Skip to content

Category: Programmes

Increasingly, space applications are seen as crucial tools for tackling the world’s social, technical and environmental problems. On 19-20 April 2006, the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) Conference in Graz, Austria, addressed the question of how a market for GMES services can be created. The role of European regions and public entities, crucial users of GMES services, was highlighted.

Published on
“The command and appropriate use of information has important geo-strategic implications,“ said Heinz Zourek, Director-General of the Commission’s Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General, “and Europe needs to have available a capacity which allows it independently to evaluate its policy responses in a reliable and timely manner. A comprehensive Earth observing system, using space-borne and in situ techniques on land, in the air and at sea, through well-defined operational services, is key to ensuring the implementation and monitoring of environmental and security policies in the context of sustainable development.”
According to Zourek, GMES will answer essential questions, such as:
* How efficient is EU land use?
* How attractive is our living environment, for both residents and investors?
* How secure are our resources, i.e. crops, fish stocks, water and energy?
* What is the risk of natural or human-made disasters and are we prepared?
* What are the real impacts of our political decisions, in agriculture, infrastructures and spatial planning?
* What our alternatives?
A wide-ranging agenda
The Graz GMES conference, attended by over 200 participants, tackled a number of pressing issues still to be resolved before GMES gets off the ground. Sessions covered important topics, including:
* The European and International Context of GMES;
* The current and future GMES market;
* Creating a market in Europe;
* Public and private demand;
* The role of the regions;
* The characteristics of the security market;
* GMES value for money;
* The role of governance in organising user needs.
One clear message was the confirmation of GMES as the most important space application programme of the coming years. Continuity was assured concerning its high place on the political agenda of the Austrian Presidency up to at least the German Presidency in 2007.
The role of the European Commission in federating users was also confirmed. User communities must be organised, as are the weather service user communities today, starting with the three ‘fast track’ services – emergency response, land monitoring and marine services – but including others in the longer term.
Crucially, EU funding under the upcoming Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) is considered insufficient. Funding under other user Directorate-General budgets will also have to be explored. A specific funding line for the GMES space infrastructure is also now requested by some conference participants and the national capacities of Member States must be factored in.
Investment remains key
Attending the conference were officials from both public (EUMETSAT, OECD, GEOSS) and private organisations. The European Association of Remote Sensing Companies was well represented. With 70 members, most of whom are SMEs, it makes up a full 50% of the Earth Observation (EO) community.
Most agreed that investment in GMES is not just about money, but must include ideas and education. While big players in the USA such as Google and Microsoft have added to the broad awareness of the possibilities of EO, the question remains as to how much the average European knows about the GMES initiative.
A final thematic session focused on the draft report of the GMES Advisory Council Working Group on future structure and governance, highlighting GMES’ political dimension.
Moving forward now
“We are all convinced that GMES is indispensable for both the pursuance of European competitiveness in fulfilment of the Lisbon goals and to accomplish our policies with regard to a responsible management of the planets limited resources,” said Zourek.
“Pooling our resources would make the service providing industry much more robust with advantages for both the users, who benefit from increased continuity, standardised formats and lower prices, and for industry itself, becoming stronger thanks to the growing world market for information products.”
Speaking at a major press conference that followed the event, European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen placed GMES users at the forefront. “Space manufacturers have done a great job developing the technologies required for GMES,” he said. “The focus now moves to users. What are their real needs? Can we meet them with GMES services? And, in the long-term, will services be sustained by operating budgets, rather than the research budgets now being used?”
More info at
(Credits Europa)

Understanding biodiversity is among the most challenging intellectual and scientific puzzles facing mankind today. Nearly every economic sector around the planet has an impact on biodiversity or its conservation status. This is why the EU funds research in this domain and will continue to do so with the launch in 2007 of the EU’s next Seventh Framework Research Programme (FP7).

