The Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) came into being on 19 September 1972, when representatives of the European Space Research Organisation (since 1975 called the European Space Agency, ESA), Japan, the United States of America, Observers from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the Joint Planning Staff for the Global Atmosphere Research Programme met in Washington to discuss questions of compatibility among geostationary meteorological satellites. EUMETSAT has run the Secretariat since 1987.

CGMS provides an international forum for the exchange of technical information on geostationary and polar orbiting meteorological satellite systems. It consists of 15 member organisations and two observers. For full details of CGMS objectives, activities, membership, CGMS publications and meetings please visit the dedicated CGMS website.

CGMS is behind a number of initiatives, including Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS), the Sustained, Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) and Virtual Laboratory. More information is available about these initiatives on the CGMS website.

As the Secretariat, EUMETSAT is responsible for organising the annual CGMS Plenary meeting with the support of the local host, which is a CGMS Member designated on a rotating basis. Between sessions of the annual CGMS Plenary meetings, the Secretariat is also in charge of facilitating the communication between CGMS Members and of ensuring that actions agreed during CGMS Plenary meetings are fulfilled and the publication of the CGMS meeting report.

The CGMS Secretariat represents CGMS Members in a number of International bodies such as the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and its related Earth Observation International Coordination Working Group (EO-ICWG), Group on Earth Observation (GEO), and the Space Frequency Coordination Group (SFCG).

Further information about the CGMS
Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS) The Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS) is an initiative of CGMS and WMO, which aims to ensure consistent calibration and inter-calibration of operational meteorological satellite instruments.