The European Space Agency’s Earth System Science Hub Challenges 2025 have kicked off with a first workshop organized from 7-11 July 2025 with students from the University of Leicester and Sorbonne University/IPGP during the week of 7–11 July 2025.
The Science Hub Challenges, organised twice per year by the European Space Agency, offer a unique opportunity for universities with Master’s or PhD programmes in Earth Observation (EO), Environmental Science, Remote Sensing, or related disciplines to participate in a week-long workshop at ESA’s ESRIN facility – ESA’s hub for Earth Observation activities.
Over the course of the week, 14 students engaged directly with ESA scientists and EO mission managers, exploring topics in forestry and atmospheric science. They were introduced to ESA’s EO missions, including the latest Earth Explorers like EarthCARE and BIOMASS, as well as Copernicus missions such as Sentinel-5P. Visits to the Φ-Experience and Φ-Lab added to their insight into ESA’s innovative EO ecosystem.
The key focus of the workshop was a collaborative scientific challenge. Students were grouped into mixed teams from both universities to promote interdisciplinary and international collaboration. Using tools like the DeepESDL Platform and EarthCARE MAAP Platform, they tackled complex EO challenges—including the detection of extreme events, dust storms, and volcanic impacts on vegetation; spatio-temporal visualisation of satellite data; and the identification of aerosols and cloud layers in LIDAR profiles.
The results of their work will be refined and published as interactive stories on the ESA-NASA-JAXA Earth Observation Dashboard in the months following the event.
The next call for participation will open on 29 July 2025 at sciencehub.esa.int.
Read the full story on the Science Hub website:
https://sciencehub.esa.int/2025/07/14/science-hub-challenges-july-2025/