GLOBALWATCH - Automated processing of optical time series for land surface mapping and change detection

The research activities lead to the production of several algorithms ready to be used by remote sensing specialists or by an automatic monitoring system in operational processing environment on a near real-time basis at the worldwide scale. 
A processing chain intended to produce composites based on the mean compositing strategy was developed.  This chain is very flexible and allows the user to optimise the compositing parameters according to its application and the regional conditions. The syntheses present a large spatial and temporal consistency in all wavelengths and their production is so fast that the whole archive can be reprocessed at any time.
An operational processing chain intended to monitor the conditions favourable to the development of the Locust was developed.  This process, currently tested at the FAO, ensures the monitoring in real time and improves the quality of the detections.
An operational processing chain intended to monitor water bodies was developed.  It allows the characterisation and the monitoring of temporarily and permanent water bodies as well as flooding events.    
Tools intended to put the detection results at the disposal of the users were developed in the framework of the early warning application.