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Initiative to share global remote sensing data gains momentum
Alan Bailey Petroleum News Staff Writer
An international initiative to standardize and share vast quantities of data from public-domain Earth observations has been gaining momentum, Brigadier General Jack Kelly, deputy undersecretary for oceans and atmosphere for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Petroleum News recently. Data to be shared include many types of government-sponsored remote sensing, including satellite imagery and weather observations. The energy industries will be among the beneficiaries of the initiative, Kelly said.
The global data-sharing idea emerged from the World Summit for Sustainable Development, a meeting of major world figures about two years ago in Johannesburg, Kelly said. Then in the 2003 G8 Summit in Evian world leaders, including President Bush, endorsed the recommendations of the Johannesburg summit. That endorsement led to a summit in Washington, D.C., to determine how to get the data sharing initiative under way.
Since these summits the initiative has grown to include 53 countries, the European Commission and 29 international organizations, Kelly said.
“What we’re hoping is that the effort here-to-for has convinced people that this is an effort whose time has come and judging by the number of countries who are continually growing to it I would think that we have done that,” Kelly said.
An intergovernmental team called the Group on Earth Observations is formulating a 10-year implementation plan. The United States has taken a leading role in the initiative by forming its own team, called the Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations. The U.S. team involves 15 government agencies. A global view “The thrust of all of this is that the only way we can really understand how the Earth and the atmosphere and the oceans interact is through global cooperation and information sharing,” Kelly said.
Trying to use the current mish-mash of data from different countries is like trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle where many of the pieces are missing and few of the pieces interlock correctly. In fact a document from the Group on Earth Observations cites numerous shortcomings with the current situation: problems include lack of data integration and interoperability; gaps in data coverage; problems with the observation systems; lack of systems to convert data into useful information; and lack of access to data, especially in the developing world.
“Current efforts to observe and understand the Earth system must progress from the separate observations of today to coordinated, timely, quality, sustained global information ... as a basis for sound decisions and actions,” Kelly said. Social and economic benefits The objectives of the data-sharing initiative revolve around achieving social and economic benefits. By enabling the comprehensive availability and analysis of global data people expect to see benefits such as major improvements to weather forecasting, better environmental monitoring and more efficient use of natural resources.
“There was agreement that we are not aiming to do this just to develop technology but there has to be some societal benefit,” Kelly said.
Both the international and U.S. teams have compiled lists of potential benefit areas — lists that include energy management and monitoring.
“What it means is to get to the energy industry better information about what is going on in the environment,” Kelly said. He expects industry to be able to use the information for activities such as monitoring the climate, monitoring air quality and tracking oil slicks.
There’s also the potential for the wider availability of satellite remote-sensing data of the earth’s surface — data of the type that comes from the U.S. Landsat satellite. Progress to date Kelly sees broad international agreement on the principles of data sharing and data standards to be major achievements of the initiative so far. The teams working on the initiative have also moved ahead with developing detailed plans: the Group on Earth Observation will present its 10-year implementation plan to an international Earth Observation Summit in February of next year.
Although achieving agreements on the details of data standards, for example, may pose some daunting challenges, Kelly feels that a general willingness to succeed will prevail.
“In my experience, while standards are hard to do, if people can see a value coming from having them they will join in,” Kelly said.
Kelly anticipates that senior policy makers in the countries involved in the initiative will really push for success. And the involvement of several U.N. organizations that use the Earth observation systems will help drive the need for practical solutions for sharing data.
“Generally if there’s a will to succeed it will succeed”, Kelly said. “It’s not a science challenge — it’s a want-to-do challenge.”
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