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Philippe Rufin

@philrufin.bsky.social
387 followers 536 following 136 posts

Geographer interested in 🛰️ EarthObservation for 🌿agriculture, 💧water resources, and 🌍 sustainable land management. F.R.S. FNRS Postdoctoral Fellow 🇪🇺 Earth & Life Institute - UCLouvain 🇧🇪 Earth Observation Lab - HUBerlin 🇩🇪

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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The crowdfunding campaign to acquire an irrigation pump for farmers in the surroundings of Gilé National Park in Mozambique was a success - thanks to everyone involved! Here´s a short blog post on the campaign, featuring a video message from the farmers: philipperufin.github.io/blog/crowdfu...
Smallholder farmers in Mozambique testing the new irrigation pump in the field.
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Beneath the tundra and forests of the Arctic lies permafrost: ground frozen year-round. @smstuenzi.bsky.social's research focuses on how boreal forests and permafrost interact, and what happens when that relationship breaks down. Read all about it in this new StoryMap! arcg.is/18Wa810
Promotional graphic with a dark blue border. At the top, bold white text reads, "NEW STORYMAP OUT NOW!"

The center features a snow-covered winter landscape showing a dense forest of evergreen trees heavily coated in thick snow, with low-lying clouds or mist hanging over the hills in the background under an overcast sky. Overlaying this image is the white title: "The Cool Beneath".

At the bottom, white text reads: "The Role of the Boreal Forest in Insulating Northern Hemisphere Permafrost", followed by the authors' names, "Simone Maria Stuenzi, Katja Janson". In the bottom right corner, there is a small Earth Observation Lab logo.
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Blurry Vision - Do context-aware Earth embeddings such as Alpha Earth Foundations suppress spatial variability? Check out our experiment in the blog post: philipperufin.github.io/blog/blurryv...
Grid of satellite images and canopy height predictions from different input features in high variance Miombo landscape.
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Megha Satyanarayana @megha.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
@timnitgebru.blacksky.app was really generous with her time when i asked her for this interview for @sciam.bsky.social #sciamyoungscientists. she has a lot of prescient things to say here. take a look. www.scientificamerican.com/article/timn...
scientificamerican.com
Timnit Gebru on how to safeguard independent science for the AI age
On safeguarding independent research in the age of big tech
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
GLP Week of Land System Science is coming up with plenty of cool content, including the remote sensing working group´s webinar on "Pixel Politics: Advancing Critical Remote Sensing": Join @glp-earth.bsky.social & sign up: members.glp.earth/networks/eve...
members.glp.earth
Pixel Politics: Advancing Critical Remote Sensing
<!--br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--> The GLP Working Group on Remote Sensing for Land System Science is proud to have Mia Bennett as a guest speaker for this webinar on "Pixel Politics". Mia´s wo...
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Grassland age is a critical parameter influencing carbon sequestration potential, biodiversity support, and ecosystem resilience. 
A new study published in Remote Sensing of Environment presents a national-scale framework to estimate grassland age across Germany using satellite time series:
An announcement graphic titled "NEW PUBLICATION!" featuring a scientific paper by Lukas Blickensdörfer et al., published in "Remote Sensing of Environment". The title is "Leveraging multidecadal satellite time series to estimate grassland age on national scale".
The background is blue and shows 15 small maps of Germany tracking the "Share of grassland established since 1990" in bi-annual steps from 1990 to 2017. A color scale ranges from 0% (dark purple) to over 10% (red). Notably, the 1992–1993 map shows a massive red spike in eastern Germany. Logos for THÜNEN and Earth Observation Lab are at the bottom.
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Tobias Kuemmerle @tkuemmerle.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Angola’s northern escarpment forest is disappearing before our eyes --> doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
🛰️⌨️🌽Field delineation code repository v1 online: github.com/philipperufi... Test smallholder field delineation workflow in Mozambique with sample data and pre-trained models: produce pseudo-labels, run fine-tuning, inference and post-processing.
github.com
GitHub - philipperufin/smallholder-fields
Contribute to philipperufin/smallholder-fields development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Smallholder farming systems are notoriously difficult to map from space. Landscapes are fragmented and global maps often disagree, yet data on where farming actually happens is fundamental to designing effective land use and sustainability policies.
 A few things stood out in the data! 📊 ⬇️
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
New publication out now! @philrufin.bsky.social, Pauline Hammer et al. mapped 17M fields in Mozambique using deep learning and satellite imagery. With 78% of fields being <0.5 ha, this provides critical data for sustainable land use policies! Read more here: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
Announcement graphic for a scientific publication in Environmental Research Letters titled "National-scale field delineation in Mozambique refines our understanding of cropland distribution, field size, and deforestation actors" by Rufin, Hammer et al.

The central feature is a map of Mozambique color-coded by Mean Field Size, ranging from 0.01 hectares (tan) to 2.50 hectares (teal).

