Catalyst: Strategic – New Zealand – NASA Research Partnerships 2023

The UN Climate Change Conference has underscored the urgent necessity for access to impartial, consistent, and regularly updated data on global forest structures. Such data is crucial for the precise management and monitoring of carbon stocks, a key factor in global efforts to harmonise carbon emission reduction strategies and tackle climate change. Our collaborative project addresses this need by generating comprehensive, high-resolution forest data that aids in assessing ecosystem services, such as forest growth and habitat connectivity, and supports effective responses to and mitigation of disturbances like fires and floods.

Our initiative involves developing an advanced forest monitoring system, integrating LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology and machine learning for forest structural assessments with satellite-assisted remote sensing. Central to our methodology are two innovative research techniques: NASA Earth Exchange (NEX)’s satellite-based historical maps for forest structure and aboveground biomass (AGB) time series, alongside Dragonfly’s LiDAR processing and upscaling methods for detailed forest analysis.

The project encompasses a 2-phase feasibility study. The first phase develops canopy height models and tree crown maps using pre-Cyclone Gabrielle LiDAR data in New Zealand, coupled with NASA's NEX monitoring for updates following forest disturbances. The second phase focuses on California's 2021 Caldor fire zone, where we lack pre-disturbance LiDAR data. To compensate, Dragonfly's machine learning will be employed to create synthetic canopy models from agricultural imagery, enhanced by NEX for post-disturbance mapping. Successful integration of these methods will confirm the tool's transferability to represent a wider range of global forest ecosystems. 

As part of the MBIE/NASA Catalyst program, our project aims to significantly enhance the global earth forestry observation toolbox. It is geared towards providing accurate and expansive tools for nations to effectively steward their forest resources, thereby improving disaster response and monitoring forest growth, aligning with international reporting standards.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s coastline is 15,000 km long with a highly variable range of terrestrial ecosystems interacting with coastal waters. It also has over 70 river systems draining the land across which a vast array of natural and human processes influence waterways. The coastal zone is an incredibly important part of New Zealand’s identity, industry and economy, yet, monitoring capability is poor. Water quality varies over short timeframes driven by weather events, industrial runoff and dredging/port activity, while over longer timeframes, land use change and climate are principal drivers. Negative human impact on the coast can result in significant damage to delicate ecosystems; to advance knowledge of pathways to damage, better data streams are needed. From a global perspective the coast hosts critical ecosystems and is a bustling area of human activity. It is often where much of the waste of inland activity reaches the ocean and as a result of this, coastal dead zones are a tragic outcome and cause for alarm globally. The ability to effectively monitor and realise impact on coasts is hampered by the shear length and lack of resources to cover it. This work will aim to develop a novel tool to assist coastal management decisions by providing an advanced data stream from a stratospheric aircraft. The aircraft will operate for weeks at a time above 60,000 ft with camera systems capable of inferring critical information about the coast and relaying it to scientists and decision makers.

Advanced livestock farmers (dairy, sheep, beef, venison) manage the grazing of their pasture fields according to the herds’ needs, requiring data about the quantity and quality of the standing biomass. For biomass quantity, a few sufficiently accurate tools are available: proximal sensing from the ground and remote sensing from aerial or satellite platforms. Feed quality data are critical to ensure the required nutrition level for the animals. However, currently feed quality can only be measured with lab analysis from manually sampled biomass.

Having easy to use tools to measure feed quality of standing biomass would globally result in increased productivity of livestock farming, improved product quality (milk, meat, wool), lower costs and positive impact on the use of resources (water, nutrients, land), and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases per unit of food or fiber product.

We propose a feasibility study to explore the current knowledge in assessing feed quality of standing biomass with sensor technology (pastures, forages). With the results we will prepare a concept on (i) what further research is required and (ii) how to develop a remote sensing method using satellite-based data.

Sensing feed quality is difficult, as most remote sensing methods assess external optical properties of the biomass. However, quality features like digestibility, metabolizable energy, and lignin link to plant internal compounds. The same ‘looking’ forage can have different internal compositions and thus quality. Therefore, we will explore methods that model the physical and biological processes when measuring the canopy reflectance with sensors available from satellites.

Our project team includes experts in remote sensing from New Zealand and NASA with strong backgrounds in developing sensing technologies. Agronomy and animal feeding research experts will address quality traits of grazed pastures and forages.

