On 7/14-15/21, and in the context of NASA’s Joint Statement with the Central American Integration System (SICA, in Spanish), the SERVIR Science Coordination Office facilitated a well-attended introductory training webinar on “Cloud-based tools for land and water resource monitoring.” Held in Spanish, the webinar focused on strengthening the application of Earth observation data for environmental monitoring, and had almost 500 participants from Central America, as well as from other parts of Latin America. Participants were familiarized principally with the use of the Google Earth Engine platform for processing data from NASA and other sources. In addition to SICA, the training was hosted by the Government of Panama, via its Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Environment, the Science and Technology Secretariat (SENACYT, in Spanish), and the Universidad Tecnologica de Panama. The training was also promoted through the AmeriGEO initiative’s Inter-American Academy of Geosciences and Technology platform. Training exercises were delivered by representatives of NASA’s JPL, LaRC, MSFC, and with support from McGill University and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Opening remarks were delivered by the NASA Earth Science Division Deputy Director, Sandra Cauffman, SERVIR’s Global Program Manager, Daniel Irwin (ST11), the Government of Panama’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ana Luisa Castro, and Panama’s GEO Principal, Diana Laguna of the Ministry of the Environment, and Jorge Cabrera, technical advisor to the Central American Integration System's General Secretariat.
