ESA EO Open Science Newsletter

News from EO Open Science June 2026 Highlights: Tracking methane emissions with EO and foundation models; Detecting volcanic signals with SWARM data; Science Hub Challenge 2025 Participants Apply Clustering methods to EarthCARE Aerosol-Cloud Data; Earth observations for agriculture: needs more than
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News from EO Open Science

June 2026

Highlights: Tracking methane emissions with EO and foundation models; Detecting volcanic signals with SWARM data; Science Hub Challenge 2025 Participants Apply Clustering methods to EarthCARE Aerosol-Cloud Data; Earth observations for agriculture: needs more than satellites; Media Workshop Spotlights ESA Science Hub Research; Registrations open to ESA'S 2026 BIOMASS MAAP Hackathon.

The ESA EO Open Science team

Highlights

TRACKING METHANE EMISSIONS WITH EO AND FOUNDATION MODELS

The AI4CH4 project combines freely accessible satellite data from Sentinel-5P and Sentinel-2 with deep learning models, including the Segment Anything Model (SAM), to automatically detect, map, and quantify methane "super emitter" plumes worldwide. The project has produced multi-mission benchmark datasets and three published scientific papers, contributing openly to the wider Earth observation research community.

DETECTING VOLCANIC SIGNALS WITH SWARM DATA

The Swarm-AWARE project combines magnetic field data from ESA's Swarm satellites with sulphur dioxide measurements from Sentinel 5P and ground based seismic data to tell space weather disturbances apart from signals generated by volcanoes and earthquakes. Convolutional neural networks are being trained on thousands of satellite passes, including anomalies detected near Guatemala's Santiaguito volcano, with the long term goal of using satellite magnetometers as a kind of 'space-based seismometer'.

Science Hub Challenge 2025 Participants Apply Clustering methods to EarthCARE Aerosol-Cloud Data

A newly published community-led story by students from Ca' Foscari University of Venice, NOC, and BAS, participating in the 2025 ESA Science Hub Challenge presents results on aerosol-cloud interactions using EarthCARE satellite data. This study, featured on the ESA-NASA-JAXA EO Dashboard uses Cloud Profiling Radar and Atmospheric Lidar measurements over the tropical Pacific and Southern Ocean. The students applied K-means clustering on ESA's MAAP platform to classify liquid, ice, and mixed-phase clouds without manual analysis, a key challenge for traditional methods. While results remain exploratory due to limited early-mission data, the experiment revealed clearer aerosol-cloud links in liquid clouds and identified a roadmap for refining regional climate models.

Earth observations for agriculture: needs more than satellites

ESA Science Hub researchers published a Perspective in Environmental Research Letters tackling the in situ data bottleneck in agricultural Earth observation. Field data remain scarce and hard to access, limiting model calibration and validation. The paper argues that promoting FAIR and open data practices, alongside stronger incentives for data stewardship, is the most actionable way to make existing agricultural datasets more accessible and reusable.

MEDIA WORKSHOP SPOLIGHTS ESA SCIENCE HUB RESEARCH

During the 2026 Forum International de la Météo et du Climat, journalists and scientists visited ESA's Science Hub at ESRIN to meet researchers working on Earth Observation and AI.

Highlights included the Ocean Virtual Laboratory for tracking extreme storms, AI-enhanced satellite altimetry for monitoring water surfaces, EarthCARE-based lightning research, and LEXCUBE, a tool for exploring large Earth datasets.

JOIN ESA'S 2026 BIOMASS MAAP HACKATHON

ESA invites Master's, PhD, and postgraduate researchers to join its 2026 Biomass MAAP Hackathon, running 12-16 October at ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany. Participants will collaborate on topics like PolSAR analytics, RFI removal, 3D forest structure visualization, and Biomass applications for geology, cryosphere, and ocean science, helping evolve the mission's processors and tools. Spots are limited to 35 attendees and registration closes 31 July 2026.

WORKSHOP

Highlights

GET INVOLVED