Earth Observation Learning Resources
Earth Observation Learning Resources
Books, Webinars, Tutorials, Python Notebooks and Podcasts on Earth Observation
This page compiles several learning resources about Earth Observation! From books to webinars, tutorials, Python Notebooks, podcasts and online courses, this collection features a variety of sources to help you learn more about Earth Observation and Remote Sensing.
Whether you’re a student, researcher, professional, or simply curious about the field, you’ll find something useful here. The active series, such as podcasts, webinars and any content that you can tune into regularly, are indicated with a green circle 🟢. This list is growing and expanding, so make sure to bookmark it and come back for more. And if you know of any other useful resources, feel free to share them in the comments section. Let’s dive in!
Last update: February 9, 2024
Table of Contents
· Books
· Workshops and other recordings
· Webinars
· Tutorials / Articles
· Hands-on Tutorials
· Training, Courses & MOOCs
· Blogs
· Podcasts
· Newsletters and other Publications
· Pangeo
· Other
Books
Earth Observation Textbooks (by the Australian Earth Observation (EO) community) [link]
A series of textbooks by the Australian Earth Observation (EO) community describing EO data, processing and applications. They include a wide range of local case studies to demonstrate Australia’s increasing usage of EO data.
Video walkthroughs of individual chapters are available on YouTube [link]
Cloud-Based Remote Sensing with Google Earth Engine: Fundamentals and Applications [link]
This book is the collective work of more than 100 individuals who contributed more than 10,000 lines of code and 55 chapters. This free resource covers topics ranging from the basics of programming in JavaScript and reading images to advanced image processing and developing complete applications that involve creating mosaics and data from multiple sensors.
Landsat’s enduring legacy [link]
Digital book about remote sensing and specifically about the Landsat program. It is full of useful historic and up-to-date information and lists the challenges they faced and how they solved them.
SAR Handbook: Comprehensive Methodologies for Forest Monitoring and Biomass Estimation [link]
“The SAR Handbook: Comprehensive Methodologies for Forest Monitoring and Biomass Estimation is the culmination of a two-year collaboration between NASA SERVIR and SilvaCarbon. Five trainings, led by six SAR subject matter experts, were held at hubs throughout the SERVIR network. The topics of these trainings included SAR basics, SAR for forest change detection, forest height estimation, biomass estimation, mangrove monitoring, and sampling design. Each of these training topics are covered in a SAR Handbook chapter, which includes the theoretical basics and applied exercises.”
InSAR Principles: Guidelines for SAR Interferometry Processing and Interpretation [link]
“This training manual introduces and explains Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), including applications for data from the Envisat ASAR sensor and how to combine Envisat and ERS images to produce interferograms and differential interferograms.”
Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry: Introduction, Principles and Applications [link]
Sentinel-1 InSAR Product Guide [link]
“This document is a guide for users of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) Sentinel-1 products generated by the Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF).”
Workshops and other recordings
Geo for Good 2022 (recordings) [link]
Geo for Good 2023
All sessions are available to watch on demand! [link]
Introduction to Google Earth Engine in Python [link]
"This workshop was taught at the 2023 Geo for Good Summit and provides an introduction to cloud-based geospatial analysis using the Earth Engine Python API."
And the top 3 recommendations from the Spatial Thoughts Newsletter
Geo for Good 2023: Using Earth Engine for very large computations [link]
"Earth Engine has a lot of compute power available to run your computation, but not all scripts are able to take advantage of that power. Understanding how Earth Engine works can enable you to write scripts that make the most of its unconventional architecture.
Speakers: Mike Dixon"Geo for Good 2023: Earth Engine Scaling and Debugging [link]
"Tips, tricks, and best practices for debugging your EE scripts and getting them to scale.
Speakers: Noel Gorelick"Geo for Good 2023: Detecting clouds and cloud shadows using weakly supervised video analysis [link]
"If you've worked with optical remote sensing images, you've probably had to deal with clouds, cloud shadows, and other atmospheric artifacts. Flagging and masking these artifacts is a common, yet surprisingly challenging step in most image processing workflows. In this session, we introduce Cloud Score+, a general AI-powered approach for cloud and shadow detection that leverages both spatial and temporal context to produce a flexible, per-pixel usability score. We'll cover the methods, then demonstrate how Cloud Score+ can be used out-of-the-box to generate cloud-free composites, quality mosaics, and cleaner time series. We'll also share access to a preview collection with Cloud Score+ products for the Sentinel-2 archive.
