Team Australia at the 34th CEOS Plenary (virtual)

Last month (20-22 October), the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) held its 34th Plenary, virtually – instead of gathering in India – like many 2020 international events.

CSIRO, through our Centre for Earth Observation, actively participated in the event as SIT Chair (see International engagement) and by bringing key Earth observation experts leading or contributing to key CEOS activities (Working Group on Calibration and Validation, WG on Information Systems & Services, UN Sustainable Development Goals ad hoc team, WG Disasters, COAST, etc.)

Since ISRO (Indian Space Agency) chaired CEOS in 2020, they organised and led this annual meeting.

The Plenary, attended by over 110 participants each day, was spread into 3 main sessions of 4h per day (again, time difference was a challenge for our American colleagues and for us in Australia), and structured around the CEOS current priorities. Given this exceptional and reduced virtual format, the agenda had to focus on essential topics with relevant Decisions and Discussions such as:

  • Chair (ISRO) priorities review and SIT Chair accomplishments (CSIRO/GA)
  • Carbon & biomass issues linked to global agendas,
  • Sustainable Development Goals (Ad-hoc team extended for another year with CSIRO co-lead)
  • Analysis Ready Data
  • COAST (officially becoming an Ad-hoc team)
  • CEOS/GEO partnership highlighted
  • and much more

Of course the Plenary also included the “traditional” Handover to the next Chair, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for 2021.

34th

CEOS-34 virtual selfie

 

We would like to sincerely thank our ISRO colleagues for their leadership, patience and achievements with this virtual event, but also throughout this very challenging year. As SIT Chair team, we now look forward to our second year under NASA‘s leadership!

Stay tuned for our next CEOS meeting (organised by Team Australia): SIT-36, week of 22 March 2021… and unless the borders’ situation changes rapidly and drastically, it is likely to be another virtual space gathering again.