1. © GEO Secretariat GEOSS Overview and Progress WMO TECO-WIS 6-8 November 2006 Korea Datong Zhao GEO Secretariat

2. © GEO Secretariat Contents GEO and GEOSS Overview GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan GEO Work Plan: 2006 WP Progress 2007-2009 WP Development

3. © GEO Secretariat The Earth is a complex system of systems… …requiring data from many observation systems

4. © GEO Secretariat GEO The Group on Earth Observations is an intergovernmental organization of 66 member countries, the European Commission and 43 Participating Organizations GEO and GEOSS

5. © GEO Secretariat GEOSS: A Global, Coordinated, Comprehensive and Sustained System of Observing Systems GEO and GEOSS

6. © GEO Secretariat Disasters Reducing loss of life and property from natural and human induced disasters. Energy Improving management of energy resources. Weather Improving weather information, forecasting and warning. Climate Understanding, predicting, mitigating and adapting to climate variability and change. Water Improving water resource management through better understanding of the water cycle. Ecosystems Improving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems. Agriculture Supporting sustainable agriculture and combating desertification. Biodiversity Understanding, monitoring and conserving biodiversity. Health Understanding environmental factors affecting human health and well being. GEO and GEOSS GEOSS will serve 9 Societal Benefit Areas

7. © GEO Secretariat GEO Secretariat established in Geneva Organization Structure EOS Summit: Minister Level Plenary Executive Committee Committees and Working Groups Secretariat GEO and GEOSS

8. © GEO Secretariat Secretariat Director José Achache Secretariat Director José Achache Administrative Assistant Chloé Tiberghien (Acting) Programme Manager Natasha Brutsch Programme Manager Natasha Brutsch Executive Officer Peter Colohan Executive Officer Peter Colohan Secretary / Clerk Lourdes Briones Secretary / Clerk Lourdes Briones Contractor Hermen Westerbeeke Eleni Christia Contractor Hermen Westerbeeke Eleni Christia Senior Programme Officers Antti Herlevi Osamu Ochiai Michael Rast Giovanni Rum Senior Programme Officers Antti Herlevi Osamu Ochiai Michael Rast Giovanni Rum Senior Scientific Experts Brendan Kelly AlexiaMassacand Douglas Muchoney Imraan Saloojee Datong Zhao Senior Scientific Experts Brendan Kelly AlexiaMassacand Douglas Muchoney Imraan Saloojee Datong Zhao Secretariat Structure GEO and GEOSS

9. © GEO Secretariat Distribution of Responsibilities 1) Societal Benefit Areas: Disasters Giovanni Rum Health Brendan Kelly Energy Alexia Massacand Water Antti Herlevi Climate Alexia Massacand Weather Datong Zhao Agriculture Michael Rast Biodiversity Douglas Muchoney Ecosystems Douglas Muchoney 2) Transverse areas: Architecture Osamu Ochiai Data Michael Rast Capacity Building Imraan Saloojee Outreach Peter Colohan Users Brendan Kelly 3) Committees and Working Group: Architecture and Data Osamu Ochiai and Michael Rast Science and Technology Alexia Massacand and Douglas Muchoney User Interface Antti Herlevi and Brendan Kelly Capacity Building Imraan Saloojee and Datong Zhao Tsunami Giovanni Rum 4) CEOS SIT liaison Giovanni Rum and Osamu Ochiai 5) GEO Net Cast Support Datong Zhao and Giovanni Rum GEO and GEOSS

10. © GEO Secretariat What is different about GEO? - Added Value - Global - Cross-cutting - High-level & Political Any Single Problem Requires Many Data Sets A Single Data Set Will Serve Many Communities GEO and GEOSS

11. © GEO Secretariat GEO will Foster Interdisciplinary Developments Addressing Cross-cutting Issues, Linking Local to Global GEO and GEOSS

