EUMETSAT Joins Disaster Relief Charter

On July 5, representatives from the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) signed an agreement which formalized the institution's commitment to the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters.”

The purpose of this charter is to monitor the planetary climate, as well as solar weather, and to provide alerts in the case of extreme weather including, but not limited to, hurricanes, flood, heat or cold waves and massive solar storms that may endanger the planet.

EUMETSAT has been providing this type of services for the European Union for many years, but it was only now that it formalized its relationship with international partners. The Charter was originally founded by the French space agency CNES, the Canadian Space Agency and ESA.

“EUMETSAT is now the 14th member of the Charter. Other recent new members include Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, the German Aerospace Center and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Russia’s space agency has also made a request to join,” an ESA press release states.