Remote Sensing of the Earth from Space

Organisateurs : Filipe Aires, Catherine Prigent (LERMA, tel : 01 40 51 20 18)

The purpose of this course is to provide the basic scientific background to students interested in Earth remote sensing from space and its applications. The students are part of a FP7 network “Greencycle II” dedicated to improve the current understanding of the impacts of climate-biogeochemistry feedbacks on the evolution of the Earth system over the next two centuries. Most students have a solid background in climate modeling but limited experience with satellite data. The objective of this course will be to provide them with the key information to use satellite observations in climate modeling, as inputs, as well as for model evaluations.
The lectures start with the fundamental elements of the basic physics involved in remote sensing. A wide range of applications will be covered, from atmospheric sounding to land and ocean studies. An introduction to the satellite orbitography will be given. Another lecture will present innovative statistical techniques to retrieve geophysical parameters from satellite observations. Numerical works are planed for three days: half a day will focus on the classification and interpretation of real satellite observations at different wavelengths, another one will be dedicated to analysis of satellite data, and the remaining time will concentrate on radiative transfer simulations and inversion of satellite observations.