Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is a geodetic monitoring tool used to measure ground deformations at cm-scale precision. InSAR has been used to study many geophysical phenomena, including volcanoes and earthquakes. This technique has yet to be applied widely in Papua New Guinea, despite its potential as a hazard monitoring tool for the numerous volcanoes in the region. This study applies InSAR to the Rabaul caldera, to investigate the feasibility of the technique in the region. This location was chosen so that the results of this study can be compared to ground based measurements provided by the Rabaul Volcano Observatory. Of the 10 radar images acquired for this study, 7 were successfully processed to form interferograms. These interferograms were then stacked together to form a time series of deformations, spanning a 14 month period from 27-2-2007 to 16-4-2008. Most of these interferograms had high coherence, and relatively low noise, and cm-scale deformations evident in the deformation time series. These results suggest that this technique is capable of detecting precursory uplift before an eruption. The primary limitations to the analysis were the availability of radar data, and the baseline separation between acquisitions. We were unable to apply temporal filtering to remove atmospheric noise, since there were too few points in the time series.

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) was launched on January 24th, 2006 by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in a Sun-synchronous orbit. It carries three remote sensing instruments: Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type-2 (AVNIR-2), Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) and Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR). The PRISM sensor consists of three sets of telescopes for forward, nadir and backward viewing with each telescope providing 2.5 metre spatial resolution. These specifications facilitate generation of precise Digital Surface Models (DSMs) with accuracy sufficient for 1:25 000 scale maps. Geoscience Australia (GA) has been acquiring ALOS data since early 2006 and holds an extensive archive of PRISM images over Australia and New Zealand that are suitable for DSMs generation

These images are clipped to represent the 1:100 000 map sheet they fall within as per the topographic series. For example, the image im2855.bil covers the same area as the Marble Bar (2855) topographic map. There are 51 individual sheets in total. The data was clipped from the larger mosaic of original Landsat scenes processed using: Directed Principal Components/Band Ratio Image: RGB pc2[4/3 : 5/7] : 5/4 : 1+ 7 Expressing relationships between: hydrosilicates/clay/carbonate: iron oxide : quartz

Spectral data from airborne and ground surveys enable mapping of the mineralogy and chemistry of soils in a semi-arid terrain of Northwest Queensland. The study site is a region of low relief, 20 km southeast of Duchess near Mount Isa. The airborne hyperspectral survey identified more than twenty surface components including vegetation, ferric oxide, ferrous iron, MgOH, and white mica. Field samples were analysed by spectrometer and X-ray diffraction to test surface units defined from the airborne data. The derived surface materials map is relevant to soil mapping and mineral exploration, and also provides insights into regolith development, sediment sources, and transport pathways, all key elements of landscape evolution.

A multi-agency collaboration between Australian government partners has been working towards making continent-scale, public, web-accessible and GIS-compatible ASTER geoscience maps. CSIRO along with Geoscience Australia and several state government agencies, (including GSWA, GSQ, DMITRE and NTGS), have developed methodology and produced 15 geoscientific products, with applications for mineral mapping and exploration, soil-mapping, environment and agricultural sectors. This work represents the largest ASTER mosaic of this type in the world and sets a new benchmark for state-to-continent scale spectral remote sensing. The project is supported both nationally and internationally by the ASTER Science Team, ERSDAC, NASA and the USGS. Outcomes include the formation of a platform for establishing national standards; geoscience product nomenclature; processing methods; accuracy assessments; and traceable documentation. Detailed product notes outline these standards and provide significant knowledge transfer for existing and new users of this type of data. Hyperion satellite hyperspectral imagery has been critical for calibration and validation of the processed ASTER data, reduction to 'surface' reflectance using independent validation data such as Hyperion, and calculating statistics to generate regression coefficients, reduces errors in the ASTER instrument and increases reliability and corroboration of spectral responses.

Salt lakes, also known as playa lakes, are a common feature of the Australian landscape, and are a strong indicator of our current and past climates. Despite their abundance they have not been extensively studied in Australia, with little research undertaken since the early benchmark work of the 1970s - 1980s (e.g. Bowler, 1971, 1981) which largely focussed on geomorphologic evolutionary patterns and trends. Notwithstanding, salt lakes contain some of the highest levels biological endemism in Australia (DeDecker, 1983) and their unique, and commonly extreme, chemistry offers the potential for distinctive saline mineralisation and potentially economic concentrations of Li, K, B, REEs, Br and U (e.g. Butt et al. 1984; Nissenbaum, 1993; Orris, 2011).

