Visit of the creator of GMES

March 22 this year a special meeting of the Remote Sensing Committee of the Space and Satellite Research Committee of the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences was held. The special guest of the meeting was prof. José Achache, director of the GEO (Group on Earth Observations) secretariat coordinating the GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) project, originator and one of the creators of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security). The meeting with a great enthusiast and promoter of the use of satellite imaging techniques in monitoring the dynamically changing Earth’s environment was an opportunity to look at the issue of implementing the assumptions of the GMES program in Poland.
Representatives of the Ministry of Economy, responsible for negotiations regarding full membership in the European Space Agency (ESA), in the person of Chief Krzysztof Zaręba and Jakub Ryzenko – advisor to the ministry, outlined the current state of the negotiation process. They also described a vision of a strategy to deepen the benefits for our country from European cooperation in the field of the use of space technologies and satellite techniques. The representative of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education presented the work of a group of specialists recruited from the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography and the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences on the GMES implementation plan in Poland. The previous papers were supplemented by a report by prof. Zdzisław Kurczyński. It presented the work of the Central Office of Geodesy and Cartography in the construction of components of the IT System for Protecting the Country Against Extraordinary Threats (ISOK). GUGiK is responsible for building a resource including detailed image, altitude and topographic information. ISOK is currently the most important system in the field of public security based on spatial information in Poland. In the context of the meeting’s topic, the potential of current satellite information as a future complement to this system deserves attention.
The meeting was summarized by the chairman of the Commission, prof. Jan Romuald Olędzki and vice-chairman Dr. Witold Fedorowicz-Jackowski. They declared, on behalf of the Commission, full support for activities aimed at Poland’s association with ESA and substantive assistance in creating assumptions for the implementation of GMES in Poland, as well as Polish space policy.