For developed and developing nations battling drought and disease, emergency managers making evacuation decisions, farmers making planting choices, companies evaluating energy costs, and coastal communities concerned about sea-level rise, there is a vital global and regional need to get ahead of the curve – to provide new analytical tools, access to timely data, and forecasts about emerging threats that enable informed choices in a changing world.
For nearly a decade, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) has been driving the interoperability of many thousands of individual space-based, airborne and in situ Earth observations around the world. Often these separate systems yield just snapshot assessments, leading to critical gaps in scientific understanding. GEO is addressing such gaps by providing easy, open access to organised observations that enable an increasingly integrated view of our changing Earth. For sound science to shape sound policy, leaders and other decision-makers require this fuller picture as an indispensable foundation of sound decision-making.
GEO’s 90 members and 67 participating organisations are collaboratively advancing GEOSS, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems. This comprehensive system is making vast new worlds of data transparent, timely, accessible, and a vital catalyst for significantly enriching the quality of life of people around the world. The GEOSS Portal provides easy connection to existing observation and data systems.
GEO’s data-sharing principles foster full and open data exchange while recognising international instruments and national policies. Most data can be accessed at no charge or at the cost of reproduction.