This project commenced in November 2012 and is intended to provide satellite data and related scientific services to support the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's monitoring of how the condition of riparian vegetation responds to changing river run-off and wetland inundation levels. Under this project, Geoscience Australia started to build a satellite data processing infrastructure; named the 'datacube', as a proof of concept for expected on-going time series analysis applications including historical flood and bathymetry mapping. The work incorporates an automated processing chain for Landsat satellite images from Geoscience Australia's extensive archive, into customised high level intermediate products, including automated ortho-rectification, atmospheric correction, cloud-removal, and mosaicking, and finally into statistics on the spectral and derivative indices (that is, vegetation condition indices or various types) for the summer periods of December-March, each year for the period 2000-2013. These vegetation indices and associate statistics are then used, by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and its collaborators, as inputs to a mathematical model of vegetation types and their respective conditions within the Murray-Darling Basin.

The Leeuwin Current has significant ecological impact on the coastal and marine ecosystem of south-western Australia. This study investigated the spatial and temporal dynamics of the Leeuwin Current using monthly MODIS SST dataset between July 2002 and December 2012. Topographic Position Index layers were derived from the SST data for the mapping of the spatial structure of the Leeuwin Current. The semi-automatic classification process involves segmentation, 'seeds' growing and manual editing. The mapping results enabled us to quantitatively examine the current's spatial and temporal dynamics in structure, strength, cross-shelf movement and chlorophyll a characteristic. It was found that the Leeuwin Current exhibits complex spatial structure, with a number of meanders, offshoots and eddies developed from the current core along its flowing path. The Leeuwin Current has a clear seasonal cycle. During austral winter, the current locates closer to the coast (near shelf break), becomes stronger in strength and has higher chlorophyll a concentrations. While, during austral summer, the current moves offshore, reduces its strength and chlorophyll a concentrations. The Leeuwin Current also has notable inter-annual variation due to ENSO events. In El Niño years the current is likely to reduce strength, move further inshore and increase its chlorophyll a concentrations. The opposite occurs during the La Niña years. In addition, this study also demonstrated that the Leeuwin Current has a significantly positive influence over the regional nutrient characteristics during the winter and autumn seasons. Apart from surface cooling and advection, the Leeuwin Current's sizable cross-shelf movement may be another contributing factor to the seasonal and inter-annual variations of its chlorophyll a concentrations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and quantify the near-field and far-field contamination effects from GRACE data to assess whether or not they influence the accuracy with which hydrological signals in the Murray-Darling Basin, southeast Australia can be estimated. Far-field contamination was assessed by modelling some of the world's largest geophysical processes which generate major gravitational signals (e.g. melting of the Greenland icesheet, hydrology in the Amazon Basin) while near-field contamination was modelled by simulating gravitational variability of the Australian continent. Contamination was measured by simulating each of the processes and measuring the proportion of the simulated signal detected in the Murray - Darling Basin. The sum of the cumulative near-field and far-field effects revealed a maximum of ~10 mm (equivalent water height) of spurious signal within the Murray - Darling Basin. This equates to only one quarter of the formal uncertainty of the basin-scale estimates of changes in total water storage. Thus, GRACE products can be used to monitor broad scale hydrologic trends and variability in the Murray-Darling Basin without the need to account for contamination of the estimates from external geophysical sources.

The use of airborne hyperspectral imagery for mapping soil surface mineralogy is examined for the semi-arid Tick Hill test site (20 km2) near Mount Isa in north-western Queensland. Mineral maps at 4.5 m pixel resolution include the abundances and physicochemistries (chemical composition and crystal disorder) of kaolin, illite-muscovite, and Al smectite (both montmorillonite and beidellite), as well as iron oxide, hydrated silica (opal), and soil/rock water (bound and unbound). Validation of these hyperspectral mineral maps involved field sampling (34 sites) and laboratory analyses (spectral reflectance and X-ray diffraction). The field spectral data were processed for their mineral information content the same way as the airborne HyMap data processing. The results showed significant spatial and statistical correlation. The mineral maps provide more detailed surface compositional information compared with the published soil and geology maps and other geoscience data (airborne radiometrics and digital elevation model). However, there is no apparent correlation between the published soil types (i.e. Ferrosols, Vertosols, and Tenosols) and the hyperspectral mineral maps (e.g. iron oxide-rich areas are not mapped as Ferrosols and smectite-rich areas are not mapped as Vertosols). This lack of correlation is interpreted to be related to the current lack of spatially comprehensive mineralogy for existing regional soil mapping. If correct, then this new, quantitative mineral mapping data has the potential to improve not just soil mapping but also soil and water catchment monitoring and modeling at local to regional scales. The challenges to achieving this outcome include gaining access to continental-scale hyperspectral data and models that link the surface mineralogy to subsurface soil characteristics/processes.