Overseas Visit Report
2nd US-Japan Earth Remote Sensing Conference
Background
Early in April NASA invited an Australian representative to attend at the 2nd US-Japan Earth Remote Sensing Conference in Hawaii during 14-18 April 1997. It was also suggested that a presentation on "Current X-band Reception in Australia and Plans for EOS DB reception" would be appropriate. The third day of the meeting would be devoted to Direct Broadcast (DB) plans for the EOS program and, as Australia has much to gain from receiving these data, it was deemed important for Australia to be represented and participate in this meeting. Neither the Bureau of Meteorology nor COSSA were able to attend so Ian Barton from CSIRO agreed to participate. Briefing information was obtained from the BoM, COSSA and from the TERSS partners.
Executive Summary of Outcomes
1. A presentation was delivered to the meeting which detailed Australian X-band reception capabilities, our involvement in the different aspects of the EOS program and our desire to receive EOS data via direct broadcast. A request was lodged with NASA for the provision of software packages that will enable the analysis of EOS satellite data at foreign direct broadcast ground stations. These packages should at least provide level 1.5 data products from the raw data stream. NASA currently have no firm plans to develop such software, but the University of Wisconsin is developing a prototype package.
2. Detailed discussions were held with Dr Yukio Haruyama and Professor Haruhisa Shimoda on the availability of ADEOS data. NASDA appear to be concerned that Australia has not requested any AVNIR data from the ADEOS-I satellite. These data are freely available and NASDA are keen to see them used in EO applications.
3. Dr Haruyama was briefed on the recent formation and meeting of the Australian Ocean Colour Working Group.
4. A presentation by Dr Colin Seftor gave details of TOMS data analysis. Surface UVB fluxes are calculated and are available on the WWW. The BoM may find these useful in supporting their operational requirement to provide UVB forecasts during the Australian summer.
5. The University of Hawaii have recently built an X-band ground station using a 5 metre antenna. The key technologies used were a light-weight composite antenna, an ultra-low-noise amplifier and continuous drive motors. An estimate of 600 KUSD was suggested for such a system. If a system was built solely for EOS DB reception then the cost could almost be halved. However, in all cases, a running cost of 200 KUSD was required.
In summary, improvements in technology suggests that the antenna diameter required is now a lot less than 9 m - perhaps 2 to 3 m is feasible!
6. The NASDA delegation suggested that direct broadcast from ADEOS-I and ADEOS-II was unlikely. Data would be received at dedicated ground stations either through data dumps from tape recorders or through a data relay satellite. The only exception is that some foreign stations may receive AVNIR data through consultation with NASDA.
7. Professor Shimoda described the Tokai University's PANDA system. PANDA is a Package for ADEOS and NOAA Data Analysis. This package is freely available (on exabyte) - but the documentation and comments are currently in Japanese. Information is available on the WWW
P.S. I have tried this and find the page is ``under construction''.
Meeting presentations
1. On Monday afternoon there were opening talks by NASA, NASDA and University of Hawaii. The discussion also included a presentation on the University's new X-band ground reception station.
2. The Tuesday presentations focussed on USA participation in the ADEOS program, ocean colour activities, the current status of ADEOS, and data applications of the Japanese community.
3. Wednesday was devoted to presentations on the Direct Broadcast of EOS data and the likely applications of the data. The presentations included that describing the Australian program as outlined above (further details are attached).
4. The final day of presentations focussed on the remote sensing activities of the University of Hawaii.
Attachments
1. A final program is available. Supporting notes for most presentations are available and further information can be supplied on request.
2. Details of the overheads used in the Australian presentation are also available (in hardcopy).