12. © GEO Secretariat Cooperation and Coordination Connecting Systems Connecting People Access to WEATHER data for other societal benefit areas are facilitated and supported Tasks of diverse SBAs under GEO are closely connected with WEATHER task GEO and GEOSS

13. © GEO Secretariat Wind Energy Community Met. & ocean observing and forecasting service Power Utilities Wind turbine and farm Industry Planning and financing Research, consultancy and service Wind Energy and Weather Observation and Forecasting Multi-disciplinary and cross-cutting areas EnvironmentHealthWeatherClimate Energy Cross Cutting Issues GEO and GEOSS

14. © GEO Secretariat GEO: A Voluntary Process The Success of GEO will Depend on the Goodwill of its Members and Participating Organizations GEO and GEOSS This Process Warrants that GEOSS Components are Delivered in a Short Time

15. © GEO Secretariat  Improve and Coordinate Observation Systems  Provide Easier & More Open Data Access  Foster Use through Science and Applications … to answer Society’s need for informed decision making GEO: A User-driven Process GEO and GEOSS

16. © GEO Secretariat Functional Components: * Address identified common user requirements * Acquire observational data * Process data into useful products * Exchange, disseminate, and archive shared data * Monitor performance against the defined requirements and intended benefits GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan To Understand Trends, Forecast Changes and Support Informed Decisions

17. © GEO Secretariat Main Technical Approach: * Observations and Modelling * Data management and data sharing * Architecture and interoperability * Research facilitation GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

18. © GEO Secretariat GEOSS Architecture will Provide Systems Interoperability and Easier and More Open Data Access Open for user requirements defined within GEO data collection, processing, exchange and dissemination GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan GEOSS Architecture

19. © GEO Secretariat Strategic and tactical guidance on how to converge disparate systems to a higher degree of interoperability under GEOSS, and contribute data to the clearinghouse. Solving the Tower of Babel problem Define a model prototype system for access to all Earth observation data Earth Observation Web Portal and Clearinghouse There is a Need to Share all Earth Observation Data in Standard Interoperable Formats GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

20. © GEO Secretariat GEOSS Architecture: Interoperability Arrangements Technical Specifications for Collecting, Processing, Storing, and Disseminating Data and Products Based on Non-proprietary Standards Defining only how System Components Should Interface to be Contributed to GEOSS “What few things must be the same so that everything else can be different” GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

21. © GEO Secretariat GEO Web Portal and Clearinghouse: Provide Easier and More Open Data Access ▪ Defining Standards for Quality Assurance of Derived Products ▪ Providing Online Calibration and Validation ▪ Providing Tools GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

22. © GEO Secretariat Full and open exchange of data, metadata, and products shared within GEOSS, recognizing relevant international instruments and national policies and legislation Data available with minimum time delay and at minimum cost Free of charge or at no more than the cost of reproduction for education and research use GEO Data Sharing Principles GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

23. © GEO Secretariat GEONETCast System Overview: Cost-effective and User Friendly GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

24. © GEO Secretariat Provide easy access to as much data and as many people as possible Disseminate space-based, air-borne and in situ data, metadata and products to diverse users WMO Contributors EUMETSAT CMA, Others Global Coverage (Proposed) GEONETCast: Global Coverage and Data from Diverse Societal Benefit Area NOAA GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

25. © GEO Secretariat The Future of Earth Observation? 2004 Reality 1964 Vision GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

26. © GEO Secretariat To Provide the Right Information, in the Right Place, at the Right Time, to the Right People to Make the Right Decisions. Covering the Last Mile is the Greatest Challenge GEOSS 10Y Implementation Plan

27. © GEO Secretariat 2006 Work Plan Agreed at GEO-II Plenary - Dec 2005, formally accepted at ExCom 5 - April 2006 91 Tasks detailed for fulfilling GEOSS two-year targets Over 500 experts from 27 GEO Members and 32 Participating Organizations, as well as 28 external contributing organizations signed up and mobilized for task implementation Secretariat Quarterly Report Annual Report of GEOSS Progress 2006 Work Plan and task sheets have been approved as a living document in 5th Executive Committee April 11th. 06 WP Progress

