The F2F course of the EO AFRICA R&D Facility will take place in Dar es Salaam 16-20 October 2023 in close cooperation with University of Dar es Salaam and Waternet.
The course is part of the Summer school 9-23 October, WaterNet in collaboration with the University of Dar es Salaam and EO Africa will be hosting for Postgraduate students. The students will have an opportunity to attend the summer school and thereafter proceed to the Symposium in Zanzibar. For more details on the Summer school see here…
In modern times, a wide array of active radar missions is available for monitoring and research purposes. Side looking and down looking radar missions are sensitive to water close to the surface of the Earth, such as soil moisture but also water bodies. The use of satellite data for water applications in Africa has not been fully exploited and can benefit monitoring as well as research fields.
This course introduces participants to the use of satellite radar to monitor soil moisture and inland water bodies. It will cover the general concepts of radar remote sensing, how radar/microwaves interact with soil and vegetation, soil moisture retrieval with satellite radar, and the concept of zenith radar altimetry. The key datasets used are time series of Sentinel-1 for surface soil moisture estimates, and e.g. Sentinel-3 for water heights. In addition to the theory discussed in the lectures, participants will use Jupyter Notebooks and image processing software from the cloud computing platform to perform hands-on exercises.
Upon completion of this course, the participant will:
- Understand the importance of surface soil moisture monitoring for various applications.
- Understand the concepts, pros and cons of earth observation with radar satellites.
- Recognize the various soil moisture retrieval algorithms.
- Retrieve soil moisture and evaluate the performance of the used algorithm.
- Understand the concepts of active radar altimetry and its potential use and limitations for rivers and lakes.
ABOUT THE COURSE
16 and 20 October, 2023
CAN I APPLY?
Who can participate?
Space is limited to a maximum of 25 Participants. Participants will be selected based on their academic background, work experience and motivation to participate. If you are selected, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with further information by September 29, 2023.
Participants should reside in one of the African countries, should have an academic background related to Geoinformation/Earth Observation Science in combination with knowledge on Water Resources Management, Irrigation, Agriculture, or similar. Young researchers in this field are encouraged to apply!
Speakers:
-
Researcher – Department of Water Resources, Faculty ITC of the University of Twente
https://people.utwente.nl/p.c.vermunt
p.c.vermunt@utwente.nl -
Assistant Professor – Department of Water Resources, Faculty ITC of the University of Twente
https://people.utwente.nl/r.rietbroek
r.rietbroek@utwente.nl
Registration:
Schedule
Each day will consist of three sessions with a total duration of 9 hours. The sessions will focus on the introduction to EOAFRICA R&D Facility and the Innovation Lab and will cover the general concepts of radar remote sensing, how radar/microwaves interact with soil and vegetation, soil moisture retrieval with satellite radar, and the concept of zenith radar altimetry. Various hands-on case studies will illustrate how the concepts covered in the course can be put into practice.
- Morning session: 08:00 – 10:30, 2.5 hours
- Tea Break: 10:30 – 11:00
- Afternoon session: 11:00 – 14:00, 3 hours
- Lunch break: 14:00 – 15:00
- Early evening session: 15:00 – 18:30, 3.5 hours
- Dinner: 18:30 – 19:30
Certificate of attention
All participants who will complete the course and present their individual case study will receive a Certificate of Attention issued by the EO Africa R&D Facility.
Technical requirements
Participants are requested to bring their own (updated) laptop.
It is strongly advised that the participants follow the first 2 On-line courses of the EO AFRICA R&D Space Academy ("Cloud Computing and Algorithms for EO Analyses" and "Principles of and advances in Earth Observation"). Participants will get access upon acceptance for this Face to Face course – or can self-enroll already at:
- EO AFRICA – Cloud Computing for EO Analyses
- EO AFRICA – Principles of and advances in EO (optical and SAR)
(please note that registering is needed)
Cost
Attendance to the training course is free of charge.
Participants will need to arrange and pay for their own travel, subsistence, and accommodation. Lunch will be provided during the workshop. The Facility can sponsor up to EUR 200 to cover such expenses for a limited number of candidates. Should you want to apply for this funding, please indicate it in the application form.