ESA’s 2025 Living Planet Symposium (LPS) took place in June in Vienna, Austria, with many colleagues from the CEOS community in attendance. Held every three years, LPS is one of the world’s premier events in Earth observation (EO). This year 6,900 participants from 125 countries took part. CEOS colleagues contributed to and supported many of the LPS headline themes, including Earth science frontiers and missions, climate action, global cooperation, and policy support, through both our exhibition booth and numerous presentations and posters
The CEOS exhibition booth served as a focal point for CEOS members and associates, providing opportunities to present materials, meet attendees, and showcase CEOS initiatives. Many visitors were introduced to CEOS for the first time, and were particularly keen to hear about CEOS efforts around the application of EO for monitoring disasters and climate. A large commercial sector presence at LPS was also clear from booth interactions, with many companies expressing interest in contributing to CEOS activities.
At the LPS Booth (L-R): Matt Steventon (CEOS-ARD Secretariat), Josh Sixsmith (GA), Harvey Jones (CEOS Communications Team), Ferran Gascon (ESA), Simonetta Cheli (Director of EO Programmes, ESA), and Steven Ramage (CEOS Executive Officer)
We debuted a new CEOS satellite fleet visualisation, which attempts to communicate the massive scale of investment from CEOS Agencies in the global observing system. This was complemented by the ‘Impact of CEOS’ StoryMap, which was unveiled by Dr. Paul Bate, CEO at the United Kingdom Space Agency, and Chair of CEOS for 2025, during the visit by UK SENSe PhD students (pictured below).
UK Space Agency CEO and CEOS Chair, Paul Bate, and Head of EO at UKSA, Beth Greenaway, pictured with UK SENSe PhD students who contributed content to the ‘CEOS in Schools’ initiative.
Learning how to access and utilise EO data was a common topic at the CEOS booth, with great interest shown in CEOS Analysis Ready Data (CEOS-ARD) as a resource to enable and accelerate workflows.
LPS was a key event on the CEOS-ARD team’s calendar, serving as a critical opportunity to consult the community for feedback on the current state of CEOS-ARD and their desires for the future of this effort to democratise EO and enable new users and uses of this unique data. The CEOS-ARD team was represented strongly, particularly during the ARD session on Thursday (pictured). During the event, the CEOS team took the opportunity to share the Future of CEOS-ARD survey, with inputs providing crucial community feedback.
CEOS-ARD Team at LPS: Harvey Jones, Josh Sixsmith, Ferran Gascon, Matt Steventon, Ake Rosenqvist, Clement Albinet, David Small
The CEOS Chair, UKSA, and the Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) Chair, JAXA, joined a main plenary panel session alongside other CEOS Members and Associates from across the globe on day 2 of the event. This panel session – ‘Breaking Barriers by Working Together in Earth Science’ – highlighted the importance of international collaboration for tackling global challenges more effectively together.
CEOS Members and Associates on stage during the LPS Plenary Session: Marie-Claire Greening (ESA), Tidiane Ouattara (ASA), Hironori Maejima (JAXA, SIT Chair), Christian Feichtinger (IAF), Kandasri Limpakom (GISTDA), Rune Floberghagen (ESA), Simonetta Cheli (ESA), Paul Bate (UKSA, CEOS Chair), Karen St Germain (NASA), Ariel Blanco (PhilSA), Lorant Czaran (UNOOSA)
CEOS Carbon Roadmaps leads participating in the session ‘Toward an Aquatic Carbon Roadmap as a key integrated contribution to the GST’
CEOS congratulates ESA on hosting this fantastic event, which celebrates and promotes the power of EO and helps us connect with new users to ensure EO has the greatest impact possible. We also extend our appreciation to everyone who supported the lively and productive discussions that were shared during a very full week in Vienna.
CSIRO team at the CEOS Booth (L-R): Kesav Unnithan, Andrew Prata, Arnold Dekker, Alex Held, Carsten Laukamp
(L-R) Maurice Borgeaud (ESA), H. Ludwig Moeller (ESA), Simonetta Cheli (ESA), Stephen Briggs (Prof.), Volker Liebig (Prof.), & Josef Aschbacher (ESA) at the ‘50 Years of ESA/100 years of Roy Gibson’ Session, which featured a great history lesson on the origin of CEOS.
