Deforestation monitoring using Sentinel-1 data

Due to the precautions taken by Romanian authorities in order to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus, this event will be held online. 

This training is organized jointly by RUS Copernicus, University of Bucharest and the Eyes on Earth Roadshow and will be presented as online hands-on training using RUS Virtual Machines. During this training, we will employ RUS to monitor on-going deforestation over the Chaco region in the north of Paraguay using Ground Range Detected (GRD) products from the Sentinel-1 satellite.

We will show you how to access the RUS Service and how to download, process, analyse and visualize the free data acquired by the Copernicus satellites.

Backgroud

Forests cover almost a third of world's land surface, representing one of the most important ecosystem in our planet and a fundamental element to fight climate change. They provide fundamental ecosystem services such as absorbing, storing and converting carbon dioxide (C02) into oxygen or reducing the effect of erosion caused by wind and rain amongst other. Moreover, forests create natural habitat to a large variegate of flora and fauna species hence preserving global biodiversity.

Rapid shrinking of forest creates a major threat and increases the effects of climate change. Every year, large forested areas are cleared out all over the world due to different driving forces and precise monitoring of these activities is required to reduce their negative impact.

The Copernicus program, which includes a new family of earth observation satellites known as the Sentinels, provides a unique opportunity to quickly map the ever-changing forests and provide regular updates on their condition at a range of spatial and temporal resolutions.

Schedule

10:00 - 14:00 EET

10:00 - 10:15 RUS Copernicus introduction

10:15 - 11:15 Demonstration of deforestation monitoring with Sentinel-1 , Case Study: Paraguay 

11:50 - 13:30 Time to repeat the exercise on your own (Live Chat support) and have lunch

13:30 - 14:00 Live Q&A session 

 Information on accessing the live sessions and chat will be sent by e-mail.