Speakers: Valerie Pasquarella, Google; Andréa Puzzi Nicolau, Spatial Informatics Group"
EO Open Science [link]
Recordings of ESA workshops, training, poster sessions, virtual events, etc.
Latest: International Workshop on High-Resolution Thermal EO [link] [YouTube link]
OpenGeoHub Summer School 2022 (recordings) [link]
16 freely-accessible tutorials that cover R & Pyhton for earth systems and climate data. This year they also introduced JuliaGeo!
Recommended-watch: Accessing and using data cubes: spatial overlay, visualization and modeling — Python tutorial [link] + the accompanied Jupyter Notebook [link]. The workshop covers COG images, how to access and query a STAC catalog and training a Random Forest classifier.
CCI Biomass 1st User Workshop 2022 (recordings) [link]
ECMWF–ESA Workshop on Machine Learning for Earth Observation and Prediction, November 2022 [link]
Recordings, slides and posters available on the workshop website.
Earth Observation Data Visualisation Workshop [link]
A series of short online workshops over a six-week period on Earth observation and Copernicus data visualisation:
Introduction to EO Data Visualisations [link]
Air Quality and Wildfires [link]
Oceans and Sea Ice [link]
Climate and Weather [link]
Climate Extremes: Heatwaves, Changes in Ice, Drought, Floods [link]
Being practical: How to access and process Copernicus and EUMETSAT data [link]
Recording and slides for the latest EUMETSAT short course on wildfire monitoring [link]
Recordings of the 7th European Space Agency — ESA Advanced Course on Radar Polarimetry [link]
“For all course materials, including lecture presentations and practical materials (Jupyter Notebooks, SAR imagery used, and the accompanying Python Environment) go to https://eo4society.esa.int/resources/7th-advanced-training-course-radar-polarimetry/
For more information about the course go to the course website: https://polarimetrycourse2023.esa.int/”
FOSS4G 2023 Recordings [link]
"This playlist features the FOSS4G 2023 video presentations, which encompass a wide range of topics related to open-source geospatial technologies and applications. Included within are all six keynote presentations."
https://2023.fos4g.org
NASA-ESA-JAXA EO Dashboard — Workshop at FOSS4G [link]
Recording of the 4-hour geemap workshop at the SciPy Conference 2023 [link]
Big Data from Space (BiDS'23) recordings are available [link]
BiDS 2023 Plenary Sessions [link]
BiDS 2023 Satellite Events [link]
Proceedings of the 2023 conference on Big Data from Space (BiDS’23) [link]
The recording of the 4-hr EarthEngine and geemap workshop at AGU23 is now available [link]
Spatial Data Management with Google Earth Engine [link]
Qiusheng Wu’s course is now available on the United Nations University Open edX platform.
"The course is focused on cloud based management and visualization of geospatial data. It explores Google Earth Engine, a powerful cloud-based platform for analyzing geospatial data at scale."
WEkEO workshop - Monitoring Cryosphere Changes; Recordings and presentations
Presentations HERE
Tutorials : Jupyter Notebook and QGIS
Presentations and recordings from the 5th ESA/EUMETSAT/ECMWF Joint School on Atmospheric Composition [link]
The recording of the webinar on Earth Observation Data for Agricultural Monitoring is now available online [link]
Automated Segmentation of Remote Sensing Imagery with the Segment Anything Model [link]
Recording, slides and code of the presentation at the TensorFlow Working Group at SERVIR by Qiusheng Wu.
Webinars
🟢 The Pangeo Showcase Webinar Series [link]
“The Pangeo Showcase Webinar Series is part of the Pangeo Weekly Community Meeting.”
Pangeo Showcase - Pangeo documentation
The Pangeo Showcase Webinar Series is part of the Pangeo Weekly Community Meeting. See the Meeting Schedule and Notes…pangeo.io
🟢 NASA’s EarthData Webinars and Tutorials [link]
“NASA tutorials include step-by-step instructions for working with NASA Earth science resources; data discovery and access webinars span the Earth science disciplines.”
🟢 European Ground Motion Service webinar series 2023 [link]
“The European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) is a brand-new type of geospatial data, with the power to revolutionise the understanding of ground deformation phenomena and geological hazards across Europe.
