Catalyst: Strategic – Australia New Zealand Collaborative Space Programme

Current satellite technologies used in agricultural monitoring have limited application, because of delayed return time and inadequate resolution to assist with management. SilverEye is a proposed satellite capability that will bring about a step change these issues in the management of crops and environment in the southern hemisphere.

The University of Auckland and CSIRO have previously engaged in collaboration around optical design and development of novel techniques for deployable systems on small satellites. We plan to leverage this collaboration that has already resulted in several publications and co-design on several satellite instruments. The SmartSat CRC, CSIRO and the Grain Research Development Corporation investigated the benefits of future satellite capability to the agriculture industry in a research project, published in 2023, ‘Recommendations towards a future hyperspectral sensor for crop and pasture quality’ (No. P3.25), highlighting the key gaps in current satellite capability that would meet industry needs.

With a strong understanding of the challenges faced by growers and the food industry regarding weather events, disease, weeds, and other concerns, we are in an excellent position to leverage this work to rapidly develop a working capability that will bring much more frequent and nuanced Earth Observation data to benefit the agriculture industries of Australia and New Zealand. Equally critical is knowing how to design realistic satellite instruments that can be built, launched and operated. CSIRO and UofA bring a thorough knowledge of the satellite industries and technical capabilities of both countries. We propose to work with industry and the SmartSat CRC to build an international consortium that can deliver satellite capacity outlined in this funding call. Our next step will be to generate a preliminary design for the satellite capability that will meet the future needs of both countries, and which will be manufacturable in our two countries using domestic manufacturing capabilities.

Partner: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)

This project will demonstrate integration of Global Navigational Satellite System (GNSS) remote sensing measurements of soil moisture from several platforms of satellites, aircraft and ground receivers. The study will obtain baseline information for exploiting remote sensing data to provide spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture at field scales through development of the soil moisture data assimilation system. In particular, the system’s outputs are aimed to be appropriate to local water resource management and decision making for agricultural practices and environmental applications. This Phase A activity will leverage established sites where in-situ soil moisture measurements have already been gathered in Australia and New Zealand, to verify GNSS land reflection measurements from NASA’s CyGNSS satellites, New Zealand’s Rongowai aircraft, and University of Newcastle’s ground GNSS remote sensing module.

We will perform extensive comparison among satellite and aircraft GNSS reflectometry measurements, ground GNSS reflection records, and in-situ probes for verifying soil moisture changes at field scales. Our feasibility study will be the first of its kinds to put all GNSS remote sensing systems together to make satellite-airborne-ground co-located GNSS experiments for soil moisture retrieval. The field campaigns will enable us to calibrate and validate GNSS-based remote sensing sensors for monitoring soil moisture under real-world conditions; and to ensure that the sensing systems are tested across a range of climates, soil types, and terrains to optimize the sensor performance for various agricultural and environmental use cases.

The successful Phase A field calibration and validation (Cal/Val) of GNSS measurements will lead to the Phase B development of soil moisture data assimilation system (SMDAS). The SMDAS can be a game changer of integrating efficient GNSS-based remote sensing measurements with imaging radars and radiometers to retrieve soil moisture information adequate to farmers, practitioners, and governments, to save water for efficient and drought-resilient agricultural and farming practices.

Partner: The University of Newcastle

Over millennia, Indigenous communities have had intimate relationships with the environment and used cultural practices and knowledge to maintain that relationship, which still exists today. However, due to a range of land use, climatic, and environmental changes, and other human activities, traditional indicators have been disrupted making it increasingly difficult to read Country and Te Taiao (nature).

To better protect and restore our fire-prone landscapes in Australia and New Zealand, this project aims to connect scientific data with traditional knowledge to improve existing and future remotely sensed fuel moisture content (FMC) tools. Accurately identifying fuel flammability indicators such as FMC across diverse and dynamic landscapes is a key factor in managing fire risk that when calibrated with Indigenous knowledge and cultural practices can improve planning and management.

The existing Australian Flammability Monitoring System uses satellite data and remote sensing to create maps of fuel moisture in near real-time. Satellite data is easily scalable, but it often lacks localised context, knowledge, practice and management.

Ground-based FMC methods are time intensive and provide limited landscape coverage. In Australia, traditional knowledge for assessing landscape readiness to burn has become challenged and in NZ this is still emerging.  This proof-of-concept study will show the value of cross validation of traditional and technological knowledge systems to enhance the accuracy and application of remotely sensed models.

The Australian National University and Scion collaboration includes Indigenous leadership, connecting experts in remote sensing, fire ecology, planning and management, across both countries.

A network that transcends disciplinary and national boundaries will be created; it will support indigenous capability building in satellite technology and joint on-ground explorations led by our Australian partners.  A collaborative video of research experiences will enable this knowledge to be shared and to consider how it may be applied in New Zealand’s unique context toward improved planning and fire management strategies.

Partners: Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence (BRCoE), Fenner School of Environment and Society, the Australian National University.

