Bilateral partnerships

Environment and Climate Change Canada

EUMETSAT established a formal cooperation agreement with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in 2008. We work together to benefit operational weather and climate services in Europe and Canada.

This agreement encompasses data and product access and exchange, interactions with EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility (SAF) network – relating, in particular, to scientific and technical developments of the Ocean and Sea Ice, Hydrology, Land Surface Analysis and Radio Occultation Meteorology SAFs - and sharing experience on training for satellite meteorology.

EUMETSAT hosts ECCC scientists as part of our visiting scientist programme, through which both agencies benefit from each other’s experience and expertise. Our experts attend each other’s workshops, seminars and meetings on specific areas of mutual interest.

Cooperation with the ECCC also encompasses the possibility for contributions to future satellite programmes and missions, in particular, on high-latitude missions, as well as wildfire monitoring.

For more information, please visit the ECCC website.

China Meteorological Administration

EUMETSAT established a formal cooperation agreement with the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) in 1998. Through this agreement, we work together to benefit weather and climate services in Europe and China, particularly through the exchange of data and scientific expertise. The benefits of this cooperation are felt globally, as both agencies also contribute to multilateral partnerships, working together on issues such as the meteorological satellite system architecture and climate monitoring. This helps ensure our efforts complement each other, making the sum of both agencies’ efforts greater than their individual contributions.

EUMETSAT and the CMA share data from their geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite systems, ensuring more high-quality information is available to both agencies’ data users for weather forecasting and climate monitoring purposes. Just one manifestation of this cooperation is the CMA’s polar-orbiting satellites flying complementary orbits to EUMETSAT’s Metop satellites. By sharing data from these complementary missions, both agencies benefit from the acquisition of more data than they could obtain individually. The use of additional data in weather forecasting models helps ensure the accuracy of weather predications up to 10 days in advance.

EUMETSAT regularly hosts CMA scientists as part of our visiting scientist programme, through which both agencies benefit from each other’s experience and expertise. Our experts attend each other’s workshops, seminars and meetings on specific areas of mutual interest, such as space weather, artificial intelligence, cloud technology and instrument calibration and validation.

The data dissemination systems EUMETCast and CMACast contribute to the global satellite dissemination system GEONETCast, which supports the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). 

Caption: EUMETSAT’s Director-General Phil Evans welcomes Dr Chen Zhenlin to our headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, during the latter’s first official overseas visit as Administrator of the CMA. The visit took place in June 2023.

China National Space Administration

EUMETSAT established a formal cooperation agreement with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in 2017. The agreement provides a long-term perspective for cooperation on Earth observation, and enhances partnerships in place with the China Meteorological Administration and the Chinese State Oceanic Administration’s National Ocean Satellite Application Centre.

Through this agreement, we work together to benefit weather, ocean and climate services in Europe and China. The benefits of this cooperation are felt globally, as both agencies also contribute to multilateral partnerships working together on issues such as the meteorological satellite system architecture and climate monitoring. This helps ensure our efforts complement each other, making the sum of both agencies’ efforts greater than their individual contributions.

EUMETSAT, the CNSA and the French Space Agency (CNES) established an agreement in 2019 to redistribute the data from the Chinese-French oceanography satellite, CFOSAT, to European data users.

For more information, please visit the CNSA website.

Chinese State Oceanic Administration’s National Satellite Ocean Application Service, Ministry of Natural Resources

EUMETSAT established a formal cooperation agreement with the China State Oceanic Administration (SOA), under the Ministry of Natural Resources, in 2012.  The agreement is implemented through the National Satellite Ocean Application Service (NSOAS). Through this agreement, we work together to benefit oceanographic services in Europe and China, particularly through the exchange of data.

The benefits of this cooperation are felt globally, as both agencies also contribute to multilateral partnerships working together on issues such as sea surface temperature, winds (scatterometry), radiometry and altimetry. To secure near-real-time, global Chinese data for European data users, important for ocean and weather forecasting, we have established data access downlinking facilities in northern Finland.

