Room 356 Rountree
level 3
Biolink bldg.
In October 2018, the NovaSAR satellite is scheduled for launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in
India. NovaSAR is an experimental low-cost satellite mission developed and operated by Surrey Satellite
Technologies in the U.K. It carries an S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and a maritime
ship identification system (AIS). As a partner in the NovaSAR programme, Australia has purchased 10% of
the satellite operational capacity, providing Australia with exclusive rights for acquisition programming and
data downlink, processing and distribution over its national territory and other designated areas of interest.
For Australia, the NovaSAR partnership presents an opportunity to build new space R&D facilities and to
stimulate new applications research in Earth observation, as well as to grow partnerships and potential
commercial markets around this new capability. In the longer term it constitutes a pathfinder towards a
potential future full-scale national satellite constellation.
The main objective of this seminar is to bring together national stakeholders (institutional, commercial,
academic) to assess how to maximise the use of this new resource. The seminar will feature some
introductory presentations on radar remote sensing for non-experts and provide an overview of
the NovaSAR mission, observation modes and potential observation scenarios over Australia. It will include
an informal open floor discussion to identify key thematic topics to address from an Australian perspective
and to identify topics for which some NovaSAR test cases could be developed.
Speakers
- Dr Alex Held, Director, CSIRO Centre for Earth Observation Astronomy and Space Science
- Dr Ake Rosenqvist, Director, soloEO, Japan
- Dr Mark Williams, Co-Director, Horizon Geoscience Consulting
Open Forum: 10 am – 12
- Room 356 Rountree, level 3, Biolink bldg. (entry via E26 Biological Sciences south – upper campus)
Invitation only: 1 – 3:30 pm
- Technical discussion on science questions and user requests for NovaSAR
For full event details, click here.
