Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Public Organization) or GISTDA, Thailand, a chair of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) in 2023, organized the 37th CEOS Plenary on November 14-16, 2023, in Chiang Rai, Thailand. There were more than 100 participants including principals, contacts, and representatives from 36 CEOS agencies.
Participants to the 37th CEOS Plenary in Chiang Rai, Thailand
During the year of chairmanship, GISTDA prioritized that CEOS shall make best use of space technologies for Better Environments, Economies, and Humanity.
To achieve the purpose of the CEOS 2023 thematic priorities, there were two workshops on Carbon Accounting, which were organized for delivering the global carbon issue and best practices through EO technology applications. This includes the special side event that was held on November 14th, 2023, to promote the use of Earth Observation satellites for carbon accounting and to provide the opportunity for representatives from government agencies, private sectors, and academic institutions to directly engage with the experts from ESA, JAXA, NASA, NOAA and GISTDA. With the support of the CEOS community, this event has achieved its outcomes and scaled up awareness and knowledge sharing for carbon accounting from space, strengthened collaboration and engagement among CEOS agencies, enhanced data and methodology availability for countries’ assessments of their nationally determined contributions, and increased the number of new potential end-users to explore and use EO datasets.
Carbon Accounting Workshop held on Nov. 14
Additionally, the New Space issue had been pushed forward via international seminars and conferences as well as Thailand Space Week 2023, which had bridged space-based global agencies from around the world to extend space economy’s potential network. The key outcomes were inputting the content of the ‘New Space White Paper’, collaborating opportunities, particularly in the Southeast Asia, increasing awareness and understanding of the New Space Economy, having business opportunities from EO data and services, and engaging government and private sectors.
During the 37th CEOS Plenary in Chiang Rai, the high-level executive officers from member agencies also provided opinions and jointly formulated directions, as well as working policies in the field of space missions to support operations related to climate change, changes in ocean and sea conditions, platforms for disaster occurrences, and equitable dissemination of knowledge standardization and exchange of information.
A scene at the CEOS Plenary 2023
Following a long day of work on the 37th CEOS Plenary, GISTDA invited the CEOS members to experience the local way of life and the surrounding natural environment by visiting around prominent local attractions.
Group Photo in excursion event on Nov.17
GISTDA would like to express gratitude to CEOS members for harmonized cooperation, which was the result of fruitful cooperation and achieving goals in 2023. At the end of 2023, GISTDA will end its term as the 2023 CEOS Chair, and then this position will be handed over to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Canada, which will continue as CEOS Chair in 2024 and continue the prioritized themes. We wish CSA gain fruitful contributions to CEOS 2024, and GISTDA enthusiastically supports the new priority theme.
GISTDA 2023 CEOS Chair Team
