The operation of the National Earth Observation Laboratory, headquartered at the Institute of Geography of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has been of capital importance for risk prevention for the population of our country. The dissemination of meteorological images has been more than timely, since the GOES-13 satellite ceased service in December 2017, that satellite being the main source of satellite image inputs for institutions such as the National Meteorological Service, as well as SEMAR.
The National Earth Observation Laboratory received this designation from SECIHTI (formerly CONACYT), officially beginning its activities on March 28, 2017, with the initial participation of SEMAR, INEGI and several UNAM departments such as the institutes of: Geography, Geophysics, Marine Sciences and Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Change. Initially it operated only with the image reception station of the GOES-16 geostationary satellite; since then, image reception, processing and storage equipment, as well as the number of consortium partners and main users, has grown considerably, adding institutions as important for national security as: CENAPRED and the National Meteorological Service, who are responsible for issuing alerts for hurricanes, forest fires, cold fronts, severe storms and volcanic ash emissions.

Other users who carry out population safeguarding tasks include the Civil Protection Systems of the Cities of Guadalajara, Guaymas and CDMX. The IMTA also joined, which works among other projects on drought evaluation in different regions of the country, and educational institutions such as the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEMex), the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí (UASLP), the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACh), the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH), the Universidad Juárez of the State of Durango (UJED), the University of Guanajuato (UGTO) and the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS), who develop projects on urban heat islands, vegetation changes and crop evaluation for agricultural production prediction purposes, fire detection among other topics.
Other UNAM departments also joined, such as the Institute of Ecology and the General Directorate of University Repositories (DGRU), the latter being responsible for publishing historical events, such as image sequences of: ash emissions, fires, hurricanes; together with the information associated with their consequences on the environment and society.
Other institutions we are working with include CONABIO, with whom a very close academic relationship has been established on the topic of fires, and SENEAM (Air Navigation Services in Mexican Airspace) is also mentioned, which use our products to carry out meteorological condition prediction tasks en route and at destination airports; CONAFOR, IMPLAN and CFE, which receive our images from GOES-East and other polar orbit satellites, to evaluate vegetation changes and predict extreme conditions such as severe storms and lightning. Internationally, the Property and Cadastre Institute of Honduras and the University of Córdoba in Spain also use our products.

The operation of the National Earth Observation Laboratory has as its primary objectives: to receive, store, process and carry out the interactive distribution of remote sensing data and images, as well as to conduct different studies on vegetation cover, the evaluation of its changes, to carry out constant monitoring of the oceans and the atmosphere and to establish their interrelationships and impacts on society.

To have a functional Earth Observation Laboratory that acquires, stores, processes and allows access to the products generated there; either directly via SFTP connection to consortium members and main users, or via web to the general public, through a geoportal.