Virtual WMO Workshop on Core Satellite Data for Hydrology

Virtual WMO Workshop on Core Satellite Data for Hydrology (24-25 February 2026)

The Workshop will be held online via MS Teams, with daily sessions lasting two and a half hours.

Building on the outcomes of the previous WMO Core Satellite Data Workshops, which successfully defined core and recommended data for the global Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and Nowcasting, at this Workshop WMO will be focusing on hydrological application area.

The primary objective of the Workshop is to establish a list of core and recommended satellite data for the hydrology application area. The target audience includes representatives from satellite operators and the hydrological user community.

Expected outcomes of the Workshop are as follows:

To get to know user requirements for satellite data with regards to hydrology;

To address the main obstacles to increased exchange of satellite data and specific opportunities to overcome those challenges;
To determine the initial sets of satellite data for hydrology to be designated as “core” and “recommended” for formal inclusion in the Manual of the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS), in order to complete the initial list of core and recommended data from other sources (in situ, modeling, …).

Provisional Agenda

24 February 2025
CET	Agenda item	Document
12:30	Welcome address
12:35	Introduction of the workshop agenda and the goals (WMO Secretariat)
12:40	WMO Data Policy - Moving Toward Earth System Monitoring and Prediction (WMO Secretariat)
12:50	Session 1: Satellite Data Requirements for Hydrology
12:50	Introduction to WMO core satellite data for hydrology (Lihang Zhou, NOAA/NESDIS)
13:05	Use cases: satellite-based hydrological applications from Pacific (Luigi Renzullo, BoM)
13:20	Use cases: satellite-based hydrological applications from Asia (Fu Wang, CMA/CEMC)
13:35	Assimilation of satellite data into hydrological models (Sujay V Kumar, NASA)
13:50	Use cases: satellite-based hydrological applications from Africa (Georges Gulemvuga, CICOS, RAIDEG)
14:05	Use cases: satellite-based hydrological applications from Europe (Silvia Puca, EUMETSAT HSAF)
14:20	Use cases: satellite-based hydrological applications from South America (Marcelo Uriburu Quirno, CONAE)
14:35	Use cases: satellite-based hydrological applications from North America (NOAA/NWC)
14:50	Use cases: satellite-based hydrological applications from Polar regions (Matias Takala, FMI )

15:00	End of DAY 1

25 February 2025
CET	Agenda item	Document
12:30	Introduction to parallel break out group discussion
12:45	Session 2: Core satellite data for Hydrology
12:45	Parallel break out group discussion – hydrology user requirements for satellite data: Does the satellite data in draft core satellite data tables for hydrology reflect your needs accurately? Which observations are most critical? Which observations do you lack access to? What’s your experience with observations that have been commercially acquired by space agencies? To what extent do you rely on open data wrt your hydrology products?	Asia/Oceania
		Africa/Europe
		Americas
13:45	Results from parallel break-out group discussion (Chairs of break out groups, 15’ for each group)
14:30	Agreeing on initial set of core and recommended satellite data for hydrology
14:50	Outcomes of the workshop

15:00	End of the Workshop

(Updated on 22 January 2026.)

Virtual WMO Workshop on Core Satellite Data for Hydrology