Geoscience Australia's National Earth Observation Group commissioned this study through the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information. The primary aim of this study was to determine the value of Earth observation from space activities to the Australian economy. The three main objectives of this study were to: 1. estimate the direct and indirect economic value of space based Earth Observation activities to the Australian community in 2008-09 year 2. determine the direct and indirect economic impact of an unplanned denial of all Earth Observation data to the Australian economy in 2008-09 year 3. identify contemplated large-scale government applications of Earth Observation data and estimate their direct and indirect economic value. In subsequent discussions it was agreed that the report would also provide an estimate of the size of the Earth observation from space industry, particularly the small-medium enterprise sector in the 2008-09 financial year. The scope of this report did not include the value of Earth observation from space services for national security or defence.

Geoscience Australia and CO2CRC have constructed a greenhouse gas controlled release reference facility to simulate surface emissions of CO2 (and other GHG gases) from an underground slotted horizontal well into the atmosphere under controlled conditions. The facility is located at an experimental agricultural station maintained by CSIRO Plant Industry at Ginninderra, Canberra. The design of the facility is modelled on the ZERT controlled release facility in Montana. The facility is equipped with a 2.5 tonne liquid CO2 storage vessel, vaporiser and mass flow controller unit with a capacity for 6 individual metered CO2 gas streams (up to 600 kg/d capacity). Injection of CO2 into soil is via a shallow (2m depth) underground 120m horizontally drilled slotted HDPE pipe. This is equipped with a packer system to partition the well into six CO2 injection chambers. The site is characterised by the presence of deep red and yellow podsolic soils with the subsoil containing mainly kaolinite and subdominant illite. Injection is above the water table. The choice of well orientation based upon the effects of various factors such as topography, wind direction, soil properties and ground water depth will be discussed. An above ground release experiment was conducted from July - October 2010 leading to the development of an atmospheric tomography technique for quantifying and locating CO2 emissions1. This technique will be applied to the first sub-surface experiment held in January-March 2012 in addition to soil flux surveys, microbiological surveys, and tracer studies. An overview of monitoring experiments conducted during the subsurface release and preliminary results will be presented. Additional CO2 releases are planned for late 2012 and 2013. Abstract for "11th Annual Conference on Carbon Capture Utilization & Sequestration" April 30 - May 3, 2012, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

11-5413 The Probabilistic Volcanic Ash - Hazard Map movie describes how you construct a probabilistic hazard map for volcanic ash, using an example scenario from GA's volcanic ash modelling work in West Java, Indonesia. The target audience is other govt. agencies both national and international, and the general public. The 3.3 minute movie uses 3D Max animations and 2D affects, has narration and production music. The narration will also be done in Bahasa Indonesian, at a later date.

An atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring station began operation in July 2010 near Emerald, Queensland. The station is part of a collaborative project between Geoscience Australia (GA) and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR) to establish and operate a high precision atmospheric monitoring facility for measurement of baseline greenhouse gases (GHG) in a high priority geological carbon dioxide storage region. The primary purpose of the station is to field test newly developed greenhouse gas monitoring technology and demonstrate best practice for regional baseline atmospheric monitoring appropriate for geological storage of carbon dioxide. The GHG records were to be used as a reference for monitoring of the atmosphere at a CO2 storage project, providing a baseline to quantify typical variations in the area and a background against which any anomalies in the immediate vicinity of the storage might be detected. The site chosen for the GHG atmospheric monitoring station is in the locality of Arcturus, 50 km southeast of Emerald in the Central Highlands, Queensland. Site selection was based on the recommendations of the Carbon Storage Taskforce's National Carbon Mapping and Infrastructure Plan, regional assessments of prospective basins, regional atmospheric modelling, and consultation with key stakeholders. The key driver for the stakeholder consultation group was to support early projects for large scale onshore geological storage. Both the Bowen and Surat basins were identified as potential early mover onshore storage regions by the group and suitable for a regional atmospheric monitoring station. During early 2010, ZeroGen had an active exploration program for geological storage and the site was eventually located approximately 8km upwind from the boundary of ZeroGen's most prospective storage area in the northern Denison Trough, part of the larger Bowen Basin. The Arcturus site and environs is representative of the activities and ecology of Queenslan's Central Highlands and the greenhouse gas signals are likely be influenced by cropping, pasture, cattle production, and gas and coal activities. These same activities are also likely to be dominant sources of greenhouse gases in the Surat Basin. Importantly, the site is secure, can be accessed via an existing road, is not subject to flooding, and has easy access to electrical lines that only required the installation of a transformer on an electric pole. A long lead time for new electricity connections at remote sites (potentially greater than 12 months) was identified as a key risk to the project. Negotiations with the electricity supplier resulted in connection in less than 4 months. An access agreement was negotiated with the landowner to enable the installation of the monitoring station and access to the site.

Unlocking the Landsat Archive (ULA) project poster presentation outlining the background to the project, it's objectives and major components.

