The Sentinel-2 Validation Team (S2VT) meeting gathers Sentinel-2 international scientific and user community to discuss and review the cal/val methodologies and EO data quality for the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. The 6thS2VT meeting will take place on 12-14 September 2023 in ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Italy). It will be an in-person meeting, so to promote cooperation and synergies among Cal/Val teams from all around the world.

The workshop is organised around oral and poster presentations selected by the ESA’s Organisation Committee. Recommendations from S2VT provide essential information to ESA to progress with evolutions and improvements of the Sentinel-2 core data products.

ESA and EUMETSAT would like inform you that the 7th S3VT meeting has been scheduled to take place on 18-20 October 2022, in Frascati, Italy.

The 7th S3VT will be hosted in ESA ESRIN as an hybrid meeting. We will be delighted to welcome you on site but access will be also provided to the ones attending remotely.

Please kindly pencil these 3 days in your calendar!

More information on the call for participation and abstract submission will be sent to you in due time, in early 2022 and available from https://www.s3vt.org

Meanwhile, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at: S3VT#7@esa.int

The European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Land Product Validation subgroup of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Calibration Validation (WGCV) are inviting scientists and experts to share the latest results from their on-going research, at the 2023 Workshop on Land Product Validation and Evolution (LPVE23).

The workshop will be held at ESA/ESRIN, Frascati, Italy, from 12 to 14 June 2023, where it intends to address the following objectives:

• Review status and evolution of retrieval methods, calibration and validation (Cal/Val) approaches for satellite-derived terrestrial essential climate variables (ECVs)

• Revisit existing Cal/Val infrastructure and protocols and their readiness in the light of future satellite land missions, e.g., FLEX, BIOMASS, CHIME, LSTM

• Promote synergies and foster cooperation across existing Cal/Val networks, identifying gaps and working towards the harmonization of adopted protocols

• Report on recent field campaigns and promote adoption of metrological practices in Cal/Val, following the principles of Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM)

• Report on latest progress on radiative transfer models and products inter-comparison exercises and discuss data harmonisation across sensors

• Formulate recommendations for future land products and gather Cal/Val needs in terms of ground-based infrastructure and data availability, accessibility, timeliness

The S2VT meeting is a forum convened by ESA to promote the involvement of the international community for coordinating and overseeing the quantitative validation of satellite data products derived from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.

The 5th S2VT meeting will take place on 11-13 April 2022 and It is planned to be a hybrid event, both virtual and in person with priority given to the oral speakers until the allowed maximum number is reached.

The 5th S2VT meeting will be structured around a set of presentations given by experts working with Copernicus Sentinel-2 and other similar missions to inform on the lessons learned. The recommendations will be used to contribute to the quality assessment of the mission core products while exploiting Copernicus Sentinel-2 data and to give support to the Cal/Val activities.

The next ESA Living Planet Symposium will take place from 23 to 27 May 2022 in Bonn, Germany and is organised with the support of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

It will focus on how Earth observation contributes to science and society, and how disruptive technologies are changing the traditional Earth observation landscape, which is also creating new opportunities for public and private sector interactions.

Dates and Deadlines

• Session Proposals 10 September 2021
• Abstracts 18 November 2021
• Registration January 2022
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The S2VT meeting is a forum for the Copernicus Sentinel-2 scientific and user community to present and share results of on-going activities related to validation of Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B products and to foster cooperation and synergies among Cal/Val teams. The 4th S2VT meeting will take place on 15-17 March 2021 as a virtual meeting (due to COVID-19). 

The S2VT meeting focuses on providing independent validation evidence, experimental results to support the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. The S2VT meeting provides lectures by international audience of scientists from both industrial and academic institutions working with Copernicus Sentinel-2 and other relevant EO missions emphasizing integrative and multi-disciplinary approaches. Talks and posters will be presented by a Cal/Val community who are highly familiar with validation campaigns and methods. The recommendations will be used to contribute to the quality assessment of the mission core products while exploiting Copernicus Sentinel-2 data and to give support to the Cal/Val activities.

The meeting will be structured around a set of plenary presentations given by experts working with Copernicus Sentinel-2 and other similar missions to inform on the lessons learned and priorities based on experience, and a poster session of potential cal/val community activities including validation campaigns and methods.

The objective of the Sentinel-2 Validation Team Meeting (S2VT) is to provide a forum for interaction among different researchers from both industrial and academic laboratories and institutions in order to foster the development of efficient and effective Calibration and Validation methods.