Published on
Biodiversity rests on a vastly complex nexus of social, economic, cultural, and ecological dimensions that embrace huge scales in terms of space and time. The threat to biodiversity’s richness is global but many of its pressures and drivers are local, which means that potential solutions often require detailed local or regional knowledge.
This scientific and intellectual challenge is borne out by the wide range of research projects in the Commission’s last two Framework Programmes. Together FP5 and FP6 have devoted € 170 million to research regarding biodiversity and ecosystems.
Five major FP6 projects will be showcased during the upcoming 8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in March in Curitiba, Brazil. The projects on display will offer a cross-cut of EU-supported research results that support implementation of the CBD’s work programmes and action plans to combat the ongoing loss of biodiversity.
Diversity of biodiversity projects
The EU contribution for the major FP6 projects, which have a lifetime up to 5 years, is often more than € 10 million per project. One example is ALARM, which is assessing the large-scale environmental risks for biodiversity posed by climate change, biological invasions, pollinator loss, environmental chemicals and socio-economic pressure. Another is HERMES whose researchers are studying the biodiversity, structure, function and dynamics of ecosystems along Europe’s deep-ocean margin. The MARBEF network links 82 European marine institutes together and disseminates information among them regarding marine biodiversity and ecosystem function. ALTER-Net is building a long-term biodiversity, ecosystem and awareness research network from case studies across seven countries, while EDIT is integrating European taxonomic efforts to create a top-class European virtual centre of excellence in this field.
MARINE GENOMICS offers new investigative methods regarding the biology of marine organisms and a web-based interface to bio-informatics data management and data analysis tools. The EVOLTREE network ties together 14 countries, 32 partners, 37 laboratories and 204 researchers working in forest genomics, genetics and terrestrial ecosystems. One of its aims is to create a European platform in population genomics of forest trees.
FP5 and FP6 also supported many smaller Specific Targeted Projects and Co-ordination Activities in biodiversity. Information about most of these projects dealing with terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity can be found on the websites of BIOTA and FP5 marine projects.
Conclusion
It is imperative that the international community pull together in halting the globe’s declining biodiversity. The continuing loss will make it impossible to achieve sustainable growth, and will seriously compromise our ability to attain the UN’s Millennium Development Goals regarding poverty, hunger, human health and water quantity and quality. To remain competitive each economy must take care of its natural environment. Indeed, nine out of ten European citizens say we have a duty to protect nature even if this means limiting human progress. By firmly carrying biodiversity research into FP7, Europe can remain competitive in key sectors such as bio-computing, complexity theory and dynamics of emergent systems. Research will also maintain Europe’s capacity to buffer our life-support systems from unwanted change, thus safeguarding our economic and social futures.
(Credits Europa)

On 21-22 April 2006, European ministers responsible for competitiveness met in Graz, Austria, to discuss the theme ‘Investing in excellence and innovation’. The informal debate, which focused on the EU’s upcoming Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7), included exchanges of views on space research, security research, Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security (GMES) and European Space Policy.

