GEO newsletter GEO News Issue #18 (7 March 2012)

 

An update on the Agriculture SBA

Research Media caught up with the GEO Secretariat recently to discuss the progress being made on the agricultural component of GEOSS. The interview is available here.

 

Announcing the GEO Carbon Office

The European Commission-funded GEOCARBON project has launched a GEO Carbon Office. The Carbon Offfice will support the GEO Global Carbon Observation and Analysis System by strengthening coordination and engaging more contributors. For more information or to contribute to GEO Task CL-02 on GCOAS, please visit the GEOCARBON website or contact Task PoC Antonio Bombelli.

 

Announcing Earth Science Applications Workshop on Suomi NPP

A workshop on the United States' new Earth observation satellite, the Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) mission, will be held on 21-22 June 2012 in the Washington DC area. The workshop will update the Earth science and applications communities on Suomi NPP, review applications of data from instruments (with an emphasis on the scanning radiometer known as VIIRS), and provide an opportunity for community to provide feedback. More information and a website are forthcoming.

 

Announcing Call for Participation in GEOSS Pilot with OGC Leadership

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) has announced a Call for Participation (CFP) in the 5th phase of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Architecture Implementation Pilot (AIP-5). The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) provides leadership in AIP-5 and invites OGC members and other organizations to respond to the CFP. Responses to this CFP are requested by 11 April 2012.

 

Announcing next GEO European Project's Workshop

The Sixth in the series of GEO European Projects' Workshops (GEPW6) will take place at the premises of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) in Rome on 7 - 8 May.

The purpose of the event is to bring together those interested in actively contributing to the European effort in the construction of the GEOSS. Participants will include European Commission-funded projects, representatives of GEO Member States, organisations participating in GEO as well as other concerned individuals.

A series of keynote addresses and project presentations will concentrate mainly on the implementation of the GEO Work Plan over the next three years and address how Europe can best contribute. A poster session is also being organised. Registration will open shortly.

For more information, please contact: jane.shiel@ec.europa.eu

 

GEO-VIII Plenary accepts new GEO 2012-2015 Work Plan

The Scientific and Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) hosted the GEO-VIII Plenary in Istanbul on 16 and 17 November. The Plenary's 380+ participants accepted the new GEO 2012-2015 Work Plan and the new Work Plan management structure. They also welcomed the recent improvements to the GEOSS Common Infrastructure, which now provides access to millions of data sets and information products through the GEO Portal. This includes the GEOSS Data-CORE, a distributed pool of documented datasets with full, open and unrestricted access at no more than the cost of reproduction and distribution. Other important outcomes of the meeting included an assessment and review of the progress made to date on GEOSS implementation, acceptance of the GEO Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) Implementation Plan, and the launch of a process for defining the post-2015 phase of GEOSS. The review of the GEO-VIII Meeting Outcomes is available here

 

G20 Ministers launch GEO agricultural initiative

The agriculture ministers of the G20 countries adopted a ministerial declaration on 23 June in Paris launching a Global Agricultural Geo-Monitoring Initiative.
The aim of this GEO-led international monitoring network is to produce more accurate crop forecast data in order to promote food security. The Declaration is available here.

 

GEOSS in the Americas Symposium

The GEOSS in the Americas Symposium was held in Santiago de Chile from 5 to 7 October 2011. For more information please see the Symposium website.

 

Official review ends for GEO 2012-2015 Work Plan

Version 1 of the GEO Work Plan has been distributed to GEO Principals for comments. Version 1 incorporates the comments received from the GEO community during the technical review period March-May 2011 and draws from the outcomes of the 2011 Work Plan Symposium.

 

GEO's role in climate, biodiversity, forests

Research Media recently asked GEO Secretariat José Achache about GEO's progress over the past year and the challenges it faces going forward. The interview can be viewed here.

 

Japan's ALOS satellite concludes its mission

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has announced that its Advanced Land Observing Satellite "DAICHI" (ALOS) has reached the end of its operational life following the loss of power onboard. During the five years it spent monitoring the planet, ALOS took 6.5 million images. Many of these images have contributed to GEO's ongoing work on monitoring the world's forests under the Forest Carbon Tracking task. Read more...