The meeting will be held at ENSEEIHT in Toulouse, France from 12 to 14 March 2019. The S2VT aims at collecting independent validation evidence and experimental data to support the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. The recommendations will be used to contribute to the quality assessment of the mission core products while exploiting Copernicus Sentinel-2 data and to give support to the Cal/Val activities.

The meeting will be structured around a set of plenary presentations given by expert practitioners working with Copernicus Sentinel-2 and other similar missions to inform on the lessons learned and priorities based on experience, a poster session of potential cal/val community activities including validation campaigns and methods.

In the frame of the Copernicus Programme, ESA is implementing the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5p) mission on behalf of the European Commission in support of services related to air quality, climate and stratospheric ozone. Sentinel-5 Precursor has been successfully launched on Friday, 13th October 2017 and is completing its commissioning phase on 24th April 2018, followed by the S5p operational phase.

The workshop aims at presenting first Calibration/Validation (Cal/Val) results, for Level 1b products and a subset of the Level 2 products (Total Columns of Ozone, Nitrogen Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide; Cloud & Aerosol information).

These results will be used to assess the uncertainty of the target S5p products and to decide about their data release to the public.

Following the positive data product quality assessment and recommendations by the S5p Quality Working Group that will meet on 27th June 2018, these products are intended to be released to the User Community shortly after the workshop.

This symposium focuses on how Earth Observation contributes to science and society, and how disruptive technologies and actors are changing the traditional Earth Observation landscape, which is also creating new opportunities for public and private sector interactions.

The European Space Agency is organising the fifth Advances in SAR Oceanography workshop, SeaSAR 2018, which will be hosted in ESA-ESRIN from 07 to 10 May 2018.

The workshop is part of the #EOScience4Society – Scientific Exploitation Programme element aimed at exploiting data from ESA and operational EO Missions (e.g. Copernicus Sentinels) for science and application development.

The workshop is open to ESA Principal Investigators, co-investigators, Sentinel-1 users, scientists, students, representatives from national, European and international space agencies and value adding industries.

Following the successful LPVE 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) is inviting scientists and Cal/Val experts to present the latest results from their on-going research, including the evolution of products, the latest development in validation, the inter-comparison methodologies and the evolution of algorithms, at the 2018 Workshop on Land Product Validation and Evolution (LPVE 2018).

The workshop will be held at ESA/ESRIN, Frascati, Italy, from 27 February to 01 March 2018; it intends to address the following objectives:

• Provide an overview on current land product Cal/Val approaches and protocols and their evolution
• Revisit existing calibration and validation protocols and standards in the light of newly available satellite data, including Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3
• Present land product inter-comparison methodologies (in situ, satellite-satellite)
• Discuss data harmonisation approaches across sensors
• Identify key recommendations for ESA land product algorithm evolution
• Formulate recommendations for future land products and future Cal/Val activities
• Encourage close collaboration between Cal/Val and research groups

In the frame of the Copernicus Programme, ESA is implementing the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) mission on behalf of the European Commission in support of services and science related to air quality, climate and stratospheric ozone. Sentinel-5P was successfully launched on 13 October 2017 and is currently undergoing the satellite and TROPOMI commissioning.

This workshop, which will take place at ESA/ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, aims at consolidating Calibration/Validation (Cal/Val) activities to be carried out during the S5P operational phase, starting in April 2018. This includes the review of existing Cal/Val projects of the original Sentinel-5P Announcement of Opportunity Call 2014, identification of new Cal/Val partners, Cal/Val gap analysis, presentation of Cal/Val tools and rehearsal activities.

In addition, the S5P mission status and first commissioning results will be presented and discussed in order to confirm and evolve Cal/Val requirements.

The objective of the Sentinel-2 Validation Team Meeting (S2VT) is to collect independent validation evidence and experimental data to support the Sentinel-2 Mission. The meeting will be held at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy from 29 to 31 January 2018. The S2VT aims at providing valuable feedback on the mission core products through the experience gained by S2VT members while exploiting Sentinel-2 data. Such recommendations will be taken into consideration by ESA.

In this framework, the S2VT aims at involving world-class expertise and activities, through shared benefit collaboration, that support the implementation of the Sentinel-2 validation activities and ensure the best possible outcomes for the Sentinel-2 mission.

