The EU project EXCELSIOR, a consortium consisting of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) in Greece, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works (MTCW-DEC) from Cyprus as well as the Earth Observation Centre of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) from Germany is supporting the expansion of the Eratosthenes Research Centre at the Cyprus University of Technology into the Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence for Remote Sensing (ECoE). Between 2016 and 2018, the consortium successfully participated in the tender for the EU "Teaming for Excellence" programme. In September, the contract was signed with the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation.
The new centre will be involved in three thematic areas: Environment and climate (atmosphere, agriculture, water, land), resilience and society (disaster risk reduction, cultural heritage, marine security, energy) and "Big Data" in Earth observation (information extraction, visual exploration, visualisation, crowd sourcing & data fusion, geoinformatics). The aim is to make the ECoE at Limassol an exchange place for researchers from all over the world and a nucleus for a future innovation centre in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The TROPOS will set up a ground-based remote sensing system for dust and clouds that will be integrated into worldwide observation networks for aerosols and clouds. The DLR will accompany the construction of a satellite ground station which will enable the reception of data from a wide range of Earth observation satellites and thus more accurate forecasts for this region.
Further reading
- TROPOS (25.11.19): In the focus of climate change