A fractional cover data product quantifies the proportion of green vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation (e.g., dry leaves and branches), and bare soil within each pixel of a satellite image. This detailed representation supports diverse applications in agriculture, forestry, and environmental conservation where information on vegetation dynamics, soil erosion, or land degradation is needed.

This project aims to enhance the fractional cover model calibrated and proven for Australian conditions and establish its applicability in New Zealand for pasture condition monitoring. During the feasibility study, we will develop methods using hyperspectral satellite data to improve the accuracy of the fractional cover model in diverse biomes. This approach enables the expansion of the model to New Zealand and other global locations in the future robustly and cost-effectively. Another key component of the feasibility study is to apply this enhanced model to generate a fractional cover product and validate the accuracy of the product in New Zealand conditions. This approach will be further extended to develop other pasture condition product leveraging state-of-art AI foundation models for both countries.

This feasibility study will benefit government, industry, and NGOs in both Australia and New Zealand, while also laying the groundwork for global applicability. By enabling better land condition assessments and management practices, the outcomes of this study will support improvement of sustainable land use, mitigation of erosion risks, and protection of vital soil and water resources.

Partner: FrontierSI

Telecommunication using coherent light has a number of advantages over using radio-frequencies. Principal of these, for most consumers, is the order of magnitude larger rates of data transmission offered by optical communications. Current ground-based telecommunication networks typically use coherent light to transmit and receive data through optical fibre. Satellites in an orbital network similarly pass data between each other using laser light. However, transmitting data between the Earth optical networks and the space optical networks is a challenge, largely owing to the disruptive effect of Earth’s atmosphere.

Several groups across Australia and New Zealand are working on overcoming the technical challenges of Earth-to-space free space optical communications (FSOC). One of these challenges is to overcome the blocking effect of clouds. A solution is to have a network of interconnected FSOC ground stations, spread across a wide longitudinal range.

Operating an international network of optical ground stations (OGSs) has a number of operational and governance challenges.

This Study will provide a report on critical aspects of the operation and governance of an Australasian network of OGS nodes that will need to be addressed by stakeholders in such a project.

Partner: University of South Australia

This project brings together a multi-institution team, across Australia and New Zealand, and between academia and industry, to support steps toward the development of the SatPing initiative. The goal of SatPing is to enhance the responsible use of space, by generating more and better information on the position and velocity of objects in Earth orbit, potentially even after decommissioning. Our team’s support for SatPing development includes a program of test observations using the passive radio frequency capability of a sensitive space situational awareness facility in South Australia, world-leading orbit determination expertise in New Zealand, and the conceptual development of options for the on-orbit devices (and ground segments) that will be critical to the SatPing initiative. 

Partner: Curtin University

Organisations in Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) are actively developing technology and mission concepts for space-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).

This project will investigate the alignment of these efforts and develop plans for:

• a joint AUS-NZ mission concept addressing common key national priorities, with a focus on Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), and
• a collaborative technology development plan that enables this innovative, space-based multi-spacecraft interferometric SAR concept

This phase A project includes:

• assessment of ANZ government stakeholder priorities and needs
• acollaborative mission analysis resulting in a joint ANZ mission concept
• aevaluation and initial research into enabling technologies for interferometric implementation, including autonomous formation flying, inter-satellite links and prototype products, and
• implementation pathways for the mission concept with risk reduction activities and intermediate technology demonstration options.

The final report will provide recommendations and stakeholder support for a Phase B collaborative work program to advance the concept and enable a joint mission.

In New Zealand, Restore Lab Limited of Wānaka leads the development of the Takahē SAR mission concept. Takahē was originally conceived to address observational gaps relative to sea ice, marine debris, ice-sheet, coastal monitoring, and search and rescue. It is being further developed into a dual-use capability that addresses NZ government needs for maritime domain security and awareness.

The Australian Bureau of Metrology developed a mission concept to address gaps in current data for disaster mapping, tropical cyclone monitoring and sea-ice charting. The DST Group have also progressed mission concepts and technology development for a wide area vessel monitoring capability that can scale to an affordable constellation for MDA. These align with the SmartSat Indo-Pacific Connector program developing technologies for situational awareness and communication across the Indian-Pacific Ocean regions.

The close alignment of these activities, and similar interests of each Nation provides the basis for this proposed collaborative mission.

Partners: Smartsat CRC

This project will expand the group of scientists collaborating on the agricultural MethaneSAT Science Programme (part of the MethaneSAT mission).

MethaneSAT Science Programme

That research sets out to demonstrate the value of new space technology to help mitigate and manage agricultural methane emissions. The team will verify estimates of livestock methane emissions from the MethaneSAT satellite in New Zealand and Australia, using ground and airborne observations.

No additional funding is being provided for New Zealand research activities. Smartsat CRC are funding the participation of Australian researchers.

More information on the project may be found on the SmartSat CRC website.

SmartSat CRC(external link)