July 3 – 14, 2023
Overview
A highly methods-oriented training course on Satellite Remote Sensing will be taught in 2023 for the first time at the University of Cyprus. Dr. Bruce Monger has been teaching this world-renowned course at Cornell University since 1999, and he will be teaching it for 2 weeks in Cyprus.
The course is highly methods-oriented
The remote sensing training program emphasizes ocean color remote sensing and the use of NASA’s SeaDAS software to derive mapped imagery of geophysical parameters (e.g., chlorophyll or CDOM) from raw ocean color data obtain through the OC-DAAC. Ocean color sensors introduced to the class are SeaWiFS, MODIS, VIIRS, Hawkeye, OLCI on Sentinel-3, and PACE-simulated data). The course also covers image visualization and analysis methods to work with satellite imagery of 1) sea surface temperature, 2) ocean wind speed and 3) sea surface height.
An important feature of the course is to develop good Python programming skills that are needed to effectively make use of satellite image data to answer important oceanographic questions. An equally important feature of the course involves running SeaDAS with pre-written Python scripts to batch process large quantities of raw ocean color data to obtain high resolution mapped images of chlorophyll and other ocean-color related products.
Background lectures are given that covered the fundamentals of bio-optics, pigment algorithms, primary production algorithms and, to a lesser extent, the underlying physical principals leading to the measurement of sea surface temperature, ocean wind speed and ocean topography. See this tentative syllabus for detailed description of course content.
Great effort is made to make the course fun and low-stress while at the same time challenging the participants to learn a very large amount of material in a short amount of time.