Additionally, various maps and statistical graphs regarding mean field size show close-up field boundaries across the country and correlate field size with variables such as cropland fraction, travel time, and population density.

The background is dark navy blue, right bottom corner shows the Earth Observation Lab pictogram, a satellite orbiting a globe.
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Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com · 01/04/2026
www.microsoft.com/en-us/micros... is it good to build an entire economy and software infrastructure on this
Highlighted section of the Copilot ToS which says "Copilot is for entertainment purposes only"
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Sam Cole @samleecole.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
ICYMI, I got to talk to dynamic duo @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social for the 404 Media podcast. we get into what keeps us hopeful, why Emily is done with the word "democratizing" in AI, and ridicule as praxis. listen wherever you get your pods! www.404media.co/ridicule-as-...
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Worthwile feature on Dr. Ibrahim´s PhD research @humboldteolab.bsky.social on farming systems in Nigeria!
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ESA Earth Observation @esaearth.esa.int · 09/03/2026
We love reading good news! In the past three years alone, the TPM programme has contributed to 882 research projects, helping teams from 66 countries, including Greece, Italy, the UK, and many more. Here are some examples: earth.esa.int/eogateway/in...
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Common Space @commonspace.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Posting for reach because I dont know how the Blue Sky Algorithm works: The Moral Case for a Humanitarian Satellite: www.linkedin.com/pulse/moral-... It's about time that the space race included missions that actually help the people. #Remotesensing #CivilSociety #humanitarian #GIS
linkedin.com
A Moral Case for a Humanitarian Satellite: At what point does inaction become unconscionable?
What does it say about our world when we spend over $54 billion a year on defense and intelligence satellites to spy on each other - yet cannot dedicate even one satellite to saving lives? We take pic...
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Tatsuya Amano @tatsuya-amano.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
In this work led by Josh Wilson, we labelled 4824 drone-based images containing 49990 birds from 101 species and trained a bird detection and ID model. The model achieved precision = 0.91 for detection & 0.65 for species/age/sex classification. zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Big Bird: A global dataset of birds in drone imagery annotated to species level
Drones are a valuable tool for surveying birds, but manually detecting and identifying birds in drone images is costly. We assembled a diverse dataset of 23 865 images of birds captured with 21 diffe...
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
How can a “Digital Twin” help to build a more resilient agricultural future? The #EOAgriTwin project creates virtual replicas of agricultural systems to monitor crop conditions under various stressors. Explore the tools, use cases and methods in this video!
youtube.com
EOAgriTwin: Earth Observation-based Digital Twin for Resilient Agriculture under Multiple Stressors
YouTube video by Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e.V.
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Biogeography Berlin @biogeoberlin.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Commodity frontiers expand more slowly into tropical forests where forest smallholders are present – new paper out in PNAS led by Marie Pratzer www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @tkuemmerle.bsky.social @humboldtuni.bsky.social @pnas.org
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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Valerie Thomas spent 30+ years at NASA helping revolutionize how we see images from space & our own world. #WomenInSTEM Managed the development of the first image-processing systems for the Landsat program allowing satellites to send the 1st multi-spectral pictures of Earth back to scientists.(1/2)
Portrait of Dr. Valerie L. Thomas, the pioneering Black NASA scientist and inventor, smiling warmly at the camera. She has shoulder-length wavy gray hair, wears thin gold-framed glasses, gold hoop earrings, and a light gray herringbone-patterned blazer over a white top with a small pin on the lapel, standing confidently against a neutral gray background.
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
EOLab’s Florian Poetzschner is presenting current progress of Field delineation and water use assessment for EOAgriTwin - ‘A Digital Twin for Agriculture under multiple stressors’ at ESA's Open Science Meeting in Frascati Find out more about the project: www.eoagritwin.eu
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The Maybe @themaybe.org · 03/02/2026
In two weeks, world leaders and tech executives will descend on Delhi for the AI Impact Summit 2026. There, power brokers will paint a pretty picture of the role AI will play in saving the world - from sharing prosperity to fixing climate change.
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Mirela G. Tulbure, PhD @mirelagtulbure.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
🌍 Geospatial data science in 2025 still comes down to two words: foundation models. And over the past months, we’ve had the chance to put that idea into practice for global flood mapping. Summary figures & discussion on Hugging Face: 👉 lnkd.in/euR9DXfX Full technical preprint: 👉 lnkd.in/eYMCZd9e