EUMETSAT and the NSOAS share data from their respective oceanography satellite systems, ensuring more high-quality information is available to both agencies’ data users for satellite ocean applications and weather forecasting. Just one manifestation of this cooperation is the NSOAS’s HaiYang-satellites flying complementary orbits to the multi-partner Jason missions and the EU’s Copernicus Sentinel marine missions. By sharing data from these complementary missions, both agencies benefit from the acquisition of more data than they could obtain individually.

EUMETSAT and NSOAS regularly consult with each other to improve and enhance data exchange, data processing, and scientific calibration and validation activities.

Indian Space Research Organisation

EUMETSAT established a formal cooperation agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2000. This agreement focuses on the exchange of satellite data and products from the parties’ Earth observation satellites to support weather analysis and forecasting and oceanography. The cooperation also includes calibration and validation activities, scientific exchange and training.

The benefits of this cooperation are felt globally, as both agencies also contribute to multilateral partnerships. This helps ensure our efforts complement each other, making the sum of both agencies’ efforts greater than their individual contributions.

EUMETSAT and ISRO share data from their satellite systems, ensuring more high-quality information is available to both agencies’ data users for weather forecasting, climate and ocean monitoring purposes. Just one manifestation of this cooperation is ISRO’s Oceansat satellites flying complementary orbits to multi-partner marine missions, Jason and Copernicus Sentinel-3 and -6. By sharing data from these complementary missions, both agencies benefit from the acquisition of more data than they could obtain individually.

EUMETSAT hosts ISRO scientists as part of our visiting scientist programme, through which both agencies benefit from each other’s experience and expertise. Our experts attend each other’s workshops, seminars and meetings on specific areas of mutual interest, such as radio occultation, hyperspectral sounding and scatterometry.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

EUMETSAT works with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) through a formal cooperation agreement established in 2013. Through this agreement, we work together to benefit weather and climate services in Europe and Japan, particularly through the exchange of data and scientific expertise. The benefits of this cooperation are felt globally, as both agencies also contribute to multilateral partnerships. This helps to ensure our efforts complement each other, making the sum of both agencies’ efforts greater than their individual contributions.

The initial EUMETSAT-JAXA agreement was extended in 2019 to include cooperation on the monitoring of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. The agreement supports the implementation of the European roadmap for an operational CO2 monitoring system, which is essential for deepening the understanding of climate change.

EUMETSAT collaborates with JAXA and NASA on the multi-partner Global Precipitation Monitoring (GPM) mission. EUMETSAT contributes to the mission with the data from the Microwave Humidity Sounder on board our Metop satellites. These data are included in the near-real-time, multi-satellite precipitation analysis measuring tropical rainfall.

EUMETSAT and JAXA share data from their satellite systems, ensuring more high-quality information is available to both agencies’ data users for weather forecasting and climate monitoring purposes. Just one manifestation of this cooperation is the inclusion of data from the AMSR-2 instrument on board JAXA’s GCOM-W mission in the Met Office’s and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ operational models for numerical weather prediction. The Met Office (UK) also uses the data for ocean and precipitation forecasting.

Our experts attend each other’s workshops, seminars and meetings on specific areas of mutual interest, in particular related to greenhouse gas monitoring.

Caption: EUMETSAT’s Director-General Phil Evans meet’s JAXA’s Vice President Koji Terada at the CGMS-51 plenary session in June 2023

Japan Meteorological Agency

EUMETSAT’s formal cooperation agreement with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) was established in 2008. We work together to benefit operational weather services in Europe and Japan, particularly through the exchange of data and scientific expertise. EUMETSAT acts as the European distribution hub for the JMA’s satellite data.

The benefits of this cooperation are felt globally. EUMETSAT and the JMA also contribute to multilateral partnerships, in particular, the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites, working together on issues such as the meteorological satellite system architecture and weather monitoring. This helps ensure our efforts complement each other, making the sum of both agencies’ efforts greater than their individual contributions.

EUMETSAT and the JMA share data from their respective satellite systems, ensuring more high-quality information is available to both agencies’ data users for  weather forecasting models supporting weather predications up to 10 days in advance. By sharing data, both agencies benefit from the acquisition of more data than they could obtain individually.

