On September 3, 2012, the COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop on Remote Sensing of the Global Water Circulation to Climate Change opened at National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The workshop is jointly organized by COSPAR and NSSC and supported by European Space Agency (ESA), Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC), National Satellite Meteorological Center, China (NSMC), National Satellite Ocean Application Service, China (NSOAS), Fudan University (FDU), Institute of Remote Sensing Application, CAS (IRSA).
At the opening ceremony, Mr. ZHANG Wei, Secretary-General of APSCO, Professor Oleg Pokrovsky on behalf of WMO, Professor Ernesto Lopez-Baeza from University of Valencia, co-chair of this workshop, Professor Ji WU, Vice president of COSPAR and Director-General of NSSC, delivered speeches to 36 students and about 100 other participants. Professor YAN Jingye, Co-chair of this workshop, from Key Laboratory of Microwave Remote Sensing (MIRS/CAS) of National Space Science Center (NSSC) chaired the opening ceremony and introduced the general program to the audience. The students from 14 countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam) are proposed by their home institutes and selected with competition by the organizers.
The workshop will last for 12 days from September 3 to September 14, during which 15 lecturers from Europe, United States of America, Australia, Brazil and China, will combine the theoretical aspects and practical sessions together to nurture the capacity of next generation scientists in the field of remote sensing and water circulation.
Special stress of the workshop is to build the capability to handle real satellite data for various applications over land and ocean. The program includes scientific and technological lectures related to the remote sensing principles, sensors, data processing, calibration/Validation and retrieval algorithms, tutorials and specific aspects of the ESA SMOS and other missions, NASA SMAP and AQUARIUS missions. The workshop provides the participants, lecturers and trainees alike, a precious opportunity to sit together to discuss the frontiers of research, which is in line with the tradition of COSPAR Capacity Building Workshopto build lasting bridges between scientists.
