ZX555 Copernicus – European Earth Observation and monitoring programme – online

Faculty of Science
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Ing. Kateřina Tajovská, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
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
KREDITY_MIN(20) && ((! ZX555A Copernicus-online ) || (! Z8114 Digital image processing )|| !OBOR(GKGI) || !PROGRAM(B-GEK) || !OBOR(KART) || !OBOR(GIRR) || !OBOR(GITU)|| !OBOR(APGI))
Elementary computer knowledge
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 20 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 will acquire knowledge about the composition of this space system, sources of freely available satellite data, learn the simple classification of satellite images and become familiar with the possibilities of using this program in a variety of human activities.
Learning outcomes
Students will be able to:
- understand the basic principles of remote sensing;
- describe the basic components of the European space program Copernicus;
- be well versed in obtaining freely available satellite data;
- 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 systems and explain their use for environmental monitoring, crisis 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,software SNAP (LeoWorks)
  • Image classification - preprocessing, supervised classification, map composition
  • Copernicus Data Storage
  • Other application possibilities in various field of activity
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Computer processing of remotely sensed imagesan introduction. Edited by Paul M. Mather. 4th ed. Chichester, West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, 2011, xx, 434 p. ISBN 9780470742396. info
  • 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
    not specified
  • https://www.copernicus.eu/en
  • http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth
Teaching methods
Reading lectures online, seminar work, practice excersice with software QGIS,EOBrowser, discussion forum
Assessment methods
Evaluation of seminar work, completing the online tests at the end of each chapter, 65% of correct answers is needed to pass;
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
Note related to how often the course is taught: online.
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/sci/spring2025/ZX555