In order to facilitate the uptake of this novel product type, the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) team hosted a series of thematic webinars that guide users towards a better understanding of the EGMS and the use of its products. The webinars are open for all.”
🟢 FAO Webinar Series: Earth observation data for agricultural statistics [link]
“From March to May 2023, join FAO Webinar Series on Earth observation data for agricultural statistics! The webinar series will raise awareness of the EOSTAT project and highlight FAO’s work in building countries’ capacity on the use of Earth observation data for the production of agricultural statistics.”
🟢 EO4SD-FM Webinars [link]
The Earth Observation for Sustainable Development — Forest Management (EO4SD-FM) consortium is hosting a series of webinars during the year 2023.
The Value of SAR [link]
“The Value of SAR talk series. ICEYE experts from different disciplines discuss SAR basics, interesting products, intriguing applications, and captivating solutions in a way that’s easy for everyone to grasp. The series is for all interested in SAR, from beginners to SAR enthusiasts — no prior knowledge is required!”
🟢 Climate Change AI Webinar Series [link]
🟢 Webinars by CloudFerro [link]
🟢 EOA Hosted Webinars [link]
An ongoing series of webinars hosted by Earth Observation Australia.
The latest in the series:
Using space-based Earth observations to understand and tackle the climate challenge [link]
Jump-Start SAR Data Analysis in the Cloud with ASF’s OpenSARLab (webinar) [link]
Tutorials / Articles
Sentinel-1 at Descartes Labs (Technical series)
A series of technical posts about Sentinel-1, processing SAR data and building SAR and InSAR-derived products.
Sentinel-1 at Descartes Labs: An Overview [link]
Sentinel-1 Technical Series Part 1 | Burst Mapping: Random Seeks into PB Scale Non Cloud-Optimized Data Archives [link]
Sentinel-1 Technical Series Part 2 | SAR Geocoding: Working with SAR and InSAR data in geospatial frameworks [link]
Sentinel-1 Technical Series Part 3 | Global scale InSAR [link]
SAR Technical Series Part 4 | Sentinel-1 global velocity layer: Using global InSAR at scale [link]
Sentinel-1 Technical Series Part 5 | Targeted analysis [link]
Orthorectification: Technical series by UP42
An introduction to orthorectification [link]
How to perform orthorectification: A practical guide [link]
Guide: Fundamentals of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) [link]
Interactive guide made by Esri to learn more about SAR, the theory and applications.
Best Data from Space: How We Attain Optimal Spatial Resolution Imagery [link]
In this technical series, Satellogic team members present the fundamental steps in optimizing our high-performing optical system to assure quality end-products for customers. This article, the first of the series, focuses on spatial resolution quality and our procedures to validate and calibrate the satellite’s payload in the laboratory and orbit.
🟢 Elise Colin’s posts on Medium [link]
Elise Colin frequently posts on Medium tutorials on SAR.
Hands-on Tutorials
Using xarray to examine cloud-based glacier surface velocity data [link]
“This tutorial demonstrates how to access and work with with multi-dimensional remote sensing data using the python package and open source project xarray. This example will use a glacier surface velocity dataset called ITS_LIVE.”
Tutorial with Pangeo at BiDS23 in Vienna [link]
"This tutorial with OpenEO and Pangeo at this year’s BiDS23 – Big data from Space in Vienna demonstrated how to use Jupyter Notebooks and a graphical user interface to access and analyze big data from space using openEO and Pangeo platforms.
For more information find our jointly developed training materials online here."
ESA WorldCereal — Getting Locations for Global Field-Level Monitoring in Python [link]
“With the release of the ESA WorldCereal system, we now have (for the first time ever) the precise location of essentially every winter cereal, spring cereal and maize farm in the world.
To put the precision in perspective, the best datasets available to date were at 10km and ~5km resolutions via SPAM2010 and GEOGLAM, respectively. WorldCereal is 10m resolution — that’s 1000 times more precise. In fact, this is even better than the 30m resolution that the USDA has on offer with the USDA CDL (Cropland Data Layer).
This tutorial shows you how to convert WorldCereals into points samples in Parquet or GeoParquet. It will show how to:
Generate any number of global maize, winter cereals, and spring cereals farm point locations (longitude, latitude coordinate pairs) from the .tif classification mask files
Export the locations to cloud-native (Parquet & GeoParquet) and standard tabular (CSV) formats”
Training, Courses & MOOCs
🟢 NASA’s ARSET [link]
“ARSET offers self-paced training modules and live webinars at introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels. Most webinar materials are also available in Spanish, and a few are available in French. Recordings of webinars are available on YouTube and on each training information page.”