Published on
The creation of the Competitiveness Council in June 2002 was a response to the perceived need for a more coherent and better-coordinated handling of matters related to EU competitiveness. Depending on the items on the agenda, the Council is composed of European Affairs Ministers, Industry Ministers, Research Ministers, etc.
The overarching question addressed by ministers in Graz was how the European Union can best meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive global marketplace. European Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen insisted on the importance of space for meeting the EU’s Lisbon objectives, pointing to the need for a comprehensive approach, including community building, co-operation and coordination.
After thanking the Austrian Presidency for its inclusion of GMES in its Graz dialogue, he said, “GMES is the second space flagship of the European Union, after GALILEO. It will be a major priority under FP7 and we are now pushing for a specific budget line for space infrastructure in the new financial perspectives. We are making good progress on the preparation of a European Space Policy and we expect strong support from the upcoming German Presidency.”
GMES steps
In February 2004, the European Commission adopted a GMES action plan (2004-2008), outlining steps towards the establishment of a system that will harness, coordinate and enhance existing Earth Observation (EO) and monitoring information from satellites and Earth-based and air- and waterborne sensors, in order to support better decision-making for the environment and security. The aim of the initiative is to provide independent, cost-effective, and user-friendly services that can help to anticipate or address crises, such as forest fires or floods, and lead to better management of issues ranging from the protection of the environment to combating illegal immigration.
The Graz Competitiveness Council agreed that concrete policies and measures at both European and Member State level are still needed to ensure the attainment of Europe’s strategic goals in space, including with respect to the GMES initiative.
Role for regions
Austrian Vice Chancellor Hubert Gorbach stressed the importance of the GMES initiative as an integral part of the European space programme. “The GMES conference which has just taken place here in Graz highlighted the question of identifying and developing markets for GMES,” he said. “We know that these markets will depend much on the public sector. In this context, the roles and needs of the European regions will be of key importance with regard to GMES services, including transport, crisis management and environmental services.”
The EU Competitiveness Council has been a strong supporter of the emerging European Space Policy, including the ongoing strengthening of ties between the European Commission and the European Space Agency. With its important debate in Graz on the GMES initiative, the Council has now reaffirmed its commitment to one of Europe’s primary space projects, placing it high on the agenda of European economic competitiveness.
More information:
(Credits Europa)

In a competition announced by Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen, European students will be given the chance to come up with a new name for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security initiative (GMES), Europe’s joint effort to make Earth Observation information available to the widest set of users.

Published on
“The command and appropriate use of information has important geo-strategic implications,“ said Heinz Zourek, Director-General of the Commission’s Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General, “and Europe needs to have available a capacity which allows it independently to evaluate its policy responses in a reliable and timely manner. A comprehensive Earth observing system, using space-borne and in situ techniques on land, in the air and at sea, through well-defined operational services, is key to ensuring the implementation and monitoring of environmental and security policies in the context of sustainable development.”
“The ultimate beneficiaries of more effective and more efficient public policies and services are Europe’s citizens,” says Verheugen. “As with so much of what we do at Community level, we need to connect with them. One way to do this is through the youth of Europe.”
Speaking on 20 April 2006, following the GMES conference in Graz, Austria, Verheugen said, “The title ‘Global Monitoring for Environment and Security’ is an accurate statement of the purpose of this initiative. Unfortunately, ‘GMES’ is not the most memorable of names. We need to find something more attractive, a name that will encapsulate what the services are and also what they stand for – in marketing terms, their brand values. We need to establish the same level of public recognition that is already becoming apparent for GALILEO, the EU’s other space-related flagship programme. That is why I am launching a competition among Europe’s schools to identify a new name for GMES.”
The contest will be aimed at teenagers who are in the final years before they leave school or college for work or university. Participating schools will decide for themselves how to fit information about GMES into their academic curricula. Possible entry points could include geography, environmental studies or physics.
“Once the students have a good understanding of the purpose of GMES and the technologies which lie behind it,” explains Verheugen, “they will work as a team to provide their entry in the competition to find a new name. I am launching this competition in association with the Committee of the Regions and inviting it to make the initial approach to the schools.”
The EU’s Director-General of the Enterprise and Industry Heinz Zourek has added, “It’s no secret – young people can sometimes show more imagination than us bureaucrats, and we want to make sure that GMES has the highest possible level of visibility and recognition among the public that it will ultimately serve.”
A dedicated website featuring all necessary information on the GMES name contest will be launched in early May 2006. The winning entry is expected to be named in early 2007.
More information:
(Credits Europa)

An ambitious ESA project to chart ten years in the life of the Earth‘s
vegetation has reached a midway point, with participants and end-users
having met to review progress so far. Harnessing many terabytes of
satellite data, the GLOBCARBON project is intended to hone the accuracy
of climate change forecasting.

Published on

GLOBCARBON involves the development
of a service to generate fully calibrated estimates of land products
based on a variety of Earth Observation data, suitable for assimilation
into sophisticated software simulations of the planet created by the
global carbon modelling community.

