A symposium on the Dragon Programme, a major international scientific and technological cooperation project in the field of Earth observation between China's Ministry of Science and Technology and the European Space Agency (ESA), was held in Hohhot, the capital city of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Sept 12-13.

The symposium aimed to comprehensively summarize the achievements of Phase 5 of the Dragon Programme and enhance scientific and technological exchanges between China and Europe.

The cooperative areas of Phase 5 cover 10 fields, including the solid Earth, oceans and coasts, climate change, and big data analysis, sharing 54 types of satellite data resources.

The symposium was organized by the National Remote Sensing Center of China and the ESA Centre for Earth Observation. It was hosted by Inner Mongolia Normal University.

One main venue, six sub-venues, and two poster exhibition venues were set up for the event.

More than 300 participants from 19 countries, as well as 135 universities and research institutes from China and Europe, attended the conference, covering the 10 collaborative research areas of Phase 5 of the Dragon Programme.

Over a two-day period, experts and scholars conducted academic lectures and reports in six sub-venue forums, exchanging the latest advancements in remote-sensing technology applications and analyzing the opportunities and challenges in related fields.

They also discussed the future trends and key technological developments in remote-sensing technology applications, shared their research and innovation experience, and deepened academic exchanges.