Geothermal features across Aotearoa-New Zealand are considered taonga, and their fire and energy a gift from Hawaiki, that migrated from the depths and exploded through the land providing heat and light for the people. Geothermal waters can also act as stressors and force plants to alter their metabolism, providing an excellent opportunity for tracking environmental processes from space. This is largely underutilised due to its complexity and the lack of analytical framework. In this feasibility study we have brought together researchers from Massey University, Victoria University of Wellington, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to design next-generation environmental monitoring and analytics using Earth Observation data.

Plants can quickly change their metabolism to respond environmental stresses, including heat, scarcity of water or nutrients, or toxicity levels. Earth Observation data can capture subtle changes in plant functions (e.g., health, discolouration, fluorescence) that can be used to efficiently and cost-effectively monitor our geothermal resources and the ecosystems surrounding them. We will integrate hyperspectral, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and thermal data from airborne and satellite platforms to better capture the chemical and physical changes of plant cover.

Using explainable machine learning methods, we will unlock the underlying interactions of plant and stress agents (e.g., heat, water, and toxic elements) to formulate new satellite-based analytical solutions capable of monitoring a wide range of environments via plant cover. Utilising NASA’s fleet of satellites (EMIT, ECOSTRESS, NISAR) we will design a new cost-effective and holistic monitoring tool underpinning environmental stewardship and future-looking decision making. Our solutions will not only develop a new environmental analytical tool for responsible geothermal resource management, but the underlying methods have significant wider potential applications to pollution and contaminant detection, tracking primary production and agriculture, and drought and flooding impacts.

Māori communities grapple with the multifaceted challenges posed by environmental and climatic changes, including coastal erosion, sea-level rise, increased precipitation, temperature variations, and extreme climate events. These issues directly impact community health, well-being, and subsistence, disrupting traditional practices informed by celestial, environmental, and ecological indicators that play a key role in Māori traditional calendar systems called maramataka. Anthropogenic changes, population growth, habitat destruction, pollution, and socio-economic pressures further complicate predictions and applications of these indicators within Māori practices.

This project was developed as we recognised the critical need for Māori-led initiatives to access innovative data for monitoring environmental and ecological impacts. This initiative determines Māori environmental monitoring priorities, leveraging advanced data analytics and machine learning on satellite data. The goal is to process large-scale datasets, offering real-time insights for informed decision-making in Māori communities. Additionally, a capacity and capability programme is designed to empower community researchers, ensuring ongoing environmental monitoring beyond the project's conclusion.

To realise the project's potential, strategic partnerships have been formed with NASA's Indigenous Peoples Initiative, the Society for Māori Astronomy Research and Traditions (SMART), and members of the Māori Working Group in Aerospace (MWGA). Each team brings complementary skills, knowledge, and expertise. NASA's team, equipped with analytics expertise, specialises in collaborating with Indigenous communities to enhance capacity through earth observations, utilising satellite data and conducting world-class research. SMART brings leading experts in Māori astronomy and maramataka who have led the revitalisation of maramataka and Matariki, while MWGA adds insights from diverse experiences in space enterprise and entrepreneurship.

The collaborative efforts will deliver a Māori-centric programme enriched with knowledge, relationships, and unique approaches. The proverb "Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi" encapsulates the collaborative spirit, emphasising the collective contribution to the thriving well-being of the people through shared resources and efforts.

Addressing the global challenge of understanding, managing and reducing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide is of paramount importance if we are to tackle climate change effectively. Under the Paris Agreement, individual countries report their own greenhouse gas emissions and removals. However, recent studies have found discrepancies between these reports and actual atmospheric measurements, so independent verification is needed to assess progress in mitigating climate change.

A NASA-led team has demonstrated that data from the OCO-2 and OCO-3 satellite instruments can be used to verify carbon dioxide emissions, but the method has challenges that must be addressed before it can be useable for smaller countries. New Zealand is an ideal place to test this method on a small country, due to our extensive ground-based measurements, high resolution modelling and unique, isolated location. In this feasibility study, we will analyse the satellite data, comparing it with ground-based measurements and previous estimates of carbon dioxide emissions and removals.

