During the first Earth Observation Summit of July 31, 2003, the intergovernmental ad hoc Group on Earth Observations (GEO) was formed to develop a 10-year plan for implementing an integrated Earth Observation System.  Subsequently, the Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations (IWGEO) was formed to develop a 10-year plan for implementing the United States' components of an integrated Earth Observation System.  The United States Group on Earth Observations (US GEO) was established in March 2005 as a standing subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council Committee on Environment and Natural Resources to replace the ad hoc IWGEO.

USGEO reports to the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. Co-chairs are Phil DeCola (OSTP); Helen Wood (NOAA); and Teresa Fryberger (NASA). USGEO includes representatives from the following two White House offices and 14 member agencies: Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Office of Science & Technology Policy; Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Department of Defense, Army Corps of Engineers, Navy, Air Force, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; Department of Energy; Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency; Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Minerals Management Service, U.S. Geological Survey; Department of State; Department of Transportation; Environmental Protection Agency; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; National Science Foundation; Smithsonian Institution; and U.S. Agency for International Development.

At Earth Observation Summit II in Tokyo in April 2004, ministers from 43 nations adopted a Framework for the system of systems, focusing on nine societal benefit areas.  In February 2005, nearly 60 nations at the Earth Observations Summit III in Brussels February brought the first phase of the process to a close by adopting a 10-Year Implementation Plan for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), and establishing the new Group on Earth Observations (GEO). By 2009, 79 countries, the European Commission and over 50 international organizations were engaged in GEO.

The U.S. contribution to GEOSS is the Integrated Earth Observation System (IEOS).  GEOSS and IEOS will facilitate the sharing and applied usage of global, regional and local data from satellites, ocean buoys, weather stations and other surface and airborne Earth observing instruments.  The end result will be access to an unprecedented amount of environmental information, integrated into new data products benefiting societies and economies worldwide.

The ultimate success of both the IEOS and GEOSS depends on input from not only federal sources, but also state and local governments, industry, academia and non-government organizations that, in the end, will play a major role in the leveraging of these observation systems for social and economic benefit.

For more information on the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), including all approved documents to date, visit the GEO website at http://earthobservations.org