On 15–16 September 2015, leading scientists from around the world gathered at the Earth Explorer-8 User Consultation Meeting in Krakow, Poland, to discuss the merits of the CarbonSat and Fluorescence Explorer (FLEX) mission concepts.

The meeting is an important part of the process before one mission is selected to be built as ESA’s eighth Earth Explorer satellite.

The CarbonSat mission aims to quantify the distribution of two of the most important greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: carbon dioxide and methane. Data from the mission would lead to a better understanding of the sources and sinks of these two gases and how they are linked to climate change.

The FLEX mission aims to provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be converted into an indicator of photosynthetic activity. These data would improve our understanding of how much carbon is stored in plants and their role in the carbon and water cycles.

The replay of the meeting can be seen in six parts:
Part 1: Welcome address; CarbonSat: scientific and technical presentations
Part 2: CarbonSat: scientific performance and programmatic presentations; Q&A
Part 3: FLEX: scientific and technical presentations
Part 4: FLEX: scientific performance and programmatic presentations; Q&A
Part 5: General discussion/Q&A
Part 6: General discussion/Q&A