Advisory Committee for Earth Observation

Last updated

The Advisory Committee for Earth Observation (ACEO) is the senior advisory body to the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Director of Earth Observation (EO) Programmes. The Advisory Committee acts as the representative of the Director General of the European Space Agency on all matters concerning Earth observation-based Earth Sciences in the Earth Observation Programmes of ESA.

Contents

Role

ACEO is the main interpreter of the views and needs of the European scientific community as regards access to space experimentation and EO data exploitation in the Earth science community. Its main tasks are to advise and/or make recommendations on:

The ACEO has the highest-level advisory capacity, through the Director of Earth Observation Programmes (D/EOP), for matters to be treated at the level of the Programme Board for Earth Observation (PB-EO), which may also request advice on particular issues of a scientific nature.

Membership

ACEO is composed of invited members who are senior European scientific experts and ex-officio representatives of relevant stakeholder bodies, and is managed by the ACEO Secretariat in the Earth and Mission Science Division. ACEO members are selected ESA Executive to achieve diversity and balance in scientific expertise across the relevant Earth science disciplines, from within ESA Member States, and Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, or Slovakia.

Membership appointments are for a period of three years with the possibility to extend to a maximum of five years. The tenure of the chair is for three years, independent of previous normal membership, with the possibility of a one-year extension.

The Chair of the PB-EO is invited, ex officio, to attend the meetings of the ACEO. Furthermore, representatives of other ESA Directorates’ Science Advisory Committees may be invited to attend.

Representatives of scientific or professional organisations with a stake in Earth Observation (e.g. European Space Sciences Committee (ESSC) of the European Science Foundation, whose expertise may be required by ACEO to properly fulfil its functions can also be invited, ex-officio and Ad Personam, to attend the meetings.

Operating Procedure

The Committee meets at dates and places jointly agreed between the chair and the Director of Earth Observation Programmes.

ACEO provides advice and/or makes recommendations on the items referred to it by the Director of Earth Observation Programmes. Members of the Committee may however raise issues they wish to discuss.

The Chair of the ACEO reports on the committee's recommendations at the meetings of the PB-EO. The Chair of PB-EO can make a request to the Director of Earth Observation Programmes for ACEO to carry out specific actions in the framework of its mandate.

The ACEO Secretariat is managed by ESA's Earth and Mission Science Division.

Past Chairpersons

History

The ACEO was established in 2018 [7] to replace the former Earth Science Advisory Committee (ESAC) as the senior advisory body to the Director of Earth Observation.

The former Earth Science Advisory Committee had been in place operating as the main science advisory body from the inception of the ESA Living Planet Programme in 1996 until 2018. Prior to that the Earth Observation Advisory Committee (EOAC), created in 1981, had been the senior scientific advisory body to the Application Satellites Directorate on programmes, projects, studies and application of this field.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Agency</span> European organization dedicated to space exploration

The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 22-member intergovernmental body devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,200 people globally as of 2018, ESA was founded in 1975. Its 2023 annual budget was €7.08 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British National Space Centre</span> Former agency of the government of the United Kingdom

The British National Space Centre (BNSC) was an agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, organised in 1985, that coordinated civil space activities for the United Kingdom. It was replaced on 1 April 2010 by the UK Space Agency.

CryoSat is an ESA programme to monitor variations in the extent and thickness of polar ice through use of a satellite in low Earth orbit. The information provided about the behaviour of coastal glaciers that drain thinning ice sheets will be key to better predictions of future sea level rise. The CryoSat-1 spacecraft was lost in a launch failure in 2005, however the programme was resumed with the successful launch of a replacement, CryoSat-2, launched on 8 April 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Research Organisation</span> International organisation (1964-75); predecessor to the European Space Agency

The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was an international organisation founded by 10 European nations with the intention of jointly pursuing scientific research in space. It was founded in 1964. As an organisation ESRO was based on a previously existing international scientific institution, CERN. The ESRO convention, the organisations founding document outlines it as an entity exclusively devoted to scientific pursuits. This was the case for most of its lifetime but in the final years before the formation of ESA, the European Space Agency, ESRO began a programme in the field of telecommunications. Consequently, ESA is not a mainly pure science focused entity but concentrates on telecommunications, earth observation and other application motivated activities. ESRO was merged with ELDO in 1975 to form the European Space Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanian Space Agency</span> Space agency; public institution with extrabudgetary funding

The Romanian Space Agency is a public institution with extra-budgetary funding that coordinates Romania's national space technology research programs and space research-related activities. ROSA was founded in 1991 and is subordinate to the Ministry of Education.

The Living Planet Programme (LPP) is a programme within the European Space Agency which is managed by the Earth Observation Programmes Directorate. LPP consists of two classes of Earth observation missions including research missions known as Earth Explorers, and the Earth Watch class of missions whose objective is to develop support operational applications such as numerical weather forecasting or resource management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mission Science Division</span>

The Earth and Mission Science Division is a group of European Space Agency (ESA) staff mission scientists, contractors, research fellows, young graduates, trainees, and administrative staff working within the Climate Action, Sustainability and Science Department of the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes. The Division is located at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, South Holland, The Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Rapley</span>

