NOAA hosted the 52nd Plenary Meeting of the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS-52) from June 4–6, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Established in 1972, the CGMS coordinates global meteorological satellite systems, including the protection of in-orbit assets, the improvement of data quality, and the facilitation of shared data access. CGMS members include operational meteorological satellite operators, space agencies and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Dr. Stephen Volz, NOAA Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information Services, chaired this year’s plenary meeting, which was held in a hybrid format with 79 participants from 18 organizations in 15 countries.
Dr. Michael Morgan, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observations and Prediction, welcomed participants during the meeting’s opening session. Dr. Morgan emphasized the critical importance of the partnerships among the agencies and organizations represented. Key to NOAA’s efforts to build a Climate Ready Nation, Dr. Morgan noted, are the satellite observations that underpin NOAA’s science and services.
“The rapid changes in the space sector will impact how we provide those satellite observations in the future,” Dr. Morgan said. “The increasing breadth of observations we will need to forecast weather and monitor climate necessitates reimagining our future satellite architecture. I am happy to see we, as CGMS members, are continuing to discuss how we can develop more advanced and agile systems to make technology, platform, and business model innovations operational on more rapid timescales. This will include expanding international and commercial partnerships and on-ramping new technologies for space systems and dissemination.”
Throughout the week, representatives from participating organizations presented on their respective satellite programs. Members discussed a wide array of topics, including potential contributions to the United Nations Early Warnings for All initiative and the WMO Global Greenhouse Gas Watch initiative as well as how to best leverage new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. The group also made several decisions, endorsing both the CGMS Best Practices for Commercial Data Purchases as well as a high-level statement on the global hybrid architecture coordination.
In addition, CGMS members from NOAA, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), and the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) participated in a panel on the GEO-Ring, a collection of international satellites used for worldwide weather, ocean, climate, and air quality monitoring. Panelists discussed the challenges and opportunities presented by the expansion of data available from the GEO-Ring and how members might leverage those opportunities to address diverse user needs. Shikha Ganguly, L3Harris General Manager for Weather, Space and Airborne Systems, moderated the panel during the dinner hosted by L3Harris Technologies. “It’s an exciting time as several of the CGMS member organizations embark on the development of next-generation satellite architectures to augment the GEO-Ring,” Ms. Ganguly said. “As dangerous weather events become more frequent and severe, international cooperation to ensure worldwide availability of weather and climate data is increasingly important.”
In addition to the substantial benefits NOAA derives from its cooperation and coordination with partners through CGMS, the organization plays an important role in the development of NOAA’s geostationary back-up arrangements with EUMETSAT and the JMA. For example, in 1989, the imager on NOAA’s GOES-6 satellite failed, leaving NOAA with only one satellite to observe the weather from the East to West Coast of the United States. Under the auspices of CGMS, EUMETSAT agreed to reposition its Meteosat-3 satellite further west, allowing NOAA to focus GOES-6 further west, minimizing the impact on NOAA’s weather forecasts for severe storms including Hurricane Andrew.
International cooperation and partnerships such as those coordinated through CGMS are essential to ensuring NOAA has the global data and information needed to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts.