NASA-ESA-JAXA EO Dashboard — Workshop at FOSS4G

A successful hands-on workshop on Open Science with NASA-ESA-JAXA EO Dashboard took place during the first day of FOSS4G , the largest global gathering dedicated to Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial, in Prizren, Kosovo.

FOSS4G, which stands for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial, is an annual international conference that brings together individuals and organizations from the geospatial and open source communities. The event offers a stage to share knowledge, innovation and to showcase the latest advancements in everything open-source geospatial. Attended by professionals, developers, researchers, educators and innovators from around the world, FOSS4G is a valuable platform with relevance to space-based Earth observation programmes, and receives among others the support from the European Space Agency (ESA).

EO dashboard workshop by ESA, NASA and JAXA

The 2023 edition hosted in Prizren, Kosovo from 26 June to 2 July, offers a rich programme of keynotes, technical sessions, lightning talks, networking and workshops. The European Space Agency (ESA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) organised a hands-on workshop in which they showcased the tri-agency collaboration on Earth Observation (EO) Dashboard. The workshop, titled “Open Science with NASA-ESA-JAXA EO Dashboard” took place on the first day of the event.

The EO Dashboard is a collaborative effort between NASA, ESA and JAXA. It is an open access, easy to use resource that provides accurate and timely information based on satellite Earth observations of the three agencies. The dashboard aims to enhance our global understanding of environmental changes influenced by human activity, presenting objective views of Earth’s air, land, and water, allowing users to explore specific countries and regions and observe how indicators have changed over time. The dashboard is designed to be accessible to a wide range of users, including scientists, decision-makers, as well as individuals not familiar with satellite technology.

The EO Dashboard is supported by the three agencies via several activities. Each agency contributes with EO Data, scientific expertise, as well as infrastructure and technology. Among the contributing technology projects are NASA’s VEDA, ESA’s Euro Data Cube and the Network of Resources, and Jaxa’s Earth-graphy. Additionally, a new initiative of ESA, NASA and OGC called “Open Science Persistent Demonstrator”, will support community developed open-source components to enhance interoperability across such infrastructures and technologies, contributing thus to the EO Dashboard. FOSS4G 2023 is an occasion to learn more about these initiatives and the technologies they rely on, in presentations by:

• Piotr Zaborowski (OGC)
• Vincent Sarago (Development Seed)
• Shinichi Sobue (JAXA)

Workshop Agenda

The collaborative effort between NASA, ESA and JAXA brought together experts and enthusiasts to explore the potential of EO data and open geospatial resources. Participants were introduced to the latest features of the EO dashboard gaining insights into its evolving capabilities, and how these EO workflows can be packed into compelling narratives (or geo-stories) and published on the EO dashboard ensuring wider accessibility and impact.

Here is a glimpse into the workshop programme:

• Introduction and demo of EO Dashboard | A. Anghelea (ESA), M. Maskey (NASA), S. Sobue, N. Sugita (JAXA)
• Introduction to Euro Data Cube | S. Meissl, (EOX)
• How to contribute data and algorithms to EODASH with the Euro Data Cube | S. Meissl, L. Dolezal, (EOX)
• Presentation and demo of EODASH client | L. Dolezal, (EOX)
• Open Science with NASA’s VEDA (Visualisation, Exploration and Data Analysis) | V. Sarago (Development Seed)
• Hands-on | L. Dolezal (EOX), A. Scremin (RHEA)
• Open discussion with participants (new features, data, etc.)

The workshop, building upon the achievements of its inaugural edition at FOSS4G 2022 in Florence, provided participants with the opportunity to get familiar with the new features, data and capabilities of the NASA-ESA-JAXA EO Dashboard, and learn more about the technology behind directly from the development teams involved in the project. They also had a chance to try out the open access dashboard and work with its data in the Jupyter Lab environment of the Euro Data Cube platform, to which ESA is providing “free at point of use” access via the Network of Resources. Through the interactive and hands-on workshop, attendees gained firsthand experience in how the EO Dashboard supports Open Science and the works towards end-to-end reproducible workflows.

🔧📚✏️The hands-on exercises (python tutorial notebooks) were available to the participants, using EOxHub JupyterLab and resources available via the ESA Network of Resources.

🌐eo dashboard: https://eodashboard.org

🗺️Workshop Slides: https://github.com/eurodatacube/eodash/wiki/FOSS4G-2023