Great interest in GMES at the 2010 ESA Living Planet Symposium
The latest ESA Living Planet Symposium, which took place on 28 June - 2 July 2010 in Bergen, Norway, gathered more than 1400 scientists and users from all over the world to present the development of current and future ESA’s Earth Observation missions. The progress made by the GMES initiative since the last Symposium in 2007 was also presented. Attendees demonstrated a great interest in the topic as the six sessions dedicated to GMES were often full.
In overall, the audience was informed that GMES is rapidly moving forward from research and development to the operational phase. Among the most important milestones accomplished for GMES since the last Symposium are the funding of the Space Component, allocated at the 2008 ESA’s Ministerial Council, and the subsequent placement of contracts for the Sentinel satellites. Regarding the delivery of operational data, Sentinel-1 was described as a major leap forward solid Earth sciences and applications, such as monitoring deformation in volcanically active areas, while Sentinel-2 will open up new possibilities for applications in land science.
Another milestone for GMES has been the release of contracts for the ground segment to prepare for Sentinel data acquisition, processing and dissemination.
The services for monitoring air quality, being developed by the FP7 funded projects MACC and Pasodoble, were presented at the Symposium as example of services that GMES can offer to improve the daily lives of European citizens.
It was reminded, however, that although much progress has been made, GMES still remains a complex and expansive undertaking with challenges ahead, most of them associated with future funding.
More information at:
http://www.esa.int/esaLP/SEMYITWNPBG_LPgmes_0.html