Programme
VOCALIS 2026 · 21 - 24 September 2026
Monday 21 September
Welcome
Chairs: Filomena Catapano (ESA), Ashley Morris (SIOS), Eva Le Merle (NOVELTIS)
14:00 - 14:10Eero Rinne (UNIS) - Practical information about Svalbard and VOCALIS
14:10 - 14:15Simonetta Cheli (ESA - ESRIN director) - Opening Welcome
14:15 - 14:25Tim Lemmens (European Commission / DG DEFIS) - Welcome address
14:25 - 14:35Pierre Potin (ESA) - Status and evolution of the Copernicus Space Component
14:35 - 14:45Anna Odh (Norwegian Space Agency) - Welcome address
14:45 - 14:55Heikki Lihavainen (SIOS director) - SIOS - an international collaboration to operate a regional Research Infrastructure
14:55 - 15:05Jøran Moen (UNIS director) - Welcome address
15:05 - 15:15Even Wilberg Hovig (KSAT) - Welcome address
15:15 - 15:45Coffee break
15:45 - 16:10Tommaso Parinello (ESA) - Sixteen years of CryoSat: from scientific discovery to operational validation
16:10 - 16:20Jerome Bouffard (ESA) - Operational Copernicus Altimetry for Cryosphere and Hydrology: An ESA Perspective
16:20 - 16:30Paolo Cipollini (ESA) - CRISTAL: One Year to Go
16:30 - 16:40Filomena Catapano (ESA) - ESA Hydro-Cryo Altimetry Calibration and Validation roadmap
Ice Breaker at KSAT
Tuesday 22 September
Sea Ice
Chairs: Henriette Skourup (DTU), Eero Rinne (UNIS), Alessandro Di Bella (ESA)
15 min presentation + 5 min for questions
9:00 - 9:20Catherine Taelman (UiT) - Empirical evidence of overestimated Ku-band sea ice radar freeboards
9:20 - 9:40Arttu Jutila (Finnish Meteorological Institute) - Tara Polar Station for sea-ice altimetry cal/val activities
9:40 - 10:00Rachel Tilling (NASA/Uni. Maryland) - U.S. Cal/Val Activities for Radar and Laser Altimetry
10:00 - 10:20Torbjörn Kagel (NORCE) - Stories of (In)Consistency in Snow Depth Retrievals from a Multi-Scale Radar Altimetry Experiment
10:20 - 10:50Coffee break
10:50 - 11:10Kristina Belinska (DTU) - CRISTAL IN-PROVA: Validation Methodologies for In-Flight Level-2 Sea Ice Products
11:10 - 11:30Luisa Wagner (AWI) - Recent Results of IceBird Ice and Snow Thickness Measurements
11:30 - 11:50Sahra Kacimi (JPL) - Preparing for CRISTAL: Progress in NASA Sea Ice Algorithms and Airborne Validation
11:50 - 12:30Discussions
12:30 - 14:00Lunch
Land Ice
Chairs: Geir Moholdt (NPI), Sebastian Bjerregaard Simonsen (DTU), Martin Wearing (ESA)
15 min presentation + 5 min for questions
14:00 - 14:20Livia Jakob (Earthwave) - Validation of altimetry over mountain glaciers and ice shelves: lessons from CryoSat-2 and requirements for CRISTAL
14:20 - 14:40Jeremie Aublanc (CLS) - Recent advances in radar altimetry data acquisition and processing over land ice. Implications and recommendations for CalVal studies
14:40 - 15:00Stine Kildegaard Rose (DTU) - Status and Challenges of Sentinel-3 Land-Ice Altimetry Calibration and Validation
15:00 - 15:20Mal McMillan (Lancaster Uni.) - Validation of radar altimetry measurements over ice sheets: from ERS-1 to CRISTAL
15:20 - 15:50Coffee break
15:50 - 16:10Johan Nilsson (Uppsala Uni.) - Leveraging Experience from CryoSat-2 and SWOT Missions to Advance Future Capabilities of the CRISTAL and S3NG-T Missions
16:10 - 16:30Lucile Fayon (IGE) - Validation of Sentinel-3 Altimetry over the Antarctic Ice Sheet Using New In-Situ Fiducial Reference Measurements from the St3TART-FO stations: Methodology and First Comparisons
16:30 - 16:50Maria Kappelsberger (Dresden University of Technology) - Uncertainty assessment and validation of altimetric elevation and elevation change products in Antarctica
16:50 - 17:30Discussions
Wednesday 23 September
Inland Waters
Chairs: Julien Renou (CLS), Marco Restano (ATG-Europe for ESA)
15 min presentation + 5 min for questions
9:00 - 9:20Angelica Tarpanelli (CNR-GEO) - Sentinel-3 Altimetry for Inland Waters: Lessons Learned and Perspectives for the CRISTAL Mission
9:20 - 9:40Valentin Fouqueau (vorteX-io) - Towards multi-mission operational provision of FRMs for inland water validation across a wide range of water bodies
