrella and up-to-date knowledge of the schedule and status of each activity A number of key activities have been completed and exciting new ones initiated under Ms. Helen Wood's capable leadership in those 2 years. As the next WGISS Chair, I should like to follow and build upon this excellent foundation and to continue to drive the efficiency and effectiveness of the WG activities within CEOS. In particular I will seek to emphasise the topics of 'user outreach, involvement, and adoption' which have been discussed in the WGISS Strategy Task Team. My objectives for WGISS for the next 2 years can be summarised as follows:
1 To enable the output of WGISS efforts to be more clearly identified, and the wider context of those results to be more clearly understood (eg. in relation to commercial efforts or relevant standards)
2 To achieve greater awareness of WGISS results, within member agencies, affiliates and observers and with external bodies, including more frequent and direct liaison with user, industry, and standards groups and most importantly..
3 To improve success in adoption of WGISS products and recommendations (by members as well as others groups), overcoming the
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