The Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS)
CGMS’s coordination is pursued from an end-to-end perspective between meteorological satellite operators and user communities such as WMO. Members are meteorological and space agencies that are current and prospective developers and operators of meteorological satellites and R&D satellites contributing to WMO programs, and WMO. Currently, there are 16 member organizations and 6 observer organizations. The Secretariat is permanently hosted by EUMETSAT. There are 5 working groups (one is the Space Weather Coordination Group, SWCG, operational space weather coordination) and 5 international science working groups. The scope of its activities to include space weather was expanded in 2018.
CGMS provides a forum for the exchange of technical information on geostationary and polar-orbiting meteorological satellite systems and research & development missions including space weather matters.
CGMS harmonizes meteorological and space weather satellite mission parameters (such as orbits, sensors, data formats and downlink frequencies) to the greatest extent possible.
CGMS encourages complementarity, compatibility and possible mutual back-up in the event of system failure through cooperative mission planning, compatible data products and services and the coordination of space and data-related activities, thus complementing the work of other international satellite coordinating mechanisms.
CGMS meets in plenary session on an annual basis following meetings of CGMS Working Groups. Each WG has online intersessional meetings a few times per year. Task Groups covering data access, ionospheric radio occultation and satellite anomalies are active.