Australia's diversified landscape will become the testing ground for NASA's latest satellite over the next twelve months.
The first of its kind in space, the satellite contains 'Hyperion' imaging equipment that records the brightness of the earth in 220 different spectral bands or colours, whereas other earth observation satellites can only record up to seven spectral bands.
Hyperion needs to be extensively tested over a range of terrain and environments to make sure it is seeing from space what we would see from the ground.
A team of five CSIRO scientists spent ten days before Christmas at Lake Frome, a huge, barren salt lake, 500 kilometres north of Adelaide, carrying out tests on the NASA satellite.
"One of the best ways to test the satellite is to have it look at a very white surface, such as Lake Frome, because it is one of the brightest spots on the Australian continent and it is very uniform," CSIRO's Dr David Jupp said.
Each day the team of scientists would venture out to the centre of the salt on four-wheeled, balloon-tyred motorbikes - the only vehicles that wouldn't break through the salty crust and get stuck in the black mud below.
In the middle of the lake they measured the exact brightness of the salt in the same 220 bands used by Hyperion.
At the same time, scientists on the shore measured the amounts of water vapour and dust in the atmosphere and measured the atmosphere above the lake.
"We had to characterise the surface and its properties in order to help check out and calibrate the satellite signals," Jupp told ZDNet.
Over the next 12 months other extreme landscapes, including Queensland's Moreton Bay, Cape Tribullation near Cairns and the deep waters of Lake Argyle in Western Australia, will become the focus of further satellite tests.
"It's very important to know that these can be monitored accurately from space," Jupp said.
CSIRO will use the data they uncover to learn more about Australia's rainforests, crops, forests and water bodies.
"By interpreting the Hyperion data, we will gain a better understanding of our resources and environment and how to manage them both," Jupp said.
