The prospects for enhanced international polar-orbiting satellite cooperation

With robust polar satellite missions demonstrated and/or operational in the USA, Europe, Japan, China, Russia, India, and Brazil, and with other nations also likely to develop such capability, this paper examines the prospects for as well as the potential challenges to closer and perhaps more formal international polar satellite cooperation. In suggesting that now is the time to explore the development of a coordinated polar observing system, the present paper identifies potential contributors, assesses the relevance of existing space-based Earth observation international coordination mechanisms, and considers three potential models for a future system.