Eumetsat… Moving On + Celebrating An Anniversay…

[SatNews] EUMETSAT and its international partners celebrate the organization’s 25th anniversary and also bid farewell to Dr. Lars Prahm…



The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, EUMETSAT, holds the main celebratory event for its 25th anniversary at its headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, on July 28th. The actual anniversary was on June 19th, but the celebratory event is being held to coincide with the departure of the outgoing Director-General, Dr. Lars Prahm, who will be succeeded by Alain Ratier on July 29th. The anniversary event will be attended by former EUMETSAT Directors-General, Council chairmen, and representatives of the European organizations and international partners with which EUMETSAT has developed ever increasing cooperation over its 25 years of existence. Following the welcoming address by Dr. Prahm, Declan Murphy, Council Chairman in 2004-2008 and author of the latest EUMETSAT history book, along with the first two Directors-General, John Morgan and Dr. Tillmann Mohr, will trace the organization’s origins, history and achievements.

Among the European speakers are Dr. Volker Liebig, Director of Earth Observation Programs at the European Space Agency (ESA), who will focus on the successful synergy between EUMETSAT and ESA, and Heinz Zourek, Director-General for Enterprise and Industry in the European Commission, who will talk about EUMETSAT and the Commission in the context of the European Space Policy and Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES).

Mary Glacklin, Deputy Under Secretary for Operations of the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will present the U.S.-European relationship in satellite meteorology as a model for transatlantic partnerships. Dr. Jun Yang, Director-General of the China Meteorological Administration’s National Satellite Meteorological Center, will speak about EUMETSAT’s growing cooperation with China — Sateesh Kumar, Counsellor for Space at the Indian Embassy in Paris, will talk about the real-time data exchange between EUMETSAT and India — Dr. Valery Dyadyuchenko, Deputy Head of Russia’s Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) will discuss his organization’s cooperation with EUMETSAT. M. Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), will place EUMETSAT within the WMO framework.

The last guest speaker will be Petteri Taalas, the current EUMETSAT Council Chairman, reviewing Dr. Prahm’s achievements as seen by Member States.