SWIFT E-News n°9 - 9th February 2010
In this Issue
1. Highlight: Study for the European Parliament about the Governance and Financing of GMES
2. Highlight: Proposal for a Regulation on GMES and its Initial Operations (2011-2013) – under Scrutiny in the European Parliament
3. Next Steps for a New Global Climate Deal
4. The Global Climate Monitoring Emphasized by ESA at Copenhagen
5. Access to GMES Earth Observation Data
6. Towards an Effective Access to Environmental Information for Africa
7. GMES Services Helped Rescue Operations in Haiti
8. Observation from Space of Volcano Eruptions
9. Importance of Satellites for Glaciers Monitoring
10. Paving the Way for a European Strategy for Danube Region
GMES Project Corner:
11. First MACC Assembly and Launch of Operational Aerosol Verification
12. First Annual Progress Meeting of SAFER
13. Two Workshops will be Organised for the LIMES Dissemination Activities
1. Study for the European Parliament about the Governance and Financing of GMES
In December 2009 a study on the GMES governance and financing was published at the request of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. The study emphasizes the strategic importance and components of GMES, carries out a comparison with the Galileo programme and critically analyses the governance and financing of GMES. Finally, the study addresses several policy recommendations in order to enable GMES to become fully operational and ensure its sustainability.
2. Proposal for a Regulation on GMES and its Initial Operations (2011-2013) – under Scrutiny in the European Parliament
On 12 November 2009 the Parliament’s Industry Committee, which is in charge of the Commission’s proposal for Regulation on GMES programme and the rules for the implementation of GMES initial operations (2011 2013), issued a draft report on the proposal. On 27 January 2010 the Industry Committee discussed this issue, after having received the opinions of the Budgets Committee and the Environment Committee. In addition to the importance of ensuring a long-term funding structure for GMES, expressed by both opinions, the MEP rapporteur Mr Glante Norbert pointed out that the questions about data and relation with private companies providing similar services and data still need to be clarified. The Industry Committee will vote on the final report on March this year, which will be followed by vote in Parliament’s Plenary scheduled for June.
3. Next Steps for a New Global Climate Deal
Despite the failure of the international community to agree on a new global climate deal at the December 2009 conference in Copenhagen, the EU’s goal for a political accord was reached. The Copenhagen Accord contains many of the elements for which the EU had fought and marks already the first step towards the final goal of a legally binding and sufficiently ambitious global climate deal. The EU will continue to offer its leadership at global level and will urge other countries to set more ambitious targets for fighting climate change.
4. The Global Climate Monitoring Emphasized by ESA at Copenhagen
The ESA’s Climate Change Initiative provides long-term global climate data from ESA’s Earth-observing satellites and from other space agencies in order to support climate change research and the implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies. The initiative was presented at the occasion of the UN Climate Change Conference that took place in Copenhagen in December 2009. At that time, ESA’s activities on monitoring forests, as part of the GMES services, were also presented.
5. Access to GMES Earth Observation Data
On the occasion of a User Hearing day that took place in Brussels on 17 December 2009, the principles governing the access to GMES Earth Observation data under the EC/ESA delegation agreement were presented. In order to achieve its main objectives, GMES needs to have appropriate data access conditions and data policies. The agreement is based primarily on a new data access principle which will benefit a very high number of beneficiaries, a simple licensing scheme, a limited number of user categories and a definition of two types of data – CORE datasets and ADDITIONAL datasets.
6. Towards an Effective Access to Environmental Information for Africa
Within the African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (AMESD) project, a contract was kicked off at the beginning of January this year, aiming to replace the 52 EUMETCast stations, called PUMA stations, already deployed and to install 47 new EUMETCast stations, called AMESD stations. This activity will secure the operational access of African countries to EUMETSAT data and improved data processing for various meteorological applications as well as provide effective access to environmental data and products.
7. GMES Services Helped Rescue Operations in Haiti
As an immediate response to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January this year, the International Charter on ‘space and Major Disasters” was activated. Among the various satellites that provided high resolution imagery through the Charter, GMES produced reference and assessment maps generated from optical satellite images. This was done through the SAFER emergency response and G-MOSAIC security projects, while the Joint Research Centre (JRC) was coordinating the response from the EU, by issuing early warning alerts and delivering updated situation maps.
8. Observation from Space of Volcano Eruptions
As a response to the eruption of the Mount Nyamulagira in Congo and the following fears of an imminent eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano, scientists and local authorities were using a long series of space images from ESA’s Envisat to monitor the situation and take the appropriate decisions. Using the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on Envisat, the lava flows were mapped by comparing images acquired over the area before and after the eruption, while the ground deformation was mapped by the ‘SAR interferometry’, or InSAR technique. The satellite observation proves undoubtedly its utility in cases of volcano eruption.
9. Importance of Satellites for Glaciers Monitoring
In 2007 ESA launched the GlobGlacier project with the principal aim to assess, by satellite monitoring, the overall pattern of changes in the Earth’s glaciers for a better determination of climate change impacts. More recently, on 1 February this year ESA highlighted the valuable role of satellites for the observation of glaciers melting which can be assessed or foreseen thanks to a detailed glacier inventory. ESA’s new Climate Change Initiative will build on the results of the GlobGlacier project by further improving the glaciers monitoring and continually updating the existing glaciers inventory.
10. Paving the Way for a European Strategy for Danube Region
Based on the positive results of the EU Strategy in the Baltic Sea Region, the EU is planning its second “macro-regional” strategy, dedicated this time to the Danube Region. On 21 January this year the European Parliament adopted a resolution on such a strategy, expressing, among others, its concerns about the ecological status of the region and the need to employ new technologies for enhancing forecasting and response capabilities in cases of natural disasters and accidental pollution. A few days later, on 2 February, the Commission launched a consultation process with interesting stakeholders, with a view to formally adopt the proposed strategy in December 2010.
GMES Projects’ Corner
11. First MACC Assembly and Launch of Operational Aerosol Verification
The First General Assembly of the MACC project was held on 11-15 January 2010 and gathered more than 120 visitors. The main aim of the Assembly was to review and present the project’s progress and plans for the coming year. A few days before, on 9 January 2010, MACC launched on its website the operational verification of the aerosol analysis/forecasting system.
12. First Annual Progress Meeting of SAFER
The first annual progress meeting of the SAFER project was held on 20-21 January 2010 in Brussels. In addition to the presentations of the project’s achievements and the feedback on the activations, the meeting was an occasion to discuss the next 12 months of the project.
13. Two Workshops will be Organised for the LIMES Dissemination Activities
As part of the LIMES dissemination activities, two workshops will be organised in the first half of this year: the first one, which will take place on 15 April in Farnborough, UK, will be dedicated to the pre-operational R&D services applied to the maritime surveillance; the second one will be held on 6-7 May in L’Aquila, Italy, with the aim to present the pre- operational R&D services applied to crisis management.
SOURCE GMES.Info