The service is focused on the generation
of various global estimates of aspects of terrestrial vegetation: the
number, location and area of fire-affected land, known as Burnt Area
Estimates (BAE), the area of green leaf exposed to incoming sunlight
for photosynthesis, known as Leaf Area Index (LAI), the sunlight
actually absorbed for photosynthesis, known as the Fraction of Absorbed
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fAPAR) and the Vegetation Growth
Cycle (VGC).

To obtain these products, GLOBCARBON
blends data from a total of five European satellite sensors: the
VEGETATION instruments on SPOT-4 and SPOT-5, the Along Track Scanning
Radiometer-2 (ATSR-2) on ERS-2, plus the Advanced Along Track
Radiometer (AATSR) and Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS)
on Envisat.

At a 17 January GLOBCARBON progress
meeting that took place at ESRIN, ESA‘s European Centre for Earth
Observation, project partners and end-users heard that products for six
complete years are now available, covering the whole of 1998 to 2003. A
follow-on phase is planned to cover up to the end of 2007.

“GLOBCARBON is a multi-sensor,
multi-year global service, and as such has been very challenging in
scope,” stated Geert Borstlap of VITO, the Belgium-based organisation
leading the contract for ESA. “In processing terms we had about 45
terabytes of input data and 18 terabytes of output data, and within the
process generated about one petabyte of intermediate data. We developed
the necessary software and had about 25 computers and 25 terabytes of
disks continuously running for one year from start to finish.”

The processing algorithms used to render
raw satellite data into final products have come from a number of
authoritative sources: the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
(IGBP); the European Commission‘s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy
(EC-JRC); the University of Toronto; the Centre d‘Etudes Spatiales de
la Biosphère (CESBIO) in Toulouse and the Laboratoire des Sciences du
Climat et l‘Environnement (LSCE) in Gif-Sur-Yvette as well as ESA‘s
ESRIN centre in Frascati, Italy. Dr Stephen Plummer of IGBP oversees
algorithm selection and interfaces with product users.

GLOBCARBON end users – charged with
assessing and validating the products – comprise the Global Carbon
Project (GCP) hosted in Canberra, Australia, the UK Centre for
Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics (CTCD) in Sheffield, the Max Planck
Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) in Berlin, Germany and the Potsdam
Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

GLOBCARBON LAI results are also
being checked with LAI products from CYCLOPES, another satellite-based
service being developed through a project called Geoland, part of the
European Commission‘s initial contribution to Global Monitoring to
Environment and Security (GMES), a joint initiative with ESA to develop
an independent environmental monitoring capability for Europe.

Researchers seeking to follow the carbon

Carbon‘s unique compound-forming properties
underpin all life on Earth. They also mean this many-formed element is
abundant not only in the biosphere but also in the geosphere, ocean and
atmosphere, undergoing exchange – often rapidly – between them.

This movement of carbon through the
different components of the Earth system is called the carbon cycle.
Human activities have led the cycle to move out of balance, as fossil
fuel burning and land clearances lead to increased atmospheric carbon
levels driving global warming. This development may also have knock-on
effects on the carbon cycle itself, in the uncertain responses of
oceanic phytoplankton and land vegetation respond to rising
temperatures.

Researchers have developed complex software models of carbon cycle
processes to try and predict future changes, providing vital input for
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and related groups
assessing the potential impact of climate change. However any model is
only as good as input data, and relevant data is lacking for certain
aspects of the carbon cycle – especially land vegetation.

“GLOBCARBON
is definitely a useful product for the carbon modelling community,”
explained Dr Tristan Quaife of CTCD. “Information about LAI is
important because it gives us an ability to constrain the amount of
green biomass available for photosynthesis and gas exchange through
evapo-transpiration.

“These are probably the two key processes
controlling carbon exchange with the atmosphere, so with better
knowledge of LAI and its dynamics we have a better chance of estimating
the primary productivity of an ecosystem.