9:40 - 10:00Eva Le Merle (NOVELTIS) - Diving into the St3TART-FO FRM Data Hub: Supporting the Evaluation of Sentinel-3 Inland Water Products
10:00 - 10:20Anna Mangilli (CLS) - Lake Ice Thickness from Radar Altimetry: Overview and Perspectives
10:20 - 10:50Coffee break
10:50 - 11:10Hervé Yésou (ICUBE SERTIT) - Sentinel 3 FRM over St3TART-FO complex site of Rhine and Old Rhine sections: assessment of S3 nadir and Off nadir data and potential contribution of SWOT data
11:10 - 11:30Fabrice Papa (IRD) - Tracking inland surface freshwater fluxes and storage variability from satellite altimetry
11:30 - 11:50Christian Schwatke (DGFI-TUM) - DAHITI: Combining SWOT KaRIn Measurements and Classical Nadir Altimetry for Monitoring Small Inland Waters
11:50 - 12:30Discussions
12:30 - 14:00Lunch
Copernicus in-situ
Chairs: Jose Miguel Rubio Iglesias (EEA), Ashley Morris (SIOS), Tania Casal (ESA)
15 min presentation + 5 min for questions
14:00 - 14:20Eero Rinne (UNIS) - In-situ opportunities on Svalbard - lessons learned from the past 4 field seasons
14:20 - 14:40Geir Moholdt (NPI) - Annual in-situ validation of satellite altimetry missions on Austfonna ice cap, Svalbard
14:40 - 15:00Hannakaisa Lindqvist (Finnish Meteorological Institute) - The expansion of the Cal/Val activities at the ESA-FMI Arctic-Boreal Earth Science, Calibration and Validation Supersite
15:00 - 15:20Jeremy Wilkinson (BAS) - Needs and gaps in in-situ observations: the Beyond Arctic PASSION approach
15:20 - 15:40Melody Sandells (Northumbria Uni.) - Snow and Sea Ice properties from the CEMSIE field experiment
15:40 - 16:10Coffee break
16:10 - 17:30Panel Discussion on: 'Addressing Critical Arctic In-Situ Gaps for Copernicus: what role for Svalbard?' moderated by Jose Miguel Rubio Iglesias (EEA) with participation of Tim Lemmens (European Commission / DG DEFIS), Lorenzo Solari (EEA), Eero Rinne (UNIS), Filomena Catapano (ESA), Antonio Reppucci (Mercator Ocean), and Sara Fleury (LEGOS)
19:00Social Dinner at Restaurant Nansen (Radisson Hotel)
Thursday 24 September
Uncertainty estimation methodologies, towards metrology approach
Chairs: Alexa Putnam (NPL), Michele Scagliola (ESA)
15 min presentation + 5 min for questions
9:00 - 9:20Henriette Skourup (DTU) - Uncertainty Quantification in the Validation of Level-2 Sea Ice and Iceberg Products
9:20 - 9:40Lucile Fayon (IGE) - Achieving Decimeter-Level Accuracy for Antarctic FRMs: Uncertainty characterization of the St3TART-FO stations
9:40 - 10:00Sajedeh Behnia (NPL) - Hydrology FRMs in St3TART-FO: Towards CEOS FRM Maturity
10:00 - 10:20Alexa Putnam (NPL) - Sigma-0 Uncertainty in Sea Ice Altimetry Measurements
10:20 - 10:50Coffee break
10:50 - 11:10Mal McMillan (Lancaster Uni.) - Developing a framework for evaluating ice sheet altimetry uncertainty estimates
11:10 - 11:30Jack Landy (UiT The Arctic University of Norway) - Where is the uncertainty in Arctic sea ice thickness estimates from satellite altimetry?
11:30 - 11:50Sara Fleury (LEGOS/CNRS) - From measurements to sea ice and snow thickness uncertainties: application to CalVal strategies
11:50 - 12:30Discussions
12:30 - 14:00Lunch
Multi-mission validation synergies
Chairs: Paolo Cipollini (ESA), Jerome Bouffard (ESA)
15 min presentation + 5 min for questions
14:00 - 14:20Paolo Cipollini (ESA) - Synergy of the Copernicus Polar Expansion Missions, from concept to operations
14:20 - 14:40Vishnu Nandan (UiT The Arctic University of Norway) - The 2026 ESA SUPFIX-POLAR Copernicus Expansion Missions Sea Ice Experiment (CEMSIE): First Looks from the Campaign
14:40 - 15:00Ferran Hernández-Macià (Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC)/isardSAT) - Synergistic use of altimeter backscatter to improve radiometer thin sea ice thickness retrieval
15:00 - 15:30Coffee break
15:30 - 15:50Gunnar Spreen (University of Bremen) - Synergies in validation and operation over sea ice of altimeters with CIMR, the Copernicus Imaging Microwave Radiometer
15:50 - 16:10Ferran Gibert (isardSAT) - CRISTALair: status and readiness for CRISTAL Cal/Val
16:10 - 16:30Discussions
16:30 - 17:30Wrap-up
End of the meeting