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REPORT OF THE 2ND IGOS PARTNERS MEETING 10 November
1998
The 2nd meeting of the IGOS Partners was held, in conjunction with the 12th CEOS Plenary, on November 10, 1998, under the Chairmanship of Dr K Kasturirangan, Chair, CEOS/Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India. The meeting was hosted by ISRO. The list of participants is given in ANNEX-1. ADOPTION OF AGENDA The agenda for the meeting, as circulated by CEOS, was adopted and is attached as ANNEX-2. WELCOME REMARKS Dr K Kasturirangan welcomed the IGOS Partners and the other Members of the CEOS community to the meeting. He recalled that the 1st meeting of the Partners was held in June, 1998 in Paris, after which considerable achievement has been made by the Partners in furthering IGOS. He mentioned that the major achievement has been the endorsement of the Partnership by several Partners and also commitment by different agencies to support the IGOS and the 6 pilot-projects. He also mentioned that the participation of the IGOS Partners in the forth-coming UNISPACE-III Conference is very important for focusing the IGOS at this international meet. Dr Kasturirangan mentioned that the next step of actions by the Partners must be towards a commitment to the pilot-projects and also the conduct the required analysis – specifically under the aegis of Global Observing Systems Space Panel (GOSSP). The demonstration of the pilot-projects is yet another important requirement – critical towards which are the commitments of the Partner agency towards "owning" the projects, providing observation data sets, supporting modelling, etc. He hoped that the 2nd meeting would address these issues. ADOPTION OF 1ST IGOS PARTNERS MEETING RECORD Mr Jean-Francois Stuyck-Taillandier, ICSU briefly introduced the record of the 1st Partners meeting held on June 6, 1998 at Paris. This had been circulated earlier by ICSU. He also mentioned that all the action items identified in the 1st meeting have been completed. The record of the June meeting, as circulated by ICSU, was adopted by the Partners. STATUS OF IGOS COMMON PORTFOLIO Mr Arthur Dahl, UNEP introduced the IGOS Portfolio on the web and the draft "umbrella" document circulated by him. He mentioned that the document traces the evolution of IGOS in different intergovernmental agencies; builds upon the concept of IGOS, as prepared by CEOS SIT earlier and also defines the possible role of the different Partners towards a modular approach for implementation of IGOS. He also mentioned that the document needs to have inputs from different agencies on the different sub-components, including the space component strategy, strategic plan of the global observing systems, etc. The draft document needs to be finalised based on these inputs and any other comments received from the Partners. The Partners appreciated the effort of Mr Arthur Dahl in making this portfolio document and emphasised the need for finalising it. Partner agencies are requested to send inputs to Mr Dahl and also comments on the draft, if any. It was also felt that a 2-page summary "brochure" needs to be organised for IGOS – basically highlighting the concept and the Partnership activities. Mr Arthur Dahl agreed to finalise this 2-page brochure also. The Partners noted that CEOS would be finalising its space component strategy, hopefully by November, 1999 and thus one major element of the IGOS would get identified. Another major requirement is the in-situ observation strategic plan to be undertaken by the G3OS Sponsors group and the in-situ community. Dr Robert Landis, WMO agreed to lead a team to coordinate the sponsors consolidated document of the in-situ component strategy and have a draft version ready within one year. It was also decided that these three items – IGOS portfolio and brochure; space component and in-situ component strategy should be included in the agenda for the 3rd IGOS Partners meeting with status reports to be provided on these activities. IGOS PROJECTS – THE FUTURE DIRECTION There was considerable discussion on the issue of IGOS projects – specifically on the continuation/sun-setting of the existing 6 pilot-projects; mechanisms for newer projects and also towards transitioning the pilot-projects into the framework of the Partnership. All the Partners agreed that the CEOS pilot projects should be conducted under the auspices of the IGOS partnership. Partners felt that the definition of new projects/themes are subjective to the programmes/activities of the respective Partner agencies and thus the important element is to focus these into the framework of IGOS projects. This exercise will have to be taken up and a proper mechanism worked out for taking up newer projects. It was also recognised that the continuity of the projects (existing or new) would depend upon the value to any agency of the Partnership. It was recommended that the CEOS Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) should deal with the existing pilot-projects and recommend to the Partners about the continuity of those which have relevance to the activities of the Partners. SIT was requested to review the value of these pilot-projects and make the recommendations to the IGOS Partners. With respect to the newer projects, it was felt that a team be constituted to work out the guidelines and mechanism for IGOS activity definitions. Dr Ghassem Asrar, NASA was requested to Chair this team. Mr John Townshend, GCOS; Dr Robert Winokur, CEOS SIT Chair; Mr Arthur Dahl, UNEP; Dr David Southwood, ESA and a GOOS representative were requested to be members of the team. While the team could finalise its recommendations in time for the 3rd IGOS Partners meeting (June,1999), the team could suggest to SIT the basic criteria for