The Very High-resolution Radar & Optical Data Assessment (VH-RODA) 2022 Workshop was held at ESA/ESRIN in Frascati (Italy) from 7 to 10 November 2022.

The Workshop provided an open forum (for new space, commercial and institutional space sectors) for presenting and discussing about the current status and future developments related to data quality, calibration and validation activities and methodologies of space-borne very high-resolution sensors and data products, both SAR and Optical.

There is a growing number of public and commercial providers of high resolution (i.e., better than 10 metres) space-borne Earth Observation data. Key to using data from these new sources is a good understanding of their characteristics, how they are calibrated, their quality and technical capabilities.

The VH-RODA 2022 Workshop addressed the quality and capability of very high-resolution SAR and optical instruments from public and commercial remote sensing platforms. It was structured and focused on the continuative comparison and dialogue between the SAR and Optical communities, Institutional and Commercial communities, on the methodologies related the data quality and products validation, instrument calibration and characterization strategies, applications of Artificial Intelligence for Calibration/Validation and data processing, ground-based infrastructures, and calibration networks. This event was planned as a technical forum for discussing remote sensing systems and the data quality, calibration and product validation challenges they face. It also provided the opportunity for the knowledge exchange among highly specialised entities, ranging from satellite operators to instrument technical teams and product validation institutions.

The VH-RODA Workshops are part of ESA's continuing commitment to remote sensing technology as an important tool in providing information to address critical science and societal matters.

Workshop Topics

• Calibration Techniques (requirements, definitions, database, methodologies)
• Calibration Sites (cross-Cal/Val, intercalibration, field campaigns)
• Fiducial Reference Measurements
• Analysis Ready Data, Digital Elevation Models
• Quality Control, Best Practice, Product Validation
• Processing and Algorithms (incl. Artificial Intelligence for Cal/Val)
• Cal/Val and Data quality for Constellations and Big Data
• Calibration of Future Missions (Innovative instrument concepts)

Contact: VH-RODA@ESA.int