<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>

DIGITAL NUMBER TO RADIANCE CALIBRATION CONSTANTS FOR ACRES LANDSAT MULTISPECTRAL SCANNER DATA

No available information

Joint Release of the National ASTER geoscience maps at IGC The ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer) Geoscience Maps are the first public, web-accessible, continent-scale product release from the ASTER Global Mapping data archive. The collaborative Australian ASTER Initiative represents a successful multi-agency endeavour, led by the Western Australian Centre of Excellence for 3D Mineral Mapping (C3DMM) at CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and the State and Territory government geological surveys of Australia, along with other national and international collaborators. National ASTER geoscience map These geoscience maps are released in GIS format as 1:1M map-sheet tiles, from 3,000 ASTER scenes of 60x60km. Each scene was cross-calibrated and validated using independent Hyperion satellite imagery. The new ASTER geoscience products range in their application from local to continental scales, and their uses include mapping of soils for agricultural and environmental management, such as estimating soil loss, dust management and water catchment modelling. They will also be useful for resource exploration, showing host rock, alteration and regolith mineralogy and providing new mineral information at high spatial resolution (30m pixel). This information is not currently available from other pre-competitive geoscience data.

Regolith materials spatially and chemically associated with various types of ore deposits, such as iron oxides, manganese oxides and gold deposits for example, have the potential to be mapped and characterised using remote sensing techniques. With the release of new state-scale multispectral data such as the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER) Geoscience map of Western Australia (Figure 1), these applications may be tested and evaluated, along with identifying ore deposit types and characteristics best suited to using remote sensing techniques. A world-first continental scale ASTER mosaic and pre-competitive geoscience products for Australia are planned for public release in August 2012. The ASTER products are designed to provide broad scale mineral group information for mineral explorers at the continental to prospect scale. The product will be particularly useful for obtaining information on remote or difficult to access areas of Australia. ASTER data consists of 14 bands from Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR) light, through Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) and Thermal Infrared (TIR) encompassing different reflectance and emission spectras from the top few microns of material on the Earth's surface (Figure 2).

The world's first satellite-derived mineral maps of a continent, namely Australia, are now publicly available as digital, web-accessible products. The value of this spatially comprehensive mineral information is readily being captured by explorers at terrane to prospect scales. However, potentially even greater benefits can ensue for environmental applications, especially for the Earth's extensive drylands which generate nearly 50% of the world's agricultural production but are most at risk to climate change and poor land management. Here we show how these satellite mineral maps can be used to: characterise soil types; define the extent of deserts; fingerprint sources of dust; measure the REDOX of iron minerals as a potential marine input; and monitor the process of desertification. We propose a 'Mineral Desertification Index' that can be applied to all Earth's drylands where the agriculturally productive clay mineral component is being lost by erosion. Mineral information is fundamental to understanding geology and is important for resource applications1. Minerals are also a fundamental component of soils2 as well as dust eroded from the land surface, which can potentially impact on human health3, the marine environment4 and climate5. Importantly, minerals are well exposed in the world's 'drylands', which account for nearly 50% of Earth's land area6. Here, vegetation cover is sparse to non-existent as a result of low rainfall (P) and high evaporation (E) rates (P/E<0.65). However, drylands support 50% of the world's livestock production and almost half of all cultivated systems6. In Australia, drylands cover 85% of the continent and account for 50% of its beef, 80% of its sheep and 93% of its grain production7. Like other parts of the world, Australia is facing serious desertification of its drylands6. Wind, overgrazing and overstocking are major factors in the desertification process8. That is, the agriculturally productive clay-size fraction of soils (often includes organic carbon) is lost largely through wind erosion, which is acerbated by the loss of any vegetative groundcover (typically dry plant materials). Once clay (and carbon) loss begins, then the related break down of the soil structure and loss of its water holding capacity increases the rate of the degeneration process with the final end products being either exposed rock or quartz sands that often concentrate in deserts.

Pixel Quality Assessment describes the results of a number of quality tests which are used to determine the quality of a Landsat image product in terms of, pixel saturation, pixel contiguity between spectral bands, whether the pixel is over land or sea, cloud contamination, cloud shadow and topographic shadow. Pixel Quality is used to filter an input Landsat image for downstream processing in a production workflow. It has general applicability to a number of image processing scenarios.

Geoscience Australia acquires satellite imagery from a range of Earth observation satellites. This poster focuses on Australian States and Territories and various satellite applications.

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.

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.