This EUFAR training course was to educate and train the early career scientists to plan and conduct an airborne research and (near-)ground validation campaign and how to use the collected data. The training course included an airborne campaign with the APEX imaging spectroradiometer mounted in the DLR Dornier 228 aircraft combined with a concurrent ground campaign and near-ground campaign with small UAV platforms and satellite data acquisitions at the instrumented POLWET wetland study site. All these platforms and sensors were used to determine Earth surface reflectance and fluorescence which play a role in supporting satellite mission design and use (e.g. FLEX) and which to support multi-scale (“leaf to ecosystem”) land-atmosphere exchange modelling studies.