Space leaders appear increasingly confident that they will meet a self-appointed deadline to have an integrated global Earth observation network up and running by the middle of the next decade. Barely two years after embarking on the network, known as the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (Geoss), the 43 nations and international organizations backing the initiative agreed last month to kick off a Virtual Constellation linking existing capabilities in four prototype thematic areas: atmospheric chemistry, ocean altimetry, land surface imaging and precipitation.
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