“It is a similar story with vegetation
growth cycle – or phenology. Improved information allows us to improve
our knowledge of the length of time that leaves are out, influencing
vegetation‘s ability to assimilate carbon from the atmosphere. That
isn’t well modelled at the moment because we don‘t fully understand
what it is that makes a plant sprout its leaves, and consequently
models aren‘t so accurate.

“Burnt area estimates are also useful
because we don‘t fully understand global fire occurrence patterns
either. We can map active fires from space, but what we are seeing
there is only the part of the Earth that is combusted at that moment.
To get a complete picture we need to record the full area burnt, which
is useful for determining how much biomass has been removed from the
Earth‘s surface and consequently how much carbon has been liberated
into the atmosphere.”

ESA serving global change research

GLOBCARBON
is being supported through the ESA‘s Data User Element of the Earth
Observation Envelope Programme-2 (EOEP-2), and is one of a family of
projects developing satellite-based products and services that support
investigations of global and climate change within different elements
of the Earth system.

These include GLOBWETLAND which is
developing means of monitoring wetland areas; GLOBCOVER which aims to
create the sharpest-ever global land cover map; GLOBAEROSOL to chart
the distribution of atmospheric aerosols playing a role in climate
forcing; GLOBCOLOUR which users ocean colour data to estimate marine
photosynthesis; and GLOBICE to acquire information on sea ice dynamics.

(Credits ESA)

November 05- The Space Council has endorsed the orientations necessary to pave the way ahead on GMES.

Published on
Ministers also recalled the importance of maintaining a European
autonomous Earth Observation capacity supporting political decision
making, as well as the importance of the international dimension of
GMES and its status as the main European contribution to the worldwide
Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Besides GMES, a
progress report on the development of the European Space Policy has
also been presented to the ministers.
The Space Council – a joint and
concomitant meeting of the European Space Agency Council at ministerial
level and of the European Union Competitiveness Council – was held in
Brussels today. It was jointly chaired by the current Chairs of the ESA
Council at ministerial level and of the EU Competitiveness Council, in
this case the German Minister of Economy and Lord Sainsbury of
Turville, UK Minister for Science respectively.
The Ministers recognized the positive
results of the cooperation between the EU, ESA and their Member States
in the initial phase of GMES, and recommended that this cooperation
should continue to play a key and visible role in the overall
management of GMES.
During this meeting, as highlighted in a
recent Communication of the Commission on this subject, the Ministers
reaffirmed that the implementation of GMES will see the early
deployment of three fast-track services on Emergency Response, Land
Monitoring, and Marine Services, due to enter the pilot operational
phase by 2008. Other services will follow according to a deployment
plan covering the years 2009-2013.
In order to ensure the continuity of data
necessary for the establishment of operational GMES services and to
avoid duplication, the Ministers requested that best use of existing
and planned satellite and in-situ systems on European and national
level is made. To this end, they invited national Agencies and European
organisations which already possess or are in the process of building
up relevant assets and capacities (such as EUMETSAT for instance) to
make their capacities available to the GMES initiative at appropriate
conditions.
Though it was largely devoted to GMES,
this third meeting of the Space Council received a report on the
progress made towards the development of the European Space Programme
and engaged in a debate on the international dimension of the European
Space Policy on the basis of a discussion paper submitted by the
Presidency.
(Credits Europa)

The African partners of the PUMA project (Preparation for the Use of
Meteosat Second Generation in Africa) have presented the results this
inititiative funded by the European Commission during a workshop
co-organised by the unit in charge of the Space Policy at the EC and
EUMETSAT.

