Here, the Geoscience and Remote Sensing electives of the third quarter are given. Note that when following this master track, 3 of the 8 electives of quarter 3 and/or 4 have to be passed. Course information was last updated on 18/04/2020

GRS - Electives Quarter 3

CIE4614-18 - 3D Surveying of civil and offshore structures (4ECTS)

Our structural and environmental infrastructure consists of roads, bridges, buildings and wind mills but
also of coast, dikes, trees and even underwater sand waves. Maintaining and updating this infrastructure requires efficient monitoring. 3D vision and LIDAR techniques enable the sampling of the surface of such structural elements at centimeter level, and is therefore potentially suitable for monitoring. Still, efficiently extracting valid geometric information from resulting 3D data sets or point clouds is challenging and requires combined knowledge of sensor characteristics, geometric algorithms and statistical techniques.

In this course you will learn and practice yourself how to solve a number of specific surveying problems:
which techniques are available and can be used for specific applications in relation with the required accuracy?

An overview will be given of 3D spatial data acquisition techniques, including notably laser scanning, photogrammetry and underwater echo sounding. Next, point cloud processing techniques will be discussed, including registration or point
cloud alignment, segmentation, classification and object extraction.
This course will pay attention to upcoming techniques, that can be partially implemented by you during your work on the big group assignment. Examples of such upcoming techniques are feature descriptors, statistical sampling techniques and deep learning.

For more information on the study-guide for this course here

CIE4602 - Cryosphere and Climate change (4ECTS)

This is a course on the physics of the parts of the Earth System that contain frozen water (the seasonal snow cover, sea-ice, glaciers, and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets), on their interaction with the physical climate system, and on the techniques to observe these parts of the Earth remotely. Special emphasis will be given to glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, that are currently losing mass at an accelerated pace and becoming a major contributor to sea level rise.

This course covers the following topics: The Cryosphere and Climate Change, Snow and ice surface processes (accumulation, melt, refreezing, sublimation), Glacier flow and Ice sheet and Climate coupling.

For more information on the study-guide for this course here

CIE4605 - Atmospheric Turbulence (4ECTS)

This introductory graduate course focuses on various fundamental and applied concepts related to meteorology with an emphasis on the lower part of our atmosphere. The following specific topics will be covered during the quarter: structure of turbulence and similarity theories; boundary layer modeling and parameterization schemes; land-surface interactions; radiation parameterizations; regional-scale numerical weather prediction; forecast verification; predictability and ensemble forecasting. In addition, real-life problems from the fields of wind energy, solar energy, atmospheric optics, and air quality will be discussed throughout the course.

For more information on the study-guide for this course here

CIE4607 - Ocean topography and sea level change (4ECTS)

The ocean surface is continuously changing due to processes acting at different spatial and temporal scales. Sea level is affected by sub-daily tides, by multi-yearly changes in ocean circulation, but also by climate change and by long-term geophysical processes. For instance, global mean sea level is currently rising at a rate of about 3 mm/yr and is expected to accelerate during the coming decades, potentially rising by more than one meter by the end of the century. Monitoring and understanding sea level changes requires a combination of different techniques, in order to capture processes that take place in the open ocean as well as those that affect coastal areas. The course is about he observation techniques used to measure sea level variations including their potential and limitations, the analysis of the data provided by the measurement sensors, and their application to the study of the geophysical processes causing sea level variations.

For more information on the study-guide for this course here

Click here to go to the electives of Quarter 4