Report on the SANSA - COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop on Advanced Land Surface Characterisation from Space

摘要

Over the last few decades, Earth Observation (EO) satellites have been monitoring our climate and environment, thereby enlarging our view on our home planet and revolutionizing our vision on how it operates as a complex, interconnected system. The emergence of consistent, global and long-term (decadal) satellite data records offers researchers considerable insight into the mechanisms that control the climate and its fluctuations, the processes that result in environmental degradations, the causes and management of our limited natural resources. However, taking full advantage of these data, whether to advance our scientific understanding or to promote specific applications, remains a challenge. This is particularly true in developing and emerging countries where access to data sets and processing tools, awareness of existing EO capabilities and knowledge on how to turn data into useful information remain limited. To address this challenge, COSPAR initiated a capacity building programme in 2001. It is conceived as a series of workshops to foster the use of EO data and space science technologies in these countries, specifically to help scientists building lasting bridges with research laboratories around the world. The aim of these workshops is to transfer know-how and expertise as appropriate, to foster contacts and collaborations between colleagues, as well as to facilitate access to state of the art data sets and products. These workshops typically cover both the theoretical background (through a series of lectures) and practical applications (e.g., through computing, laboratory or field studies) to acquire hands-on experience with actual observations and their proper interpretation. Since 2001 a wide range of workshops have been successfully held in different scientific areas (e.g., X-ray, Gamma-ray and Space Optical and UV Astronomy, Magnetospheric Physics, Space Oceanography, Space Hydrology and Planetary Science) in a number developing countries (e.g., Brazil, India, China, South Africa, Morocco, Romania, Uruguay, Egypt and Malaysia).