Water-ForCE H2020 - Citizen Science for the CAL/VAL of satellite aquatic products

In situ data acquisition is an expensive process that needs high-frequency and broad spatial coverage to be fully useful in remote sensing calibration and/or validation exercises. An important new source of spatially intensive data acquisition, the crowd sourcing carried out inside of Citizen Science initiatives, has been developed in previous projects within the EU by, among other things, the development of tools and citizen observatories solutions. We will hear the experiences of Citizen Science tools developers and users and Citizen Science experts, as a basis for discussion during our expert panel time afterwards. Our aim is to fully explore the possibilities of Citizen Science for calibration and validation of Copernicus water quality and quantity products, focused in the identification of: Opportunities/potential for Cal/Val Gaps & problems Identified Needs Data Quality, format and uncertainties

Citizen Science and Universities: Summer Course in Santander (Spain)

The summer course "Citizen Science and Universities" organised by the Menéndez Pelayo International University to be held on 11, 12 and 13 July in Santander. Citizen science is already a methodology used in numerous research projects. One of the challenges posed by the course is to find the most effective way to open the university to citizens through Citizen Science. The main objective of this summer course will be to establish a strategic line of work that opens up and brings Citizen Science closer to universities: - The democratization of the knowledge that is produced in the universities themselves, bringing their research work closer to their environment. - Directly linking the scientific advances obtained at the university with the real problems of the society in which it is based, as well as proposing possible solutions. This course will facilitate the identification of strategies to involve the university system more actively in Citizen Science projects, identifying good practices to carry them out and reflecting on the key elements that determine the implementation of Citizen Science methodologies in university science projects.

BioBlitz a tutti i costi

The “BioBlitz a tutti i costi” is a free event open to everyone, to learn to recognize living species present in nature and to collect original scientific data, useful for conservation. Through the iNaturalist app, you can send photos of animal and plant species (not domestic) that you took outdoors or in one of the participating National Parks. If you can't leave home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, you can upload photos from your archives. As in a real BioBlitz (which usually lasts 24 hours and is held outdoors), the "BioBlitz a tutti i costi " will produce a list of species thanks to the collaboration between citizens and experts who will help you in identifications. You can participate from all over Italy and also enter photos taken abroad! Go to the website www.inaturalist.org/projects/natura-sulle-mura and join the project “bioblitz a tutti i costi” www.inaturalist.org/projects/bioblitz-a-tutti-i-costi

Discovering the unexplored deep marine environment

Deep underwater neutrino telescopes as KM3NeT measure neutrino and environmental events that constitute “noise” for the neutrino searches. These environmental events range from biological bioluminescence to acoustic signals from sea mammals. Citizens can support KM3NeTs scientists to increase the efficiency in the neutrino detection algorithms, providing input that will be crucial for two scientific tasks: the classification of noise types, and the identification of the frequency range and typical length of noise signals. The output of the citizen science activity will serve as a basis for training machine learning algorithms, which will automatically identify and classify the noise sources, thus monitoring the noise with an unprecedented detail. At the same time, citizens will have the opportunity to gain a greater insight of the unexplored deep marine environment. In the framework of REINFORCE, time sequences of the optical counting rates on the KM3NeT “eyes” will be made available to the general public in order to monitor ambient bioluminescence, and citizens will be invited to classify in a systematic way the various types of waveforms observed. Furthermore, in order to involve in this activity also visually-impaired citizen scientists, the “ears” of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope will also be exploited by utilising the time sequences of the acoustical signals detected. Both sound and visual data for the bioluminescence and the acoustic signals will be produced. The webinar aims to give an overview of the Deep Sea Hunters Large Scale Citizen Science demonstrator and how it will be implemented in order to engage citizens in the scientific research, showcasing the tasks that citizens will be asked to perform and how their input will be fundamental to explore the environment of the deep sea below 1000m depth in which humanity has little experience so far. Who should attend? Potential citizen scientists Neutrino researchers and academics Members of the physics and marine community You will learn: How citizens can play an active role in the advance of ground-breaking research How a deep underwater neutrino telescope works How REINFORCE demonstrator about Deep Sea Hunters will be developed How the project will work to include diverse and underrepresented groups in science Agenda 15:00 - 15:10: Welcome and introduction - Paschal Coyle, CPPM, Marseille 15:10 - 15:20: Neutrinos and KM3NeT - Gwenhael de Wasseige, APC, Paris 15:20 - 15:30: Deep Sea Hunters on Zooniverse - Remy Le Breton, APC, Paris 15:30 - 15:40: Bioluminescence - Severine Martini, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, Marseille 15:40 - 15:50: Submarine Intelligent Listening into KM3EnT & Abyss - Herve Glotin, Computer Science & Systems Lab., CNRS, Toulon 15:50 - 16:00: Q&A and wrap-up