Satellite’s global view of a new industry for N.Z.

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 17

Satellite’s global view of a new industry for N.Z.

By

GWENYTH WRIGHT,

of Wellington,

former assistant editor of “Straight Furrow.”

What have satellites to do with the wheat yield or a fillet of orange roughy? Chunks of ironmongery in orbit above the Earth are the new tools pf forestry, conservation, cropping, and grassland farming, and the search for fish in the oceans of the world. The Government has approved expenditure of $10.5 million on building an Earth satellite receiving station plus another $2 million a year to run it. Whether or not we hook ourselves up to the technology, a God’s-eye-view of planet Earth has us relentlessly under surveillance from between 700 and 900 km out in space. Landsat passes over New Zealand at about 9.30 a.m., tracking westwards in its 14 orbits a day. In seven days it covers the whole of New Zealand and the surrounding sea area. After 16 to 18 days, the cycle repeats itself, having covered the whole world in a series of sweeps. A D.S.I.R. scientist, Dr Peter Ellis, a highly infectious enthusiast for what he sees as more than useful technology, lists the benefits: “Regular monitoring from satellites is useful information for dealing with coastal erosion, land development — farmers with the right resolution and frequency can assess crop types, plant health, and the effects of irrigation.” The Forest Service will be able to monitor exotic forests and private woodlots for future milling. The extent and condition of native forests will be known. Chlorophyll in the fishing zone can be measured. Chlorophyll indicates the presence of plankton, and where there is plankton there are fish. Ocean currents can be plotted and the dispersal of effluent dis-

charges. Satellite information taken up by the Lands and Survey Department has gone into relief maps and aeronautical charts. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has translated Landsat data into “ground truth” with farmers at Darfield and Leeston. It is theoretically possible — with international co-operation — to predict the world yield in wheat and rice. Satellite sensors keep constant watch over the Earth’s surface and pours out an endless stream of digital data. For the first time a global view of the planet and its resources is available to humanity. “But we need several years of learning to interpret the data. As time goes on more things become possible,” Dr Ellis says. He hints at great possibilities and, for New Zealand in the immediate future, a new industry is shaping. The benefits of a receiving station will be: sale of data; establishment of technology; returns from the European Space Age Programme; and the manufacture in New Zealand of peripheral devices. A raft of aids will help farmers, the fishing industry, geologists, foresters, miners, and cartographers to understand the Earth resources with which they work. As the public becomes familiar with the new technology, Dr Ellis would like to see New Zealand emulate Japan with a browse facility like R.E.S.T.E.C. in Tokyo. There, data on computer screens are available to customers to do their own image processing before ordering the precise image they need. The team of Remote Sensing and Image Processing experts led by Dr Ellis has spent 10 years developing interpretive skills here by

working with the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) in the United States and using images from the Landsat series of satellites. From their cramped quarters in the physics and engineering laboratory of the D. the team has blossomed into a new division of information technology. They have to their credit a package of software devised by Dr Mike McDonnall and sold under the E. label through Progeni Systems, Ltd, Lower Hutt. An eightchannel radiometer developed by the remote sensing team has been taken over for commercial manufacture by Delphi Industries, Ltd, Auckland. The first of these instruments was sold to the Office of Naval Research for use on the United States military space shuttle. Another has been sold to the European space programme and orders have been received from Australia. At ?USIO,OOO each, this is highly profitable high technology business. “It’s the pay-off for the act of faith in setting up the remote sensing group in 1973 and now in the plans for a receiving station,” Dr Ellis says. He and his staff are putting remote sensing into a context of computing generally with data bases for holding maps with a standard format. The customer will then be able to “combine, for example, a topographic line map with land use maps, or maps of soil type held on data bases all over the place.”

Not only maps, but also information on botanical specimens will be available and health diagnoses based on data fed into computers with access to an enormous data base. This command post for the D.S.I.R. computer network, linking other departments and agencies into a modern computer system, will be “at the interface between technology and the public.” The Post Office, with its own communications satellite at Warkworth and a pool of engineering expertise already into satellite communications and computing networks, could be the logical area for the reception of direct data from satellites for other purposes. The D.5.1.R., having developed image processing facilities, will continue with that work. One question to be answered soon is which satellite shall we link up with? An interdepartmental committee is studying the world scene. In the last two years the world has leapt into the space age and between now and 1990 at least 10 more satellites are scheduled for launching. Space agencies are rapidly becoming standard equipment for a modern State. Australia is setting up its own and, with a second receiving station planned for Tasmania, New Zealand might tuck in there for a while to get access to the data.

N.A.S.A. charges ?U5600,000 a year for Landsat data. New .Zealand paid nothing for images dur-

ing the project with N.A.S.A. when Landsat 2 was in the investigation stages. In the second generation of remote sensing, only countries with receiving stations will have access to information from satellites. The expense is great enough for Canada and Australia when something like 3000 useful “scenes,” or images, are taken each year, but for New Zealand the unit cost of 30 to 90 scenes is excessive. With a receiving station, all data will be accessible at a fee by arrangement with the operators. Among the satellites Europe has planned for the next few years, New Zealand is looking closely at the French S.P.O.T. 1 due for launching this year. Also interesting is India’s Earth Observations Satellite (1.N.5.A.T.) and the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite (E.R.S.) coming up in 1986 and 1989. With direct access to data, farmers will, over time, be able to build up a history of their land and its yield. The technology is improving all the time. S.P.O.T. 1 has a resolution of 10 metres which gives better than 90 per cent accuracy in crops. “A precursor to estimating yields,” Dr Ellis says, “An Earth satellite receiving station is a chance for New Zealand to be in the forefront of new developments, to collaborate in international space programmes, and to make a niche for ourselves with homegrown software and hardware.”