A joint programme established by the United Nations and the
European Space Agency (ESA) to teach advanced remote-sensing
technologies is paying off for Earth observation specialists
in Chile and other Latin American countries.
The UN/ESA Course Follow-up Programme, established in 1998, is
being coordinated by the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs
(OOSA) in Vienna, and ESA’s ESRIN facility in Frascati, Italy.
Its aim is to provide national institutions with follow-on
support for remote sensing applications in ongoing sustainable
development activities.
In 1999, the programme started to bring together government
and university researchers from Bolivia, Argentina and Chile
with ESA specialists for a series regional seminars and
pilot projects for training in various Earth observation
technologies. Much of the training centred on interferometric
techniques for synthetic aperture radar, combining two radar
images of the same spot of the Earth taken at different times
from slightly different angles and analysing the phase
differences.
The programme finished in June, but for Carlos Pattillo, the
project leader and director of Chile’s Centre for the Study
of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (CPR&SIG),
in Santiago, the training provided by ESA Earth scientists will
have a lasting regional impact: "The countries who participated
in the programme now have in-house technology to use
interferometry as a normal technique for other national
projects. More importantly, a group of professionals in these
countries has up-to-date knowledge to teach these technologies
to others."
In Chile the training allowed the Antarctic Institute of Chile
(INACH) to start a facility for interferometry processing open
to scientists in the region who are interested in ice and
glacier studies. This takes advantage, Pattillo says, of an
agreement signed between ESA and the German Aerospace Centre
(DLR) for operations at Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins Antarctic
Base. The base is a receiving station for data from ESA’s
ERS, the U.S. Landsat and Canada’s Radarsat programmes, and
supports German Antarctic research.
"The INACH facility is getting our permanent support to teach
scientists interested in using interferometry and to solve any
technical problems that they may encounter," Pattillo said.
University programme goes commercial
The Chilean company grew out of an academic programme at the
Catholic Pontifical University in Santiago. At the time the
UN/ESA programme was launched in Latin America, Pattillo was
helping to create an interdisciplinary programme dedicated to
the development of remote-sensing techniques and applications.
Without any computer hardware and software, private and
corporate support was solicited to get the program off the
ground in 1998. Since then, more than 30 theses have been
completed on remote sensing and GIS subjects. Five of those
were completed by students who were allowed to participate
from other universities.
The university programme also ran a series of technology-
transfer projects to help private companies and governmental
institutions implement the technologies being taught in the
classrooms. These projects were financed by interested
organization, and brought the university into closer contact
with ESA, France’s Aerospace Remote Sensing Development Group
and CNES, the French space agency.
"With their assistance and agreements of understanding and
cooperation, we developed a variety of training courses and
international seminars," Pattillo said.
The academic programme, however, hit some organisational snags.
Except for paying the salaries of two professionals, the
university did not provide any operational funding for the
remote-sensing projects; everything had to be financed by the
pilot projects, including courses and theses. The university
also decided to re-organise these types of programmes, handing
over administrative responsibilities to one of the school’s
faculties. The programme, renamed the Remote Sensing and GIS
Centre, was then hit with a 20 percent budget cut, hindering
the capability of the Centre to compete with other enterprises.
Pushed by these administrative problems, Pattillo and his
faculty decided to form a private company and formally
established CPR&SIG in January with a staff of seven full-time
professionals.
Key services
The now-privatised Centre uses Earth observation imagery from a
variety of sources:
(ETM) images acquired by the Argentina
Institute for Space Research;
Image;
the O’Higgins Antarctic Base;
International and the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing;
The company’s main lines of imagery-based services are natural-
resources assessment and monitoring using ortho-rectified
satellite images, imagery that has been processed to remove
angles and other image distortions. The company also offers
integrated solutions combining satellite imagery and
geographical information systems (GIS) — information derived
from satellite images that is normalized and managed together
with other sources of information to provide end users with a
system that can be easily updated and controlled.
Environmental applications for the Centre’s services include:
forest fire detection and evaluation; analysis of soil erosion
after forest clear cutting; studies of water sediment and
eutrophication, the process by which nutrients dissolve in
water and artificially stimulate plant growth; and,
environmental baseline studies for urban planning and civil
infrastructure.
Recent Projects
Among some recent work conducted by the Centre has been the
"Environmental Facets" project, performed for Chilean
Ministry of Public Works. According to Pattillo, it involved
developing consistent zoning regulations in the country that
would consider the impact of the environment on civil
infrastructure and, conversely, the impact of a civil
infrastructure on the local ecosystems. In this project,
satellite images from Landsat and SPOT were used to assess
vegetation types and the protection factor of soils in
potential erosion problems.
A three-year-long project has been the study of dunes over the
coastal zone of central Chile. In this one, SPOT images was
used to assess environmental changes, including the loss of
vegetation and the reactivation of sand dunes, caused by
industry and urban growth in fragile areas formed by old dunes
plains. This project has been financed by Chile’s National
Science Fund with the cooperation of France’s National Centre
for Scientific Research and a research project with the
University of Nantes. CPR&SIG is currently working on a
follow-up program to use imagery from ESA’s ERS and Envisat
satellites to analyse the physical characteristics of the
dunes environments.
Other projects include the use of Landsat images for chlorophyll
assessment in bodies of water, pollution of coastal zones by the
iron industry in northern Chile, Radarsat images for evaluating
the environmental condition of rangelands in southern Chile,
and ERS interferometry for updating maps and generating digital
elevation models.
