The 3D-ABC project aims to calculate and visualize the global carbon budget of vegetation and soils by integrating data from satellites, drones, and local CO2 monitoring stations. This approach seeks to capture, quantify, and characterize key parameters of the carbon cycle with high spatial resolution to understand better and mitigate the effects of global climate change.

"AgriSens DEMMIN 4.0 - remote sensing technologies for digitization in crop production" identifies concrete applications for remote sensing data use via the regional experimental field in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in order to answer practical questions of crop production with digital methods.

Artificial Intelligence for Forest Land Use Mapping: AI models training and evaluation for Forest Land Use Classification and Mapping using the FAO FRA definitions and FRA 2020 Remote Sensing Survey dataset. Collaboration with EC JRC, FAO FRA and inria.

The main objective is weed identification and monitoring in agricultural fields using low-altitude remote sensing imagery.

The objective of APP4FARM is the definition of an ICT infrastructure allowing the farmer to monitor nitrogen loss, allowing efficient management of nitrogen-based fertilisers. This will ensure control of farming costs and nitrogen oxide emissions in the atmosphere leading to the improvement of both GHG levels (N2O) and local air quality (nitrogen oxides, secondary inorganic aerosol, and ozone)....

Where and when did it rain in the field? How can water be saved during irrigation? AgroHyd-X aims to optimize agricultural water use in two districts in Brandenburg and at the same time improve agricultural production as a whole.

AIHABs - AI-powered Forecast for Harmful Algal Blooms

The aim is to improve flood prevention and reduce pollution caused by runoff from the cities in the Baltic Sea region.

BIOMASS-DISC funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), is designed to enhance our understanding of forest dynamics and biomass carbon pools through cutting-edge radar technology by underpinning the cal/val and user support for ESA's BIOMASS satellite mission.

The main objective of the project is the development of the end-to-end mission performance simulator for the "Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment" (CHIME). It will be a powerful tool allowing to simulate the end-to-end performance of the mission - from the observed scene to the retrieved parameters.

The main objective of the project is to develop and to deliver several operational processors to be used by the Agency to generate Level-2A (or Level-2S) and Level-2B from the CHIME Earth observations as well as additionally, Level-2H/F to harmonize CHIME Level-A products with the ones of other current and future hyperspectral missions like EnMAP, PRISMA, EMIT, DESIS and SBG.

[Translate to English:] Das Projekt „Wissensbasierter Präzisionspflanzenbau in einem Mischbetrieb (DigiMix-PA)“ hat zum Ziel die Digitalisierung in der Landwirtschaft mittels eines systemischen Ansatzes voranzubringen. Umgesetzt wird dies durch die Erprobung, Erforschung und Demonstration einer durchgängig digitalisierten Produktionskette für einen wissensbasierten, teilflächenspezifische Präzisionspflanzenbau in einem Brandenburger Mischbetrieb.

The Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) is a German hyperspectral satellite mission that aims at monitoring and characterizing the Earth’s environment on a global scale. EnMAP was launched on the 1st April 2022 and provides operational, accurate and diagnostic surface parameters for terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems which are used in a range of application fields. EnMAP allows to quantify and model crucial ecosystem processes, to study the diverse effects of human interventions and to support the management of natural resources.

ESA’s Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Biomass project is providing global, annual maps of above-ground biomass (Mg ha-1) at hectare scale for multiple epochs.

The Forest Carbon Monitoring project is developing and implementing a set of tools for reliable and cost-efficient monitoring of forest carbon stock based on satellite remote sensing approaches supported by in-situ datasets.

While the effects of climate change become apparent, the need for information on the vitality of forests is increasing. Since detailed information is often lacking, the numerous estimates on forest health are contradictory and speculative. Forest remote sensing can close this information gap...

Remote sensing for a sustainable use of resources - FERN.Lab is a Helmholtz Innovation Lab, which actively promotes the transfer activities of the Department of Geodesy. The technology platform supports the operationalisation of application-oriented, transdisciplinary method developments for the analysis of remote sensing data.

This project aim to use machine learning-intensive Data Analysis Workflows (DAWs) for assessing forest disturbances via remote sensing imagery, aiming to enhance their energy and cost efficiency through optimized update intervals and training processes while harnessing high-volume data from sources like Sentinel satellites, and tackling interdisciplinary challenges in computer science and geoscience.