Published on
A coherent African request
The African meteorological community
created the PUMA working group (Preparation for the Use of Meteosat
Second Generation in Africa) in 1996, with the support of EUMETSAT and
the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Its mandate was to
generate funds so that all the National Meteorological Services (NMS)
of Africa could have access to the environmental data furnished mainly
by the European MSG satellite.
The PUMA
Group included 5 regional economic groupings, the NMS, the WMO and
EUMETSAT. The Financing Agreement for the project was signed in January
2001.
PUMA has a unique character in a number of ways. It is a Project of
- Continental size with a unique management structure, financed by the EDF and by bilateral funds for non-ACP countries;
- Long term, based on proven information systems and a critical mass of 350 trained experts;
- Based on guaranteed free access to the environmental data distributed by EUMETCast for at least 18 years. A balanced content
PUMA has three components:
- EUMETCast receive stations, providing access to data via
the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standard, perfectly adapted to Africa
and based on simple solutions (PCs and TV receive antennas).
- Training in the use and maintenance of the stations and
use of the environmental data. This training has been programmed at
acknowledged African centres (EAMAC (Niamey), IMTR (Nairobi) and the
South African Weather Service).
- Pilot projects easing access to data for the whole body
of African decision-makers, not just those benefiting from the project.
The themes covered are: tracking the water resources of the Kasai
(RDC), continuous monitoring of desertification (Niger), management of
the fish food chain (Senegal), operational use of MSG in southern
Africa (South Africa), degradation of natural resources (Kenya) and
fisheries management (Mauritius).
The Puma project was completed on 30th
September 2005 with all its objectives attained. Follow-up of the PUMA
project: AMESD PUMA has also prepared the future, by means of the
signature by the Executive Secretaries of the 5 regional economic
groupings in September 2002 of a ‘Dakar Declaration’, which requests
the European Commission to launch a new initiative ‘AMESD’
(Environmental Monitoring for Sustainable Development for Africa).
AMESD is based on exploiting the technical, institutional and thematic
experience which has been acquired in PUMA. AMESD will form the basis
of the African element of the European initiative for Global Monitoring
for the Environment and Security (GMES).
(Credits Europa)

Dec 2005 : ESA PR 57-2005. The Ministers responsible for space in the European Space Agency‘s 17 Member States and Canada concluded a two-day meeting of ESA‘s ruling Council in Berlin by deciding on a coherent plan for discovery and competitiveness for Europe in space.
Published on
They
accordingly endorsed the continuation of a set of ongoing programmes
and agreed to undertake major new initiatives designed to give Europe a
clear vision and tangible means to further strengthen its space
exploration and exploitation activities. They emphasised the need for
Europe to maintain a competitive space sector able to lead the search
for new discoveries, guarantee access to strategic data and new
services, and consolidate its share of the global commercial market.
The
Ministers appreciated the efforts made to heighten European citizens’
awareness of space activities and their benefits, thanks in particular
to the success of recent European scientific missions such as Huygens
and Mars Express. These missions, together with a series of successful
Ariane 5 launches, have confirmed once again that combined European
skills and efforts enable Europe to succeed in the most challenging of
enterprises and achieve a level of excellence for discovery and
innovation in the global arena.
The Ministers also noted the increase in the volume and quality of the
Agency’s relations with its international partners. They recognised
that the global scenario in the space sector is evolving rapidly, in
particular with increasing numbers of players mastering major space
technologies and offering competitive conditions for civil and dual-use
applications.
The Ministers reaffirmed the strategic
importance of Europe continuously improving its scientific,
technological and industrial capabilities in the field of space so as
to enable it to better respond to the expectations of its citizens
concerning the environment, quality of life and security. They noted
that European industry has encountered difficulties in recent years,
resulting from a significant downturn on the commercial market as well
as the competition from industries operating on the basis of lower
production costs; they also took note of the measures taken by industry
to improve its position, through difficult reorganisation and
concentration processes which have led to a reduction in the volume and
distribution of European capabilities.
A major political step was achieved with
the approval of an overall European launcher policy ensuring coherence
between the launcher and satellite fields.
The Ministers recognised that it is crucial to continuously foster
European cooperation on space activity by further developing an overall
European Space Policy encompassing ESA, the EU, plus national and
industrial programmes, and to allocate the available resources and
capabilities to common European initiatives, so as to achieve the
critical mass needed to face the worldwide competition.
Decisions on programmes/activities
On the programmatic side, the Ministers
took decisions concerning the Agency’s mandatory activities (scientific
and basic) and optional programmes (Earth observation,
telecommunications, satellite navigation, human spaceflight,
microgravity, exploration, launchers). Those decisions confirm the ESA
countries’ commitment to boost progress in space science and to be at
the leading edge of discovery, thus supporting the development of
competitive services and future applications for European citizens. The
decisions taken concern the following:
a) The Agency’s mandatory activities: the Level of Resources for 2006-2010 (scientific programme and basic activities) The International Space Station
b) Continuation of ongoing programmes:
– subscriptions for the Earth Observation Envelope Programme
- subscriptions for the International Space Station Exploitation Programme Period 2 and the European ELIPS programme Period 2
- subscriptions for launcher evolutions
- subscriptions for Advanced Research in Telecommunications
Systems (ARTES), focusing on technologies, applications and mission
demonstrations
c) New programmes:
- subscriptions for the Global Monitoring for Environment
and Security (GMES) Space Component, also representing a key European
contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)
initiative
- subscriptions for the European Space Exploration
programme Aurora, comprising its first Exploration mission ExoMars and
a Core programme to prepare for future exploration missions
- subscriptions for the preparation of future launchers
- subscriptions for the General Support Technology Programme
(GSTP) for the preparation of new dedicated technology programmes,
focusing on the development of technologies with a view to
non-dependence and security, and aimed at preparing and demonstrating
new concepts such as formation flying satellites in order to carry out
missions of strategic and economic value to space science, Earth
observation and new – in particular security-related – areas.
Note for Editors. For further background information on the programmatic aspects, see ESA Information Note 02/2005
or call:
ESA Communication Department
Media Relations Division
Tel: + 33 (0)1 53 69 71 55
(Credits ESA)