EUMETSAT regularly hosts JMA scientists as part of our visiting scientist programme, through which both agencies benefit from each other’s experience and expertise on reprocessing of data for essential climate data records, and hyperspectral infrared sounding. A major JMA-EUMETSAT undertaking is the recalibration and reanalysis of infrared and water vapour channels, using JMA’s historical geostationary satellite data. Our experts attend each other’s workshops, seminars and meetings on specific areas of mutual interest such as calibration and validation and weather analysis and forecasting.

Caption: EUMETSAT’s Director-General Phil Evans meets the JMA’s Director-General Masanori Obayashi at the CGMS-51 plenary session in June 2023

Korea Meteorological Administration

EUMETSAT established a formal cooperation agreement with the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) in 2006. Through this agreement, we work together to benefit operational weather services in Europe and the Republic of Korea, particularly through the exchange of data and scientific expertise. The benefits of this cooperation are felt globally, as both agencies also contribute to multilateral partnerships working together on issues such as the meteorological satellite system architecture and climate monitoring. This helps ensure our efforts complement each other, making the sum of both agencies’ efforts greater than their individual contributions.

EUMETSAT and the KMA regularly consult on satellite data application development, data processing methodology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, training, and scientific research.

EUMETSAT regularly hosts KMA scientists as part of our visiting scientist programme, through which both agencies benefit from each other’s experience and expertise. A key outcome of this collaboration has been the scientific validation of a future Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) instrument algorithm (MTG-FCI AMV) using real data from the KMA’s Geo-Kompsat satellites, similar to the data from MTG’s Flexible Combined Imager in terms of spatial and temporal resolution. Our experts also attend each other’s workshops, seminars and meetings on specific areas of mutual interest.

Korean National Institute of Environmental Research

In 2020, EUMETSAT established a formal cooperation agreement with the Republic of Korea’s National Institute of Environmental Research. Through this agreement, we work together to benefit environment and climate services in Europe and Korea, particularly through the exchange of data and scientific expertise.

EUMETSAT hosts NIER scientists as part of our visiting scientist programme, through which both agencies benefit from each other’s experience and expertise. Our experts attend each other’s workshops, seminars and meetings on specific areas of mutual interest, in particular on greenhouse gas monitoring, and calibration and validation activities.

US National Aeronautics and Space Administration

In addition to long-standing cooperation with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on oceanography, through the Jason satellite programme and now the Copernicus Sentinel-6 mission, EUMETSAT has had a formal cooperation agreement with NASA since 2013.

Through this agreement, which specifically focuses on the multi-partner global precipitation monitoring (GPM) mission, we work together in this crucial field through the exchange and redistribution of data. EUMETSAT contributes to the GPM mission with data from the Microwave Humidity Sounder on its Metop satellites. These data are included in the near-real-time, multi-satellite precipitation analysis monitoring  tropical rainfall.

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

EUMETSAT has established strong cooperation with the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stretching back 40 years. We work particularly closely with NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS).

NOAA and EUMETSAT coordinate their polar-orbiting satellite systems and their respective ground segments to improve operational meteorological and environmental forecasting and global climate monitoring services worldwide.

Cooperation began with the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) Agreement, which was followed by the signature of a long-term cooperation agreement, the Joint Polar System (JPS) Agreement, and a Scientific Cooperation Agreement.

The Joint Polar System consists of the NOAA Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites, which cover the afternoon orbit and the EUMETSAT Polar System – Second Generation (EPS-SG) Metop satellite series, which will cover the mid-morning orbit.

NOAA and EUMETSAT have also signed backup and data exchange agreements for their geostationary satellites and recently updated it to cover Meteosat Third Generation.

EUMETSAT and NOAA are key partners in the Jason-3 and Copernicus Sentinel-6 missions, which deliver detailed oceanographic data vital for weather forecasting and climate change monitoring. The data ensure continuity in the measurement of rising sea levels carried out by the Jason missions and TOPEX/Poseidon since 1992. CNES and NASA are also partners in these programmes, recently joined by the European Commission and ESA for Sentinel-6.

EUMETSAT and NOAA have a very dynamic science cooperation in place. We interact closely when planning future programmes, by addressing the impact of new space and of the emerging private sector. We are also looking at future cloud-based, artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions for processing, handling and exchanging data.

For more information, please visit the NOAA website.