The meeting will be structured around a set of plenary presentations given by expert practitioners working with Sentinel-2 and other similar missions to inform on the lessons learned and priorities based on experience, a poster session of potential cal/val community activities including validation campaigns and methods.

The Satellite Soil Moisture and Application Workshop aims to discuss and reconcile recent methodological advances in the development, validation and application of global satellite soil moisture data. The workshop series is unique by bringing together satellite users and developers to focus on both the derivation and exploration of soil moisture data from passive or active microwave satellite missions (SMAP, SMOS, ASCAT, AMRS-2, Sentinel-1, and other legacy missions). The workshop follows up former editions held at ESA/ESRIN in Frascati (Italy, 2013), in Amsterdam (Netherlands, 2014) and in New York (USA, 2016). The report from the 3rd workshop was published in the GEWEX News November 2016.

The CCI Soil Moisture User Workshop is similar in scope but particularly invites users of the CCI Soil Moisture products. Users from any relevant application area are invited to present their experiences with the data and provide ideas for future product improvements. The CCI Soil Moisture User Workshop is an event organised within the framework of ESA's Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Soil Moisture project.

Both workshops will be held at the Vienna University of Technology, on 19-20 September 2017 and on 18 September 2017, respectively.

As part of the Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions (SEOM) programme element, the European Space Agency (ESA) has organised an Advanced Land Training Course devoted to train the next generation of Earth Observation (EO) scientists to exploit data from ESA and operational EO missions (e.g. the Sentinels) for science and applications development.

Post graduate-level, PhD students, post doctoral research scientists and users from Europe and Canada interested in land remote sensing and its applications are welcome to apply to the 6-day course which shall be held at Szent István University (SZIU), in Gödöllő, Hungary from 04 to 09 September 2017.

European Space Agency (ESA), Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania and the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology recently announced the call for applications for the ESA Training Course on Radar and Optical Remote Sensing which will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, from 03 to 07 July 2017.

Initially intended for participants from the European Cooperating States (ECS) and Malta, the scope of the course has now been enlarged to qualified applicants from ESA Member States, and its application deadline extended to 31 May 2017.

Aimed at the promotion and dissemination of Earth Observation (EO) technology in a variety of science and industry fields, the course will provide an introduction to the basis of theory and applications of radar and optical remote sensing. It will include theoretical lectures as well as hands-on computing exercises.

MITA welcomes applications from qualified researchers at MSc (or close to completion) and PhD level, professionals, trainers and educators who use EO technology within their daily work. Candidates from ESA member states will be considered subject to space availability.

A satellite validation international workshop will be held in Plymouth, UK, from 20 to 21 June 2017.

The Copernicus Sentinel Atlantic Meridional Transect Fiducial Reference Measurements workshop will serve as a forum for discussing the performance of Sentinel -1, -2 and -3 at retrieving ocean colour, sea surface temperature and information about upper ocean dynamics in the open ocean and coastal environments.It will identify potential strategies for the validation of Sentinel missions in the future.

The workshop should be beneficial to anyone with an interest in the validation of satellite data; four main themes will be addressed:

• Fiducial Reference Measurement methods and protocols
• Ocean Colour validation
• Sea Surface Temperature validation
• Validation of upper ocean dynamics

The European Space Agency is organising Fringe 2017, the 10th International Workshop on "Advances in the Science and Applications of SAR Interferometry and Sentinel-1 InSAR".

The event will be hosted at the Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, from 05 to 09 June 2017.

Fringe 2017 is a free workshop, and it is open to ESA Principal Investigators, co-investigators, Sentinel-1 users, scientists, students, representatives from national, European and international space agencies and value adding industries.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is organising the "Workshop on Vicarious Adjustment". The event will be hosted at ESA-ESRIN, Frascati, Italy from 21 to 23 February 2017. The objective of this workshop is to gather experts in the different fields involved in vicarious adjustment and open a wide range debate on the best way to go for future long term vicarious infrastructure.

ESA has launched a project called Fiducial Reference Measurements for Satellite Ocean Colour (FRM4SOC). Led by Tartu Observatory Estonia, FRM4SOC aims to establish and maintain SI traceability of Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM) for satellite OCR. To ensure the best possible product delivery to users, ESA is organising this international workshop to evaluate the options for future European satellite OCR vicarious adjustment infrastructure for the Sentinel-3 OLCI and Sentinel-2 MSI series.