ZA233 Copernicus – European Earth Observation on-line

Faculty of Science
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Asynchronous teaching
Teacher(s)
Ing. Kateřina Tajovská, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Ing. Kateřina Tajovská, Ph.D.
Department of Geography – Earth Sciences Section – Faculty of Science
Contact Person: Ing. Kateřina Tajovská, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Geography – Earth Sciences Section – Faculty of Science
Prerequisites
Elementary computer knowledge.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 7 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the European Space Program Copernicus. Students will learn the basic principles of Remote Sensing. They acquire components of this space system, sources of freely available satellite data, simple image processing and possibilities of using the program in a wide range of different human activities.
Learning outcomes
Student will be able to:
- understand the basic principles of remote sensing of Earth;
- describe the basic components of the European Copernicus Space Program;
- orientate in the issue of obtaining freely available data of space and ground segment;
- interpret satellite images;
- create simple thematic maps and layers by the method of supervised classification;
- evaluate the application capabilities and potential of Copernicus resources;
- describe other Earth Observation data and their utilization for monitoring of environment, disaster management, industry etc.
Syllabus
  • The aim of this course is to familiarize students with a brief history and basic principles of the remote sensing of the Earth. The main theme of the course is the Copernicus program, its theoretical foundations (short history, structure, space system with satellites and their use). In the most important, practical part, the course focuses on data acquisition and processing of Sentinel satellites - it offers tutorials in the form of videos. In connection with data processing from Sentinel satellites, it is necessary to install freely available QGIS software, which can be downloaded here. Students will also learn its basic controls and some tools.
  • Structure:
  • Basic principles of Remote Sensing
  • Program Copernicus - history, space component, in-situ component, services, Sentinel satellites
  • Short tutorial QGIS
  • Sentinel data acquisition - Copernicus Open Acces Hub, Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin
  • Image classification - preprocessing, supervised classification, map composition
  • Other application possibilities in various field of activity
Literature
    required literature
  • CAMPBELL, James B. and Randolph H. WYNNE. Introduction to remote sensing. Fifth edition. London: Guilford Press, 2011, xxxi, 667. ISBN 9781609181765. info
  • LILLESAND, Thomas M., Ralph W. KIEFER and Jonathan W. CHIPMAN. Remote sensing and image interpretation. 6th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2008, xii, 756. ISBN 9780470052457. info
    recommended literature
  • http://www.copernicus.eu/
  • https://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/home
Teaching methods
Reading lectures online, seminar work, practice excersice with software QGIS, discussion forum
Assessment methods
Evalution of seminar work, completing the online tests at the end of each chapter, 65% of correct answers is needed to pass;creation of thematic map base on satellite images.
Language of instruction
English
Teacher's information
It is possible to meet in personal consultation after previous agreement.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/sci/spring2025/ZA233