 

Technical review launched for GEO 2012-2015 Work Plan

Version 0 of the next GEO Work Plan has been distributed to the GEO community for comment by 26 May. The draft Work Plan, has been designed to fully address the 2015 Strategic Targets; establish an operational and sustainable GEOSS; reinforce coordination, user engagement and resource mobilization; and provide information products and end-to-end services tailored to serve society's needs across the nine Societal Benefit Areas.

 

Nominations invited for Will T. Pecora Award

The William T. Pecora Award is presented annually to individuals or groups that have made outstanding contributions toward understanding the Earth by means of remote sensing. The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) jointly sponsor the award. Read more...

 

GEO releases report on global water quality monitoring

The GEO Inland and Near-Coastal Water Quality Remote Sensing Working Group met last November to assess progress towards building the water quality component of GEOSS. The resulting progress report has been posted here.

 

Beijing Ministerial adopts Declaration

The GEO-VII Plenary and Beijing Ministerial, held from 3-5 November, assessed GEO's progress over the past five years, evaluated past and future GEOSS implementation, agreed a Data Sharing Action Plan, and adopted the Beijing Declaration. These documents as well as the speeches given during the Ministerial are posted on the meetings page. The full-color book "Crafting Geoinformation" is also available for download.

 

GEOSS Work Plan Progress Highlights presentation

 

Beijing showcase videos now available

On 5 November in Beijing, participants in the GEO Ministerial enjoyed a number of short videos introducing GEOSS and showcasing GEO achievements in the fields of biodiversity, carbon monitoring, capacity building, health services and water management in Asia/Oceania. These videos can be downloaded and viewed here (please note that these are large files).

 

Earth Observation Summit Endorses Global Data Sharing

Science magazine reported from Beijing on the GEO Ministerial; read the article here.

 

NASA sends cost-free data to African scientists

The provision of terrabytes of data to African researchers "support(s) the goals of the Group on Earth Observations, a partnership of international agencies that promotes collaborative use of Earth science data," said NASA. Read more here.

 

SERVIR-Himalaya launched in Kathmandu

USAID, NASA, and ICIMOD have joined hands to establish SERVIR-Himalaya as the third regional SERVIR operational facility. Read more here.

 

Get Connected Online to the "Earth Observation Symposium" and other events in Kathmandu 1-7 October 2010

Read full story

 

China, Secretariat brief Geneva diplomats on Beijing Ministerial

Dozens of government and UN diplomats attended a briefing on the upcoming Beijing Ministerial at the Mission of the People's Republic of China to the UN office in Geneva. For more details see the People's Daily article.

 

UK GEO Co-ordination Project Launched

Four of the UK organisations with a significant stake in building GEOSS have come together to develop the UK's strategy for involvement in GEO. This will be achieved through a jointly funded UK GEO Co-ordination Project. See the article here.

 

Nature cites GEO BON value for biodiversity assessment

An editorial in the prestigious science publication Nature has recognized the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network as a crucial mechanism for supporting the proposed Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). See the article here.

 

GEO BON launches Implementation Plan

The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has released its detailed, 175-page Implementation Plan for a coordinated global campaign to gather and share information on biodiversity, provide tools for data integration and analysis, and contribute to improved environmental management and human well-being. For more information, see the Technical Summary, Detailed Implementation Plan, and press release.

 

GEO participates in Shanghai Expo

The MeteoWorld Pavilion was officially unveiled on 9 May by the World Meteorological Organization, the China Meteorological Administration, EUMETSAT and GEO at the Shanghai Expo Park, Shanghai, China. Read full story

 

EnerGEO launches newsletter

As reported earlier in GEO News, the EnerGEO project (Earth Observation for monitoring and assessment of the environmental impact of energy use) started last November with support from the European Commission. The first issue of the EnerGEO newsletter is now available. To subscribe, please visit the EnerGEO website.

 

GEO applauds JAXA data on Haiti, Chile earthquakes

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has provided essential ALOS/PALSAR satellite data to international scientists whose analyses support the emergency teams responding to the major earthquakes in Haiti, on 12 January, and Chile, on 27 February. Read full story here

 

WCRP announces Open Science Conference

The World Climate Research Programme will host a major international Open Science Conference in Denver, Colorado, USA in October 2011. The conference will bring together major disciplines and leaders of the Earth system research community to identify opportunities for advancing scientific understanding and prediction of climate variability and change from seasons to centuries, and from the regional to the global levels. Details are available on the conference website.