Press Release: Security and the environment: new satellites to spur earth observation

New satellites will soon reinforce the performance of the GMES earth observation system (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), further to an agreement signed in Brussels on 28 February, 2008, by the European Space Agency (ESA) Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain and Heinz Zourek, Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry Policy. GMES is a European Union-led initiative organised in partnership with ESA to combine ground and space-based observations to develop an integrated environmental and security monitoring capability. The data produced through this infrastructure will give a better understanding of the earth’s land surface, its atmosphere and its oceans, and support emergency and security services. In particular, these data allow for a better management of environmental and security crises.