Geoscience Australia and CO2CRC have constructed a greenhouse gas controlled release facility to simulate surface emissions of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) from the soil into the atmosphere under controlled conditions. The facility is located at an experimental agricultural station maintained by CSIRO Plant Industry at Ginninderra, Canberra. The design of the facility is modelled on the ZERT controlled release facility in Montana. The facility is equipped with a 2.5 tonne liquid CO2 storage vessel, vaporiser and mass flow controller unit with a capacity for 6 individual metered CO2 gas streams (up to 600 kg/d capacity in total). Injection of CO2 into the soil is via a 120m long slotted HDPE pipe installed horizontally 2m underground. This is equipped with a packer system to partition the well into six CO2 injection chambers. The site is characterised by the presence of deep red and yellow podsolic soils with the subsoil containing mainly kaolinite and subdominant illite. Injection is above the water table. The choice of well orientation based upon the effects of various factors such as topography, wind direction, soil properties and ground water depth will be discussed. An above ground release experiment was conducted from July - October 2010 leading to the development of an atmospheric tomography technique for quantifying and locating CO2 emissions1. An overview of monitoring experiments conducted during the first subsurface release (January-March 2012), including application of the atmospheric tomography technique, soil flux surveys, microbiological surveys, and tracer studies, will be presented. Additional CO2 release experiments are planned for late 2012 and 2013. Poster presented at 11th Annual Conference on Carbon Capture Utilization & Sequestration, April 30 - May 3, 2012, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Earth Observations from Space describes a range of approaches that observe and measure Earth surface properties from space-based platforms. Earth Observations from Space data is used widely and to great advantage in Australia by numerous federal and state government agencies, research institutions, and the private sector, and have particular value in a large, sparsely populated country that needs to monitor a long coastline and a wide range of natural disasters. Australias involvement in international agreements that require recording, monitoring and reporting on environmental change also necessitates the use of Earth Observations from Space data.

2009 Australian Strategic Plan for Earth Observations from Space from the Australian Academy of Science and Technological Sciences and Engineering (AAS-ATSE) which outlined the key issues and recommended a plan of action for the Earth Observations from Space community.

There is increasing recognition that minimising methane emissions from the oil and gas sector is a key step in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions in the near term. Atmospheric monitoring techniques are likely to play an important future role in measuring the extent of existing emissions and verifying emission reductions. They can be very suitable for monitoring gas fields as they are continuous and integrate emissions from a number of potential point and diffuse sources that may vary in time. Geoscience Australia and CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research have collected three years of continuous methane and carbon dioxide measurements at their atmospheric composition monitoring station ('Arcturus') in the Bowen Basin, Australia. Methane signals in the Bowen Basin are likely to be influenced by cattle production, landfill, coal production, and conventional and coal seam gas (CSG) production. Australian CSG is typically 'dry' and is characterised by a mixed thermogenic-biogenic methane source with an absence of C3-C6+ alkanes. The range of '13C isotopic signatures of the CSG is similar to methane from landfill gas and cattle emissions. The absence of standard in-situ tracers for CSG fugitive emissions suggests that having a comprehensive baseline will be critical for successful measurement of fugitive emissions using atmospheric techniques. In this paper we report on the sensitivity of atmospheric techniques for the detection of fugitive emissions from a simulated new CSG field against a three year baseline signal. Simulation of emissions was performed for a 1-year period using the coupled prognostic meteorological and air pollution model TAPM at different fugitive emission rates (i.e. estimates of <1% to up to 10% of production lost) and distances (i.e. 10 - 50 km) from the station. Emissions from the simulated CSG field are based on well density, production volumes, and field size typical of CSG fields in Australia. The distributions of the perturbed and baseline signals were evaluated and statistically compared to test for the presence of fugitive methane emissions. In addition, a time series model of the methane baseline was developed in order to generate alternative realizations of the baseline signal. These were used to provide measures of both the likelihood of detecting fugitive emissions at various emission levels and of the false alarm rate. Results of the statistical analysis and an indicative minimum fugitive methane emission rate that can be detected using a single monitoring station are presented. Poster presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting, December 2013, San Francisco

Deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle during surface CO2 release experiments at the Ginninderra greenhouse gas controlled release facility H. Berko (CO2CRC, Geoscience Australia), F. Poppa (The Australian National University), U. Zimmer (The Australian National University) and A. Feitz (CO2CRC, Geoscience Australia) Lagrangian stochastic (LS) forward modelling of CO2 plumes from above-surface release experiments conducted at the GA-CO2CRC Ginninderra controlled release facility demonstrated that small surface leaks are likely to disperse rapidly and unlikely to be detected at heights greater 4 m; this was verified using a rotorcraft to map out the plume. The CO2 sensing rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicle (RUAV) developed at the Australian National University, Canberra, is equipped with a CO2 sensor, a GPS, lidar and a communication module. It was developed to detect and locate CO2 gas leaks; and estimate CO2 concentration at the emission source. The choice of a rotor-craft UAV allows slower flight speeds compared to speeds of a fixed-wing UAV; and the electric powered motor enables flight times of 12 min. In experiments conducted at the Ginninderra controlled release facility, gaseous CO2 (100 kg per day) was released from a small diffuse source located in the middle of the paddock, and the RUAV was flown repeatedly over the CO2 source at a few meters height. Meteorological parameters measured continuously at the site at the time of the flight were input in the LS model. Mapped out horizontal and vertical CO2 concentrations established the need to be close to the ground in order to detect CO2 leakage using aerial techniques. Using the rotorcraft as a mobile sensor could be an expedient mechanism to detect plumes over large areas, and would be important for early detection of CO2 leaks arising from CCS activities.