30 selected university students from 12 different ESA Member-States have successfully completed ESA Academy’s Earth Observation Satellite System Design Training Course 2018 (EOSSD2018) [1]. This pilot edition of the course was held from 1 to 5 October 2018 at ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Facility in Belgium. The students were studying towards their Master or Ph.D. degrees in engineering or physics in their respective universities, and had applied to a call for applications by the ESA Education Office to learn the end-to-end design of Earth observation satellite systems. EOSSD2018 training course was developed through a collaboration between the ESA Education Office and the Association of Retired ESA Staff (ARES).
An important part of the training course consisted of a case study in the form of a group project to design a complete Earth Observation satellite mission. The students were challenged to come-up with an end-to-end outline design of the Sentinel-3 Next Generation (S-3 NG) mission as a follow-on to the existing one, implemented as part of the European Union’s Copernicus Programme. Indeed, Sentinel-3 Next Generation represented an interesting strawman mission for students to get a ‘hands-on’ experience by applying what they learnt from the course lectures while working in a team environment.
The starting point for the S-3 NG design was a set of observation requirements and the existing Sentinel-3 (S-3) design [2]. S-3 NG mission would aim for the following 2 specific enhancements with respect to S-3:
1) Improvement of the altimetric observation capability in coastal oceans by increasing the horizontal resolution of both the radar altimeter and the radiometer, thereby reducing the contaminating coastal land signals;
2) Enhancement of the ocean and land colour imaging capability by an increased spatial resolution, together with an extension of the spectral coverage into the short-wave infrared (SWIR).
Following EU’s long-term Copernicus space segment scenario (Oct. 2017), the altimetry and imaging missions have been divided into a pair of satellites, i.e. the altimetry mission (A-Sat) and the optical imaging mission (O-Sat) satellites. As a result, two possible satellite constellation options were considered: (1) both the altimetry and the optical satellites to fly in the same orbit as that of S-3 (10:00 local descending nodal crossing time) or; (2) altimetry satellites in the 6:00 orbit and optical satellites in the 10:00 orbit. The splitting of the S-3 satellite into a pair of dedicated satellites indeed freed the design teams to optimise the respective satellites in terms of the enhanced observation requirements in relation to the S-3 capabilities.
For the altimetry satellite, the radar frequencies have been moved from the C- and Ku-bands to the Ku- and Ka-bands, with both channels occupying the maximum available bandwidth of 500 MHz. In addition, the radar antenna aperture diameter has been increased from 1.2 to 1.6 m. Those changes would enable to improve the altimetric accuracy as well as reducing the across-track radar foot-print on the Earth surface (the along-track resolution remained at 300 m thanks to the synthetic aperture processing of the echo-signals). The microwave radiometer also underwent substantial changes by adding millimetre-wave channels up to 183 GHz for improving the tropospheric correction capability over coastal oceans, and by an increase in the antenna aperture size.
For the optical satellite, the present S-3 instruments (Ocean and Land Colour Imager OLCI and Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer SLSTR) are reused. However, while SLSTR was kept unchanged, OLCI requirements have been enhanced in order to add spectral channels in the SWIR region, and to improve the spatial resolution by a factor of two. This would require a major design change of the instrument optics and a set of new detectors. Those improvements would lead to better observation capabilities for coastal and inland waters, as well as general land applications. Students were to discuss different design implications reflecting these requirement changes and to carry out a basic instrument redesign.
The first satellite pair (i.e. A-Sat and O-Sat) should be launched in 2028 to replace the Sentinel-3C, and the second pair in 2031 to replace the Sentinel-3D. The four satellites would be distributed evenly in their orbit(s) for the optimum coverage and ground station contacts. A maximum re-use of the existing S-3 ground segment has been assumed for the group project with some necessary evolution to cope with the doubled number of satellites. No bottleneck has been identified concerning satellite commands and control as well as for the data downlink. Each satellite is compatible with small class launchers such as e.g. Vega. A dual-launch of the A-Sat & O-Sat pair using Ariane-6 was also considered feasible by the students, although limited to the orbit constellation option where all satellites were placed in the 10:00 orbit.
The presentation will focus on the group project process and the resulting S-3 NG system designs as achieved by the students during the course. The 30 students were split into five groups with each group structured to form a project team, with individuals identified as responsible for payload, platform, system, etc. Each group addressed the same set of requirements but the results across the groups varied considerably. Most of the results were in line with expectations of the ESA/ARES trainers, but some of the suggested designs included novel and interesting ideas that the trainers had not previously considered. The presentation will describe the variation in the results and discuss their respective merits.
References:
[1] https://www.esa.int/Education/ESA_Academy/University_students_complete_first_ever_ESA_Academy_s_Earth_Observation_Satellite_System_Design_Training_Course
[2] Sentinel 3: ESA’s Global Land and Ocean Mission for GMES Operational Services ESA Publication SP 1322/3, ESA, October 2012.

