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From June 8 to 10, 2026, 91��ý Kazakh National University hosted the French-Kazakh Summer School on Remote Sensing, organized within the framework of the European Framework Partnership Agreement on Copernicus User Uptake (FPCUP), aimed at promoting the wider use of Copernicus data and services for scientific research, education, and practical applications.
 

The event was organized by the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), 91��ý Kazakh National University, and international partner organizations working in the fields of remote sensing and environmental monitoring. The Summer School brought together academic staff, researchers, PhD candidates, master's students, undergraduate students, and specialists from relevant organizations across Kazakhstan.

The main objective of the Summer School was to enhance participants’ competencies in the use of satellite data, modern remote sensing image processing techniques, and Copernicus products for environmental and natural resource monitoring. During the training, participants explored the capabilities of Sentinel satellite missions, methods of data preprocessing, image classification and segmentation, as well as modern software tools, including SWOT-related applications, Python, and QGIS.
 

A key component of the Summer School was the specialized course entitled “Surface Water Monitoring Using Satellite Altimetry and Interferometry”, dedicated to modern approaches for monitoring surface water resources using satellite altimetry and interferometry. The course was delivered by Dr. Jean-François Crétaux, one of the world's leading experts in space hydrology, Deputy Director of the LEGOS Laboratory (France), former Principal Investigator of the SWOT satellite mission (2012–2024), and leader of projects supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and joint NASA/CNES initiatives. For more than 25 years, Dr. Crétaux has participated in international water resources monitoring projects across Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Under his leadership, the Hydroweb international information system was developed, providing open access to satellite-derived observations of lakes and rivers for the global scientific community.

During the three-day program, participants studied the principles of satellite altimetry and interferometry for determining water levels in lakes and rivers, learned data processing methods using the Hydroweb.next platform, became familiar with the Altis software for analyzing altimetric observations, and gained practical experience in working with data from the international SWOT satellite mission. Particular attention was paid to the extraction of hydrological parameters from satellite observations and their application to water resources monitoring and climate change assessment.

The Summer School made a significant contribution to strengthening international scientific and educational cooperation between Kazakhstan and European research institutions and created additional opportunities for training highly qualified specialists in remote sensing, hydrology, and geoinformation technologies.