<div>The A1 poster incorporates 4 images of Australia taken from space by Earth observing satellites. The accompanying text briefly introduces sensors and the bands within the electromagnetic spectrum. The images include examples of both true and false colour and the diverse range of applications of satellite images such as tracking visible changes to the Earth’s surface like crop growth, bushfires, coastal changes and floods. Scientists, land and emergency managers use satellite images to analyse vegetation, surface water or human activities as well as evaluate natural&nbsp;hazards.</div>

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).

Australia has been receiving Earth Observations from Space (EOS) for over 50 years. Meteorological imagery dates from 1960 and Earth observation imagery from 1979. Australia has developed world-class scientific, environmental and emergency management EOS applications. However, in the top fifty economies of the world, Australia is one of only three nations which does not have a space program. The satellites on which Australia depends are supplied by other countries which is a potential problem due to Australia having limited control over data continuity and data access. The National Remote Sensing Technical Reference Group (NRSTRG) was established by Geoscience Australia as an advisory panel in 2004. It represents a cross-section of the remote sensing community and is made up of representatives from government, universities and private companies. Through the NRSTRG these parties provide Geoscience Australia with advice on technical and policy matters related to remote sensing. In February 2009 the NRSTRG met for a day specifically to discuss Australia's reliance on EOS, with a view to informing the development of space policy. This report is the outcome of that meeting. Australia has some 92 programs dependent on EOS data. These programs are concerned with environmental issues, natural resource management, water, agriculture, meteorology, forestry, emergency management, border security, mapping and planning. Approximately half these programs have a high dependency on EOS data. While these programs are quite diverse there is considerable overlap in the technology and data. Of Australia's EOS dependent programs 71 (77%) are valued between $100,000 and $10 million and 82 (89%) of all these programs have a medium or high dependency on EOS data demonstrating Australia's dependency on space based imaging. Earth observation dependencies within currently active Federal and state government programs are calculated to be worth just over $949 million, calculated by weighting the level of dependency on EOS for each program. This includes two programs greater than $100 million in scale and one program greater than a billion dollars in scale. This document is intended as a summary of Australia's current space and Earth observation dependencies, compiled by the NRSTRG, to be presented to the Federal Government's Space Policy Unit, a section of the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, as an aid to space policy formation.

Normalising for atmospheric, land surface bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) and terrain illumination effects are essential in satellite data processing. It is important both for a single scene when the combination of land cover, sun, view angles and terrain slope angles create anisotropy and for multiple scenes in which the sun angle changes. Geoscience Australia (GA) is establishing a procedure to conduct physically based atmospheric BRDF and terrain illumination correction for moderate spatial resolution satellite imagery (10-100 m) such as Landsat using a coupled atmospheric and BRDF model. In particular, the method is not dependent on the image data, does not need extensive field data, can be applied equally to different environments and used with different sensors in a consistent way. Furthermore, the corrected surface reflectance derived using this method can be used to calibrate and cross-calibrate satellite sensors. More importantly, the normalized reflectance can be used for time series analysis to trace climate change and land cover variation using multiple sensors (including satellite, airborne and ground based). In this paper, we will describe the algorithm being progressed at GA. Preliminary results from the algorithm will be compared with ground based reflectance measurements for selected validation sites. The paper will also discuss how the environmental input data for the model, such as aerosol, water vapour and BRDF parameters are selected and applied.

This CCT format specification follows the format coding conventions defined in the document " SAR DATA PRODUCTS FORMAT STANDARD Rev 2.0 10 March 1989 by CEOS SAR Data Standards Subgroup ". To improve compatibility between different installations, certain conventions have been used for the specification of the data formats on the CCT.

The regional assessment of hydrocarbon seepage is built around a combination of Radarsat and ERS Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, acquired during 1998 and 1999, as part of a collaborative project between AGSO - Geoscience Australia, Nigel Press & Associates, Radarsat International and AUSLIG (specifically the Australian Centre for Remote Sensing). In total, 55 Radarsat Wide 1 Beam Mode scenes and 1 ERS scene from the Great Australian Bight (GAB) region were analysed. The data were integrated with regional geological information, and other hydrocarbon migration/seepage indicators such as reprocessed and reinterpreted legacy Airborne Laser Fluorosensor (ALF) data, to provide an assessment of the possible charge characteristics of the region. The results of the study suggest that active, though areally restricted, liquid hydrocarbon seepage is occurring within the Bight Basin. The majority of seepage slicks occur along the outer margin of the major depocentre, the Ceduna Sub-basin, in areas where significant Late Tertiary to Recent faulting extends to the seafloor. Very little evidence of seepage was observed on the SAR data above the main depocentre, which is an area of minimal Late Tertiary to Recent faulting. Reprocessed ALF data reveal three main areas with relatively dense fluors. Although they are not directly coincident with locations of seepage interpreted from SAR data, their distribution support the pattern of preferred leakage along the basin margins. Integration of regional geological models with the results of this study suggests that structural features related to active tectonism have focused laterally migrating hydrocarbons to produce active seepage at specific locations in the basin. Where these features are absent, seepage may be passive and/or be governed by long distance migration to points of seal failure. Together with oil and gas shows in exploration wells, observations from this study provide further evidence that liquid hydrocarbons have been generated in the Great Australian Bight.

The product SAR.PRI is a digital image generated from raw SAR data using up-to-date auxiliary parameters, corrected for antenna elevation gain and range spreading loss. The image, projected on ground range, covers an area of 1400km wide and at least 102.5 km long. The ESA SAR.PRI format is based on the grneral definition of the SAR CEOS format (ref. ER-IS-EPO-GS-5902.

Geoscience Australia, ACRES distribute Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data for a series of epochs or time frames covering Australia. The first epoch is 1972. These data have been produced and provided by the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO). AGO use the data in their National Carbon Accounting System for monitoring land clearing and revegetation. This data is only available through ACRES and ACRES Landsat Distributors, and not through the AGO. More information is available at <a href="http://www.ga.gov.au/acres/prod_ser/agosuite.jsp">http://www.ga.gov.au/acres/prod_ser/agosuite.jsp</a> This data is available in 1:1M tiles or as a full continental Mosaic. Tiles areas are available at: <a href="http://www.ga.gov.au/acres/prod_ser/agotilemap.jsp">http://www.ga.gov.au/acres/prod_ser/agotilemap.jsp</a>

The RADARSAT satellite was developed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and was launched on 4 November 1995. It has a C-band, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor on board. The SAR is an active microwave sensor capable of imaging earth resource targets regardless of time of day, cloud, haze or smoke cover of an area. The instrument is classified "active" as it emits the energy necessary to image the earth's surface. In contrast, "passive" or "optical" sensors rely on the sun's reflected energy to image the earth. This sensor can operate in a variety of imaging modes to suit a range of applications. Depending on the beam mode, the SAR ground swath widith varies between 50 and 500 kilometres, and the pixel resolution varies between 10 and 100 metres. The sensor has HH polarisation. ACRES Radarsat archive consists of extensive coverage from August 1997 to late 1999. ACRES currently do not have an agreement with RSI but can acquire data if downlink is granted by RSI.

The product SAR.GEC is a digital image generated from raw SAR data takes using up-to-date auxiliary parameters, with the best available instrubmental corrections applied, precisely located and recified onto a map projection. The ESA SAR.GEC format is based on teh general definistion of the SAR CEOS format (ref. ER-IS-EPO-GS-5902).