CEOS NEWSLETTER No.12

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CONTENTS

 

Second IGOS Partners Meeting held in Bangalore

Dr. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, ISRO
Mr. Mukund Rao, ISROF
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The 2nd IGOS Partners Meeting was held in Bangalore on November 10, 1998, under the Chairmanship of Dr. K Kasturirangan, Chair of CEOS for 1998. Apart from CEOS, the host for the meeting, FAO, IGBP, UNEP, WMO, WCRP, IGFA, GCOS, GOOS and ICSU attended the meeting.

    The Partnership, recently formed in June, 1998, will now champion the IGOS and progress activities for its implementation and development through the activities of its members.
    The Partnership noted that letters of endorsement and commitment to IGOS had been exchanged by CEOS, IOC, GCOS, GOOS, WCRP and WMO. Other agencies were in the process of confirming their participation in IGOS.
    The focus of the Partners Meeting was to address the completion of the strategy document of space component
and the ground-based in-situ observation.
    The Partners also recognised the value of the mechanisms of projects, to be championed by the inter-governmental
space user agencies. A task group, led by Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Associate Administrator of NASA will now develop
guidelines for initiating projects. The projects would start with definition of the information requirements. CEOS would address the compliance from Space based Earth Observation (EO) and the Global Observing Systems for compliance by ground based observation networks. These evaluations would be basic for the definition of the space component and in-situ component strategies. Commitments from the Partners would enable the implementation of the projects. The Partners also recognise the need to channel these projects into national programmes.
    The Partnership also decided to organise a one day International Forum on IGOS at the forthcoming UNISPACE Conference being organised in Vienna in July 1999. Dr. He Changchui, FAO leads a task team for coordinating and organising this event. The Forum will focus on the concept of IGOS and Projects that would demonstrate the benefit of a global strategy of observations to meet the user needs. Presentations on specific activities of the partnership agencies would bring out the focus of multi-agency towards the development of IGOS.
    Realising the need for a technical analysis of the user requirements and defining the space observation needs, re-vitalisation of the Global Observing Space Systems Panel (GOSSP) has also been endorsed. The GOSSP will interface with the SIT of CEOS to focus project requirements and development under IGOS. CEOS has also been invited to nominate 2-3 experts to serve on GOSSP.
    The next meeting of the IGOS Partners will be held in conjunction with the G3OS Sponsors Group meeting to be
held in June, 1998 in Rome.


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    Application Centre, South Africa as an Associate of CEOS. With this, CEOS has a total membership of 20 Members and 18 Associates.
    The CEOS Plenary also reviewed various activities of its two working groups - Working Group on Calibration and
Validation (WGCV) and Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS).
    The Plenary also recognised that CEOS should work to develop mechanisms for establishing a forum for private sector participation and interaction. Initially, the plan is to focus on jointly organised CEOS and private sector events -either
as Workshops or Symposia Sessions, together with the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), in major international events.
    Dr Tillmann Mohr was "annointed" Chair for 1999 in a traditional Indian manner and was handed over the "CEOS gavel" by Dr Kasturirangan - signifying ISROs handing over the CEOS Chair to EUMETSAT. Dr Tillmann Mohr of EUMETSAT confirmed that EUMETSAT would be hosting the 13th CEOS Plenary, in coordination with the Swedish National Space Board, at Stockholm between November 10-12, 1999. For the year 2000, INPE, the Brazilian Space Agency will Chair the CEOS and in 2001, STA / NASDA will be Chairing CEOS.
    Dr Kasturirangan, in his closing remarks, thanked the CEOS Members and Associates for their unstinted support in furthering the CEOS activities 1998. He mentioned that the value of CEOS was its participants that made the Committee a vibrant and effective forum. He also thanked the IGOS Partners for having given the opportunity of leading the 2nd meeting and also for their cooperation and guidance.

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