The European Space Agency (ESA) is organizing the 7th ESA Advanced Course on Radar Polarimetry for training the next generation of Earth Observation (EO) scientists in dual and fully polarimetric data for science and applications development.
The course is part of ESA’s EO Science for Society – the Scientific Exploitation element of EOEP-5 (the fifth cycle of ESA’s Earth Observation Envelope Programme) for pioneering new EO services and scientific discoveries, stimulating downstream industry growth, and supporting international responses to global societal challenges.
Objectives
The main objectives of the course are to:
- Train the next generation of European and Canadian Principal Investigators (PIs);
- Explain theoretical principles, processing algorithms, data products and their use in various applications;
- Introduce available tools and methods for the exploitation of dual-pol and full-pol data;
- Provide first-hand and up-to-date information on state-of-the-art methods and applications in Radar Polarimetry, Polarimetric SAR Interferometry and SAR Tomography;
- Provide an introduction to the BIOMASS mission, data and applications.
Contents
The course provides a substantial and balanced introduction to the basics and advanced concepts of:
- SAR data,
- radar interferometry (InSAR),
- radar polarimetry (POLSAR),
- InSAR polarimetry (POLinSAR),
- and SAR Tomography (TomoSAR) theory and applications.
The objective is to prepare participants for the scientific exploitation of the data from past, current (eg. ALOS-2, Sentinel-1, GF-3, RISAT, SAOCOM, RCM) and future SAR Polarimetric Missions (e.g. NISAR and BIOMASS).
Participation
The 5-day course will be held in-person on 12-16 June 2023, at ISAE-SUPAERO, in Toulouse, France.
Post graduate, PhD students, post-doctoral research scientists and users from ESA member states and associated countries interested in Radar Polarimetry, BIOMASS and their applications are invited to apply.
Research scientists and students from all other countries are also welcome to apply and participate in the course, subject to availability.
The official language of the training course is English.
No participation fees will be charged for the training. Participation is limited and subject to a selection process, and participants with familiarity in SAR and Python are in preference.
Note that we cannot provide any funding for flights, accommodation, etc. We suggest reaching out to your institution or company to hear if they are interested in covering the cost of the training course.
Application
- Create a user account in the ConfTool system and fill in the on-line application form HERE.
- Enter the details of your academic referee and upload a reference letter (mandatory). The reference letter should be on the official University/Company letter head paper.
- Your application will be considered completed only once the reference letter has been uploaded in support of your application.
- The application submission will be closed 15 March 2023.
- Female applicants are encouraged to apply.
Schedule and Deadlines
| Application submission opening | 31 January 2023 |
| Application submission closure | 15 March 2023 |
| Notification of acceptance | Mid April 2023 |
| Training Course | 12-16 June 2023 |
Contact Info
For any questions or inquiries, please contact:
ESA course coordinators eotraining@esa.int