According to Parsons, SAR has advanced the fields of tectonics and volcanology by allowing scientists to monitor the changes anywhere in the world at any time.
During the course of the week, participants will see eight hundred presentations, selected by peer review, of ongoing research project activities using data from Envisat, ERS and Third Party Missions by scientists travelling from more than 50 countries.
Themes of the symposium include the atmosphere, climate, oceanography, cryosphere, land and hazards. Within these themes, almost all fields of Earth science will be addressed, such as landslides, ocean colour, sea surface temperature, sea ice, volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, fires, winds and waves and oil spills, among others.
The conference will also include a special session dedicated to the joint ESA/European Commission Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme, including the GMES space component, Sentinel missions and contributions from national missions.
On Tuesday, there will be a session dedicated to the use of Earth observation satellites in support of International Environmental Conventions in close collaboration with UN agencies, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP).