Declan Butler,BrusselsMinisters from some 60 nations have signedup to a ten-year plan to build a unified,globalEarth observation system.
The Global Earth Observation System ofSystems (GEOSS) will work with existingagencies to distribute the data needed toaddress issues ranging from disaster mitiga-tion and climate change to the managementof water resources. It received formal back-ing at a meeting in Brussels on 16 February
The nations agreed to set up the systemaccording to a ten-year plan developed by anad hoc working group that was led by theUnited States, the European Commission,Japan and South Africa. The initial costs ofthe project, which will be agreed over thenext two years,are estimated to be of the orderof just tens of millions of dollars annually.
Last December’s tidal waves in the IndianOcean lent fresh impetus to the GEOSS pro-posal, its backers say.“The tsunami disas-ter has shown us just how importantEarth observation can be, in providingdata to support an immediate humani-tarian response and subsequent recon-struction,” says Janez Potocnik, theEuropean Union’s research commissioner.
If successfully implemented, GEOSSwill coordinate the plethora of nationaland international agencies that alreadyspend billions of dollars on Earth obser-vation. And it will aim to provide morecomplete geographical coverage,on land,in the oceans,air and space,and over time.
Under the Brussels deal, a secretariatwill be established at the World Meteoro-logical Organization in Geneva, Switzer-land. It will determine international
formats for data and build agreements underwhich agencies share data for free, orexchange it at low cost. Ultimately, GEOSS isalso intended to broker funding and inter-national agreements for new Earth observa-tion instruments and facilities.
The Brussels meeting was the first over-seas outing for the new US commerce secre-tary, Carlos Gutierrez. He enthusiasticallybacked the project, saying it would give us“the pulse of the entire globe”.
Some scientists have been worried thatGEOSS, which was first proposed in 2003,would serve mainly as a discussion forum,anda bureaucratic one at that. But at the meeting,they said that the scientific potential of theproject was growing. “Potentially, GEOSScould grow into the most significant initiativein Earth observation since the invention ofsatellites,” says Heiko Balzter, head of Earthobservation at the UK-based Climate and
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Land-Surface Systems Interaction Centre.The project’s most immediate boon may
be data that are free and easy to use. Data-access policies vary widely between coun-tries and organizations. “The costs quicklyadd up,” says David Rogers, an ecologist atthe University of Oxford, who works onsatellite forecasting of malaria. Data are alsooften available only after a delay, or in user-unfriendly formats.
And such data can often be analysed onlyby experts, according to Paul Mason, formerchief scientist at the UK Met Office and chairof the Global Climate Observing System(GCOS). “In cross-cutting programmessuch as climate change, which require inputsfrom the land, ocean and atmospheric sys-tems, it can be very difficult for individualresearch groups to use the data,” he says,adding:“I hope GEOSS can change that.”
Scientists also hope that the project willmove Earth observation from a researchactivity to a more ‘operational’ footing,with services funded by governmentsworldwide, as for weather forecasting.“Basically,we need an operational systemfor climate observations,” says BrianHoskins, a climate modeller at the University of Reading, UK, and vice-chairman of the scientific committee forthe World Climate Research Programme.
The GCOS programme, whichreports to the United Nations FrameworkConvention on Climate Change,has beendeveloping plans for such a system. “Iwelcome this GEOSS big brother, whichwill have the political muscle to pursuesome of the difficult things that need to bedone,”says Mason. ■
Bryon MacWilliams,MoscowA senior Russian material scientist has beenaccused of selling state secrets to SouthKorea, in the latest of a string of arrests by the country’s security services.
Oskar Kaibyshev, founder and director of the Institute for Metals SuperplasticityProblems in Ufa, could be imprisoned forten years if he is convicted. He says he isbeing accused of exporting dual-usetechnologies, which have both civilian andmilitary applications, to a tyre manufacturer.
The 66-year-old researcher reported hisown arrest on 18 February, telling newsorganizations that he had been questionedfor some six hours on the previous day byagents of the Federal Security Service (FSB).He says that he has been suspended from hispost at the institute, his bank accounts have
been frozen, and he has been prohibitedfrom leaving Ufa, which lies 1,500 kmsoutheast of Moscow.
The interrogation focused on severalyears of collaboration between the instituteand the tyre maker ASA, a subsidiary ofHankook Tire, which is based in Seoul.Kaibyshev says that the firm is usingsuperplastic technology in its designs for high-pressure tyres. The technologystretches titanium alloy to enhance itsmechanical properties and, according toKaibyshev, can be used to produce sphericaltanks that can be inflated to a pressure of1,000 atmospheres.
The institute has not had access to statesecrets for two decades, Kaibyshev told theMoscow-based radio station, Ekho Moskvy.“If you need to put somebody on trial, it
should be agents of the FSB, who were fullyinformed of our contracts and should havewarned us if there were any problems.”
Ernst Chyorny, a member of the PublicCommittee for the Protection of Scientists— a Moscow-based human-rights group —says that the technologies in question hadalready been exported to India in 1987, andto Italy in 1990. They are also described in aforthcoming book co-authored by Kaibyshev.The book is being funded by the InternationalScience and Technology Center, a Moscow-based project supported by, among others,the United States and the European Union.The centre helps military scientists from theformer Soviet Union to find civilian work.
The FSB declined to comment, sayingthat it would release details of the chargesagainst Kaibyshev next week. ■
Russian security arrests institute head for spying
Global observation project gets green light
Think global: GEOSS will coordinate Earth observations.
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