The aim of the Sustained, Co-Ordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) is to establish a network of facilities ensuring continuous and sustained provision of high-quality satellite products related to the Essential Climate Variables (ECV), on a global scale, responding to the requirements of the Global Climate Observing system (GCOS). SCOPE-CM has just completed Phase 1 of its implementation which focused on the establishment of partnerships between Space Agencies on the sustained production of Climate Data Records (CDRs). These partnerships took place as Pilot Projects that shared processing software, documentation, and stewardship for CDRs. These multi-agency, multi-orbital and multi-decadal climate record pave the way for further cooperation targeting the data processing of the combined data set from geostationary satellites and polar orbiting satellites moving into Phase 2.

Phase 2 of SCOPE-CM is based on the concept of having “sustained structures” as permanent groups within the space agencies, preserving the capabilities and skills of generating and re-generating CDRs, and SCOPE-CM projects, with the possibility of external participations (from the research domain) for the transition of mature CDR generation capabilities into a sustained (operational) environment. The concept also contained a generic life cycle for CDRs within SCOPE-CM (Pilot Projects, CDR generation projects, CDR assessment) and a work flow indicating acceptance procedures. ->