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.

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.

In July 2010, Geoscience Australia and CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research jointly commissioned a new atmospheric composition monitoring station, named Arcturus, in sub-tropical Queensland, Australia. The facility is designed as a proto-type remotely operated `baseline monitoring station' that could be deployed in areas that are likely targets for commercial scale geological storage of carbon dioxide. A key question, given the ecosystem and anthropogenic sources of CO2 in the region, and the absence of a 'clean-wind' sector baseline, is how large would a CO2 leak have to be from a geological storage site before it can be detected above the background CO2 signal? To address this, CO2 leak simulation modelling was performed for 1-year period using the coupled prognostic meteorological and air pollution model TAPM at various locations, emission rates and distances (1-10 km) from the station.

The CO2CRC has been leading the international development and application of atmospheric techniques for CO2 leak detection and quantification for CCS. CSIRO's atmospheric monitoring program at the CO2CRC Otway Project demonstrated world's leading practice for atmospheric monitoring at geological storage sites. The GA-CO2CRC Ginninderra controlled release facility has enabled development and testing of a new atmospheric tomography approach for accurately quantifying CO2 emissions using atmospheric techniques. A scaled-up version of the technique using an array of more cost effective (but less accurate) sensors was applied at a larger scale at the Otway Stage 2B controlled release. Additional techniques have been developed including data filtering to optimize the detection of emitted gases against the ecosystem background and Bayesian inverse modeling to locate and quantify a source. GA and CSIRO operate a joint baseline atmospheric station in the Bowen Basin and have been independently investigating the sensitivity of CO2 leak detection through coupling of measurements taken in a sub-tropical environment with simulated leakage events. An outcome from this body of work is the importance of good quality, calibrated measurements, a long baseline record and the development and application of techniques using atmospheric models for quantifying gaseous emissions from the ground to the atmosphere. These same measurement requirements and quantification techniques have direct application to fugitive methane emissions from open cut coal mines, coal seam gas, tight gas, and conventional gas emissions. Application is easier for methane: the background signal is lower, sensors are available at affordable cost, and the emissions are measureable now. The Bowen Basin site, for example, is detecting fugitive methane emitted from open cut coal mining activities tens of kilometres away. An example of the sensitivity of atmospheric techniques for the detection of fugitive emissions from a simulated methane source will be presented.

Abstract for a Poster for the CO2CRC Symposium 2013: Atmospheric tomography is a CO2 quantification and localisation technique that uses an array of sampling points and a Bayesian inversion method to solve for the location and magnitude of a CO2 leak. Knowledge of a normalized three-dimensional dispersion plume is required in order to accurately model a leak using many meteorological parameters. A previous small scale (~20 m) study using a high precision Fourier Transform Infrared found that the emission rate was determined to within 3% of the actual release rate and the localisation within 1 m of the correct position. The technique was applied during the CO2CRC Otway Stage 2B residual saturation and dissolution test in August-October 2011. A network of eight independent CO2 sensors (Vaisala GMP343 CO2 probes) were positioned at distances ranging from 154 to 473 m from the well. A 3D sonic anemometer within the measurement area collected wind turbulence data. The results of the study indicate that, through careful data processing, measurements from the reasonably inexpensive (but lower accuracy and lower precision) CO2 sensor array can provide useful data for the application of atmospheric tomography. Results have found that the low precision of the sensors over time becomes a problem due to sensor drift. A reference measurement of CO2 helps to resolve this problem and improves the perturbation signal during data processing. Preliminary inversion modeling results will be shown to show the best estimation of locating a CO2 leakage source for the Otway Stage 2B residual saturation and dissolution test. CO2CRC Symposium 2013, Hobart

Geoscience Australia and the CO2CRC have constructed a greenhouse gas controlled release facility at an experimental agricultural station maintained by CSIRO Plant Industry at Ginninderra, Canberra. The facility is designed to simulate surface emissions of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) from the soil into the atmosphere. CO2 is injected into the soil is via a 120m long slotted HDPE pipe installed horizontally 2m underground. This is fitted with a straddle packer system to partition the well into six CO2 injection chambers with each chamber connected to its own CO2 injection line. CO2 was injected into 5 of the chambers during the first sub-surface release experiment (March - May 2012) and the total daily injection rate was 100 kg/d. A krypton tracer was injected into one of the 5 chambers at a rate of 10 mL/min. Monitoring methods trialled at the site include eddy covariance, atmospheric tomography using a wireless networked array of solar powered CO2 stations, soil flux, soil gas, frequency-domain electromagnetics (FDEM), soil community DNA analysis, and krypton tracer studies (soil gas and air). A summary of the findings will be presented. Paper presented at the 2012 CO2CRC Research Symposium, Sunshine Beach, 27-29 November 2012.

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

This folder contains the work related to Climate Future Tasmania project including hazard, risk calculation, standalone tool, management and reports etc.

Geoscience Australia and the CO2CRC have constructed a greenhouse gas controlled release facility at an experimental agricultural station maintained by CSIRO Plant Industry at Ginninderra, Canberra. The facility is designed to simulate surface emissions of CO2 from the soil into the atmosphere and is modelled on the ZERT controlled release facility in Montana. Injection of CO2 into the soil is via a 120 m long slotted HDPE pipe installed horizontally 2 m underground. An eddy covariance (EC) system was installed at Ginninderra during the first sub-surface release (March - June 2012). The EC system, which generated 15 minute averages using a 10 Hz sampling frequency, measured net radiation (as a function of upwelling and downwelling, solar and longwave radiation); wind speed and direction in 3 dimensions; CO2 and H2O concentration; and temperature and pressure. The EC system was installed to provide baseline atmospheric measurements and assess methods for quantifying CO2 leakages. The daily CO2 release rate was 100 kg/d. Here we report on the application of the CO2 emissions quantification method developed by Pan et al. (2010) for detecting and quantifying CO2 leakages using EC techniques. The approach seeks to isolate the CO2 leakage signal from the natural variation inherent in flux data, using a time-window splitting scheme, median filtering and scaling techniques. Results from application of the EC method at the Ginninderra site will be presented and modifications to the method and its limitations discussed. Pan, L.; Lewicki, J.L.; Oldenburg C.M.; and Fischer M.L., (2010). Time-window based filtering method for near-surface detection of leakage from geological carbon sequestration sites, Environmental Earth Sciences, 60, pp 359-369. Proceedings of the 2013 International Carbon Dioxide Conference - Beijing China