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UID:pretalx-foss4g-2026-P9WXJP@talks.osgeo.org
DTSTART;TZID=JST:20260902T173000
DTEND;TZID=JST:20260902T180000
DESCRIPTION:Understanding the Earth system requires observing it: repeated 
 and spatially explicit Earth observation (EO) measurements are what turn 
 “the planet” into variables we can analyze\, compare and model. Over t
 he last decades\, EO has evolved quickly\, and the number and variety of r
 emote sensing instruments available to the community has grown even faster
 .\n\nToday\, EO spans instruments onboard satellite platforms\, airborne s
 ensors\, and in-situ or terrestrial measurement systems. Passive optical s
 ensors measure reflected (and\, for some missions\, emitted) radiation in 
 multispectral (e.g. Sentinel-2 and Landsat) and hyperspectral systems (e.g
 . EnMAP and EMIT)\, typically across the ultraviolet\, visible\, near-infr
 ared and short-wave infrared\, and sometimes extending into the thermal in
 frared. Active systems such as synthetic aperture radar (e.g. Sentinel-1) 
 provide illumination-independent observations and enable monitoring throug
 h clouds and different atmospheric conditions. Airborne and UAV instrument
 s can push spatial detail to the centimeter scale and offer flexible acqui
 sition timing\, while ground-based sensors provide the most direct in-situ
  reference.\n\nThis explosion of platforms and modalities gives rise to a 
 very practical problem: many users simply do not have a single and reliabl
 e place to find out what instruments exist and\, crucially\, what their ch
 aracteristics are (from governance and mission status to spectral configur
 ation\, imaging geometry\, spatio-temporal resolution\, or where the data 
 can be accessed).\n\nAlthough data catalogues (including large platforms a
 nd STAC catalogues in particular) have made dataset discovery dramatically
  easier\, they are fundamentally designed to describe collections of data 
 products and their assets\, not to provide a persistent\, curated descript
 ion of the instruments that generated them.\n\nHere we present Awesome Ear
 th Observation Instruments\, an open\, community-oriented registry of EO i
 nstruments providing machine-readable instrument metadata intended to comp
 lement existing data catalogues and support reproducible\, automated geosp
 atial workflows.\n\nThe catalogue is an open registry: a community-maintai
 ned listing of EO instruments hosted on GitHub\, where contributors can ad
 d instruments and their associated metadata under a shared standard. The s
 pecification is designed to be straightforward to read and implement\, whi
 le remaining strict where it matters. Contributions are validated against 
 a YAML-based JSON Schema.\n\nThe core schema requires a minimal set of att
 ributes that identify an instrument and support practical use\, including 
 id\, name\, acronym\, start date\, and an explicit operational status (e.g
 . operational\, retired\, or planned). Instrument and platform type are tr
 eated as first-class metadata and contributors indicate whether an instrum
 ent is\, e.g.\, multispectral\, hyperspectral\, radar\, lidar\, RGB\, or o
 ther\, and whether it operates from a satellite\, an aircraft\, a UAV\, or
  in a terrestrial or in-situ configuration. Governance information is also
  captured (operator and responsible institutions\, and whether the instrum
 ent is public or private)\, and authoritative references are required to d
 ocument the provenance of reported properties. The core schema supports op
 tional information such as an end date for retired instruments\, notes for
  additional context\, and general data-access links.\n\nA key design goal 
 of the catalogue is modularity and extensibility. The catalogue follows an
  approach inspired by the STAC specification\, using optional extensions t
 hat can be included when information is available. We currently provide fo
 ur extensions: spectral\, imaging\, and two data-access related extensions
  (Earth Engine and Planetary Computer).\n\nThe spectral extension captures
  spectral characteristics using spectral bands or a spectral range\, and (
 optionally) spectral response functions. For multispectral instruments\, s
 pectral bands represent per-band parameters such as center wavelength and 
 bandwidth\, together with band description and ground sampling distance (G
 SD)\, and include per-band common names aligned with the eo-stac extension
 . For hyperspectral instruments\, spectral range captures the wavelength i
 nterval (minimum and maximum) and the total number of bands. Spectral resp
 onse functions are an optional component\, but can be stored per band when
  available.\n\nThe imaging extension provides additional parameters releva
 nt for interpretation and modelling\, including swath width\, across- and 
 along-track field of view (FOV)\, and instantaneous field of view (IFOV). 
 Horizontal and vertical FOV can be added as well. It also supports optical
  parameters such as entrance pupil diameter\, focal length\, f-number\, an
 d a shared GSD when applicable.\n\nFinally\, the data-access extensions re
 cord structured links to data distribution points in Google Earth Engine a
 nd Planetary Computer (for different processing levels\, including raw\, t
 op-of-atmosphere\, and bottom-of-atmosphere)\, indicating the reference so
 urce links as well as the collection names for data querying.\n\nHaving th
 e standard in an open GitHub repository makes it straightforward for the c
 ommunity to use the catalogue in practice\, both as a human-readable refer
 ence and as a machine-readable registry inside existing workflows and proj
 ects. In parallel\, the repository itself works as a simple discovery inte
 rface since users can browse what instruments are out there\, inspect thei
 r characteristics\, and make more informed choices based on their specific
  needs.\n\nBecause the schema is open\, versioned\, and simple\, it is eas
 y for the community to add new instruments as they appear\, and to update 
 or extend the schema (or extensions) as requirements evolve. This creates 
 a clean path for existing EO data catalogues to link data products to the 
 instruments that generated them through shared identifiers. To avoid dupli
 cated instrument entries and ensure quality metadata\, every entry must ha
 ve an unique identifier and links to the sources of the introduced metadat
 a for each instrument entry (links to the original and official instrument
  sources or operators have first-class priority over links to unofficial s
 ources). Furthermore\, an audit will be performed by a maintainer for ever
 y added instrument\, similar to the audits performed for other open catalo
 guing systems (e.g. conda-forge or Awesome Spectral Indices).\n\nLooking f
 orward\, we expect the catalogue to be used as a community reference point
  for EO instrument characteristics\, with a workflow-friendly input that l
 owers the barrier for both discovery and integration. To support programma
 tic use\, we anticipate developing a Python package that provides validate
 d access to the registry\, enabling direct interoperability in the environ
 ments where data access and analysis actually happen.\n\nWe also aim to al
 ign the catalogue with complementary open initiatives\, including the TACO
  (Transparent Access to Cloud-Optimized datasets) specification and Awesom
 e Spectral Indices (ASI)\, so that instrument metadata\, data access\, and
  band and index semantics can connect directly across open geospatial ecos
 ystems.
DTSTAMP:20260709T160320Z
LOCATION:Cosmos2
SUMMARY:Towards an open registry of Earth observation instruments - David M
 ontero Loaiza
URL:https://talks.osgeo.org/foss4g-2026/talk/P9WXJP/
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