From the 10 to 12 September a significant part of the UK EO community was present or represented in York at the biennial UK Earth Observation Conference. The event was hosted at the National STEM Centre at the University of York. It was organised by the National Centre of Earth Observation (NCEO), Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI), RSPSoc (The Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society) and Satellite Applications Catapult.

The conference aimed to cover the whole EO value chain from space hardware and airborne systems through ground segments and exploitation platforms to applications in both research and commercial domains. The main body of the conference was made up of four parallel tracks with sessions focused on a broad range of topics such as environmental monitoring, climate data studies, the business of EO, novel applications, machine learning EO for society & education and all stops in between. The abstracts for the papers in these sessions can be downloaded here. There were also a large number of posters on display.

The major emphasis of the conference can be summarised by considering the keynotes and a couple of the special sessions. The conference was open with a key note from Suzanne Mecklenburg, the Head of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Climate Office based at ESCAT in Harwell, Oxfordshire. She introduced ESA’s Earth Observation Programme and provided an update on the EO science strategy. It was stressed that we need to go beyond the technology and analytical methods and support a stronger commercial continuation for the whole value chain from science to real world action. The presentation also explored the opportunities and benefits of deepening connections between the UK climate research and EO communities and ESA’s climate activities.

Future EO missions, their development and validation were a strong theme with a particular focused on truth. That is the Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial- and Helio-Studies, or TRUTHS. This mission will be a ‘standards laboratory in space’, setting the ‘gold standard’ reference for climate measurements. It carries a cryogenic solar absolute radiometer and a hyperspectral imaging spectrometer along with a novel onboard calibration system. It will support the intercalibration of many EO missions and is particularly important for the growing number of smallsats which rely on vicarious calibration to maintain the quality of their products. It has a strong UK focus, being conceived by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and built by Airbus in the UK with an international industrial consortium and supported by European researchers.

A whole session was dedicated to the EO Data Hub (EODH), a UK pathfinder project aiming to deliver access to EO data for effective decision-making across academia, government and business. The project is led by NCEO and being built by Telespazio with support from the Centre of Environment Data Analysis (CEDA), NPL, Spyrosoft and Oxidian. EODH will provide access to free and open datasets, plus commercial data from Planet and Airbus. The EODH platform addresses a well-recognised need for more findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable (FAIR) EO, climate and other data.

The event therefore promoted the themes or international collaboration, data quality and data access with a focus on climate modelling, atmospheric chemistry and global monitoring, but this is not a surprise given the strong role of NCEO in the organisation. Next time it would be great to see a more rounded event featuring other applications of EO more prominently. Overall, this was a well-attended and informative event which should be on everyone’s calendars for two years’ time.

Contribution from Dr. Geoff Smith of BARSC Company Member, Specto-Natura.
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