ESA-EGU 2023 Excellence Award Winners
Honoring the individual scientists and teams of scientists who have contributed to the use of new earth observation data, ESA and the European Geosciences Union (EGU) are pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Excellence Awards.
Susanne Ebmeier, from the University of Leeds in the UK, made the individual award. Susan’s work aims to use satellite images to advance understanding of volcanic processes.
A team led by Andrea Kääb, from the University of Oslo in Norway, awarded the team. The team’s work aims to use satellite data to measure how the volume of rocks changes in response to climate change.
In recent years, the observation of the Earth has undergone a significant change. New and complementary Earth observation instrument capabilities, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data technology have opened up the possibilities of science and applications.
The joint ESA-EGU Earth Observation Excellence Award celebrates these new opportunities and awards researchers who are in the early stages of their careers and who have made outstanding contributions to the use of new Earth Observation techniques, especially from European satellites. Two types of awards are up for grabs: a team award and an individual award.
The announcement of the winners follows an independent evaluation of the nominations led by the European Space Science Committee (ESSC).
The celebration for the winners will take place on Tuesday, April 25 at the EGU General Assembly, which will take place in Vienna, Austria.
Individual Award winner Susanne Ebmeier developed new methods that make satellite radar images more useful for monitoring volcanic hazards and for understanding the basic science of volcanic deformation.
Susanna said “ways to measure the change in the topography of volcanoes caused by lava flow using both radar and amplitude signals. I am also interested in how to separate the mill signals from the noise in the signal, or better using atmospheric characteristics and other noise, or using machine learning methods.
“Another topic of my research was how to make the best interpretations of regional and global data of volcanic deformation satellite methods. European landmarks were fundamental to my research – especially Copernicus Vigil-1, the Italian Agency CosmoSkyMed and the German Aerospace Center TerraSAR and Tandem-X”.
Part of the winning Global Glacier Mass Continuity project measured ice volume changes and glacier flow with new precision using Earth observations. Both variables have been combined to better understand how mountains are responding to climate change.
Team leader Andreas Kääb said, “The team, which was made up of several PhD students and postdocs, measured and developed ice thicknesses, using satellite laser and altimetry data, stereo optical satellite data and digital elevation models,” to yield accounts of the world’s ice masses.
“The analysis of these data has led to several major steps in ice and Earth science,” such as new insights into the spatio-temporal processes underlying the variability and instability of ice flow and a better understanding of the effects of dynamic thickness change.
“Our results also helped to define and justify ESA’s recently selected Earth Explorer 10 Harmony mission.”
Simonetta Cheli, director of OESA’s Earth Observation Programs, said, “We offer our congratulations to the meritorious winners of the Earth Observation Excellence Award. We are very impressed with their research, which not only reflects their scientific excellence, but also highlights the many new opportunities that Earth observation offers.”
In evaluating the award nominations, the European Space Sciences felt that the finalists also deserve a mention. He named this with Mariette Vreugdenhil from TU Wien in Austria as a unique researcher for his work on satellite soil moisture for risk mitigation, and Lestyn Woolway from Bangor University in the UK for his work on the physics and hydrology of lakes and their link with climate.
There were also two finalists for the team award.
One team, led by Dominic Fawcett from the University of Exeter in the UK, is working on the ESA RECCAP-2 project, which promotes the use of Earth observation to estimate national greenhouse gas emissions and pressures for the Global Stocktake process.
Another team, led by Gustau Camps-Valls from the University of Valencia in Spain, presented its work on new technical methods in the development of understanding methods of Earth observation to analyze data, with a proposed model and understanding of the complex interactions of the various parts. the earth is the system.
