Canberra means ‘meeting place’ in Ngunnawal, a local indigenous language in Australia. This is where GEO Week 2019 takes place, from 4-9 November 2019, including the GEO Ministerial Summit, which occurs every four years and brings together Minister’s from GEO’s 105 member governments. The theme for the 2019 summit is “Earth observations: investments in the digital economy.”

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is an intergovernmental organization working to improve the availability, access and use of Earth observations for the benefit of society. The Copernicus Programme is a major European Union’s answer to GEO activities and a contributor to the GEOSS, the Global Earth Observation System of Systems

Mercator Ocean (MOi), in the context of the MyOcean project series and then the Copernicus Marine Service has been involved for a few years in GEO summits. Most recently it took an active part in the GEO Blue Planet Initiative by organising the very first GEO Blue Planet Symposium in Europe in July, 2018 in the context of ESOF 2018 (European City of Science). However, 2019 has been a turning point for MOi in GEO, as it has become one of the 132 GEO Participating Organizations. As such, MOi will be more involved in GEO’s large panel of activities. These can be are related to user engagement, awareness, UN SDGs, the UN Decade of Ocean Science, GEOSS, and endorsing the GEO 2016-2025 Strategic Plan: Implementing GEOSS.

Access to the full GEOWEEK 2019 schedule here.

During the week, the Copernicus Marine Service will be present at several side events including: GEO for the UN Decade of Ocean Science, GEO for SDGs, and Copernicus for Pacific and the Industry Track: EO Industry Platform, during which WEKEO will be presented. Copernicus and its Marine Service will also be visible in the European Commission’s Booth.

Follow the event on Twitter with the hashtag #GEOWEEK2019