What needs to be done
Although Pattillo has no doubts about the positive impact such
projects have had both in Chile and in other nearby countries,
much more needs to be accomplished, he said.
"A lot of pilot projects have been done, but there are still
no operational projects underway due mainly to the lack of a
critical mass of trained professionals," Pattillo explained.
Pattillo outlined his intent to focus international
participation on carrying out one or two operational projects,
and in forming permanent training facilities in each Latin
American country. He said that the Latin American Remote
Sensing Society (SELPER), a regional association of imagery
specialists of which ESA is a special member, has been
promoting actively the use of satellite remote sensing with
assistance from ESA. Pattillo, who serves as SELPER’s
representative in Chile, noted that the association was formed
in 1981 and currently has chapters in every Latin American
country.
"Through SELPER-Chile, we have encouraged Chilean professionals
to use remote sensing and there are nearly 90 SELPER associates
here alone that could benefit from a permanent training
facility," Pattillo said. "Once again, ESA’s help will be
necessary to keep focusing the activities in this direction.
Our company will continue its training activities, but we
think that this effort should be undertaken in a bigger scale,
and that means at a national level with formal resources from
the government."
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Related links
http://www.esa.int/export/esaSA/www.cprsig.cl
http://www.selperchile.cl/SELPERCHILE.htm
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/
http://earthnet.esrin.esa.it/
http://www.esa.int/envisat
http://earth.esa.int/ers/
http://earth.esa.int/gmes/
http://www.space.gc.ca/csa_sectors/earth_environment/radarsat/disaster_man/crtrintro.asp
http://www.ceos.org/
IMAGE CAPTIONS:
[Image 1:
http://www.esa.int/export/esaSA/ESABFFZPD4D_earth_1.html]
A large part of Bolivia is the so-called Altiplano, an 800-km
long and 130-km wide region lying between the Cordillera
Occidental and the Cordillera Oriental. In the northern part
of the Altiplano, where the bulk of the population and
industry of Bolivia is found, is Lake Titicaca, the highest
large, navigable lake in the world. Located at an altitude
of 3804 m with a depth exceeding 300 m, the lake separates
Bolivia from Peru. The southern part of the Altiplano plateau
is arid with saline soils.
Lake Poopo, the green lake, is 300 km southeast of Lake
Titicaca and is one of many saline lakes on the region. This
lake was dramatically polluted in February 2000 by an
accidental 39 000-barrel oil spill. Its green colour is due
to its shallow waters.
Chile starts approximately at Lake Poopo’s latitude and extends
as a narrow 200-km wide strip of land southwards, along the
Pacific Ocean. The northern part of Chile visible in the image
is the Atacama Desert, the world’s driest, with parts where
rain has never been recorded and the only precipitation is in
the form of fog. The desert, a series of salt basins that
cannot support any vegetation, is flanked on one side by
Pacific coastal ranges and on the other by the snow-capped
peaks of the Andes.
Technical Information:
Instrument: Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS)
Date of Acquisition: 23 April 2002
Orbit number: 00322
Instrument features: Full resolution image (300-meter resolution)
Credits: ESA
[Image 2:
http://www.esa.int/export/esaSA/ESABFFZPD4D_earth_1.html#subhead1]
A 3-D digital elevation model done with interferometric
techniques using tandem images acquired over northern Chile
by ERS-1 and -2. Visible is an area from Chungara Lagoon to
El Lauca National Reserve at the south of the model.
Credits: CPR&SIG
[Image 3:
http://www.esa.int/export/esaSA/ESABFFZPD4D_earth_1.html#subhead2]
This is a hybrid colour composite of Chile’s Chungara Lagoon
area from an interferometric coherence image and Landsat
Thematic Mapper data (bands 2 and 7). This unique ortho-
rectified product enhances different land cover types and
soil erosion and landslides (in cyan) in detail. It is a
good example to show how information can be improved taken
advantage of sensor data synergism.
Credits: CPR&SIG
[Image 4:
http://www.esa.int/export/esaSA/ESABFFZPD4D_earth_1.html#subhead4]
The wide-swath image is large enough (400km wide) to show in
a single acquisition the transition from mountains to plains
across the entire southern Patagonia region of Argentina.
The inaccessibility of the region, at the southern tip of
South America, makes satellite imagery an indispensable
mapping tool and, in an area commonly shrouded by clouds,
radar has a distinct advantage over optical data.
In the west, the Chilean Andes rise to 4058m (Monte San
ValentÌn). Fjords to the southwest (namely, Canal Baker)
allow the waters of the Pacific Ocean to penetrate into the
very heart of the mountains.
Further east, the Gran Altiplanicie Central extends across
southern Argentina to the (unseen) Atlantic Ocean. Two major
rivers, the Chico in the South and the Deseado in the north
drain the plain and transport melt water and sediment from
the Andes.
The image shows how the smooth central plain is incised by
lines of drainage and punctuated by numerous lakes, the
largest being Lago Buenos Aires in the north.
Increasing brightness in the east reflects transition towards
denser vegetation as the altitude drops and conditions become
more hospitable.
Technical Information:
Instrument: Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR)
Mode: Wide Swath
Acquisition date: 18 March 2002
Orbit number: 00251
Orbit direction: Descending
Polarisation: VV
Resolution: 150 metres
Credits: ESA 2002
