On 12 December 2017, DLR, JAXA and the Japanese Institute of Environmental Research (NIES) signed a collaboration agreement in Paris on remote sensing of greenhouse gases. At the signing (from left): Naoki Okumura, President of the Japanese space agency JAXA, Pascale Ehrenfreund, Chair of the DLR Executive Board and Gerd Gruppe, DLR Executive Board Member responsible for the Space Administration.