FICE-2024: International training on remote sensing of waterbodies

The first Copernicus FRM4SOC 2024 training (FICE2024) was held in Venice at the Italian Research Council`s Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR) from 6 – 17 May 2024, where also Tartu Observatory researchers and leading engineer participated.

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Thirty-one participants were trained in the principles of above water radiometry, derivation of uncertainty budgets, and protocols for matchup analysis with satellite data. The course included field work at the Acqua-Alta Tower, processing of data collected with the HyperCP community processor, tutorials on the use of Sentinel-3 data, and matchup analysis with the ThoMaS toolkit. Participants were successful in processing the data they collected from the tower, as well as data they brought from their own field campaigns. They had the opportunity to exchange with experts from the FRM4SOC project about their future plans for in situ data collection, and were encouraged to continue to collaborate with the network established during the training.

The training provided a unique opportunity to learn from top experts in the field such as Giuseppe Zibordi (EOSCience), Dirk Aurin (NASA), Juan Ignacio Gossn (EUMETSAT), Hayley Evers-King (EUMETSAT), Agnieszka Bialek (NPL), Vittorio Brando (CNR). 

From Tartu Observatory, Associate Professor Krista Alikas and Senior Engineer Ilmar Ansko participated as lecturers, and Junior Research Fellows Ian-Andreas Rahn and Thi Kim Ngan Duong, as students.

"The course gave me an overview of the current trends in uncertainty estimates of above-water remote sensing, the basic physics and statistics behind the uncertainty and error calculations. It also allowed me to meet and develop relationships with fellow researchers in the same field", commented Ian-Andreas Rahn about the benefits of the training. And added with a smile that of course the Italian food and weather were a nice cherry on top.

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The FRM4SOC project, led by Tartu Observatory, and its follow-up project aim to develop an operational and sustained network of radiometric in situ measurements and achieving a fiducial reference measurement (FRM) standard as defined by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites. This means linking in-situ water remote sensing measurements to the International System of Units (SI), with associated uncertainty estimation. In order to ensure the use of common principles within the water remote sensing community, the necessary guidelines and tools (HyperCP data processor, FidRadDB radiometer database and OCDB water remote sensing database) have been developed.

Further information on the HyperCP community processor and the ThoMaS toolkit training opportunities will be shared at the Ocean Optics conference in October.

The second phase of the FRM4SOC project is funded by the European Commission through the Earth Observation programme Copernicus. The project is co-ordinated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), with Tartu Observatory as the consortium lead. 

Many thanks to the main organiser of the training, CNR-ISMAR, and to all the lecturers for their great commitment and contribution to the success of this course.

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FICE 2024 participants at the Acqua-Alta Tower