Christopher Graham Rapley is a British scientist and scientific administrator. He is Professor of Climate Science at University College London, a member of the Academia Europaea, Chair of the European Science Foundation's European Space Sciences Committee, Patron of the Surrey Climate Commission, a member of the scientific advisory board of Scientists Warning, a member of the UK Clean Growth Fund Advisory Board, and a member of the UK Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. His previous posts include Director of the Science Museum, London, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, Chairman of the London Climate Change Partnership, President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Vice President of the European Science Foundation's European Polar Board, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and founder and leader of UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory's (MSSL) Remote Sensing Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PLATO (spacecraft)</span> European space telescope to detect exoplanets

PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is a space telescope under development by the European Space Agency for launch in 2026. The mission goals are to search for planetary transits across up to one million stars, and to discover and characterize rocky extrasolar planets around yellow dwarf stars, subgiant stars, and red dwarf stars. The emphasis of the mission is on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around Sun-like stars where water can exist in a liquid state. It is the third medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and is named after the influential Greek philosopher Plato. A secondary objective of the mission is to study stellar oscillations or seismic activity in stars to measure stellar masses and evolution and enable the precise characterization of the planet host star, including its age.

<i>Euclid</i> (spacecraft) European visible and near-infrared space observatory

Euclid is a wide-angle space telescope with a 600-megapixel camera to record visible light, a near-infrared spectrometer, and photometer, to determine the redshift of detected galaxies. It was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Euclid Consortium and was launched on 1 July 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EarthCARE</span>

EarthCARE is a planned joint European/Japanese satellite, the sixth of ESA's Earth Explorer Programme. The main goal of the mission is the observation and characterization of clouds and aerosols as well as measuring the reflected solar radiation and the infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface and atmosphere.

ELIPS - European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences in Space and applications utilising the International Space Station started in 2001 and was intended to cover the activities for the following 5 years. This Microgravity Programme at the European Space Agency (ESA) is an optional programme, with currently 17 ESA member states participating. The ELIPS programme prepares and performs research on the International Space Station, and other uncrewed mission platforms like Sounding Rockets, in fundamental and applied life and physical sciences. ELIPS is the continuation of the earlier European microgravity programmes EMIR 1&2, and the Microgravity Facilities for Columbus, MFC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PROBA-V</span> European Space Agencys PROBA series satellite

PROBA-V, or PROBA-Vegetation, is a satellite in the European Space Agency's PROBA series. It was launched in 2013 with a predicted usable lifetime between 2.5 and 5 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Southwood</span>

David John Southwood is a British space scientist who holds the post of Senior Research Investigator at Imperial College London. He was the President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2012–2014, and earlier served as the Director of Science and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency (2001–2011). Southwood's research interests have been in solar–terrestrial physics and planetary science, particularly magnetospheres. He built the magnetic field instrument for the Cassini Saturn orbiter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athena Coustenis</span> Astrophysicist

Athena Coustenis is an astrophysicist specializing in planetology. Dr. Coustenis, a French national, is director of research, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, at LESIA, at the Paris Observatory, Meudon. She is involved in several space mission projects for the European Space Agency (ESA) and for NASA. Her focus is on gas giant planets Saturn, Jupiter and their moons, and she is considered a foremost expert on Saturn's moon Titan.

Biomass is an Earth observing satellite planned for launch by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2024 on a Vega launch vehicle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josef Aschbacher</span> Austrian space administrator

Josef Aschbacher is Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), a position he has held since 1 March 2021. His international career in space combines more than 35 years' of experience at ESA, the European Commission, the Austrian Space Agency, the Asian Institute of Technology and the University of Innsbruck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Space Agency Science Programme</span> Science programme by the European Space Agency, focused on astronomy, astrophysics, and exploration

The Science Programme of the European Space Agency is a long-term programme of space science and space exploration missions. Managed by the agency's Directorate of Science, The programme funds the development, launch, and operation of missions led by European space agencies and institutions through generational campaigns. Horizon 2000, the programme's first campaign, facilitated the development of eight missions between 1985 and 1995 including four "cornerstone missions" – SOHO and Cluster II, XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and Herschel. Horizon 2000 Plus, the programme's second campaign, facilitated the development of Gaia, LISA Pathfinder, and BepiColombo between 1995 and 2005. The programme's current campaign since 2005, Cosmic Vision, has so far funded the development of ten missions including three flagship missions, JUICE, Athena, and LISA. The programme's upcoming fourth campaign, Voyage 2050, is currently being drafted. Collaboration with agencies and institutions outside of Europe occasionally occur in the Science Programme, including a collaboration with NASA on Cassini–Huygens and the CNSA on SMILE.

References

  1. ↑ European Space Agency, (ESA) (5 January 2024). "ESA - Observing the Earth". European Space Agency Earth Observation web portal. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  2. ↑ European Space Agency, (ESA) (21 September 2018). "Three ESA Earth Explorer ideas selected". ESA Earth Observation Web portal. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  3. ↑ European Space Agency, (ESA) (10 June 2021). "Four mission ideas to compete for Earth Explorer 11". European Space Agency Earth Observation web portal. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  4. ↑ European Space Agency, (ESA) (22 September 2022). "ESA selects Harmony as tenth Earth Explorer mission". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  5. ↑ European Space Agency, (ESA) (21 November 2023). "ESA - Cairt and Wivern Earth Explorer candidates go forward". ESA Earth Observation Web Portal. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  6. ↑ European Space Agency, (ESA) (5 January 2024). "ESA's EO Science for Society". EO Science for Society. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  7. ↑ European Space Agency, (ESA) (22 March 2018). "ESA forms new Earth observation advisory group". Earth Online. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.