The ForestNavigator project assesses the climate mitigation potential of forests and forest-based sectors by modelling robust policy pathways, aligned with medium (2030) and long-term (2050) climate goals, and supporting EU and national decision makers. ForestNavigator applies integrated approaches combining observational data, policy expertise, and a range of advanced modelling tools to develop a Policy Modelling Toolbox, capable of addressing climate change impacts on coupled ecological and socioeconomic systems. The Toolbox relies on a near-real time monitoring of forests, carbon and biodiversity, and provides policy makers with efficient decision-making tools for climate action. With a primarily European scope, ForestNavigator zooms into carefully selected EU Member States to enhance the consistency of the EU and national pathways, and zooms out towards the global scale, for extra-EU future drivers and potential leakage effects.

Within the DestinE framework, Forest DTC will implement, integrate and validate an end-to-end pre-operational realisation of a digital replica of the World’s forests. ...

FORWARDS is an EU-funded project that will prototype the ForestWard Observatory, a pan-European monitoring and evaluation tool that will help in demonstrating the impact of climate change on forests, guiding decision-making for practical forests management.

The Fiducial Reference Measurements for biomass (FRM4Biomass) project aims at offering a suite of new or upgraded technical solutions to the calculation, error budget, and dissemination of forest AGB and FH data for all forest types at global scale.

The R&D Component of the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) addresses methodological and technical challenges that interfere with progress in the forest and land use monitoring and subsequent greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting efforts for reporting countries.

The HYPER-AMPLIFAI project aims to democratize access to VFMs and xAI tools in the EO community by using advanced techniques and high-quality multi/hyper-spectral imagery datasets. It targets challenges in agriculture and forestry, like predicting soil properties and estimating forest biomass, with broader applications beyond these areas.

Waste crime is a serious problem in many countries of the European Union and worldwide, with negative consequences for the environment and health, as well as high costs for cleaning up and tracking down the perpetrators. It is estimated that waste crime costs EU Member States €72 billion a year in clean-up costs and lost revenue . Accordingly, in its plan for "EU action to improve environmental compliance and governance", the European Commission has prioritised the fight against illegal waste shipments and explicitly proposes the use of space-based intelligence data, such as data from the Copernicus missions.

Within the WIR! funding program, the initiative "Land-Innovation-Lausitz" stands for the development of the region Lausitz towards a model for sustainable adaptation of land use practice to climate change through innovative technologies along the bioeconomic value chain. ...

The Copernicus LCFM service is part of the global component of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. Copernicus LCFM will not only continue the time series of the 100 m Copernicus Global Land Cover layers but also enhance the existing service by providing a high resolution (10 m) dynamic global land cover service.

The limited availability of raw materials within European territories, the dependency from external markets for supplying European industries and the potential environmental impact from mining activities require the industrial and scientific communities to find solutions that can aid the mining industry in improving their extraction and processing efficiency and reduce their environmental footprint. The objective of the project is to develop multi-scale and multi-temporal remote sensing technologies and methods that allow the acquisition, processing and analysis of data from mining and tailing sites to help improving the mining value chain and mitigate the environmental impact of commercial mining activities.

MOSES (Modular Observation Solutions for Earth Systems) has been developed as a project and earth observation system within the “Earth and Environment” research field of the Helmholtz Association to decipher the interactions of short-term events and long-term trends in Earth and environmental systems.

NextGenCarbon hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die nächste Generation globaler C-Modelle zu entwickeln. Dabei wird das Potenzial der Kombination von EOs, In-situ-Datenkampagnen, neuartigen demografischen Modellstrukturen und fortschrittlichen Assimilationsverfahren genutzt, um ein beispiellos fundiertes Verständnis der terrestrischen Kohlenstoffvorräte und -flüsse zu schaffen und damit mehrere neue politische Bereiche zu unterstützen.

Open-Earth-Monitor is a EU-Horizon Europe funded project that aims at building an open-source cyberinfrastructure to accelerate uptake of environmental information and help build user communities at European and global levels.

QA4EO-2 activities are related to the research and development of new ideas or improvement of existing ones important to the evolution of algorithms and calibration and validation processes of ESA EO products. ...

RemoTrees is a Horizon Europe programme funded project (Dec. 2023 - Nov. 2027) that aspires to design and develop an innovative in-situ forest monitoring sensor system based on Internet of Things technology, suited for hard-to-reach forest areas and capable of transmitting data via satellite communication to a dedicated interoperable data platform.

