AusCover Facility

Presentation by: Alex Held – Facility Director

Purpose of FacilityProduction and delivery of nationally consistent long time series of ‐

satellite based biophysical map products and next generation remote ‐sensing research data that is validated for Australian conditions.

Key Questions being Addressed• How, in space and time, have key environmental variables changed

over the period of satellite image archives for Australia?• Can we measure at regional scales the relative benefits/impacts of

legislated environmental management programs on Australia's major land and coastal ecosystems?

• How accurate are each of the AusCover data sets, and what image and ground-based measurements are necessary to enable them to be used to assess natural and human induced changes or management actions in the environment?

Our plan for community engagement– Operate as Regional Nodes (7), which include partnerships with local

ecosystem science and natural resources management bodies.

– Established an “AusCover Users Reference Group” with representatives from major federal and state research agencies and NRM state agencies

– Run regular technical workshops, hosted at all regional nodes

– Operate a dynamic website and data-access portal for AusCover

– Set up a citizen-science portal, linked to the international Group on Earth Observation “GEOWiki Portal”

Fostering Stronger Federal and State Linkages– Work closely with key Commonwealth government operational remote

sensing agencies• Bureau of Meteorology - Melbourne Node co-Lead• Geosciences Australia – Canberra Node co-Lead

– State agency involvement in many of the regional AusCover Nodes• QDERM• NSW DECC• WA Landgate• SA DENR

– Federal-, State agency and Academia involvement in AusCover Advisory Group

Accessing AusCover datasets and products

Online

Coming soon

Source: http://www.aarnet.edu.au

BoM

NCI CSIRO

UQ

iVEC

VPAC

Data Fabric

Infrastructure to be DeliveredRemote Sensing Data Delivery Backbone

• Issues of data formats, interoperability, data-policy, • Physical storage, efficient delivery to end-users etc.

Data Production Network• Nationally-consistent, standard biophysical data products, • Metadata and technical support documents• Specialised space-borne, airborne & in-situ research-grade data

Ground Validation Program and Instrumentation• Set national standards & field validation protocols,• Sites/transects etc.• International Benchmarking (eg CEOS WGCV LPV)

Datasets

(1) National/Regional Scale Time-series :• Green Land-Cover (NDVI-EVI) • Fractional Cover (green vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation, bare

ground) • Fraction Absorbed PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation)• Burnt Area• Forest cover• Land Surface Temperature • Broad Ecosystem Maps

(2) State-based (to be extended nationally)• Fraction Projected Cover (FPC)

(3) In-Situ Validation and TERN SuperSite Information • Leaf-Area Index • Vegetation 3D Structure & biomass• Spectral Reflectance (nadir-corrected)

Sample Datasets

High-Resolution, Field-based Measurements

Canopy Lidar Point-Clouds

Low-Resolution, Space-based Measurements

Continental Dynamics in Green Cover

Interim Product Delivery PlansAusCover Product Release Plans

13/03/10 21/06/10 29/09/10 7/01/11 17/04/11 26/07/11 3/11/11 11/02/12 21/05/12

NDVI (AVHRR, 5km from 1980s)

NDVI (AVHRR, 1km from 1990)

FPAR (AVHRR, 1 km from 1990)

Dynamic Land Cover (MODIS-EVI, 500m from 2000)

FPC (Landsat, 25m from 1970s)

Land Cover Fraction (MODIS, 500m, from 2000)

*Broad (GEOSS) Ecosystem Map

Burned Area (AVHRR, 1km from 1990)

Burned Area (MODIS 250m from 2000)

Forest Cover History (Landsat, 25m, from 1990)

BASE MODIS 19-band 1km Land Surface Reflectance Time series

BASE MODIS 7-band 500m Land Surface Reflectance Time series

BASE Landsat 25 m Land Surface Reflectance Time series (12 sites)

MODIS Leaf-Area Index (MODIS 1 km; from 2000)

*Canopy structure & Biomass (selected TERN sites; various scales and resolution)

DateValidated Products

Global Standard Products

* Pending EIF Funding

Acknowledgements– Bureau of Meteorology – Ian Grant– RMIT – Simon Jones– University of Queensland – Kasper Johannsen– Charles Darwin University – Stefan Maier– Adelaide University – Megan Lewis– Curtin University – Merv Lynch– Geoscience Australia – Medhavy Thankappan– CSIRO – Tim Malthus– QDERM, UNSW DCCE – Christian Witte, Peter Scarth– WA Landgate– University of Technology Sydney – Alfredo Huete

Facility Contact Details

Alex Held – DirectorandRowena Smith – Facility Coordinator CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research GPO Box 3023Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia Tel.: 61-2-6246 5630 Fax: 61-2-6246 5988 Email: alex.held@csiro.au / rowena.smith@csiro.au