Every year, and at all latitudes, our planet is hit by natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, forest fires and tropical storms. The Earth is scarred too by human activities such as pollution by hydrocarbons, toxic and radioactive substances. When disasters strike, the charter signatories will support the organisations responsible for managing the situation and carrying out rescue operations by making available Earth observation, positioning, telecommunications and TV broadcasting space systems, ground facilities and archive image data. The charter, a far-reaching humanitarian initiative jointly promoted by ESA and CNES, will provide at world level a coherent scheme for access to data from a wide variety of space systems. It aims to strengthen international cooperation and is open to all satellite operators around the globe.
All partners undertake to develop their cooperation on a voluntary basis, with no exchange of funds.
The administrative, operational and technical coordination needed to achieve the objectives set forth in the charter will be supplied by a Board and standing Secretariat. The SPOT satellites are developed and built jointly by France, Belgium and Sweden.