Making sense of space data

Press, 20 December 1986, Page 22

Making sense of space data

As remotely sensed data pours back to Earth from British satellites in space, the need to make sense of it all becomes ever more apparent, reports the London Press Service. To do this, a new unit, largely funded and staffed by the National Environment Research Council (N.E.R.C.), has just been opened in the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, near London, as part of the British National Space Centre. The Remote Sensing Applications Development Unit will be investigating ways of using satellite data for scientific purposes

and practical applications. It will provide a much-needed link between the latest space technology and its users in the scientific community, government, and industry. Satellite information, once it has been processed, can be of vital use in environmental monitoring, geological surveys, and the studies of the Earth’s oceans and climate. Repetitive monitoring of the Earth’s surface is particularly useful in such areas as large-scale agricultural projects, irrigation or afforestation, tracing water resources in arid

lands, as well as providing geological maps to assist in the location of mineral resources. The new unit, headed by Dr Stephen Briggs, will eventually have 15 to 20 scientists and technicians working on the latest methods of interpreting space data. The unit will work closely with Remote Sensing Application Centres of Expertise located in the British Geological Survey, the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, as well as many other users in industry and government.