This online training course on Ocean Colour Remote Sensing and Data Analysis is envisioned to be an introductory course for marine environment conservation for African Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) leveraging the use of ocean colour remote sensing as a tool for marine environment protection and conservation. With this initiative our aim is to contribute to the call for Decade Actions from the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development by focussing on addressing the Ocean Challenges 1 and 7. The online course will consist of a series of webinars introducing topics on water quality monitoring by ocean colour remote sensing. The webinars will include lectures by invited experts and hands-on tutorial sessions on analysis of satellite data for the African ECOPs to gain useful skills and knowledge in utilizing remote sensing data for monitoring and assessing the coastal and marine environment. 

Learning outcomes

By the end of this training, participants should be able to:

• Recognise the satellite-derived parameters used in water quality monitoring.
• Demonstrate how to search and retrieve satellite data from data providers like NASA.
• Analyse and apply satellite data for water quality monitoring and other marine related activities for ocean conservation.

Target audience

The training is aimed at African early career ocean professionals leveraging the use of ocean colour remote sensing as a tool for marine environment protection and conservation. The training is also a good networking opportunity and knowledge exchange.

Language. English

Instructors/Organisers

Elígio de Raús Maúre, Northwest Pacific Region Environmental Cooperation Center (NPEC)
Evgeniia Kostianaia, P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of Russian Academy of Sciences
Gabriel Juma, Alfred Wegener Institute, Biological Institute Helgoland

The online course will consist of a series of webinars, hands-on, Q&A and presentation sessions held within a period of three weeks. Active sessions (students and the trainers) will run for a maximum of 2 hours according to the program while the students will have other individual time to work on their projects.

Tools 

The training will be delivered online through the OTGA e-learning platform. Practical exercises will be based on Jupyter notebooks and Python programming language to process and analyse satellite data. The Jupyter Notebooks interface is a web-based application that allows the combination of live-code with narrative text, equations, and visualizations. The Python programming language is an interpreted high-level general-purpose programming language design to emphasize code readability. Python contains a vast array of packages freely available that do all sorts of things that oceanographers and marine scientists do. 

Pre-requisites

Participants will be required to install Jupyter Notebook or use online tools. Prior knowledge in ocean colour data processing is not required. A pre-session that will guide participants on how to install Jupyter Notebooks will be organised prior to the training course.

Application Process

A limited number of seats is available. Please complete the online application form available on https://otga.wufoo.com/forms/z1rtscce0wa0jyd/

You can apply from 29 April until 13 May 2022 (23:59 CET: Central European Time). There are no tuition fees.

UNESCO is committed to promote equal access principles. Applications from minority or underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged.

For any questions please contact the OTGA Secretariat (ioc.training@unesco.org) always using the name of the course as email subject.

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.