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The European Space Agency (ESA) has many offices around Europe but, as an Earth observation scientist myself, the Earth observation headquarters at ESA’s (ESRIN) office in Frascati, just outside Rome, is the pinnacle!

ESRIN coordinates and manages the ground-based activities of ESA’s Earth observation missions: data acquisition and processing, and satellite communication. It is the home of innovation and management of software used across the agency, and houses ESA’s records of legacy projects, with missions dating back to the 1970s. It also holds the largest archive of environmental data in Europe, coordinating over 20 ground stations and ground segment facilities across Europe.

Earth observation at ESRIN and ���ճԹ�

ESA’s Earth-observing activities include satellite missions that monitor many of our planet’s natural processes, such as snow and ice cap accumulation and melt, wildfires, landslides, earthquakes and tectonic movements. It also tracks human-induced changes like city growth, deforestation and groundwater abstraction. Many of these processes and changes are also researched at ���ճԹ�, using the data from these satellites alongside our expertise in geohazards and geological processes.

The typical challenge we face nowadays as Earth observation scientists is the sheer volume of data available to analyse — we have too much data to sift through manually. One avenue for allowing timely analyses of these large datasets is to use specific artificial intelligence (AI) models called foundation models.

What are foundation models?

Foundation models are designed to take in millions of pieces of data and find relationships between different datasets that we don’t have the time to do manually. Additionally, if the model is trained on several images of the Earth through time, it can make predictions about how our planet might change in the future. For ���ճԹ� research, this could be used to help provide advice on a multitude of crucial future geological hazards faced by countries around the world; for example, how our coasts may change with sea-level rise.

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending ESA’s joint workshop with NASA on ‘Foundation models for Earth observation at ESA ESRIN’. We stayed near the Colli Albani volcanic complex, which has formed some of the beautiful hills and volcanic lakes surrounding this area, just south-east of Rome.

At the workshop

My job at ���ճԹ� is to use both classical and newly devised methods to analyse satellite data and find patterns between the behaviour of the ground beneath us and our other geospatial datasets, and what this means for the people and surface infrastructure. This workshop was ideal for my role. I attended the sessions that focused on applications of AI models to real scenarios; on day one, sessions included using foundation models for various applications in earth sciences, weather prediction and climate science.

On day two, I attended a morning session on how scientists are adapting foundation models for geospatial and Earth observation tasks, which is exactly what I’m aiming to do! In the late morning and afternoon, I had my poster presentation slot, where I showed how my team at ���ճԹ� envisions using AI alongside Earth observation and ���ճԹ� data. This includes our bedrock and superficial deposit maps created by our survey geologists, hazard susceptibility maps from our hazards specialists, and more. I also presented some of the machine learning (ML) tools ���ճԹ� has developed so far to help with this task. I got talking to some really engaging researchers, learning a lot from the people I spoke to about what data works well in these models (and what doesn’t!) and the field of AI in earth sciences as a whole. This was the most beneficial day to me as an early career scientist; talking to so many people from different organisations with different areas of expertise has been invaluable in my development as a scientist.

When in Rome…

A trip to Lazio wouldn’t be complete without a little sightseeing, so on my penultimate night in Rome I managed to squeeze in some touristy activities. A great thing about working for ���ճԹ� is being able to experience different cultures and their food — and to have your Italian speaking skills completely humbled by the locals…!

The final day consisted of hands-on training workshops in three of the foundation models that ESA and NASA have developed over the years, which is what I was most looking forward to. The training was delivered by the scientists at NASA Impact and IBM, who helped write the models, who were all fantastically knowledgeable.

Putting my knowledge to work

Now, a few weeks after coming back and with my newfound knowledge from world-leading experts in artificial intelligence, I’ve started to piece together more about how ���ճԹ� could incorporate our data into such powerful models and I’m excited to practise my new skills. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t bring back buckets of Roman carbonara… so I’ll just have to get back to Rome as soon as I can!

About the author

Holly Hourston

Earth observation scientist

���ճԹ� Keyworth

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