The purpose of this training workshop is to share knowledge, skills, resources and training techniques so that attendees are able to independently train others on available Earth Observation (EO) data and tools. During the course, participants will work with others to create their own (learning) artefacts. This is an interactive knowledge exchange workshop, not a technical training event.

Aims and objectives: 

• To support marine and earth observation educators in their training activities, by sharing Copernicus Marine data resources and exchanging experience of different learning approaches.
• To foster a community of marine EO educators who can collaborate in future.
• To co-create learning artefacts that can used in participants own training activities and more broadly by the Earth observation community.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of the workshop, participants should be able to/will have the skills to:

• Train on the use of Copernicus Sentinel-3 and CMEMS data for marine applications, covering the use of sea surface temperature, altimetry and ocean colour data, as well as downstream products and model outputs.
• Show others how to access the Copernicus Marine Data through online portals, APIs and other methods.
• Explain the concepts of data quality (including basic principles of validation) and selection of appropriate products when helping trainees design workflows.
• Understand the use of the following tools in training – Web portals, SNAP, Git, Python & Jupyter notebooks, cloud computing (WEkEO).
• Select and adapt existing resources and develop new resources for their own training activities.
• Select the appropriate training methods for introducing these resources in both face-to-face and online learning interventions.

Target audience:

This workshop is intended for university teachers, mentors and tutors, as well as staff from National Oceanographic Data Centres, marine research/management institutions and industry professionals who have Earth-observation or marine science related training responsibilities.

Language: Predominantly English, with some support in Spanish and French.

Prerequisites:

Applicants must currently (or in very near future) have training or teaching responsibilities in marine science, Earth observation or both; e.g. a university lecturer, a team manager responsible for in-house training, a research supervisor, a freelance consultant who runs customised training courses.

A good working knowledge of English is needed for the discussion sessions.

Trainers:

• Ben Loveday (EUMETSAT/Innoflair UG)
• Aida Alvera-Azcárate (EUMETSAT/GHER University of Liege)
• Ana Ruescas (EUMETSAT/Brockmann Consult GmbH/University of Valencia)
• Hayley Evers-King (EUMETSAT)
• Fabrice Messal (CMEMS/Mercator Ocean)
• Greg Reed (IOC/IODE)

Workshop duration and format:

This is an online event with asynchronous, self-paced activities and synchronous sessions. The estimated workload should be 5-10 hours/week, up to 25 hours in total across the 3 weeks, to be completed by 17 June 2022.

Online, synchronous discussions sessions are planned twice a week. These will take place at 08:00 and 17:00 CET/UTC+2 (with a maximum duration of 2 hours each) to accommodate the different timezones of the participants. Participants need only attend one time zone. In addition, it will be possible to book 1-1 sessions with the trainers, throughout.

The workshop is designed to be flexible, to support the needs of a diverse range of participants. Workshop organisers will be happy to discuss any accommodations needed.

Certification

Participants will be expected to develop a ‘mini project’ as well as contribute to live sessions and asynchronous activities. Two types of Certificates will be issued:

• Certificate of participation (participants will need to):
• Have attended minimum 80% of live sessions (or watched recording if couldn’t attend)
• Worked through minimum 90% of course materials
• Certificate of achievement (besides the above, participants will need to):
• Deliver a presentation/artefact at the end of the course

Application process

To ensure an interactive experience, a limited number of places are available. Please complete the online application form available on https://otga.wufoo.com/forms/zlxwse11skncwe/ or https://bit.ly/34MFv4O

The deadline to submit the application is (new deadline) 14 April 2022 (23:59 CET: Central European Time).

Note: the organisers are committed to promote equal access principles. Applications from minority or underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged.

For questions please contact the OTGA Secretariat (ioc.training@unesco.org) and/or copernicus.training@eumetsat.int always using the name of the course as email subject.

Costs:

There is no course fee

Cancellation policy

In the event of cancellation of the course by the OTGA or its affiliates, we will provide notification of cancellation at least 7 days prior to the course date. In the event of cancellation by the attendee, we should receive notification of cancellation at least 7 days prior to the course date.