In the 21st century, with the advancement of digital Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the pedagogical strategies have been reconsidered and professionals need to continually enhance their competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) in a sustained lifelong learning effort. Technologies and the use of computers not only change the way students should learn, but also, the ways they can learn and what, how, where and when they learn. In this scenario, where flexibility is essential and the need for training and educational is growing, online education presents itself as an important alternative for accessing knowledge and increasing educational offerings all around the world. The roles of the key players in this process, teachers, trainers, tutors and students, have changed, as well as their interactions throughout pedagogical process. Not all teachers and trainers are familiar or are up-to-date with these new strategies and methodologies that can be used for achieving success in distance learning. The objective is to present recommendations for activities and appropriate assessment tools, making use of technology and based on Bloom’s taxonomy, which distinguishes different levels of human cognition, i.e., thinking, learning, and understanding. Appropriate rubrics will also be presented, providing a coherent set of criteria for student´s work, including descriptions of levels of performance quality on the criteria.

In recent years, Earth observation experiences a technological and methodological revolution. Several remote sensing satellites have been launched observing the Earth in very high temporal, spatial, and spectral resolutions. Open access archives and cloud computing provide undreamt-of monitoring and analyses possibilities. Simultaneously, the society is facing rapid environmental and structural changes forcing the geographic science community to reach out to the public, communicate their results, and build capacities for the challenges of the 21st century. The presentation demonstrates how learning videos and miniature Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are used to educate secondary students in remote sensing technology, digital image processing but foremost teach them the physical-mathematical background and socio-ecological application areas of Earth observation at once. The enthusiasm of beauty and aesthetics opened up by the holistic view of our environment from the bird's eye perspective helps to introduce pupils to science and technology. The developed concept of the mini MOOCs on remote sensing for school lessons is characterized by interdisciplinary and curriculum-orientation. STEM curricular topics like the electromagnetic spectrum, photosynthesis, or worldwide disparities are taught while simultaneously the background and application areas of remote sensing are introduced. Several teaching-learning situations are addressed at the same time. Due to its modular structure a mini MOOC, e.g. on climate change, consists of several learning videos and accompanying tasks forcing the pupils to reflect the gained knowledge. Additionally, a video addressing just an aspect of the specific topic can be used by the teacher on its own providing a dynamic, efficient usability tailored to the teachers’ needs. The learning videos and mini MOOCs aim to answer questions on how remote sensing can contribute to understand global change in terms of climate, water, and land cover. Consequently, the MOOCs give information on necessary fundamentals of remote sensing while connecting them to topics relevant for school curricula. Accordingly, the pupils get a comprehensive overview and are also sensitized on the Copernicus mission and its services.

Technological advances facilitated the transition of Education programmes and initiatives from the traditional training classes or summer schools requiring presence of the students at the same time in a specific place, to a new “distributed” approach allowing to involve many remote users in short courses, distance learning programmes or MOOCs. Furthermore, availability of materials on-line (as videos, presentations or tutorials) allow users to “repeat the experience” in anytime. This paradigm shift is particularly important for the Earth Observation community, which in recent years (with the advent of the “Copernicus era”) has become exposed to a wealth of new and reliable data, freely available but increasingly more difficult to process and understand.

With the continuous and systematic global coverage offered by the Copernicus constellation of satellites, the uptake of the produced datasets is closely linked to technological capabilities of the user and his/her level of knowledge and understanding. Funded by the EC and managed by ESA, RUS (Research and User Support for Sentinel Core Products) is a service active since 2017, operated by CS SI and its partners: Serco Italia SPA, Noveltis, Along-Track, and CS Romania. Its objective is to promote the uptake of Copernicus Sentinel data by providing technical and scientific support, expertise and training. To facilitate and enhance users’ ability in exploiting the vast Sentinel datasets, it offers customized ICT resources in the form of Virtual Machines pre-installed with open source software to solve the technological issues related to storage capacity and processing power. More importantly, the RUS service implemented a training programme, lead by Serco Italia SPA, aimed at supporting all users, whatever their level of proficiency is, their location or their topic of interest. The programme runs through “face to face” events (organized for small groups of participants), public Webinars (organized monthly), and an E-learning portal. The RUS Training Website (providing details about foreseen and past events, including the Q&A received and discussed during the Webinar) is available at: https://rus-training.eu/

Designed to put the VM functionality at the center of the training, the “RUS model” remains unchanged since the service started:
- Training is free and exploits only open source software to facilitate repeatability (including users who do not wish to register for a free RUS VM).
- Training is thematic, aiming to build a portfolio of applications and examples covering different topics (from theory to applications).
- A key component of the training is interaction: this can be live during the face to face events, the Q&A sessions following the RUS Webinars, the special Webinars organized for small groups of users, or the multiple choice questions in the E-learning part of the RUS Training Website,
- Training includes a large part of “Do It Yourself” allowing users to download step by step guides to repeat the exercises using the same data and software demonstrated by the trainers, and to get them all pre-installed on the VMs,
- Training is open to anyone from students to decision-makers or professionals; in particular we value training of trainers, e.g. trainers who would like to know how to use our materials and the RUS VMs for their trainings,
- Our format is innovative, agile, accessible and ready for use as it supplies all attendees with the same data, same open source software and same processing speed with a simple internet connection, furthermore in the case of face to face events the VM remains accessible to the trainee for up to one month, allowing attendees to repeat and practice from their own laptop.

