1. CEOS Virtual Constellations and Working Groups VC/WG Day overview Jean-Louis Fellous SIT Chair Team CEOS SIT Technical Workshop CNES, Montpellier, France 17 th September 2014

2. SIT Tech. Workshop 2014 CNES, Montpellier, France 17 th -18 th September 2014 2 Background Why a VC/WG Day? A request was put forward during SIT Chair Tag up Telecons with VCs and WGs held in January-February to hold a dedicated Virtual Constellations Day back-to-back the SIT Technical Workshop Preliminary discussions about the possible content of this VC Day led immediately to identify the need to involve the Working Groups at all levels in its planning and organization Further discussions took place during the second series of SIT Chair Tag up Telecons with VCs and WGs in June-July These discussions confirmed the interest to hold this special event and agreed on the format and topics for the VC/WG Day

3. SIT Tech. Workshop 2014 CNES, Montpellier, France 17 th -18 th September 2014 3 Participation and content The VC/WG Day All VCs (i.e., SST, OST, OSVW, ACC and P-VC) except the LSI were present or represented All WGs (i.e., WGCV, WGISS, WGCapD, WGClimate, WGDisasters) were present It has been an opportunity for VCs and WGs leads to discuss common issues and to exchange on the support they need and on the support they can offer It has been an opportunity to highlight the remarkable achievements of the VCs and WGs and the potential improvements that can result from enhanced interaction between CEOS various groups

4. SIT Tech. Workshop 2014 CNES, Montpellier, France 17 th -18 th September 2014 4 Quick summary of the discussion Topic #1 – CEOS-SIT-VC-WG interactions in terms of support needed and/or offered; CEOS promotion of VC/WG achievements Each VC introduced itself in ~2 minutes with ~2 slides. The discussion emphasized the importance of face-to-face meetings For CEOS to achieve greater success, and building on the success of this first workshop, an immediate recommendation to CEOS and SIT was to hold annually a VC/WG Day organized and led by the VC/WG leaders Topic #2 – Training Activities This was the very first occasion for the WGCapD to meet the VCs. The discussion built on past examples of training activities settled out by VCs. Opportunities for “thematic” training workshops (e.g. SST + OCR, air quality, volcanic ash/disasters) making use of inputs from several VCs were considered. An immediate recommendation was that each VC should have a point-of-contact with WGCapD (and other WWGs as well)

5. SIT Tech. Workshop 2014 CNES, Montpellier, France 17 th -18 th September 2014 5 Quick summary (cont’d) Topic #3 – ECV Products, Reporting to SBSTA The discussion addressed the ECV Inventory and the CEOS response, including feedback, to the next GCOS-IP The WGClimate will invite inputs from VCs when reviewing action items from the CEOS response to GCOS-IP 2010 The discussion also covered the CEOS report to SBSTA, but the tight schedule will not allow for a review by the VCs A mechanism was proposed to improve 2-way communications between WGClimate and VCs Topic #4 – Data management and data access The discussion reviewed data coordination issues in large projects, and technical/financial/policy obstacles to data access. Various mechanisms were suggested to resolve data coordination issues CEOS-GEO Framework Agreements with donors could be a promising avenue, provided that a strong case can be presented A suggestion was put forward of a Common Data License

6. SIT Tech. Workshop 2014 CNES, Montpellier, France 17 th -18 th September 2014 6 Organization and reporting Each topic was allocated one hour and was moderated by two or three volunteers among the VC and WG leads Topic #1 – Craig Donlon (SST-VC) and Satish Srivastava (WGCV) Topic #2 – Eric Wood (WGCapD) and Juliette Lambin (OST-VC and OCR-VC) Topic #3 – Pascal Lecomte (WGClimate) and Richard Eckman (ACC-VC) Topic #4 – Richard Moreno (WGISS), Ivan Petiteville (WGDisasters) and Steven Neeck (P-VC) The SIT Chair Team is extremely grateful to the moderators for their leading the discussions during the VC/WG Day to significant outcomes Moderators will now report to the Technical Workshop on the outcomes of the discussion for their respective topics