Addressing these verification challenges requires collaboration among researchers, institutions and governments, with NASA playing a crucial role. Our partnership with NASA holds central significance for the research because it enables us to tackle this complex problem while harnessing a wide range of world-leading expertise. This project will provide valuable comparisons and validation points against NASA's satellite data.

Through our collective efforts, we aim to provide invaluable insights for researchers, governments, policymakers and land managers, empowering them to take informed actions in response to evolving environmental conditions. A sustainable future can be significantly advanced through our collaborative endeavours.

Atmospheric rivers are intense corridors of moisture transport in the atmosphere that can carry devastating consequences. Across certain regions of New Zealand, it is estimated that more than 90% of extreme rainfall is linked to atmospheric rivers, so understanding how climate change will alter their nature in the future is vitally important.

At present, there is substantial uncertainty about how atmospheric rivers will be affected by climate change, especially on the local to regional scales where this information is most needed. The primary tool we have for understanding and quantifying these potential future changes is physics-based climate models, including recent high-resolution model projections produced at NIWA. In this project, NASA satellite products and tools will be used to test how well atmospheric rivers and their associated impacts across New Zealand are represented by these models. NASA satellite products will be particularly useful for assessing these processes in regions where ground-based observations do not have sufficient coverage.

By reducing the uncertainty in future projections of atmospheric rivers, this research will directly benefit stakeholders and decision makers across the country tasked with improving resilience to the worst impacts of climate change.

Water is a vital taonga for all New Zealanders and people around the world. Climate change and land-use intensification are putting our water resources under pressure. Planted forests are crucial for storing rainfall and releasing it.  Water movement throughout a single tree (small-scale) or across a forest stand (large-scale) will be measured under a proof-of-concept framework. 2 NASA satellite missions, the new Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) and the joint NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), will be applied to measure surface and soil water – 2 key components of the tree-water (hydrological) cycle.

NASA has an open-access collection of Earth observation data for the understanding and protection of our planet. Aotearoa’s Aupōuri Peninsula, Northland, provides the perfect case study to develop and test scientific tools to contribute to NASA’s Earth observation data. Te Hiku ō Te Ika Iwi and local community are concerned that Te Hiku Forest (radiata pine) impacts local waterways. Alongside showcasing New Zealand research, this provides the opportunity to answer these pressing concerns about water use and availability.

The existing Forest Flows MBIE Endeavour Research Programme has an established research catchment in Te Hiku Forest. We will leverage it to quantify hydrological processes across the entire forest. This includes a proof-of-concept hydrological framework that combines SWOT and NISAR data. This project will demonstrate the proof-of-concept to NASA. It provides the opportunity to wānanga with the iwi on creating an equal partnership that weaves together mātauranga Māori with mātauranga Pākehā for the project’s second stage, if funded.

The project will benefit Te Hiku iwi and local community through wānanga and developing a partnership, with increased understanding of water use and water flow to waterways throughout Te Hiku Forest. The new analytics developed will aid current NASA missions, enabling greater global knowledge sharing, benefiting all New Zealanders.

Changes in climate will increase wildfire danger and vegetative drought stress across the globe. To be prepared, we need current accurate data on live fuel moisture (moisture content within living vegetation). This simple metric is critical for risk management, providing information on how likely and vigorously a fire will spread as well as identifying areas of low ecosystem resilience where drought-stressed vegetation has increased susceptibility to additional stressors such as insects and disease. The challenge is that fuel moisture varies across the landscape in time and space. In addition, it is critical to know the fuel type (e.g., grass, scrub, forest, urban) to understand fuel moisture implications.

Remote sensing can evaluate live fuel moisture through satellite and satellite-derived metrics. A real-time fuel moisture system will improve risk management, reducing catastrophic impacts from wildfires and drought. As a standalone, real-time fuel moisture provides a critical tool for identifying drought anomalies. Linking real-time live fuel moisture directly to fire behaviour models exponentially increases the value of this work by improving model predictions and risk management. At the simplest level, as vegetation dries out, it burns better. While this is an important indicator for fire behaviour, many fire behaviour models, including NZ models, only consider surface fuel (litter, sticks, twigs, soil) moisture as model input. Surface fuel moisture misses how the fire moves through mixed live and dead vegetation.

 Through direct collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center, Australian National University, The US Forest Service and Fire and Emergency NZ we will write and publish a roadmap for the development of a real-time fuel moisture system. This systematic study will provide an understanding of the current state of knowledge and create a roadmap laying out a developmental pathway for a coupled real-time moisture and fuel type system.

