The GEO portal provides an entry point to access Earth Observation information and services. It connects to a system of existing portals, addressing the GEO Societal Benefit Areas globally while also providing national and regional information to enhance understanding.

The GEO portal is a gateway to global Earth Observation data, information and services developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as contribution to Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).

The GEO portal was developed in response to a set of requirements from the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) Secretariat aiming at the implementation of a GEO Web Portal serving the GEOSS User Community.

Since summer 2010 the GEO portal has been selected as the official GEO Web Portal and constitutes a main access point to worldwide information on Earth Observation capabilities and servicesm including the ones proposed and implemented in the framework of GEO activities.

Based on the GEO recommended standards and following the Geospatial Portal Reference Architecture of the OGC the GEOportal provides a variety of services:

• Geospatial Portal Service providing the user interfaces for viewing, discovering data, information and services available in GEOSS.
• Portrayal Viewer Service allowing the display and handling of maps and context information from various sources, e.g. from different GEO Societal Benefit Areas through WMS services.
• Interfaces to Catalogue Services of the GEOSS Clearinghouse, allowing catalogues search in an interoperable manner.
• Browse through a comprehensive directory of service providers e.g. related to GEO Members and Participating Organizations.
• Retrieval of Earth Observation education, training and capacity building resources.

In perspective, the GEO portal, being based on a number of Open Source software modules, may also be configured and used for creating Community Portals or individual portals if required by a GEO member or participating organization.

The GEO portal is open to serve GEOSS and to further evolve taking into account the requirements of its users and of the GEO Secretariat.