Seeing through smokescreens

Photograph: courtesy NASA JPL
 
Research team:
Dr Stuart Phinn, Michael Stanford and Jon Knight (Biophysical Remote Sensing Group, School of Geography, Planning and Architecture), Dr Alex Held and Dr Catherine Ticehurst (Division of Land and Water, CSIRO), Dr Pat Dale (Griffith University), Professor Greg Hill and Dr Carl Menges (Northern Territory University), Jane Hosking and Christine Bach (Northern Territory Department of Lands, Planning and Environment), Dr Jacob van Zyl, Dr Ernesto Rodriguez (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory))
Funding:
Rainforest CRC (UQ?CSIRO) ($100,000 per year)
Coastal Zone CRC (UQ?CSIRO) ($130,000 per year)
ARC Linkage (UQ?NTU?NTLPE) ($140,000 per year)
CSIRO Earth Observation Centre
Email/Web link:
s.phinn@uq.edu.au

Biophysical Remote Sensing Group at UQ: www.geosp.uq.edu.au/brg/
NASA's imaging radar homepage: http://southport.jpl.nasa.gov/
NASA's AirSAR homepage with data from the 2000 mission: http://airsar.jpl.nasa.gov/
On-Line Remote Sensing Tutorial: http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Access Remote Sensing data for Australia-Australian Centre for Remote Sensing: www.auslig.gov.au/acres/index.htm
Faculty of Engineering, Physical Sciences & Architecture
A joint Australian and American research project has pioneered ground-breaking techniques to map Australian landscapes through a veil of heavy cloud and smoke.

Scientists from six Australian research organisations and NASA recently concluded a massive field and airborne data-collection mission of multiple sites in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The mission covered 35,000-square-kilometres of land and sea in Moreton Bay, Daintree?Cooktown and the Darwin?Mary River regions.

It involved 13 scientists with satellite/airborne radar and on-ground field monitoring expertise.

They were from The University of Queensland, Northern Territory University, Griffith University, the CSIRO Division of Land and Water, Australian Cooperative Research Centres (Rainforest and Coastal Zones), and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

According to one of the project leaders, Dr Stuart Phinn (UQ), project data will answer key questions asked by government and other agencies, such as the extent, biomass and condition of tropical rainforests, wetlands and savannas in Australia and around the world.

"The major stumbling block to mapping and monitoring these environments from aerial photographs and satellites is that they are usually covered in cloud or smoke from fires," he said.

"Our project is producing accurate maps of canopy and ground terrain, forest-height, biomass and the presence of flooding beneath forests.

"It integrates radar imaging systems with traditional satellite images to provide all-weather monitoring capabilities."

Dr Phinn said the field campaign collected ground information (including vegetation height, density, biomass and presence of flooding) to verify the images collected from a radar imaging system. "Image data was collected from the AirSAR imaging radar system on NASA's DC-8 Airborne Science Platform, as well as several Australian airborne sensors," he said.

"The AirSAR instrument is a form of radar able to penetrate clouds and smoke, making it ideal for collecting information from cloudy and smoky tropical environments where it is impossible to operate aerial photography or traditional satellite imaging systems."

Dr Phinn said the project was the first to develop and deliver an accurate and effective all-weather tool for mapping environmental conditions and their changes to Australian monitoring and management agencies.

The work addresses the monitoring requirements of Queensland's Wet Tropics Management Authority and the Northern Territory Department of Lands, Planning and Environment.

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