Applied Remote Sensing Training Program | NASA Applied Sciences
Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET) trains people to use Earth-observing data into their environmental management…appliedsciences.nasa.govA Collection of NASA ARSET Courses for Flood Mapping and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) [link]
Check out this collection of NASA ARSET courses focused on Flood Mapping and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), compiled by Mark Bauer.
EO4GEO Training Material Catalogue [link]
The training catalogue contains material developed in EO4GEO. The material covers mostly resources for educators/instructors who look for teaching material in a state-of-the-art form of presentation. The catalogue contaings lectures, webinars, videos, tutorials and courses.
Synthetic Aperture Radar: Hazards (EdX Course) [link]
Created by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. An introduction to Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and applications of SAR to the monitoring of natural hazards.
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR): Applications (EdX Course) [link]
ECMWF MOOC Machine Learning in Weather & Climate [link]
The objective of the MOOC is to train a wider community on the impact and use of Machine Learning in numerical weather and climate predictions. It brings together experts throughout Member and Co-operating States and beyond to provide a shared vision across the communities of Earth system sciences, high-performance computing and Machine Learning.
GEOS 657 Microwave Remote Sensing [link]
“This class will introduce you to the theory and applications of microwave remote sensing and will empower you to integrate remote sensing into your own research work. You will learn the most popular processing techniques and will experiment with a broad range of applications of active and passive microwave remote sensing data.”
EO College [link]
The EO College is a hub for digital learning content regarding Earth observation, remote sensing and related topics. The platform is designed as a repository for open educational resources and online courses.
Beyond the Visible — Imaging Spectroscopy for Agricultural Applications (EO-College) [link]
“This course will provide you with the fundamentals of imaging spectroscopy specifically for agricultural applications and gives you access to free data sources, open-source software and hands-on training exercises.”
Machine Learning on Earth Observation: ML4EO Bootcamp [link]
“This course contains a mixture of lectures and hands-on exercises. It is designed for novice data science or remote sensing practitioners.”
Spatial Thoughts OpenCourseWare [link]
Spatial Thoughts offers courses on QGIS, Python, GDAL and Google Earth Engine.
2023 InSAR Processing and Analysis (ISCE+) Short Course [link]
Learn how to use the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory InSAR Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE), ARIA-tools, MintPy and other InSAR processing and analysis tools.
Jupyter notebooks and presentations [link]
Blogs
Geoawesomeness EO-Hub [link]
“A journalistic collaboration between UP42 and Geoawesomeness. Created for policymakers, decision-makers, geospatial experts and enthusiasts alike, EO Hub is a key resource for anyone trying to understand how Earth observation is transforming our world. Read more about EO Hub here.”
Podcasts
🟢 Minds Behind Maps [link]
“Maps Are Everywhere — These are conversations with those building them.”
🟢 The Scene From Above Podcast [link]
“A show that brings you informal discussions about the cool things in the world of Earth observation.”
🟢 TerraWatch Space Podcast [link]
“Demystifying Earth Observation, Satellite Data and Applications”
Newsletters and other Publications
🟢 Aravind Ravichandran’s TerraWatch Space [link]
“Analysis, Insights & Deep-Dives on Earth Observation, Satellite Data and its Applications.”
🟢 Remote Sensing News by Rafaela Tiengo [link]
“A newsletter with the most recent news, tips, tutorials, conferences and more about Remote Sensing and Geoscience”
🟢 Robin Cole’s satellite-image-deep-learning [link]
Pangeo
New to Pangeo? A Quickstart Guide for Data Analysts and Engineers [link]
Written by Ryan Abernathey, this guide includes learning resources on data formats, core Libraries (xarray, dask, rasterio, etc), use cases and cloud storage.
Project Pythia [link]
Project Pythia is the education working group for Pangeo and is an educational resource for the entire geoscience community.
Project Pythia is a home for Python-centered learning resources that are open-source, community-owned, geoscience-focused, and high-quality.
Check out the Resources and Cookbooks tabs!
Other
Environmental Data Science book or EDS book [link]
“Environmental Data Science book or EDS book is a living, open and community-driven online resource to showcase and support the publication of data, research and open-source tools for collaborative, reproducible and transparent Environmental Data Science.”