The European Commission has recently conducted a series of user
workshops to define initial Europe-wide pilot services within the GMES
(Global monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative.

Published on
The three events on Land, Marine and Crisis/Emergency services
attracted a well represented user European community, underlining the
will to have a first set of services operational by 2008, as requested
by the Council of the Member States.
The discussions focused on three key issues:
- A detailed scope of the services and consolidated requirements,
- The next implementing steps (action plan for 2006-2008),
- The conditions (funding mechanisms and institutional structure) for the long-term sustainability of GMES services.
Participants emphasised the necessity that
the interactions between the users and the providers must be better
articulated in order to meet users’ needs. In that perspective, they
welcomed the initiative taken by the Commission in organizing this
series of workshops. Participants also recalled that the use of GMES
products may differ from one country to another but cooperative
undertaking at European level should focus on the reliability of
delivery and efficient information dissemination.
The participants of the workshop agreed
that the issues of the political ownership and funding scheme of GMES
have still to be addressed. They insisted on the necessity of a strong
financial public commitment and proposed a GMES management structure
integrating European, national and local levels.
Environment, resources and investment management, city planning or car navigation will benefit from the Land service.
Requirements include an increase in the level of detail and accuracy,
open access to data as well as the updating speed. Users agreed that
core land cover data should be available maximum one year after
satellite data acquisition. Updates should be done every three to five
years for continental coverage, more frequently for urban areas.
Furthermore, a group of 500 functional urban areas have been identified
and will benefit of a more precise mapping. Participants stressed that
coordination of satellite data is required with in-situ land cover/land
use inventory initiatives.
The Marine Core Service will
deliver systematic reference information on the state of the global
ocean and EU seas by providing observational and model data, real-time
predictions and ocean scenario simulations. Several R&D projects
have developed Marine Core Service components which are ready to go
operational in 2008, an effort consistent with the “fast track”
approach. Foreseen to be an initial European contribution to GEOSS, the
Martine Core Service should strengthen the connection with downstream
services such as marine safety, oil spill monitoring or costal
management. The need to integrate and upgrade the capabilities of
existing national services has also been evoked.
The contributions to the workshop on the Crisis/Emergency service
show an agreement on the need to focus on the “rapid response” part of
the crisis cycle. However the rapid response cannot be decoupled from
preparedness, prevention, risk reduction and early warning. At European
level a wide range of risks will be addressed such as floods,
earthquakes, landslides, vegetation fires or accidents associated with
transport. The fast delivery of reference and damage maps of the crisis
area has been identified as a key requirement for the Information
Service in Responses to Crises, Disasters and Emergencies (INSCRIT).
There was a strong demand from the Civil Protection sector for GMES
products since INSCRIT can strengthen civil protection capacity through
best use of new technologies. At world level, GMES INSCRIT can
significantly contribute to the delivery of EU assistance in case of
crises and emergencies. As underlined by the participants, GMES shall
become a single point for resourcing, planning and decision making on
developing the European capacity to better respond to Land, Marine and
Crisis/Emergency information needs.
(Credits Europa)

