资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

With the environmental change a concern for us all, citizens can offer an additional source of data for policy-making and as a result play a real role in addressing big issues such as climate change.

As the general public’s concern about the world grows, so is the quest for knowledge. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) offer an opportunity for anybody to learn how we observe Earth from space.

These courses explain how satellites work, what kind of data they deliver and how this is used to understand how our planet functions as a system and how natural processes are being altered by human activity.

Ravi Kapur, from Imperative Space, said, “Our MOOCs are very much in the spirit of ESA’s ɸ approach. They are designed to bring insight and knowledge on Earth observation to new audiences, and to give learners, at all levels of expertise, the opportunity to engage with real data and real-world uses.

“We have deliberately produced these courses to provide inspiration to newcomers to the Earth observation arena as well as authoritative training for those in adjacent sectors.

“The courses are now reaching several tens of thousands of people, compared to a few hundred who might be reached through traditional forms of training.”

ɸ-week at ESA’s centre for Earth observation in Italy has brought together emerging space investors, tech leaders, start-ups and entrepreneurs with the space scientists and Earth observation researchers who are developing the potential space business ideas of tomorrow.

While we may not all have the skills to participate directly in building the space systems of the future, we can all embrace the concept of ɸ and contribute though citizen science and garner knowledge though online courses.