Global Change Research Institute CAS, Department of Remote Sensing

Science from above: we help to understand landscape changes using Earth observation data. Our department studies the actual status and changes of ecosystems using the up-to-date and rapidly developing methods of remote sensing. Our goal is to develop innovative solutions for qualitative and quantitative assessment, study spatio-temporal changes of ecosystems and their response to various stress agents, and to explore new relationships between the ecosystem elements using different types of remote sensing and field data. We primarily study forest, agro and urban systems and our research is usually connected to the activities of other GCRI departments and other research institutes, because it often integrates a broad variety of data at different ecosystem levels (e.g., leaf – plant – canopy – landscape) at the local up to regional scales. In our research we use an unique airborne research infrastructure of GCRI – Flying Laboratory of Imaging Systems (FLIS), which is the only one operated in the Czech Republic and one of few in Europe. FLIS carries on-board a suite of state-of-the-art imaging spectroradiometers, thermal spectroradiometer and a laser scanner that allows simultaneous data acquisition and such as providing a comprehensive information about land surface. Besides the airborne data we also analyse multitude of field spectroscopic and laser scanning data, as well as satellite observations (e.g., Sentinels, Landsat, Modis).