Support for Global Data Management within CEO 
Gunter Schreier 
CEO Team, Institute for Remote Sensing Applications 
Joint Research Centre 
European Commission 
Italy 
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission (EC) have agreed to combine 
their expertise with that of their Member States to establish a co-ordinated, decentralised European 
Earth observation network to increase the use and the value of Earth observation data. 
The general objectives of this network is (1) to improve the ability to monitor and understand the 
Earth System on local, regional and global scale, (2) to enable the European Union (EU), the Member 
States, including those of the European Economic Area (EEA), and ESA to implement their own 
policies more efficiently, and (3) to enable European industry to be more robust in European markets 
and more competitive on the world markets. 
The EU contribution is the Centre for Earth Observation (CEO). 
The CEO complements developments elsewhere in the world. In the United States of America (USA) 
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have begun to develop and implement a 
Data and Information System (EOSDIS) for its planned Earth Observing System. Japan has 
proposed an international Earth Observation Information System (EOIS) for its Advanced Earth 
Observation Satellite (ADEOS). 
ESA will address that part of the data management linked to the satellites and the ground segment 
services while the EC will address those aspects of the EEOS system related to the use of the data and 
the stimulation of the productivity of the users. In this way the CEO will interface with data suppliers 
on the one hand and users on the other. Some users are expected to make accessible through the CEO 
ancillary thematic data and other important ground data. 
The CEO shall be designed so that it may evolve and adapt flexibly to future needs of the users and to 
changes in data sources. The CEO shall be designed to promote the application of Earth observation 
in the by: 
* encouraging communication and exchange of services between individual users and between user 
communities, including those in global change; 
* stimulating the creation of high-level products, with special attention paid to global data sets; 
* promoting improved data standardisation and quality assurance; 
* co-ordinating the design and operation of existing and future decentralised data archives and data 
bases, and data delivery services; 
* improving the visibility of Earth observation data, services and expertise. 
The goal is to design and implement the first phase of the CEO by the end of the Fourth Framework 
Programme in 1998. Operation and evolutionary development of the CEO is planned to continue 
beyond 1998. 
With respect to global data bases and global change management, CEO would closely cooperate with 
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