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Earth Observation in iGEO2022 Irish Geology, Environmental & Ocean Sciences Early Career Symposium

We are happy to announce that iGEO Irish Geology, Environmental & Ocean Sciences Early Career Symposium is back and is being planned for June 2022.

We are delighted to invite you to this event organized by early career geoscientists (ECGs) for ECGs is open to all ECGs working within academia, industry and government. This 2 day event will be an in-person event and held for the first time at University College Cork (UCC). 

While focusing on the most important issues directly affecting, and identified by ECGs, iGEO2022 is unique in this respect – a dedicated event organized by, and for, early-career geoscientists in Irish geoscience.

This is an opportunity to collaborate and benefit from the multidisciplinary nature of research across Ireland.

For further information please visit our website: https://igeo2022.wordpress.com

We would love to get your opinion on what you would like to see in iGEO2022 – now is the time to lobby for Earth Observation applications. Below is a link to a quick survey on this. It will also offer you the opportunity to sign up to the dedicated mailing list for this event.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TP2Y73Z

You would engage with academics and professionals, learn about latest trends and technologies in STEM, meet potential employers, promote yourselves and network with peers.

You would also engage like in a “career fair”, avail of workshops on soft skills and give lightning talks, apply in practice in presentation and communication skills, initiate collaborations.

Also, we will do our best to keep low fees for participants: iGEO2020 was 30 euro including transportation to conference venue, see more info here from last iGEO2020 https://igeo2020.wordpress.com/registration/, fieldtrip at 60 euro covering 2 nights’ accommodation, transportation, 2 breakfast and dinner. Take a look at the last iGEO https://twitter.com/igeoecs?lang=en, Twitter handle @iGEOECS.

Many thanks and looking forward to seeing you in 2022!

iGEO2022 Committee

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New Remote Sensing Jobs

I’m recruiting 2 new remote sensing researchers as part of TerrainAI. This is an exciting opportunity for researchers to join an SFI/Microsoft funded project with 40 other researchers improving our understanding of land based GHG mitigation.

Terrain-AI – Uncovering new insights to support effective climate change decision making

The posts are in Dublin and full details are here:

TheHirelab | match, select and employ…

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Great 2-minute tips for EO imagery processing

While browsing for information, I came across this Youtube channel providing Information and educational videos on Hexagon Geospatial’s ERDAS IMAGINE and Safe Software’s FME software (About).

Great for curious students and not only! Take a look!

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 An indicative history of green cover since the 1980’s

Map of the Month for July from Teagasc presents an interim output from a remote sensing study looking to see how often fields are bare of vegetation, due to harvesting or re-seeding. Using the Teagasc archive of satellite imagery going back to the 1980’s we can use vegetation indices to give an indication the number of times a every field in the country has been bare. This will be a useful baseline dataset in many applications like GHG accounting, biodiversity, and landuse  studies.

https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/rural-economy/spatial-analysis/gis-monthly-maps/

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EPA’s Research on Remote Sensing of Aerosols, Clouds and Wind

EPA’s report on Remote Sensing of Aerosols, Clouds and Wind at Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station is now available, focusing on identifying pressures on air quality, weather and climate but also on economy and human health, informing policy and developing solutions.

Authors: Jana Preißler and Colin O’Dowd

The power of remote sensing lies in its ability to automatically and continuously characterise parts of the atmosphere that can be far away from the sensor, e.g. at high altitudes from the ground in the case of this study. This fellowship focused on continuous high-resolution (vertical and temporal) profiling of the atmosphere over Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station using active and passive ground-based remote sensing techniques.

In addition to contributing to high-impact research studies in past years, remote sensing data were also sent to the European-scale networks Cloudnet and E-Profile for joint processing and large-scale studies. The existence of such networks underlines the importance of ground-based remote sensing of the atmosphere at a continental scale. Remote sensing at Mace Head provides a large part of the Irish contribution to those pan-European networks.

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Remote Sensing of Lightning Strikes

We’ve had a few days of summer storms and lightning strikes leading to blackouts and animal deaths. If you want see where lightning is happening here and now, then real-time lightning detection has the answer. The detectors measure Very Low Frequency radio waves and triangulate bursts to locate lightning strikes. Met Eireann feeds data (from the valentia island observatory) into a system run by UK met office and shows the results on its landing page map every 15 mins. My favorite site is lightningmaps.org which is a service run by volunteers and hobbyists across the world. You can follow lightning storms as they happen and it has audio to mimic strikes in the area you are looking at.

https://www.lightningmaps.org/?lang=en#m=oss;t=3;s=0;o=0;b=0.00;ts=0;tsc=1;

https://www.met.ie/

 

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/observation/map/#?map=Lightning&fcTime=1592175600&zoom=5&lon=-4.00&lat=55.01

 

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NDMI in the past ten years

In the latest Teagasc Map of the Month (https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/rural-economy/spatial-analysis/gis-monthly-maps/) I used MODIS Terra surface reflectance data to calculate the Normalised Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) as a proxy for the spatial variation in the effect of the spring 2020 drought in Ireland. The specific measure I used was the difference in the average NDMI in May 2020 to a long-term May average (2009 to 2019). The map showed well the spatial variation. To better highlight the underlying data I produced an animation of the calculated NDMI averages for May of each year since 2009. Brown tones indicate lower NDMI values (drier) while blue tones indicate higher NDMI (wetter).

NDMI_Avg_May_new

The animation draws a very different picture to the map of the NDMI difference, with bogs and upland showing much lower NDMI values than the rest of the country. The reason is that NDMI is an index for leaf water content, based on the near and short-wave infrared reflectance, and in the absence of green vegetation (such as in cut bogs and sparse uplands) will be lower.

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Map of Drought Stress in May

The current Teagasc Map of the month creates a Normalized Difference Moisture Index for May form MODIS data and compares it with a decadal May average to show which parts of the country are plants under stress due to drought.

https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/rural-economy/spatial-analysis/gis-monthly-maps/

 

 

 

 

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Job in JRC for EO/Soil Scientist

FG IV – Scientific Project Officer – Land and Soil
Degradation Assessment

The Soil Unit in the JRC in Italy is looking for a a project offcier (3 year contract) From the PANAGOS newsletter:

The position will support the implementation of the European Land and Soil Observatory through the devel­opment of an EU-wide land degradation and restoration assessment, reflecting the global approach adopt­ed by the IPBES. This should include a detailed European Land Degradation map, an underpinning data­base and a detailed analysis of the land restoration potential in the EU. Candidates must possess an under­graduate degree in soil science, earth sciences, environmental sciences or agricultural sciences, together with at least 5 years Job-Related experience on modelling or geostatistical analysis of soil condition or land degradation processes. A post-graduate qualification in a related field, contributions to national-continental-global land or soil degradation assessments, experience of working with large spatial datasets (including EO data) or in the implementation of land or soil restoration techniques, would be an advantage.  Dead­line: 25.5.2020  Apply: https://recruitment.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ (code 2020-IPR-D3-FGIV-014171)