The Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) Partnership

1. Summary

The IGOS Partnership* was established in June1988 to plan and implement strategies for the integrated global observations through the coordination and cooperation among global observing systems, research programmes and relevant international organizations.

* NASDA served as the Chair agency of the IGOS Partnership from June to November 2001.

2. Background

To enhance the understanding of Earth systems, including the water cycle, it is extremely important to integrate satellite-based observing systems with ground-based networks and to establish observations on a global scale. Since such global observation exceeds the capacity of a single government or international organization, international strategic planning of observations is essential to avoid duplication and to fill gaps in observational networks. To achieve this, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation and coordination among global observing systems and research programmes and relevant international organizations.

3. The Work of the Partnership - Japan's leadership in the water cycle observations

The IGOS partners are now working to create the much-needed definition of the integrated global observations that are required to support studies of climate change. The first IGOS theme report on "The Ocean" was published in 2001, and the implementation of the integrated global observation it recommends has begun. Work continues on the definition of further integrated global observations, such as the global carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry and the global water cycle. As well as continuing to provide data for the integrated global observation of the ocean, Japan is leading the IGOS activities for the global water cycle. Japan will launch the Advanced Earth Observation Satellite-II (ADEOS II) in 2002, and will support the establishment of a global water cycle observing system jointly with space agencies of European countries and the United States.

4. The IGOS Partners

(a) Space agencies: Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) CEOS has 23 space agencies as its members, including NASDA and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. These space agencies actively participate in the activities of the IGOS partnership.

(b) Global Observing Systems:

(c) International agencies which sponsor the Global Observing Systems:

(d) International Group of Funding Agencies for Global Change Research (IGFA)

(e) International global change research programmes: