Trans-Atlantic Training 2023 (TAT-10): Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring and Modelling

The main objective of the NASA-ESA Trans-Atlantic Training (TAT) initiative is to train students and early career scientists in the field of Earth Observation through a series of training workshops in Eastern/Central Europe,  with an emphasis on remote sensing of land-cover/use change and ecosystem dynamics.

TAT-10 took place from 27 June to 1 July 2023 in the Czech Republic and will be hosted by Charles University, Prague and Masaryk University, Brno.

The course continues the TAT series, last held in September, 2022 in Prague.

Content:

Leading experts from Europe and the US presented and discussed state-of-the-art advanced Earth Observation methods. Technologies and data from Copernicus, ESA, and NASA missions were presented in tutorial lectures and practised in hands-on training sessions.

Lectures and training activities focused on SAR, optical passive and active ( LiDAR) for forestry, agriculture, and hydrology monitoring and modelling, and the use of free and accessible cloud computing and machine learning methods for analysing Earth Observation data.

Working with different types of sensor data and their combinations was demonstrated:

• SAR data from the Sentinel-1 mission and simulation data from the future NISAR mission,
• Optical (passive) multi-spectral data from the Landsat-8, -9 and Sentinel-2 missions
• Hyperspectral data from EMIT, DESIS, PRISMA missions,
• Optical active (LiDAR) data from the GEDI mission.

The course included a field trip which took participants from Prague to Brno, through the Czech country side.

Participants:

Participants were expected to be
(a) Early-career scientists and engineers or
(b) Ph.D. and M.Sc. students with skills and experiences in remote sensing and/or land cover/land use.

The course was in English and the number of participants was limited. Participants used their own laptops for the course.

Note that while the course was free, participants had to cover their own travel and accommodation costs (we recommended contacting your organisation to see if they would cover this, if the training is relevant to your work or studies).

Application:

Application was open to nationals of (or those living/working in) all ESA Member States. Potential participants from Central and Eastern Europe, Baltic States, and the Mediterranean region are particularly encouraged to apply.

Female applicants were encouraged to apply. The application deadline was May 22, 2023.

For more information, visit the official course website.

Cover image: Panoramic view on Brno, Czech Republic by Marco Verch, licensed under CC BY 2.0.