IV CLIMASAT Workshop / Data practices: Satellites, data, environment and power

The European project CLIMASAT opens the black box that surrounds satellite data production, circulation and use in relation with the making of climate knowledge.  It investigates the history of the sociotechnical and power-laden practices by which electromagnetic radiation traveling through the atmosphere from the orbits is detected and turned into climate knowledge, allowing to understand how satellite data are affected by society, politics, environment and culture, and viceversa.

Participants:

Matthew Adamson (McDaniel College/Corvinus University)

Andrea Alvarez Laorden (iHC-UAB)

Gemma Cirac-Claveras (iHC-UAB)

Sebastián Díaz Ángel (iHC-UAB)

Anna Drou Roget (iHC-UAB)

Leandro Gomes Moreira Cruz (COC/FIOCRUZ)

Santiago Gorostiza (Lund University)

Hèctor Isern Alsina (iHC-UAB)

Pablo Lima (University of Seville)

Nicole Mikly Bernal (iHC-UAB)

Grigoris Panoutsopoulos (iHC-UAB)

Virtual participation link

Programme:

Thursday 23 April

13:00 - 13:30 Welcome & Introduction

13:30 - 15:00 Panel 1 / Production

Gemma Cirac-Claveras Producing and Sharing Nephanalyses, 1960-1970

Leandro Gomes Moreira Cruz Designing the Future of the Amazon: The Brazilian Military Dictatorship, Remote Sensing, and the RADAM Project.

Sebastián Díaz Ángel From Targeting to Monitoring: The Entangled Data Practices of Airborne and Satellite Earth-Resource Observation, 1965–1978

 

Friday 24 April

10:00 - 11:30 Panel 2 / Access & Circulation

Hèctor Isern Alsina The Ocean’s Trojan Horse: Satellite Data in Late 20th-Century Europe

Santiago Gorostiza Building a Nation with Data? Satellite Technologies and the Formation of Catalan Self-Government

Pablo Lima Orbits and Tides: Scaling Satellite Oceanography from Venetian to Global Contexts.

11:30 - 12:00 Coffee break

12:00 - 13:30 Panel 3 / Uses

Grigoris Panoutsopoulos Data Empires in Orbit: Earth Observation Satellites and the Politics of Data Globalization (1970s–1980s)

Nicole Mikly Bernal From Field Measurements to Disembodied Data: Geophysical Knowledge, Colonial Infrastructures, and the Satellite Turn in Africa (1970s–1990s).

Anna Drou Roget Satellite Data Practices and Nation-Building: Meteorology and Technoscientific Institutions in Catalonia (1980s–1996).

Andrea Alvarez Laorden Satellite Data for Development: Technical Assistance, Natural Resource Management, and the Construction of Satellite Data Infrastructures in Colombia (1986–1994).

13:30 - 15:00 Lunch

15:00 - 16:30 Final conclusions with Matthew Adamson

Respectful Behaviour Statement: We are committed to creating an inclusive, respectful, and safe environment where all participants can engage meaningfully in academic discourse—regardless of background, identity, experience level, or perspective. We invite all to help foster a positive and inclusive environment at this workshop by promoting equal participation and by being respectful of others’ boundaries. We will not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or any otherform of discriminatory behaviour.

CLIMASAT is an ERC-StG funded project (2022-2027)