With recent satellite missions and new concepts such as the Copernicus program and the Planet Labs fleet a golden era for Earth observation (EO) has begun. We have access to very large and ever-growing data volumes of satellite image time series (SITS) on a global scale, which enables tackling global applications at an unprecedented spatial resolution and revisit time. It now allows the observation of small-scale and rapid change dynamics at the Earth’s surface. Such spatio-temporal Earth surface anomalies are often caused by natural or man-made hazards including but not limited to solid waste dump sites, landslides, deforestation, dam breaks, fires, and volcanic eruptions, which clearly differentiate due to their rapid nature from long-term and seasonal dynamics.

The project aims to tackle pressing global issues such as population growth, climate change, and environmental degradation by creating and operating a comprehensive digital soil monitoring system. This system is foreseen to evaluate the nutritional state of soil and the chemical and biological factors that impact wheat grains from their initial growth stages through to the flour production phase.

The ESA World AgroCommodities (WAC) project focuses on the EUDR and is part of the ESA EO4Society Applications Element which provides an opportunity to undertake research using pilot sites with the aim of scaling up the methods to support international environmental policies.

This project has the aim to identify gaps in the technological developments for improved forest management in Europe and globally, and to present a suite of EO based products for various forest parameters.

The CGIAR Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems, also known as Mitigate+, works closely with key actors in the target countries so that they are equipped with the knowledge, information, and tools they need to make robust evidence-based decisions as they confront challenges in food system discourse, policy development, and implementation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The project GEOINT4ENV - Geospatial Intelligence for Environment Protection Against Illegal Activities is part of the Framework Partnership Agreement on Copernicus User Uptake (FPCUP) - an EU programme to promote the potential of data and services from the COPERNICUS satellite programme.

A new hyperspectral radiometer integrated in automated water and land networks, measuring bidirectional reflectance for satellite data validation

Innovative drone based hyperspectral detection of heavy metals (Nickel, Zinc, Copper) in plants based on phytomining

Within IDEAS-QA4EO, GFZ provides Cal/Val support to ESA Earth Observation missions following QA4EO’s principles & guidelines

LIGHTS aims at designing a new exploration process at the target scale. The objective is to perform an airborne and a ground survey in a single field survey to test the fertility of the outcropping target.

Developing a novel hybrid multi-scale data fusion approach that incorporates information from all satellite remote sensing sources including optical images and radar data for near real-time change detection and assessing landslide stability and early warning indicators

The project NaTec – KRH aims to develop remote sensing based methods for the monitoring of species and habitats in nature conservation areas. In different ecological scales (from satellite sensors over drones to field spectroscopy) it will be examined how habitat management impacts spatial patterns of biodiversity and supports ecosystem resilience.

The Research Training Group „NatRiskChange“ funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) started in 2015. It aims at developing quantitative methods for an improved hazard and risk analysis. The Remote Sensing section at GFZ is involved in two out of 12 PhD projects.

Ocean Scan - Marine litter database from earth and space is a platform that brings together in-situ observations of marine plastic litter and archived remote sensing images into one searchable database ensuring a consistent data format and schema to fit the requirements of remote sensing users and machine learning algorithms.

The objective of GFZ in the IDEAS-QA4EO project is to explore new technologies for validation tasks. Primary focus is on temporally dynamic vegetated surfaces like forests and agricultural areas. In particular LiDAR and hyperspectral sensors carried by Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), and permanent monitoring sensors are deployed to capture these dynamics.

ReMon aims at developing a prototypical monitoring system for mine tailings. The monitoring system will be a combination of software and hardware packages. Different sensors scaling from satellite- to drone-based will be integrated into a product primarily aiming at the mining sector.

The primary objective of the Sentinels for Land Degradation Neutrality Monitoring (SEN4LDN) project is to develop, demonstrate and validate robust automated Earth Observation methods to increase the spatial details of national assessments of land degradation and SDG indicator 15.3.1.

The aim of SEVA was to develop a scalable exploration tool that supports users to conduct change detection based on optical Sentinel-2 satellite observations. Funded by: Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy Funding period: 01.11.2017 - 30.04.2020

The SQuBA project aims to map out current training and skill-building programs in Earth observation, with a special focus on the Copernicus program. It will also look into other satellite-based Earth observation resources.

Using daily high-resolution optical, SAR, and hyperspectral satellite data, this project aims to obtain precise and reliable data on large pieces of floating litter, regarding their quantity, trajectories and accumulation zones, material properties, floating depth, and sources. This information may serve as a basis for the recovery of floating litter, the elimination of its sources, and to prevent its dispersing.

WORLDSOILS aims to develop a Soil Monitoring System to provide yearly estimations of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) at global scale, exploiting space-based Earth observation data leveraging large soil data archives and modelling techniques to improve the spatial resolution and accuracy of SOC maps.