28. © GEO Secretariat Based on the quarterly update of Task sheets and direct interactions between the Secretariat Experts and the implementing teams, a preliminary assessment shows significant progress. Considering the fact that this plan was formally accepted in April, the amount of work produced thus far is outstanding. In particular, it appears likely that the three basic elements of the GEOSS architecture, namely the definition of interoperability arrangements, the Web portal and its associated clearinghouse, will be very advanced, if not completed, by the end of the year and become operational in the course of next year. Annual Report of GEOSS Progress 06 WP Progress

29. © GEO Secretariat Task Convergence To bring multiple disciplines to activities organized within a task; To facilitate the merger of task activities where appropriate; To ensure ongoing, interdisciplinary linkages between related but separate tasks. New Proposals To ensure completion of the two-year targets, as well as initiation of activities to meet the six and ten-year targets; To provide opportunity for new ideas to complement and refine the existing tasks and for new groups and communities to join GEO and contribute to GEOSS implementation. Priority or Longer-Term Objectives 06 WP with 91 specific tasks has broad goals of 9 societal benefit areas. GEO II decided to develop work plan on a multi-year time scale in future; With emphasis on convergence and cross-disciplinary activities within and among tasks. Overview of 07-09 WP Concept 07-09 WP Development

30. © GEO Secretariat Architecture: 1continuing+4 new AR-07-01: Interoperability arrangements for GEOSS Interoperability arrangements address the core architectural principles. They are useful guidelines and tools to support the establishment of GEOSS. To ensure the appropriate design of GEOSS reference and functional architecture, system of systems engineering activities will be included. AR-07-02:Interface Implementation for GEOSS The objective is to facilitate the implementation of information system interfaces. The primary outcome will be to solicit an official GEOSS Web Portal and Clearinghouse search facility so as to access GEOSS components and develop services accessible through GEOSS interoperability arrangement to support the GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas. 07-09 WP Development

31. © GEO Secretariat AR-07-04: GEOSS components commitment A high-level new task In order to respond and support commitment of information systems and observing systems to GEOSS, a process including agreement to accept interoperability specifications will be established. In addition, specific initial commitments of contributed systems and other components are advocated. 07-09 WP Development

32. © GEO Secretariat Data Management: 6 continuing+6 new Data management issues such as data, metadata and products harmonisation, data integration and analysis are specially addressed, including coordination of data management approaches that encompass a broad perspective of the observation data life cycle, from input through processing, achieving, and dissemination, including reprocessing, analysis and visualization of large volumes and diverse type of data. 07-09 WP Development

33. © GEO Secretariat The Expected Role of WIS In the implementation of GEOSS, access to meteorological data for the diverse societal benefit areas will be facilitated. With WIS, all essential data, as defined in WMO Resolution 40 (Cg-XII) will be made available through the GEOSS interoperable arrangements to serve the needs of the diverse societal benefit areas under GEO. Overarching WIS for all weather, water, climate data and other related constituents as one of major systems of GEOSS is a WMO contribution to the GEOSS. 07-09 WP Development

34. © GEO Secretariat 07-09 WP Development WIS: GEOSS Component Commitment (TBD by GEO-III) WIS, as an important contribution of WMO to GEOSS, is the first commitment of GEOSS component. IGDDS is a component of WIS. Recognizing “GEOSS component commitment" as a high level task, a new task AR-07-04 "GEOSS component commitment“ is proposed in the draft 07-09 WP Version 3 for GEO-III approving. WIS and other GEOSS component can be committed through this task.

35. © GEO Secretariat For more information GEOSS 10Year Implementation Plan and Reference Document: www.earthobservations.org GEO-III (28-29 November 2006) Document (Doc.11 07-09 Work Plan): ftp://ftp.wmo.int/projects/GEO/GEO-III

36. © GEO Secretariat Thanks for Attention