Queensland signs up for satellite scientific hub

Queensland has agreed to partake in the establishment of a scientific hub in Australia to access European satellite data and imagery.

The agreement between the Queensland Government, Geoscience Australia, CSIRO and the NSW Government will establish a Regional Copernicus Data Hub to share data collected from Europe’s high-tech Sentinel satellites.

“The Regional Copernicus Data Hub will ensure data from the Sentinel satellites — a collection of six different types of satellites that will provide new measurements of the land, water and atmosphere — will be fully, freely and openly available to research, industry, government and public users,” said Science Minister Leeanne Enoch.

“Queensland is keen to ensure we make the most of this agreement, so we are working closely with our scientific colleagues nationally to establish a dedicated data collection and research hub which we can all benefit from.”

The hub also aims to drive greater scientific research collaboration between partner organisations, increase scientific knowledge and give Australia the edge in spatial data research.

“The imagery we will receive from the Sentinel satellites is of very high quality, providing us with much greater information about Queensland’s natural resources,” said Enoch.

“The imagery has clear benefits for government for cost-effective monitoring and reporting and will provide support to the state’s agricultural producers to better manage their valuable assets.”

The Queensland Government currently uses imagery from the US Geological Survey’s Landsat satellite program.

With 40 years of near continuous monitoring, the Landsat program is the longest earth observation program in human history.

“In combination, the Sentinel and Landsat images can be used to build long-term time series for measuring vegetation and land cover change over time,” Enoch said.

The Regional Copernicus Data Hub is expected to reach full operational capability by early 2018.