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Gohar Ghazaryan @ggohar.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Join us for the upcoming #EOAgriTwin webinar focusing on the latest progress of our #DigitalTwin Component for agriculture. We will share the current status and demonstrate key capabilities. 📅 13 January 2026, 13:00 Registration: www.eoagritwin.eu/webinar @zalf.bsky.social
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Thanks to an amazing network of colleagues and friends, 50% of the funding have been secured already! 🌍🌽💧
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 26/10/2025
Following a field campaign in Gilé National Park, Mozambique, I´ve launched a crowdfunding campaign to support nature conservation by helping farmers improve their production with irrigation: www.gofundme.com/f/fight-pove... Please help make this work and donate or share with friends & family! ❤️
gofundme.com
Donate to Protecting nature by fighting poverty in Mozambique, organized by Philippe Rufin
I am Philippe Rufin, a scientist working in the nexus of small-scal… Philippe Rufin needs your support for Protecting nature by fighting poverty in Mozambique
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Bill Greer @billfgreer.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
I was on a podcast talking about Common Space: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQof... I can't stand listening to myself speak, so let me know if i was any good.
youtube.com
Earth Observed | Episode 1: Bill Greer | How Nonprofit Satellites Could Change Everything
YouTube video by The Leadership Lab
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Great to see this out - Shupel is a true role model, paving the way for female researchers from northern Nigeria!
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Using Remote Sensing and Agro-Ecosystem Modelling 🛰️🌽📈, Esther Shupel Ibrahim analyzes impacts of climate change and diseases on smallholder agriculture in Nigeria and develops strategies to support and empower smallholder farmers. Find out more about her PhD research in this StoryMap: arcg.is/1bG48K
Header Image of Maize field with a picture of Esther Shupel Ibrahim and text: Research for Smallholder Farmers' Food Security in Nigeria
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Simeon Schmauß @stim3on.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
On July 3rd, astronaut Nichole Ayers photographed a rare Gigantic jet from the ISS. These upward directed electrical discharges extend 90-100 km high into the atmosphere. I processed this image from the RAW file, adjusting the white balance, contrast and noise reduction. Full res: flic.kr/p/2rhxqcK
Photograph taken from the International Space Station by astronaut Nichole Ayers, capturing a rare gigantic jet — an upward lightning discharge shooting from a thunderstorm about 90-100 km high into the upper atmosphere. The jet appears as a vivid purple and blue column of light that finely branches out toward the top where it turns into a vivid red color. It's rising from a brightly illuminated cloud top, surrounded by diffuse city lights from Northern Mexico and South Texas. Behind it is the curved limb of Earth with a green band from the airglow layer indicating the edge of the atmosphere. A portion of the space station’s robotic arm is visible in the foreground.
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Fascinating ... and a hopeful sign
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
🌍 🛰️ 🌱 🌽👨🏿‍🌾🛖💻⚙️ Preprint on national-scale satellite-based crop field delineation in smallholder landscapes is out: doi.org/10.48550/arX... 🌍 🛰️ 🌱 🌽👨🏿‍🌾🛖💻⚙️
National-scale map of mean field size across Mozambique. Selected zoom ins provide details on individual fields.
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
We have decided to ban the use of GenAI for research, writing & creative work at our organization. In fact, we make people sign an agreement saying that their research, analysis, writing, and creative work are *theirs* and not done by GenAI.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16/07/2025
Peer review meltdown in one diagram. Greater emphasis on glamour journals leads people to try their luck with mediocre papers. This drains the review pool (they often have to be re-reviewed elsewhere). That drops the accuracy of peer review, creating more incentive to submit mediocre papers…
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NASAWATCH @nasawatch.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
U.S. House Subcommittee Rejects Proposed NASA Budget Cuts aviationweek.com/space/budget... #NASA
aviationweek.com
U.S. House Subcommittee Rejects Proposed NASA Budget Cuts | Aviation Week Network
A U.S. House subcommittee on July 15 voted to reject NASA funding cuts contained in the White House’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal.
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Daniel Müller @danielmu11er.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
The data cover 19 EU countries with up to 17 years of annual data. It includes detailed crop codes, farm identifiers, and organic cultivation status—crucial for analysing land-use changes and farming practices
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Daniel Müller @danielmu11er.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
A comprehensive field- and farm-level land-use dataset from the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) is now available: doi.org/10.1038/s415... #OpenData #EUAgri #LandUse #SustainableFarming
doi.org
Field and farm-level data on agricultural land use for the European Union - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - Field and farm-level data on agricultural land use for the European Union
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
#LPS25 was a fantastic experience but let´s take a step back and reflect on the potential (and the role) of commercial EO data providers in contributing to pressing #sustainability challenges. Here´s a short recap of arguments from the scientific community: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org
