Capacity building in the field of SAR is a daunting task. With the broad range of applications supported by current and future SAR sensors, the size of the SAR-interested user community has been growing rapidly. This trend has further accelerated by the growing trend toward free-and-open data that was started by ESA’s Sentinel-1 mission and will continue with the anticipated launch of the NASA/ISRO SAR sensor NISAR.
No single project can satisfy the enormous capacity building needs of the various international SAR science and applications communities. Hence, SAR-CBC has joined forces with other SAR capacity building efforts be able to adequately support our SAR users around the world. We also partner with practitioner and end-user organizations in Central and South America to maximize the relevance of our SAR training curricula for this part of the world.
In-Region Partners:
Practical experience indicates that training efforts are more successful when agendas and materials are defined around regional priorities agreed upon between trainers and the primary trainee audience. Hence, SAR-CBC is partnering with a small network of in-region stakeholders from both the decision-making and academic communities. Our partners reside in Ecuador, El Salvador, and Colombia and include
- Ecuador: Central University of Ecuador (UCE) | Geological and Energy Research Institute (IIGE)
- El Salvador: Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources
- Colombia: Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Environmental Studies
They provide input on their current state of practice and technical expertise and on the key environmental challenges that need to be addressed. Our list of in-region partners is shown below.
Partners within the SAR Capacity Building Community:
To be efficient in material development and to be able to satisfy a broader range of training requests, we work closely with other SAR capacity building initiatives around the world. Our main partners are shown in the graphic below and include
- SAREDU/EO-College – A German SAR training initiative led out of the University of Jena
- NASA ARSET – A NASA-led project focusing on remote sensing training
- UNAVCO – a non-profit university-governed consortium facilitating geoscience research and education using geodesy
Beyond these formal partners, we regularly communicate with the broader SAR education consortium in regular meetings. Information about a recent SAR Education and Training meeting can be found here.
