<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>

ACRES Tehnical Document - updated 4 September 2000. Dynamic range values for ACRES TM data products.

Two ERS satellites have been developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). ERS-1 was launched on 17 July 1991 and ERS-2 on 20 April 1995. Both ERS satellites travel at an altitude of 785 kilometres and provide coverage of the entire globe every 35 days. The C-band, Synthetic Appeture Radar (SAR) sensor has been the primary Earth-observing instrument. 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. The SAR ground swath is 102.5 kilometres wide, with a nominal 30 metre pixel resolution. The sensor has VV polarisation. ACRES ERS-1 archive includes data acquired from September 1991 to March 2000, while ACRES ERS-2 acquisitions started in November 1995 and continues to present.

The JERS-1 satellite was developed by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). JERS-1 was launched in February 1992 and operated until 11 October 1998. The satellite traveled at an altitude of 568 kilometres and provided coverage of the entire globe every 44 days. The L-band, Synthetic Appeture Radar (SAR) sensor was the primary Earth-observing instrument. 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. The SAR ground swath is 75 kilometres wide, with a nominal 18 metre pixel resolution. The sensor has HH polarisation. ACRES JERS SAR acquisition commenced in September 1993 and ended in October 1998.

Continent-scale digital maps of mineral information of the Earth's land surface are now achievable using geoscience-tuned remote sensing systems. Multispectral ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) data and the derived mineral information provide the opportunity for characterization of geological and soil processes including the nature of the regolith (weathered) cover and alteration footprints of hydrothermal ore deposits [1,2]. This paper describes work from the Western Australian (WA) Centre of Excellence for 3D Mineral Mapping, which is part of CSIRO's Minerals Down Under Flagship and supported by Geoscience Australia and other Australian geosurveys, to generate a series of ASTER mineral group maps (both content and composition) for the whole Australian continent at a 30 m pixel resolution.. The input ASTER L1B radiance-at-sensor data were provided by ERSDAC (Japan), NASA and the USGS. These data were corrected for instrument, illumination, atmospheric and geometric effects. About 4000 ASTER scenes from an archive of >30,000 scenes were selected to generate the continent-scale ASTER map and Hyperion scenes were used for reduction and validation of the cross-calibrated ASTER mosaic to reflectance. Band ratios [2] were applied as base algorithms and masked to remove complicating effects, such as green vegetation, clouds and deep shadow. Types of generated geoscience products include (1) mineral group content maps based on continuum-band depths (e.g. Al-OH group content mapping Al-OH clays like muscovite, kaolinite and montmorillonite) and (2) mineral group composition maps (e.g. Al-OH group composition ranging from Si-rich white mica through to well ordered kaolinite) based on ratios but masked using the relevant content products.

Mapping and analysis of landscapes in Australia can now benefit from a continental mineral map coverage, helping to identify and characterise materials at the surface, with the recent release (August 2012) of the Satellite ASTER Geoscience Maps of Australia (http://c3dmm.csiro.au/Australia_ASTER/stage_1_geoscienceproductnotes.html). The new maps can provide mineralogical information on weathering, soils and regolith boundaries and compositions. The ASTER mosaic, made up of some ~3,500 60x60 km individual ASTER scenes, were produced by a multi-agency collaboration of Australian government partners. They represent the first of their kind: a continent-scale, public, web-accessible and GIS-compatible ASTER geoscience product suite. Led by CSIRO, Geoscience Australia along with several state government agencies, (including GSWA, GSQ, DMITRE and NTGS), have released 17 geoscientific products across the whole of Australia, with application to landscape analysis, environmental studies, mineral mapping and exploration, as well as soil-mapping and the agricultural sectors. Outcomes have included the formation of a platform for establishing national standards, geoscience product nomenclature, processing methods, accuracy assessments and traceable documentation. The ASTER bands are being used together with other complementary datasets (e.g. terrain indices, gamma-ray radiometrics) to build statistical predictive models on surface regolith geochemistry. This study is a preliminary investigation and assessment of how to use the new products for geomorphic applications, particularly landscape analysis and characterisation.

The product SAR.GTC is a digital image generated from raw SAR data takes using up-tp-date auxiliary parameters, with the best available instrumental corrections applied, precisely located, corrected for terrain varieations and rectified onto a map projection. The ESA SAR.GTC format is based on the general definition of the SAR CEOS format (ref. ER-IS-EPO-GS-5902).

This two year collaborative project was established in July 2006 with the overall aim of developing, validating, evaluating and delivering a suite of publicly available, pre-competitive mineral mapping products from airborne HyMap hyperspectral imagery and satellite multispectral ASTER imagery. Moreover, it was important to establish whether these mineral maps would complement other precompetitive geological and geophysical data and provide valuable new information regards enhanced mineral exploration for industry. A mineral systems approach was used to appreciate the value of these mineral maps for exploration. That is, unlocking the value from these mineral maps is not simply by looking for the red bulls-eyes. Instead, mineral products need to be selected on the basis of critical parameters, such as what minerals are expected to develop as fluids migrate from source rocks to depositional sites and then into outflow zones with each associated with different physicochemical conditions (e.g. metasomatic metal budget, nature of the fluids, water-rock ratios, lithostatic pressure, pore fluid pressure, REDOX, pH, and temperature). One of the other key messages is to be able to recognise mineral chemical gradients as well as anomalous cross-cutting effects. These principles were tested using a number of case histories including, (1) the Starra iron oxide Cu-Au deposit; (2) the Mount Isa Pb-Zn-Ag and Cu deposits; and (3) Century Zn, all within the Mount Isa Block. These showed that the interpreted mineral alteration footprints of these mineral systems can be traced 10-15 km away from the metal deposition sites. In summary this project has shown that it is possible to generate accurate, large area mineral maps that provide new information about mineral system footprints not seen in other precompetitive geoscience data and that the vision of a mineral map of Australia is achievable and valuable.

The Otway-Sorell study is part of Infoterra's Global Seeps programme - a multi-phase two year exploration programme to create the definitive offshore seeps database for the worldwide exploration industry. The Otway-Sorell Basin study includes interpretations by Infoterra and Geoscience Australia that correlate multiple seep clusters with regional seismic and gravity datasets. The study provides exciting new evidence on the oil prospectivity of this offshore region.

Landsat Path Row Map