The FuegoSat system concept in the context of the GMES initiative

Europe has proposed a coherent approach in order to bring advances in space technology to environmental security, including management of natural disasters:GMES. The agency´s contribution to this effort is the GMES Service Element which, together with the FuegoSat and TerraSAR consolidation phases, form the EarthWatch programme. Objectives are to address simultaneously development of services supporting European policies (forest fire fighting) and space mission issues (FuegoSat) in order to get a sustainable information system based on continuous space information flow. Decisions to fund new missions based on the information needs deriving from European policies, and the proven ability of the European labs and industries to answer to these needs are reviewed.