Search for scientists to shape our future

Professor Heiko Balzter, Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Leicester, is the lead scientist in the European training course. He said: “Online registration for the international training course at Leicester has just opened. Closing date for applications is 31st January 2007.

“20 funded places are available to PhD students and young researchers from the UK, European Union and worldwide, with support from the European Commission.

“The images from space show changes in forest fires in Siberia and Africa, in land cover, and in vegetation greenness. All these changes are thought to be linked to climate change and human impacts.

“Modern satellites can help us put some numbers on the effects of a changing land surface on the climate system. We want to offer young researchers the opportunity to learn how to interpret these images and use them in their research.”

Satellites are becoming a key tool for observing the effects of climate change on the environment. They are increasingly being used in all environmental disciplines.

The data from space do not just produce colourful pictures, but can be turned into numbers used in environmental computer models, which predict future changes.

Lecturers on the course are Prof. Balzter (Leicester), Prof. Barnsley (Swansea), Dr. Bartalev (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) and Dr. Schulz (Environmental Research Centre Halle-Leipzig, Germany). It is one in a series of seven training events held across Europe, in the series “METhods of Interdisciplinary Environmental Research”.

Further details: METIER Graduate Training Course No. 3:
Remote Sensing of the Land Surface
23-27 April 2007, http://peer-initiative.org/html/obj138.html