On 25 January 2006, the European Commission and EUMETSAT signed letters
outlining future co-operation on GMES (Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security). EU officials say the signing paves the way
to a strong working relationship on Europe’s premier Earth Observation
(EO) initiative, part of a comprehensive European Space Policy.

Published on
26 January 2006
The European Commission has been a prime
mover in getting GMES off the ground and it continues to build towards
full European participation in this critical initiative. The letters of
intention, signed in Brussels, establish the basis of a formal
Agreement to follow between the two parties.
The letters have no financial implications
but do set out areas of co-operation and assign clear responsibilities
for the near term. Specifically, the Commission will access existing
EUMETSAT satellite data and services and will define ways to use these
within GMES. It will also recognise EUMETSAT as an operational agency
for future GMES initiatives and will support initiatives to improve the
use of EUMETSAT data in Africa. Meanwhile, EUMETSAT will offer
technical support and guidance on how to establish new services.
Specifically, existing and future EUMETSAT applications will be used in
the to advance fast-track marine services.
“I am very pleased to sign this Agreement
with EUMETSAT. The Commission and EUMETSAT have lots of common grounds,
as the two organisations are driven by user needs. IN addition,
EUMETSAT is a space operational agency. This is very important for us,
particularly for the development of GMES services, which will have to
be user driven and run operationnally. I hope that the signature of
these letters is a first step towards a more intense and fruitful
cooperation between the Commission and EUMETSAT.” said Mr Zourek
Director-General of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General,
signing on behalf of the European Commission.
Excellence in international co-operation
The
new EU-EUMETSAT accord will ensure the availability of key satellite
data not only for Europe but also for many developing countries.
Together with the Commission’s Directorate-General for Development,
EUMETSAT has already initiated a continent-wide project enabling all 53
African countries to access EO information through the EUMETCast
system. This project, known as PUMA (Preparation for the Use of
Meteosat Second Generation in Africa) will deploy 60 EUMETCast
receiving stations in Africa and will enable all African countries,
plus a number of regional centres, to access all EUMETSAT data,
products and services.
As a continuation of the PUMA project, on
the request of five African Economic groupings, the European Commission
is now laying the groundwork for the AMESD project (African Monitoring
of the Environment for Sustainable Development).
Combining forces
GMES is a joint initiative of the European
Union and the European Space Agency (ESA). It represents a concerted
effort to bring environmental and security data providers together with
users, to make such information available to those who need it, in the
most efficient way. The EU aims to launch GMES services by 2008.
EUMETSAT is the European Organisation for
the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. Created through an
international Convention, it is responsible for the launch and
operation of weather and environmental monitoring satellites and for
the delivery of satellite data to end-users. It also plays a major role
in a global meteorological satellite observing system, in coordination
with other space-faring nations. With its unparalleled experience as a
provider of satellite data, EUMETSAT can guarantee delivery of
high-quality data 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Commission
considers this sort of capability crucial to the operational remit of
GMES.
More info:
(Credits Europa)