19 January 2026
How healthy are our forests? How do plants respond to drought or heat stress? These and related questions will be at the heart of an international workshop on ESA's FLEX (FLuorescence EXplorer) satellite mission. The workshop will take place from 3 to 6 March 2026 at the Electoral Palace of the University of Bonn, Germany. It is jointly organised by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the FLEX Project Office at Forschungszentrum Jülich.
Participation is free of charge and open to all interested parties - including researchers, engineers and application experts from Germany and abroad who wish to explore new opportunities for observing vegetation from space. Registration is open until the end of February.
Preparing for the launch of a new Earth observation mission
The workshop will focus on preparations for the launch of the FLEX satellite, which is expected to begin delivering global observations of vegetation photosynthesis from space from September 2026 onwards. FLEX is ESA's eighth Earth Explorer mission and the first satellite specifically designed for plant research and the direct observation of photosynthesis.
Following its selection as an Earth Explorer mission in 2015, FLEX has been scientifically supported and prepared for launch. With the mission now approaching its operational phase, the satellite will soon be deployed into orbit and start collecting data. FLEX will measure solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) worldwide - an extremely faint light signal emitted by plants during photosynthesis, providing direct insight into plant activity and physiological condition.
From measurement techniques to applications
The FLEX Workshop 2026 continues a long-standing international workshop series on fluorescence remote sensing. It addresses a wide range of topics, from measurement and data processing techniques to new data products and applications in climate research, vegetation monitoring and aquatic sciences.
