February 21st – February 25th
Lecturer in charge of the module Prof. Marco Piras (Department of Land, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering - DIATI – Politecnico di Torino) (MP) marco.piras@polito.it
Lecturer(s) contributing to the module
Module Learning Objectives and Skill Acquisition
The main learning objective of the Earth Observation (EO) and Climate Monitoring module is to get the attendees aware of the synergistic role of Earth Observation satellites and geospatial data in providing crucial data for monitoring Climate Change and for mapping climate-related events. As far as the acquired skills are concerned, attendees will learn how to identify and access the proper EO data source for both qualitative and quantitative analyses, integrating and processing data in a GIS environment to extract added/value information. This module is organized in three parts.The first part is focused on the fundamentals of optical and radar sensors installed ons EO satellites as well as on basic processing workflows.The second part allows students gathering elements about GIS model and geospatial data, starting by the data format and GIS design. Moreover, a short introduction will be done about the geoprocessing tools, the problem related to reference system and digital elevation models. Each part will be supported by examples and exercises. The third part is composed by 3 main thematic areas dedicated to the water cycle, the carbon cycle and the applications to explore how global models work for making weather prediction and integrating Earth Observations to reconstruct climate data records.
Application are due by: 17th February 2022
Detailed Teaching Agenda
Part I: Fundamentals of Satellite Remote Sensing and mapping of climate related events
| Lecture topic | Lecturer | Hours |
| Sun-synchronous satellite platforms: optical and radar sensors.Spatial, Spectral, Radiometric and Temporal resolution.Spectral signatures. | FGT | 2 |
| Main open data sources and related historical archives: Landsat, Modis and Copernicus Sentinels. Focus on Sentinel 1 (SAR) and 2 (Optical).Access to Copernicus data: SciHub and EO Browser. | FGT | 2 |
| How to display multi-spectral information for qualitative analyses: examples in EO Browser.Spectral indices and image classification. | FGT | 2 |
| Flood mapping exercise (recent flood event) by means of optical or radar satellite imagery. | FGT | 2 |
| Qualitative analysis (e.g. timelapses) of multi-temporal phenomena, e.g. drying-up lakes, ice melting, etc.: examples in EO Browser | FGT | 2 |
Part II: Climate-change, Weather and Environmental Extremes
| Lecturetopic | Lecturer | Hours |
| Water-cycle modelling and data assimilation (Earth System Models schemes for precipitation, evaporation, runoff, land storage; use of ensemble & variational techniques to assimilate global EO data) |
| GB | 4 |
| Carbon-cycle modelling and data assimilation (ESM schemes for photosynthesis, respiration, human activity and transport of CO2 emissions; use of global inversions techniques with EO data). Use of climate change model and repository. | GB | 4 |
| Environmental and climate change applications (flooding, droughts, fires, pollution outbreaks, low-frequency variability and trends) | GB | 4 |
Part III: Geospatial data management and Visualization using GIS platform
| Lecture topic | Lecturer | Hours |
| GIS MODEL and Vector data. Examples | MP | 4 |
| Queries and analysis. Examples | MP | 2 |
| Reference system – DTM/DSM. Examples | MP | 2 |
| Geoprocessing: examples | MP | 2 |
Teaching material
The teaching material used during lectures will be made available to attendees through a dedicated sharing folder. Additionally the recordings of the lectures will be accessible (only with remote lessons).
Suggested reading material will be also proposed.
Assessment and grading (remote or in presence)
Students will be assessed on two assignments, specifically they will be requested to:- summarize in a document the main steps related to the analysis of a real-word case study that will be addressed during the lectures (e.g. recent flood event), in terms of input datatest, processing workflow and outcomes, critically discussing the results;
- identify a Climate Change related phenomena to be highlighted by means of satellite based time-lapses and/or weather and environmental variable trend comparison
The final grade will be based on the final report (point 1 above) and related annex(es) (point 2 above). The final score will be defined considering the following parameters: completeness, correctness and quality of the assignment, focusing on the capacity of the student to critically discuss the assignment
ECTS: 3
Hours of lecture: 30