New Zealand’s diverse landscapes are severely impacted by human activities, with freshwater sources particularly degraded. National wetland extent is only ~10% of the historic level, yet the data needed to assess the dynamics and health of these important ecosystems is not currently available. Active remote sensing has excellent potential to provide this data, particularly using longer wavelengths which are able to sense water underneath the vegetation canopy, such as with Global Navigation Satellite Systems Reflectometry (GNSS-R) and some Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems.

In the feasibility study we will collect SAR data over wetland areas in Northland, close in time to when an airborne GNSS-R system, Rongowai, is operating in the region. Rongowai (a gifted name meaning “to sense water” in Te Reo Māori) is a mission consisting of a NASA sensor flying on an Air New Zealand aircraft, with 1 year of operations throughout New Zealand to date and plans to continue until 2030. Rongowai builds on the strong legacy of NASA’s CYGNSS mission, but is also a world first because it is making new measurements beyond that of CYGNSS and other GNSS-R missions to date. Its data has potential to provide additional valuable discrimination for vegetation cover and characteristics and may enhance the terrestrial water retrievals in the presence of vegetation.  A critical element of these algorithms will be characterisation of the polarimetric GNSS-R response for various surfaces and their conditions.  To enable this, we will task an airborne polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to provide critical high-resolution imagery. 

Wetlands are particularly compelling for this demonstration as they present the complexities of vegetation covered inundation and wet/damp soil in relatively contained areas. This will lay the foundation for a more expansive Phase 2 collaborative effort that is cross-cutting in terms of missions, science and integrated applications.

Emperor penguins are an Antarctic icon, but we know very little about them during the most important part of their lives: when they are raising their chicks during harsh Antarctic winters. How many birds arrive to breed, and when? How many birds are in the all-male huddles in the middle of June each year? Can we detect the shift from male incubation to female guarding? Finally, when do the huddles begin to break up and are those behaviours connected to environmental factors such as wind or temperature? We aim to answer these questions and lift the shroud of mystery around emperor penguins using satellite remote sensing technologies (specifically, synthetic aperture radar) that allow researchers to essentially “see in the dark”. Our goal is to leverage satellite images of emperor penguin colonies around the Ross Sea, the largest marine protected area in the world, and figure out how to detect and numerate emperor penguins in those images. We will develop and train machine learning algorithms to identify and count emperor penguins at known breeding grounds, with the long-term goals of automatically quantifying emperor penguin populations in future SAR imagery and detecting henceforth unknown colonies around the continent. Our work will generate new information that enhances our knowledge of emperor penguins, an important bird in the Antarctic ecosystem, at a critical juncture in their lifecycle and create new ability to monitor their population dynamics.

The extreme storms of 2023 highlighted the need for improved rainfall observations across Aotearoa. While some regions have good radar and rain gauge coverage, other regions either have insufficient observations or cannot afford to access real-time regional radar observations from MetService, so alternate approaches are required. The NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission provides global precipitation products from a constellation of satellites. These state-of-the-art products have had little uptake here, due to the absence of adequate validation in a local context and uncertainties regarding their performance in hilly, coastal settings.

Weather Radar NZ and Auckland Council have developed a world-leading rainfall analysis system for the Auckland region, combining regional radar observations with a dense rain gauge network and profiling radar network. The profiling network provides unique insights into rainfall and drop size variability with altitude, allowing better estimates from regional radar observations and detailed information into rainfall processes. We seek to establish the Auckland rainfall analysis system as an enduring ground validation site for GPM and future international satellite missions.

In this feasibility study, a rainfall archive dating back to 2010 will be used for a detailed evaluation of GPM rainfall products in Aotearoa for the first time. We will engage with NASA’s GPM team and a local end-user group to discuss our findings and identify potential deficiencies in the satellite estimates to become the focus of subsequent investigations. We will also determine how drop size information from the profiling radar network (incorporating dual-frequency radar systems developed in-house) could contribute to international efforts to progress weather observation by enhancing GPM product performance. For Aotearoa, improved rainfall observations would result in better planning and hazard management by local authorities and contribute to developments in weather forecasting. Such advances are a fundamental step towards avoiding the tragic events of early 2023.