Up to date, more than 700 users are registered to the E-learning portal, which enables users to learn and test their understanding of EO at their own pace. These sum up to more than 1700 participants to RUS training events and more than 21000 views of the “Webinar recordings” available on the dedicated RUS YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB01WjameYMvL7-XfI8vRIA).

The success of the RUS training model encouraged members of the Copernicus Academy to request the RUS Steering Board to organize a few on-demand RUS events. The feedback systematically collected from training participants is overwhelming positive, as the question “Do you believe that the information received during the training has improved your capability to access and process Sentinel data?” is reaching an average score of 8.5 (out of 10). This score rises to 9, when considering participants to face to face events, for which the training has been specifically prepared.

Supplying at no cost a full technical and scientific support, but also the knowledge and capacity building to remotely store and process EO datasets with Free and Open-Source tools, RUS is constantly evolving from lesson learned and users’ feedback. The aim of this contribution is to illustrate how the free RUS service has been building a comprehensive offer of education contents and support. This offer is targeted to provide operational skills, improved capabilities and overall better understanding of the potential of Earth Observation for science and society.

Radar remote sensing is a rapidly growing technology capable of observing the Earth under all weather and illumination conditions. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors have the ability to consistently map the Earth surface, identify change, and track surface deformation over large scales and long time spans. Due to recent advances in data access and sensor technologies, SAR has become an attractive resource for many monitoring and decision-making applications.

Despite its proven capabilities, the uptake of SAR to inform decision-making situations has been slow. This has largely been due to the unfamiliar appearance of SAR images and due to a set of processing routines that may seem exotic to many non-SAR experts. Hence, there is a need for improved capacity building activities to advance the use of SAR by decision-making communities.

To address this need, this paper presents the development of a SAR Capacity Building Center (SAR-CBC), a training resource aimed at the development of educational material as well as webinars and on-site trainings that build capacity in the use of SAR in decision-making situations. Funded by NASA and associated with the AmeriGEOSS initiative, our work focuses on Central and South America, and all training materials are tailored to the needs of this region.

The SAR-CBC project is led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and includes partners from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the NASA SERVIR program, a capacity building program jointly funded by NASA and USAID. To ensure the relevance of developed material, the SAR-CBC team is also closely partnering with in-region stakeholder organizations in Ecuador (INIGEMM; Central University of Ecuador), Colombia (IDEAM), and El Salvador (MARN). These stakeholders have been instrumental in the assessment of in-region application and training needs. They also supported the identification of venues for in-person trainings, helped in communicating news and updates to our target communities, and provided information on relevant case studies for lab exercises.

In this paper, we describe the main concepts of the SAR-CBC effort and showcase first successful activities. We summarize the findings of a user needs assessment that was conducted in collaboration with in-region partners and significantly shaped the focus of our center. We introduce a modified approach to curriculum development, where instead of the traditional approach of teaching SAR concepts from the bottom-up, we have adopted a top-down solution where we start from an application and delve into details only as necessary. We share experiences and lessons-learned from first in-person SAR trainings that were held in 2018 in West Africa and in the Hindu-Kush Himalayas (HKH) region. Finally we discuss our schedule for upcoming in-person trainings and webinars, introduce partnerships with the NASA ISRO SAR (NISAR) project, and showcase the SAR-CBC web portal, which holds all developed materials for online consumption.

The Earth observation sector is undergoing a massive paradigm shift. Coming from a scientific, very specialised background, Earth Observation is developing towards an operational tool on a massive scale. The advancements in EO, specifically driven by large-scale programs such as Copernicus, are affecting manifold areas of environmental research as well as the development of modern society.
The increasing availability of EO data and corresponding analysis tools fosters a massive demand for offers in education, for example in the framework of Copernicus User Uptake activities. Alongside with training efforts on location (such as workshops, trainings and summer schools), the supply with web based education solutions becomes more and more important.
The EO College (www.eo-college.org) is an attempt to provide both, a central platform to host EO education material and educational content - to enable users to make use of (freely available) EO data based on the scientific research of the eLearning community - and modern web technologies.
As one of the first efforts after the launch of the EO College, the massive open online course (MOOC) ‘Echoes in Space – Introduction to Radar Remote Sensing’ was developed and deployed on behalf of ESA. In recent efforts, advanced online courses on Radar remote sensing are developed and will be deployed within the EO College. Additionally, other aspects of Earth observation, such as hyperspectral remote sensing (in anticipation of the EnMap mission) will be included into the EO College.
This contribution presents the lessons learnt from the production and deployment of Echoes in space. Furthermore, this contribution presents ideas, concepts and preliminary results of scientific research on the efficiency of eLearning tools and on MOOC quality that accompanies the works in the EO College.