evaluating existing projects (in time for the next SIT meeting in January, 1999). This would provide a uniformity in the Projects selection/consideration process adopted by the Partners. GOSSP RESTRUCTURING AND RECENT MEETINGS Dr John Townshend, GCOS briefed the Partners about the recent GOSSP meeting, held in October, 1998, and also the GOSSP endorsement of the plan to support the IGOS projects requirement analysis. He observed that GOSSP would also be addressing other requirements of the G3OS. The IGOS requirements, to be addressed with SIT, would be taken up in subsequent GOSSP meetings and report to the IGOS Partners would be provided in a regular manner. He also mentioned that in order to ensure that expertise concerning Satellite Operations is available to GOSSP, CEOS is invited to suggest two experts for membership on the Panel. IGOS FORUM FOR UNISPACE-III Dr He Changchui, FAO, briefed the Partners about the proposal to organise a day International forum on IGOS at UNISPACE-III. He mentioned that a brief proposal of the forum activities, prepared jointly with CEOS, had been submitted to the UNISPACE-III Secretariat. The forum aims to inform governments, through the UNISPACE-III delegations, about IGOS and its programmes. The forum will also focus on the cooperative efforts amongst the Partners. As an output, it is hoped that a larger international endorsement for the IGOS initiative would be obtained and also the IGOS principles/concept included in the UNISPACE-III report. The Partners endorsed the proposal and appreciated the efforts by FAO and CEOS in preparing the proposal document. It was felt that a team should be identified and charged to plan and coordinate the activities for the successful conduct of the one-day international forum at UNISPACE-III. Dr He Changchui was requested to lead the team, and Mr Mukund Rao, ISRO; Mr Sergio Camacho, UN-OOSA; Dr David Williams, EUMETSAT and Ms Leslie Charles, NASA were invited to be on the team (other members could also be included). FURTHER PLAN OF ACTION FOR IGOS PARTNERSHIP Dr Brian Embleton, SIT Chair suggested that there is a need to identify a "liaison group" to coordinate the activities of the IGOS Partners in between meetings. This is essential to maintain continuity and provide the necessary direction/follow-up for the joint activities agreed by the Partners. It was suggested that this liaison group should be kept small for effective coordination – much of which could be done through e-mail and occasional teleconferences. The team would support the Chair agency of the IGOS Partners and help in coordinating the agenda, assisting with the preparation of background papers, and tracking actions. This suggestion was approved unanimously and a small IGOS-Partners Liaison Group was set up. Dr Harald Arend, CEOS representative and from ESA, and Dr Jeff Tschirley, G3OS representative and from FAO, were invited to be members of the Group. Additional members to the group could be identified as and when required. ACTION ITEMS Mr Mukund Rao briefed the action items arising of the 2nd IGOS Partners meeting – which was endorsed and approved by the Partners. The action items are given in ANNEX-3. NEXT MEETING The next meeting of the Partners would be held during first-week of June, 1999 and would be Chaired and hosted by FAO, as lead of the G3OS Sponsors Group. |
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| A.;
IGOS PARTNERS
Committee on Earth Observation Satellites
(CEOS) Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)
Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS/IOC)
International Council of Scientific
Unions (ICSU) International Geosphere Biosphere
Programme - Data Information System (IGBP-DIS) International Group of Funding Agencies
(IGFA) United Nations Environment Programs
(UNEP) World Climate Research Program (WCRP)
World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) B. OTHER PARTICIPANTS Bristish National Space Centre (BNSC)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS)
Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales
(CNES) Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organization (CSIRO) Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und
Raumfahrt (DLR) European Commission (EC) European Organisation for the Exploitation
of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) European Space Agency (ESA) Institutos Nocional de Pesquisas Espaciais
(INPE) International Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) Japan Meteorological Agecy (JMA)
Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) National Space Development Agency
of Japan (NASDA) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) National Remote Sensing Center of
China (NRSC) Norwegian Space Centre (NSC) Science and Technology Agency of Japan
(STA) Swedish National Space Board (SNSB)
United Nations Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) United Nations Office of Outer Space
Affairs (UN-OOSA) US Geological Survey (USGS) |
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November 10, 1998
ISRO, Bangalore (1900-2130 hrs) 1) Welcome by CEOS Chair/ISRO 2) Adoption of Agenda (CEOS) 3) Record of the 1st IGOS partners Meeting
(ICSU) 4) Status of IGOS common portfolio (Arthur,
UNEP/David, EUMETSAT) 5) IGOS Projects – the future direction (mainly discussions with lead from CEOS and Other Partners) 6) GOSSP Re-structuring and recent meetings (John/Francis) 7) IGOS Workshop for UNISPACE-III (He, FAO/CEOS) 8) Further Plan of Action for IGOS Partnership (mainly brief discussions) 9) Any other items |
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| ANNEX-3: 2nd IGOS-PARTNERS MEETING ACTION ITEMS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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