To enhance sustainable development goal research, open up commercial satellite image archives | PNAS
To enhance sustainable development goal research, open up commercial satellite image archives
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
#LPS25 wildE presentation on High resolution reconstructions of Pan-European woody cover timeseries from 1990-2024 by Shawn Schneidereit upcoming in Hall F2 at 11:30h!
Announcement for upcoming Earth Observation Lab contribution at living planet symposium 2025:
Schneidereit et al.: High resolution reconstructions of Pan-European woody cover timeseries from 1990-2024
Session: A.02.04 Advances in Monitoring and Management of
Forest Ecosystems - PART 6
Where: Hall F2
When: Friday 27.06.25 / 11:30 h
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Qiusheng Wu @giswqs.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
🎉 Happy to see that my "Introduction to GIS Programming" book has reached #1 in the Top Books category on Leanpub! 🚀 I've sold 200 copies in just 2 days! Huge thanks to the incredible #geospatial community for your amazing support! 🙏 Check it out: leanpub.com/gispro
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Don’t miss EOLab’s contributions to #LPS25 Session A.02.07 - Monitoring Grasslands and Rangelands from Space Part 1 with Dr. Marcel Schwieder at 8:30 Part 2 with @lasseharkort.bsky.social at 11:30 See you at Room 1.34!
Announcement for upcoming Earth Observation Lab contribution at living planet symposium 2025:
Schwieder et al.:Evaluating Grassland Mowing Detection Algorithms Across Europe - Results of the Mowing Detection Intercomparison
Exercise (MODCiX)
Session: A.02.07 Monitoring grasslands and rangelands from space - PART 1
Where: Room 1.34
When: Friday 27.06.25 / 08:30 hAnnouncement for upcoming Earth Observation Lab contribution at living planet symposium 2025:
Harkort et al.: Mapping Fractional Vegetation Cover in Sub-Saharan
Rangelands Using Phenological Feature Spaces
Session: A.02.07 Monitoring grasslands and rangelands from space - PART 2
Where: Room 1.34
When: Friday 27.06.25 / 11:30 h
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
SEN4MOZ - @eoafrica-rd.org collaboration between @humboldteolab.bsky.social and Universidade Eduardo Mondlane! Poster presentation by @lennarteichfuss.bsky.social and João Chibue Domingos upcoming at X5 – Poster Area – Zone R. More info: eolab.geographie.hu-berlin.de/research_pro...
Announcement for upcoming Earth Observation Lab contribution at living planet symposium 2025: 
Eichfuss et al.: Sen4MozParks: Mapping Shifting Cultivation Dynamics in Conservation Areas of Mozambique using Copernicus Data
Session: B.02.05 Restoring Biosphere Resilience: Transforming Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) from Carbon Source to Sink
Where: X5 - Poster Area / Zone R
When: Wednesday 25.06.25 / 17:45 h
SEN4MOZ Poster and Author João Chibue Domingos
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Great in-person meeting of the entire SEN4MOZ @eoafrica-rd.org project team at #LPS25! @humboldteolab.bsky.social
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
#LPS25 poster alert: National scale field delineation in #Mozambique using 1.5m SPOT data, mapping field size & linking to #deforestation. Come by @ Hall X5, Poster S18.
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Big day ahead at @esa.int’s #LPS25 with contributions by EOLab's @jakimowb.bsky.social, @philrufin.bsky.social, @lennarteichfuss.bsky.social and many more - come by!
List of Earth Observation Lab's contributions at living planet symposium 25
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
#LPS25 ESA Digital Twin Project EOAgriTwin: Earth Observation based Digital Twin for Resilient Agriculture under Multiple Stressors led by @ggohar.bsky.social @zalf.bsky.social - more info at www.eoagritwin.eu/%E2%80%AC
ESA Digital Twin Project EOAgriTwin presentation by Gohar Ghazaryan at living planet symposium 2025
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Brilliant opening statement for #LPS25 - we need to join forces to accelerate the move from more data to more knowledge!
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Marco Wolsza @maawoo.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
The first #ESA #BIOMASS image was revealed at #LPS25 yesterday. You can find a few more images (like the one attached showing desert structures in Chad) as well as additional information in this article: www.esa.int/Applications...
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Gohar Ghazaryan @ggohar.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Join the @esaearth.esa.int project #EOAgriTwin presentation today and also don't miss the Booth Area tomorrow!
youtu.be
EOAgriTwin: Earth Observation-based Digital Twin for Resilient Agriculture under Multiple Stressors
YouTube video by Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e.V.
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Philippe Rufin @philrufin.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Follow our EOAgriTwin project and the latest development in #EarthObservation based #DigitalTwins at #LPS25! Today 14:00 in Hall K1, presentation by @ggohar.bsky.social @zalf.bsky.social @humboldteolab.bsky.social
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Earth Observation Lab @humboldteolab.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Humboldt EOLab at #LPS25 in Vienna! We are looking forward to lots of interesting presentations and posters from @hostertp.bsky.social, @ggohar.bsky.social , @kelewinska.bsky.social and many more. Have a look at the full list of EOLab contributions: eolab.geographie.hu-berlin.de/uploads/EOLa....
Picture of the Austria Center Vienna with Living Planet Symposium 2025 banners.
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