© GEO Secretariat

The Build-up of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems: an opportunity for Africa

Giovanni RumGEO Secretariat

7th International AARSE Conference Accra, Ghana October 2008

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Our Planet is a System of Systems

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Mankind has become a Geological Parameter

Geology has become a Political Issue

(Decisions must be informed)

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Any Single Problem Requires Many Data Sets

Any Single Data Set Serves Many Applications

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Forest Monitoring

Agriculture

Biodiversity

Disasters

Energy Climate

EcosystemsWater

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Continental Water Cycle Management

AgricultureDisasters

Energy

Climate

Health

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GEO todayThe Group on Earth Observations, was established in 2005, with a major objective: to establish a coordinated and sustained Global Earth Observation System of Systems – GEOSS.

It is an Intergovernmental Organization and today has 75 Members (74 Countries and the European Commission) & 51 Participating Organizations, including:

UN Organizations and Programs, such as FAO, IOC, ISDR, UNEP, UNESCO, UNFCCC, UNITAR/UNOSAT, UNOOSA,WMO

other leading international Organizations in different domains, such as CEOS, ESA, EUMETSAT, FDSN, IAG, ICSU, OGC

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1. Reduction and Prevention of Disasters2. Human Health and Epidemiology3. Energy Management

4. Climate Variability & Change5. Water Management6. Weather Forecasting7. Ecosystems8. Agriculture9. Biodiversity

GEOSS addresses Nine Societal Benefit Areas

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Cape Town Summit November 2007

Declaration

Noted with satisfaction the progress made, as documented in the Report on Progress and in its Annex “Early Achievements”

Reaffirmed a strong commitment to GEOSS implementation and sustained operations

Resolved to meet before the end of 2010

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Environment and Climate Change

To respond to the growing demand for Earth observation data, we will accelerate efforts within the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), which builds on the work of UN specialized agencies and programs, in priority areas, inter alia, climate change and water resources management, by strengthening observation, prediction and data sharing. We also support capacity building for developing countries in earth observations and promote interoperability and linkage with other partners.

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Addressing needs of USERS

IGOS-Themes in GEO• Ocean

• Coastal • Water• Cryosphere• Land • GeoHazards• Atmosphere• Carbon

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Coordinate and Sustain Observing Systems

Ensure Access for All

Make Basic Data Sets Available

Develop End-to-end Services

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An integrated approach to building capacity.

An approach based in three complementary and needed elements:

• Individuals (Human) CB:Individuals (Human) CB: education and training of individuals to be aware of, access, use and develop EO…

• Infrastructure CB:Infrastructure CB: HW, SW and other technology required to develop, access and use EO…

• Institutional CB:Institutional CB: building policies, programs & organizational structures in governments and organizations to enhance the understanding of the value of EO…

…data and products.

I³

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Need for an Interoperable Architecture and Standard Interoperable Formats to benefit fully fromEarth ObservationSystems

The Tower of Babel

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IKONOS

QuickBird

SPIN-2SPOT 4, 5

EROS A1

EnvisatAura/Aqua/Terra

Grace

QuikScatSage

SeaWindsTRMM

Toms-EP

UARSLandsat 7

SORCE

ACRIMSAT

CBERS

SeaWiFS

ERBS

Jason

Orbview 2, 3

Radarsat ALOS

DMC

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ARGO: Cooperation of 23 Countries

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CBERS Data acquisition Stations

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• CBERS Data to Africa and Caribbean will be Available Free of Charge

• Data Reception and Image Processing in Africa– Southern Africa – SAC (South Africa)– North and Western Africa - Maspalomas (Spain)– Possibly North & Eastern Africa – Malindi (Italy/Kenya)

• Products Distribution to Users– GEOPortal– GEONETCast

From Satellite to End-Users

© GEO Secretariat90 m 30 mComparison courtesy of V. Gorokhovich, CIESIN

A global DEM at 30 meter resolution

derived from ASTER data, by US and Japan, by end of 2008

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• Data and Products at Minimum Time delay and Minimum Cost

• Free of Charge or Cost of Reproduction for Research and Education

GEO Data Sharing Principles

• Full and Open Exchange of Data…Recognizing Relevant International Instruments and National Policies and Legislation

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Data Sharing principles

1. An action is in place to support the above objective.2. A “White Paper” has been produced and is now

undergoing the review of the GEO Partnership.3. The objective for this year is to consolidate and agree

the guidelines for the implementation of the Data Sharing principles and to have them endorsed, together with the associated plan of actions for implementation, by GEO Plenary V- November 2008 in China.

