1. “Skinning the multi-dimensional Cat”
How TERN and the Unlocking the Landsat
Archive Project are changing the way we look at
the Earth
Matthew Purss1, Adam Lewis1, Leo Lymburner1, Peter Scarth2 and Rebecca Trevithick2
1
Geoscience Australia
2013 TERN Symposium of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts
QLD Department
2

2. Introduction
• Background
• The Unlocking the Landsat Archive Project
• TERN Collaboration and Fractional Cover
• “Skinning the multi-dimensional cat”
2013 TERN Symposium

3. Background
• Geoscience Australia has been responsible for downlinking and
archiving Landsat Earth Observations since 1979.
• Historical Issues:
• Data Processing is Labour Intensive
• Few national-scale datasets created
• Data used in a “scene by scene” approach
• We are “Drowning in a Sea of Data”
2013 TERN Symposium

4. The Unlocking the Landsat Archive Project
• Australian Space Research Program
• $3.5M Funding (April 2011 to June 2013)
• Driving a fundamental shift in the way we conduct Earth
Observation Science
• Automated bulk data processing
• National Nested Grid Specification
• Pixel level time-series analysis
• Leveraging from the NCI
2013 TERN Symposium

5. The Unlocking the Landsat Archive Project
Consortium Members
Lockheed Martin Australia
Geoscience Australia
Victorian Partnership for Advanced
Computing
National Computational Infrastructure –
Australian National University
Cooperative Research Centre for
Spatial Information
2013 TERN Symposium

6. The Unlocking the Landsat Archive Project
2013 TERN Symposium

7. The Unlocking the Landsat Archive Project End Users
Progress to Date
Landsat &
MODIS
NCI
Data Delivery
(wms, wcs, wfs, wps)
Australian
Pixel
Level 1 Reflectance Fractional
Quality
Orthorectified Grid Cover
(NBAR) Assessment
Ground Stations in Online
Alice Springs and
Hobart Data Hypercube
Storage (Time Series Analysis)
Landsat
Raw
Data
Archive
(Level 0)
2013 TERN Symposium

8. The Unlocking the Landsat Archive Project
2013 TERN Symposium

9. TERN Collaboration and Fractional Cover
• During 2012 GA has Collaborated closely with QDSIIA to
implement the Joint Remote Sensing Research Program
Fractional cover algorithm under ULA
• Calibration of satellite data using ground truth datasets:
• Bare soil, Green Vegetation & Non-Green Vegetation
• Calculated using models linked to an intensive field sampling
program (Muir et. al. [2011])
• ~1020 ground cover control points collected by Natural
Resource Management Agencies across all jurisdictions –
and counting…
– Funded under the “Caring for our Country” initiative
2013 TERN Symposium

10. TERN Collaboration and Fractional Cover
• Low Tree Cover
• Med Tree Cover
• High Tree Cover
2013 TERN Symposium

11. TERN Collaboration and Fractional Cover
• Some Results
– Sensor Independent (Landsat 5 ~ Landsat 7)
– Seamless transition from scene to scene
2013 TERN Symposium

12. 2013 TERN Symposium

13. TERN Collaboration and Fractional Cover
• Results cont.
– The First National-Scale Fractional Cover
Product produced using the new 25m resolution
Australian Reflectance Grid (ARG25) data as
input.
– Composite mosaic 2008-2010
2013 TERN Symposium

14. 2013 TERN Symposium

15. “Skinning the multi-dimensional cat”…
• Where to from here????
• Advanced pixel-level multi-spectral and multi-dimensional
time-series analyses of national-scale datasets at several
resolutions
– Underpinned by HPC and hypercube data infrastructures
• To better inform Government policy on key issues including:
– Water quality and coastal ecosystems;
– Forest cover monitoring;
– Crop forecasting;
– Dynamic landcover;
– Impacts of Coal Seam Gas related activities
– And many more…
2013 TERN Symposium

16. Questions????
2013 TERN Symposium