The 2016 European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Symposium in Prague, Czech Republic took place during May 9-13, 2016. Living Planet Symposium 2016 followed the previous symposia held in Edinburgh (2013), Bergen (2010), Montreux (2007), Salzburg (2004) and Gothenburg (2001.  With some 3000 participants the 2016 symposium has been the largest event in Earth Observation ever organized by ESA. The Nansen Centers in Bergen and St. Petersburg was well represented and visible counting for 16 of the symposium participants.

The Nansen Centers were involved with a total of 13 oral presentations and 33 poster presentations within the following themes: Sea Ice Research; Ocean Research; Sentinel for Science, Toolboxes and Methods; Atmosphere and Climate; and Land. These abstracts, presentations and posters are further presented in a special report The Nansen Centers in Bergen and St. Petersburg at the ESA Lining Planet Symposium 2016, published jointly by the two Nansen Centers.

The main objectives of the ESA Living Planet Symposium 2016 were to:

• Present the progress and plans for the implementation of ESA Earth Observation strategy and the relevance of ESA’s EO Programme to societal challenges, science and economy.
• Provide an international forum to scientists, researchers and users to present and share state of the art results based on ESA’s Earth Observation and third-party mission data.
• Review the development of Earth Observation applications.
• Present the Copernicus space component and operational services.
• Report on ESA’s Exploitation Programmes (i.e. Climate Change Initiative, SEOM, DUE, VAE, STSE).
• Introduce the current and future planned Earth Observation missions.
• Outline ESA’s international cooperation in the field of Earth Observation.
• Provide dedicated thematic tutorials and demonstrations.

The Living Planet Symposium covered the following themes: Atmosphere, Oceanography, Cryosphere, Land, Hazards, Climate and meteorology, Solid Earth/Geodesy, Near-Earth Environment, Methodologies, Products and Open Science 2.0.

More information about the European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Symposium.

Report citation: Lasse H. Pettersson, Johnny A. Johannessen and Leonid P. Bobylev (eds.) (2016): The Nansen Centers in Bergen and St. Petersburg at the ESA Lining Planet Symposium 2016. NERSC/NIERSC special report no. 93. Bergen/St. Petersburg 26. May 2016