Terra em Foco: Discover the Official Program
The program for the Terra em Foco 2024 conference, organised by the Portuguese Space Agency in partnership with the School of Engineering of the University of Minho (EEUM), is now available. The conference will bring together the national Earth Observation ecosystem and international guests.
The Portuguese Space Agency, in partnership with the University of Minho’s School of Engineering (EEUM), is organising the second National Earth Observation Conference – Terra em Foco 2024, succeeding the Copernicus National Conference, that took place in 2022, in Évora. The Gualtar Campus of the University of Minho, located in Braga, will be the central meeting point for the national community of Earth Observation technology users on 12 and 13 September.
The forthcoming event is dedicated to exploring the role of Earth Observation (EO) within the national context, specifically focusing on its technological potential and market opportunities. The convergence of academia, industry, and public administration is of particular importance to harmonise interests and fortify the entirety of the national value chain.
Ana Fonseca, former director of LNEC’s Applied Geodesy Unit, will present a Portuguese EO sector retrospective. Ana Fonseca is one of Portugal’s leading promoters of remote sensing technology. She is co-author of the book Detecção Remota (Remote Sensing), published in 2004, which, being the first work to use terminology exclusively in Portuguese, was a fundamental tool in training students and technicians in this area.
Juliette Lambin, head of the Future Missions and Architecture Department (EOP-F) at the European Space Agency (ESA), and José António Sobriño, director of the Climate Change Unit at the University of Valencia, are among the international speakers. Lambin will address the topic of “Hybrid Constellations”, presenting the latest innovations linked to the development, launch and operation of Earth Observation satellites (upstream), and paving the way for a debate on new application and service concepts exploiting synergies between institutional and commercial constellations. José Sobriño will review the progress of the space technologies available for monitoring the Earth’s surface temperature and will give an overview of the challenges and new perspectives of this monitoring in the context of urban heat islands.
In a conference that will focus on “Marine resources, minerals and energy”, “Cities, climate and health”, and “Cartography, Forestry and Agriculture”, among other topics, there will also be a debate on how Artificial Intelligence is helping to take advantage of an ever-increasing volume of Earth Observation data, providing fundamental information for decision-making and which can give rise to new solutions and projects.
The Terra em Foco 2024 program features traditional plenary sessions, including student paper presentations and new product and technology showcase, and several workshops and practical sessions on data processing and visualisation. These additional sessions are exclusively open to registered conference participants and require prior registration.
The event’s program includes parallel sessions, allowing a larger number of topics to be covered and promoting active participation, where participants can focus on their specific interests.
The conference also aims to promote increased student participation and attract them to the sector. This year, Development Seed, GeoSAT, and ESRI Portugal are joining this objective by supporting student travel and the prize for the best student paper and poster, respectively. The conference also has the support of Braga Urban Transport (TUB).
For more information, visit the Conference website.
