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12-16 June 2023 ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulouse, France

7th Advanced Training Course on Radar Polarimetry

Course materials

Partners

Background

The European Space Agency (ESA) is organising 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).

For anyone interested; if you wish to use SAOCOM full-pol or L-band radar data for a research or EO-based applications project, please refer to the announcement of opportunity page.

Preliminary Programme

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.

Contact Info

For any questions or inquiries, please contact:

ESA course coordinators eotraining@esa.int

Schedule and Deadlines

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Application submission opening31 January 2023
Application submission closure15 March 2023
Notification of acceptanceMid April 2023
Training Course12-16 June 2023

Lecturers and Scientific Support

Laurent Ferro-Famil

ISAE-SUPAERO/CESBIO

Magdalena Fitrzyk

RSAC c/o ESA

Irena Hajnsek

ETH Zürich / German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Thuy Le Toan

CESBIO, France

Carlos Lopez-Martinez

Technical University of Catalonia (UPC)

Armando Marino

University of Stirling

Konstantinos P. Papathanassiou

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Matteo Pardini

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Jolanda Patruno

RHEA Group c/o ESA

Francesco Sarti

European Space Agency (ESA)

Klaus Scipal

European Space Agency (ESA)

Stefano Tebaldini

Politecnico di Milano

Organizing Committee

Yves-Louis Desnos

European Space Agency (ESA)

Diego Fernandez

European Space Agency (ESA)

Laurent Ferro-Famil

ISAE-SUPAERO/CESBIO

Magdalena Fitrzyk

RSAC c/o ESA

Martin Phillipsen

RSAC c/o ESA

Francesco Sarti

European Space Agency (ESA)