Earth Observation team plans for world-leading role – April 2019

Australia, through CSIRO and Geoscience Australia (GA), will follow the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to become the next 2-year Chair of the Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) from November 2019 – a major effort for us on the international stage. Our Centre for Earth Observation staff attended the recent CEOS strategic meeting in Miami.

Together with GA we presented our SIT Chair priorities (including analysis-ready data, the global carbon observing system and biomass measurements) which go to supporting global agendas like the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As leads and co-leads of two working groups (Calibration/validation, and Information systems and services), we also reported on current activities such as our work towards measuring freshwater from space and our satellite calibration/validation activities.

The event was also an opportunity to have fruitful bilateral discussions around our current and future joint Earth observation activities with our international partners including European Space Agency, CNES (the French national Space Agency) and the Vietnam National Space Centre.

In the coming months we will be working closely with GA to get ready for our two-year SIT Chairmanship and for the Group on Earth Observations Ministerial Summit & Plenary in Canberra this November. Stay tuned!