Today in Brussels, the amendment to the EC-ESA GMES agreement was signed by Mr Jean-Jacques Dordain, the ESA Director General, and Mr. Heinz Zourek, Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry. This amendment will extend the scope of the original Agreement (signed in February 2008) to activities of Segment 2 of the GMES Space Component Programme and paves the way to ordering the second units of the Sentinel 1, 2, 3 satellites as well as the atmospheric chemistry missions Sentinel-4 and -5 GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) is the response to the need by Europe for geo-spatial information services. It provides autonomous and independent access to information for policy-makers, particularly in relation to environment and security. ESA, as main partner to the European Union in GMES, is working on multi-mission facilities and ground segment operations and is preparing the Space Component for GMES with a series of studies and preparatory activities for the development of a series of satellites missions (the Sentinels) and the integration of national and European missions to guarantee continuity of data and services. Credits: ESAprecursor.

Segment 2 of the GMES Space Component (GSC) Programme, which will span the period of 2009-2018, overlapping with the ongoing Segment 1 (2006-2013), will complete the development of the initial five new satellites called Sentinels, developed by ESA specifically to meet the needs of GMES, and will ensure operational access to Earth observation data from Contributing Missions for the user community. More than 40 European and non-European Earth Observation satellites have united to provide data to GMES Services over the next years. ESA will coordinate the data acquisitions seeking to optimize resources from the variety of European and non-European EO satellite missions. Considered missions include ESA Member States’ missions, such as France’s Spot and Pleiades satellites, Germany’s TerraSAR-X, Italy’s CosmoSkyMed, the UK-led DMC constellation (including the soon-to-be launched DMC-UK2 and Spain’s Deimos-1), as well as Canada’s Radarsat, Israel’s Eros and other non-European missions distributed through European companies. In addition, ESA will act as data provider for its own EO missions, such as Envisat and ERS-2, as well as its Third Party Missions. Credits: ESA

Segment 2 was approved by the ESA Member States at the last ESA Ministerial Council meeting held on 25-26 November 2008 with subscriptions to the program from ESA Participating States amounting to €831.4 million (at 2008 economic conditions). The amendment signed today adds a further contribution from the European Commission of €205 million to segment 2 of the GSC program.  

GMES is an EU-led initiative. Following the recent Commission Communication(1) and EU Competitiveness Council conclusions(2) on GMES, the European Commission ensures the political coordination of GMES and the development and implementation of a programmatic, institutional, financial and regulatory framework and takes the lead in identifying and bringing together user needs for GMES. It also ensures the availability and continuity of operational services that support its policies. Technical implementation is entrusted to European entities.

In this context and in accordance with the 5th Space Council Resolution of September 2008, ESA’s role within GMES is to be the development and procurement agency for the dedicated GMES Sentinel Missions, and the coordinator for the whole GMES Space Component, including contributions made available by Member States, EUMETSAT and further GMES partners. To review the report and view the rotating satellites.