At the service of the Media: Journalists, visualize Earth Observation Data with WEkEO

With large amount of data produced since its launch, the Copernicus Programme has opened the doors to an extensive use of Satellite imagery throughout the information industry, with visual data being shared across the internet to show natural or manmade phenomena.

While the media is already using Copernicus data, WEkEO can greatly facilitate the work of journalists and editors to visualise and extract the right data for their work.

This is why – this last month of June – our User Experience and Capacity Development Manager Fabrice Messal showcased how WEkEO can be used as a tool to visualize Earth Observation data at EUMETSAT’s webinar “Being practical: how to access and process Copernicus and EUMETSAT data”.

As the last event of the “Copernicus Earth Observation: Data visualisation” workshop series dedicated to journalists, researchers and Earth Observation data visualisers, the webinar made it possible to share ideas and experiences and enable engaging and factual storytelling thanks to Copernicus data.

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USING THE DATA VIEWER TO ASSESS IMPACT: A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE

In June 2020, Mexico was hit by an extreme heatwave, causing high temperatures and drought episodes throughout the country.

How can users take advantage of the WEkEO data viewer and WEkEO’s datasets to visualise the impact of such events? This is what our expert showed.

While reporting on similar calamities, it is possible to access the WEkEO data viewer and download the necessary information with a few clicks. In the case under examination, our expert made use of the Moisture Index dataset of Sentinel-2 to highlight the difference in moisture levels between the month of June of 2023 and the same month in 2020, adding great credibility to the piece.

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Fabrice Messal also dived into the Jupyter Hub and its gallery, highlighting WEkEO’s user-friendly approach and how it provides extensive support to users—especially those who do not possess coding expertise.

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JOURNALISTS: HERE ARE THE WEKEO TOOLS YOU CAN USE

WEkEO features an extensive portfolio, from Copernicus Earth Observation data to virtual processing tools and skilled user support. Here are the tools you can use to enrich your articles and reporting material:

• Access to a complementary portfolio of activities

WEkEO provides access to land, ocean, atmosphere and climate data generated by the Copernicus Sentinel missions and the Copernicus Contributing Missions (CCMs). The complementarity facilitates the extraction of the various types of data needed from a single access point.

• WEkEO Data viewer

Thanks to the in-house WEkEO data visualisation tool, data can be accessed, compared and filtered in a simple and intuitive way.

• A Harmonised Data Access API

Our API allows uniform access to the WEkEO data catalogue and access to subsetting and download functionalities.

• A strong User support

Support to users includes a Help Center, providing quick answers to any enquiries by WEkEO users, and Data and System monitoring services.

• A Jupyter Hub

The Jupyter Hub is a freely accessible platform that allows users to create, run, and share Python code. Thanks to the featured gallery, users can consult examples an re-use piece of codes for their reports or stories.

The webinar represented a perfect opportunity for a live demonstration of WEkEO’s capabilities, especially the practical application of the data viewer and the Jupyter Hub.

If you want to start taking advantage of our services, WEkEO has made available a dedicated page with step-by-step guides on the data viewer and catalogue, the Harmonised Data Access API and the functionalities connected to the Jupyter Hub.

And if you missed the webinar, you can watch the full recording at this link.

Journalists: for more information or help, please contact Gratianne Quade at gquade@mercator-ocean.fr