Conference: Remote Sensing and Fluxes for Real-world Impact: Integration with Advanced Techniques

This workshop is designed to help the next generation of scientists who study carbon, water, and energy in managed ecosystems. Data collected from tall towers positioned above vegetation allow scientists to measure how water, carbon dioxide, and energy move between ecosystems and the atmosphere. Expanding these local measurements to cover larger areas—such as regions or continents—helps improve our understanding of how ecosystems work and how they respond to changes in climate and land use. Building on recent advances in the field, this workshop will give early-career researchers the chance to learn about the latest tools, work with real-world data, and get advice from experienced scientists in different fields. Hands-on activities will let participants practice using online tools and new data and learn how to apply these tools in realistic situations. They will also learn how to work with people from other fields, like business and government. The workshop will focus on building strong, clear ways to measure and report the amount of carbon and water that moves between ecosystem and the atmosphere. This helps make climate projects more trustworthy and useful. This workshop tackles major scientific challenges in expanding local data to broader scales. It brings together experienced researchers, early-career scientists, and industry professionals to improve methods for combining ground-based measurements with detailed satellite imagery. Sessions will focus on aligning the scale of different data sources, estimating how far each tower’s data can be applied, and checking results across multiple study locations. By creating clear, adaptable methods for tracking carbon, water, and energy across different landscapes, the workshop will support better environmental monitoring. The improved data can be used to strengthen ecosystem models, provide more accurate information about how natural systems cycle nutrients and energy, and support smarter decisions about managing land and natural resources. Through hands-on training and group work, participants will gain practical tools to apply these methods to real-world environmental challenges and help shape future research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.