VODnet Meeting in Potsdam
From February 23–27 2026, members of the VODnet, including our colleague Michael Niederberger, met for a joint hackathon to further develop a shared framework for GNSS-T data processing. VODnet is an initiative that aims to build an open platform for processing and sharing GNSS-based vegetation optical depth (VOD) data for scientific use.
During the hackathon, the technical challenges and questions related to data processing were discussed. A new software developed by TU Wien was presented and expanded for the needs of the VODnet. The participants also drafted a white paper, that defines spatial, statistical, and temporal processing steps and identified possible data products.
The meeting marks another important step toward achieving the goals of the initiative. In the future, the platform will help to improve the understanding of microwave transmission within forest ecosystems, enable more robust estimates of ecosystem state and fluxes, and enhance the calibration and validation of spaceborne VOD datasets.
Comparable monitoring networks are already established for parameters such as soil moisture. Extending this concept to VOD will provide a better data foundation for monitoring the effects of drought stress on vegetation.