The Potential of Copernicus Satellites for Disaster Response: Retrieving Building Damage from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2

Tracking when trees leaf out or shed leaves reveals how forests respond to climate change, but collecting such data across large areas is costly. SwissPhenoCam repurposes cameras already installed across Switzerland for weather monitoring and tourism, turning existing infrastructure into an ecological observatory. The result is a freely available dataset covering over 5,800 tree-years across more than 20 tree species, documenting species-specific seasonal behaviours along elevation gradients.

Our work addresses the predictability of carbon absorption by ecosystems across the globe, particularly in dry regions. We compare 3 different models, including a deep learning model that can learn from past environmental conditions, and show that this helps improve predictions. Still, challenges remain in dry areas due to varying vulnerabilities to drought. As drought conditions intensify globally, it's crucial to understand the varying impacts on ecosystem function.