Mission
A forum bringing together users and producers of ground-, satellite-, airborne- and underwater-based remote sensing resources to facilitate the usage, sharing, and calibration & validation in Arctic observation.
The RSWG directive is to
- Assess the status of the SIOS community’s satellite data requirements for Svalbard and the Arctic Ocean, and keep track of any relevant developments within the ESA-EC Copernicus programme;
- Assess the SIOS community’s needs for producing specific remotely-sensed data sets and decide which SIOS partners will be generating these data products;
- Work in step with the SIOS Data Management Service regarding the integration of the remotely-sensed data products in the SIOS web portal;
- Work with the appropriate agencies to promote Svalbard as a Cal/Val site;
- Serve as a forum where future research directions in Arctic satellite remote sensing are discussed.
The RSWG work programme for 2022
- Editing the SIOS special issue in the MDPI Remote Sensing journal (Deadline: 30th June 2022) to facilitate publications from SIOS activities (InfraNor, ACCESS programme, SIOS-SESS), and other remote sensing-based projects being conducted by SIOS members and international scientific community in Svalbard.
- Training course on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) applications in Svalbard, 5-9 Sept. 2022
- Establishing EO and RS researcher forum
- Coordinating SIOS early data access call: Usability of airborne remote sensing data
- Copernicus relay activities, Copernicus user forum activities, facilitating outreach and training activities
- SIOS webinar series and online conference on EO and RS (Sept. 2022)
- Unified platform for satellite data availability for Svalbard
- Conducting annual surveys on user requirements and product inventory documents
Key achievements in 2021
- SIOS Training course on Hyperspectral Remote Sensing in Svalbard was conducted during 6-10 September 2021 in fully online mode.
- SIOS Online conference on EO, RS and GI applications in Svalbard was conducted during 8-10 June 2021 in fully online mode
- Supported the scientific community during the Covid-19 outbreak and resulting cancellations of field activities
- Continued the advisory service "Patch up your field data with remote sensing observations" to fill the data gaps that occurred due to the cancellation of fieldwork in 2021
- Supported 13 airborne campaigns using Dornier and drones in 2021
- In 2021, RSWG gained 4 new working group members
- Recruited an early career researcher observer on the working group-2021
- Outreach and networking: SIOS RSS and RSWG activities were highlighted in outreach/networking arenas e.g. EGU, ASSW, and Arctic Frontiers 2021
News from RSWG
The annual face-to-face meeting of the RSWG took place in Longyearbyen during Polar Night Week 2022 and was converted into a virtual meeting due to travel restrictions. Members discussed the work programme for the year 2022 and how to fulfil it until the end of the year.
Photo: RSWG meeting during Polar Night Week, 17th January 2019. Picture (from top left): Mari Anne Killie, Mikhail Itkin, Shridhar Jawak, Bo Andersen, Malgorzata Blaszczyk, Eirik Malnes, Anton Korosov, Veijo Pohjola, Vito Vitale
Presence of remote sensing working group on international platforms
- SIOS remote sensing services to support an international multi-domain regional observing system for Svalbard, The 5th national Conference on Science & Geopolitics of Himalaya-Arctic-Antarctic (SaGHAA V), Theme: Technological Innovations and Research Expeditions, February 26-27, 2019, India International Centre, New Delhi, India.
- Svalbard science in times of pandemic: learned lessons, failed attempts, and efforts that worked, Svalbard Science Conference 2021, 2-3 November 2021, Scandic Fornebu, Oslo, Norway.
- SIOS’s response to COVID-19 and the strategy for future, ASSW-2021, 20-26 March 2021.
- SIOS’s airborne remote sensing campaigns in Svalbard, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-9129, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9129, 2021.
- SIOS’s Earth Observation (EO) and Remote Sensing (RS) activities to optimize the long-term monitoring system in Svalbard, Arctic Frontier 2021, 01-04 February 2021, Tromsø, Norway. (Online event)
Associated task forces-2022
AI/ML/DL Training Course in Svalbard (AI Svalbard)-2022
- Ekaterina Kim - NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
- Jie Zhang - Uppsala University
- William Harcourt, Uni. of St. Andrews
- Sara Aparício, Solenix for ESA
- Shridhar Jawak, SIOS-KC