“We support the establishment of a process with the objective to reach a consensus on the implementation of the Data Sharing Principles for GEOSS to be presented to the next GEO Ministerial Summit. The success of GEOSS will depend on a commitment by all GEO partners to work together to ensure timely, global and open access to data and products”

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GEONETCastA Space-based Dissemination System for Data,

Products, Services and Early Warning

ROSHYDROMET

Contributors

EUMETSAT

CMA

Global Coverage

NOAA

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GEONETCast Receiving Stations- Dedicated personal computer (~ $1000)

Data analysis and processing should be done on separate computer(s)

- Satellite antenna dish (1-3 m) (~ $300-1200)- DTH receiver card or box (~ $200)

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The regional / subregional approach

• Many on going African Developments AMESD, TIGER have retained this approach

• GEOSS will continue along these lines• The approach is expected to have positive

effects at Country level, through the development of coordination mechanisms among the Institutions involved in the different GEO Societal Benefit Areas and the progressive building of national capabilities

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International Charter on Space and Major Disasters

• Charter accepted concept of granting direct access to GEO Members (end of May)

• Charter was activated for GEO Member Ukraine floods through the intervention of GEO upon request of support from Ministry of Environment (31 July request - activation 1 August)

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International Charter on Space and Major Disasters

Discussion is ongoing to consolidate framework for allowing practical implementation of concept.For Countries not having yet the infrastructure and capabilities to deal directly with the Charter, the identification of sub-regional centres is considered as probably the best short term solution, having as the final objective to continue to build Capacity in each Country.Each Center could be identified building on exiting capabilities and would serve a certain number of Countries

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GEONETCast

Global Dissemination System to disseminate and provide easy access to space-based, air-borne and in situ data, metadata and products to Users from all Societal Benefit Areas.

Low cost, easy to operate user terminals

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GEONETCast

African Users requests coordination is essential for full use of the system

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The GEO Portal

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GEOSSComponent Registry

Service Registry

GEOSSStandards Registry

Special ArrangementsRegistry

references

GEO Portallinks

GEOSSClearinghouse

Catalogues Services

User

accesses

accesses

Links to OtherCommunity Resources

searches

GEOSS CommonInfrastructure

GEONETCast

Websites/Webportals

Catalogue

Registered components External Resources

Websites/Webportals

GEO Secretariat Web Site

links

Accesses all RegisteredCommunity Resources

Register

Documents

RSS

CatalogQueryClients

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GEO Portal Implementation: Initial steps

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Three prototype Portals

Compusult http://www.geowebportal.org/web/guest/home

ESA - FAO http://www.geoportal.org/

ESRI http://keel.esri.com/Portal/

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Develop End-to-end Services

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Wildland Fire Early Warning

1. Collect noon weather observations from WMO centres

2. Transfer data

3. Extract and decode weather data; interpolate conditions to build grid layers in a GIS; produce daily early warning maps

Typical data flow

4. Map products displaying current fire danger are distributed via WWW

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The WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning SystemA Global Partnership in Prediction and Analysis Building Links to Users

Eleven Institutions With SDS Forecasts Available on the Internet: Three Major Nodes In the System

dust

dust

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MERITMeningitis Environmental Risk Information

Technologies

Plan WHO Meningitis VaccinationCampaigns

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00

10001000

20002000

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40004000

50005000

60006000

70007000

2929 55 1212 1919 2626 22 99 1616 2323 22 99 1616 2323 3030 66 1313 2020 2727 44 1111 1818 2525

Date

Cas

es

Withoutvaccination

Actual

Vaccination withWHO guidelines

not preventable

JanuaryDec. February March April May

Epidemic in Ghana, 1997- Wood et al., Lancet 2000

Vaccination starts

Meningitis :The problem to be tackled

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AfricanProtected areas monitoring

a dynamic system which integrates heterogeneous data (geospatial, statistical, observations) to develop composite indicators of vulnerability (http://www-tem.jrc.it/PA/index.html).

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40 S

30 S

20 S

10 S

0 N

10 N

20 N

30 N

40 N

30 W 20 W 10 W 0 E 10 E 20 E 30 E 40 E 50 E 60 E

Permanent geostationary optical mission for operational delivery of ~20m resolution images

Africa total coverage every 4 days, land and coastal areas with an imaging capability from 5 to 8 million km²/day, by scenes of 300*300 km

Flexible programming Fast access and permanent monitoring of

crisis zone A complete Ground segment located in and

operated by Africa, capacity to have several Regional Exploitation Centres for sensing demands, receive Image data, deliver products

An operational delivery of the complete system possible 2014

A lifetime in orbit of 7-10 years

Geo Africa, a new Space Observatory concept

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GEO Membership today

75 MEMBERS51 PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS

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Frequently Asked Questions

• How does a country or international organisation join GEO?

• What are the implications, financial and otherwise, of joining?

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Thank you!

Giovanni RumSenior Program Officer

GEO Secretariat

7bis, avenue de la PaixCasale postale 2300

Ch-1211 Geneva 2, Suisse

phone: (41) 22 730 8452e-mail: grum@geosec.org

www.earthobservations.org