Contest 'Seize the beauty of our Planet' for the best satellite image of Earth
5th edition of the international contest with this year’s motto: Preserve the Earth!
Join the contest 'Seize the beauty of our Planet' to protect the Earth and win attractive prizes!
We are waiting for your entries until October 22, 2024.
Welcome to the contest for the best satellite image of Earth
Having the honour of acting as a Copernicus relay, CloudFerro is inviting you to the 5th edition of the contest “Seize the beauty of our Planet” for the best satellite image of the Earth coming from the Copernicus programme.
We encourage researchers, EO data scientists and anyone interested in the field of Earth observation to send us satellite images of places on Earth that are threatened by the negative effects of climate change and need to be protected. Show everyone the beauty of a place of your choice and motivate others to take action to preserve it!
What are the goals of the contest?
Join forces – we want to support the joint effort of many European and international organisations in preserving precious places on our planet that are threatened by the devastating consequences of climate change such as floods, droughts, rising levels of oceans, deforestaion, to name a few.
Educate - let's join our efforts to bring the attention of decision-makers and society as a whole to the irreversible effects of climate change and convince them to take action. Cities, forests, lakes, islands, rivers and glaciers need us - let's show the beauty of the Earth that is worth preserving!
Promote Copernicus - as a Copernicus Relay, CloudFerro aims to promote the use of Copernicus Earth observation data in environmental research, demonstrating the key role that data plays in effective and cost-efficient monitoring of environmental change and planning to protect our planet's ecosystems.
How to enter the contest and win?
To participate in our contest, simply generate a satellite image of your chosen location and submit it to us on a dedicated webpage by October 22nd 12:00 CET. You can generate the image on any platform with Copernicus Earth observation data, such as CREODIAS, Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, WEkEO, CODE-DE or EO-Lab.
Deadline for submitting for entries:
October 22, 2024, 12:00 CET.
Contest schedule - important dates and deadlines
25 Sep - 22 Oct - Collecting contest entries on a dedicated webpage
23 Oct - 6 Nov - Phase 1 - public voting to select 13 finalists with the highest number of votes
6 Nov - 7 Nov - Phase 2 - Jury voting for 3 top entries out of the 13 chosen in the public voting
7 Nov - Winners announcement
How are the winners selected and what are the prizes?
13 images with the highest number of votes will be the finalists and will proceed to the 2nd phase, in which a Jury consisting of EO experts will vote for the best 3. The authors of the 3 images with the highest number of the Jury votes will be awarded the following prizes:
- Apple iPad 10,9" 64GB - 1st place
- Apple Watch SE 2nd gen. - 2nd place
- Apple AirPods 4 - 3rd place
The authors of all the entries accepted for the 1st phase of the contest will be awarded a CloudFerro calendar for 2025 composed of the winning images. The calendar will also be awarded to all the contest participants whose images were admitted to the voting phase.
The winners will be announced on CloudFerro website and our social media profiles on November 7th 2024.
Image requirements
- The satellite image you submit to the contest should depict an area on Earth threatened or already affected by consequences of climate change. Submit your image on a dedicated webpage.
- The image should be obtained on an Earth observation platform (such as CREODIAS, Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem, WEkEO, CODE-DE or EO-Lab) by means of tools available on these platforms.
- The satellite data can be visualized in a dedicated software of the user's choice (e.g. QGIS) to highlight the phenomena you wish to show. Watch our tutorial on how to prepare an image for the contest.
- The image must meet a minimum requirement of 250 dpi, 6500 x 5000 pixels, but less than 8000 px.
- Each contest entry must be described with details such as: name of the place, type of environmental change if it shows any, location, name of the satellite that generated the image/data you used, the date of the satellite observation.
- Only ONE image can be submitted by each contestant.
- The image can be enhanced with EO or photo editing software but it must NOT contain any text or additional graphic elements such as labels, logos or similar.
See 2023 contest winning images
Where to generate a contest image?
In the contest, we are looking for the best satellite images depicting an area of your choice threatened by the consequences of climate change.
The images shoud be generated on an Earth observation platforms with Copernicus programme data, such as:
- CREODIAS - a European Copernicus DIAS platform commissioned by ESA that combines public cloud computing, access to a satellite image repository, and a range of applications that allow users to search, view, and process satellite products. It is the first commercial element of the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.
- Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem - launched in January 2023, it is the largest EO data offering in the world and the main EO data dissemination endpoint of the European Space Agency (ESA), with outstanding discovery and download capabilities, and a set of data processing tools. It is built by a consortium of European cloud and Earth observation service providers: T-Systems, CloudFerro, Sinergise, VITO, DLR, ACRI-ST, and RHEA.
- WEkEO - another European Copernicus DIAS jointly implemented by EUMETSAT, ECMWF, EEA and MERCATOR OCEAN. It provides combined access to environmental data and information from the Copernicus Sentinels and the Copernicus Monitoring Services, together with virtual environment for data processing and skilled user support.
- CODE-DE - a German national platform for authorities and other public institutions commissioned by DLR that provides easy and efficient access to all Copernicus remote sensing data about Germany, a virtual secure working environment for processing these data and extensive information materials and trainings to support the users.
- EO-Lab - a German platform commissioned by DLR, providing a development environment for researchers from both scientific and commercial entities, which draws upon new cloud technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse a big amount of Earth Observation data.
- other Copernicus platforms.
Why Earth preservation?
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change created by the United Nations estimates that an increase in the global air temperature of more than 1.5°C could trigger a process that would destabilise the Earth's climate system.
The biodiversity of the Earth’s systems, the presence of glaciers, ice sheets, forests and even entire cities are at a great risk that we can no longer ignore. Climate Change, a global non-profit organisation, has estimated that in the future, Gdansk, Venice, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Tokyo or even Shanghai could be under water as a result of an ongoing climate change.
The Gulf of Gdansk, Poland. Copernicus Sentinel-2 modified data (2024).
About the Copernicus data
Satellite observations play a key role in efficient and cost effective monitoring of the Earth ecosystems, and remote sensing techniques prove highly beneficial in this area. The European Copernicus Earth Observation programme provides data that has many attributes, spectral and spatial ones, about oceans, lands and atmosphere. They provide us with resources for environmental analysis in all dimensions, from local to global and from visible to radar techniques.
Scientists have developed various indices like NDVI, NDWI, and SMI, which are essential tools for Earth observation. NDVI measures vegetation health by comparing near-infrared (NIR) and red visible light wavelengths. NDWI, or Normalized Water Index, indicates water body extent and reflects biomass water content, commonly used in water management. The Soil Moisture Index (SMI) estimates soil moisture content using Sentinel-1 radar data. Additionally, SWIR or NIR data can help assess land dryness, vegetation coverage, and map extreme events like wildfires or flash floods.
By organising the contest we want to promote the use of satellite imagery that is a vital tool for understanding processes taking place on Earth on a larger scale, offering global coverage and instant access to accurate data.
Please contact us at communications [at] cloudferro.com for any questions that you may have. We will be happy to help you.
The details of the contest can be found here: Terms and Conditions (PDF).
