The Full Picture

[

] 50

In December 2003 an earthquake with a magnitude of

6.5 hit the town on Bam in Iran killing 40,000 people.

In the month following the quake, COMET researchers

joined scientists from the Geological Survey of Iran to

find the source of the quake. Radar images revealed that

the earthquake occurred on a rare blind ‘strike-slip’ fault.

In strike-slip faults the blocks of crust move sideways

relative to one another, as the blocks are moving side-

ways, rather than up and down. In this case, only small

traces of the fault slip reached the surface, and signs of

movement in previous earthquakes had been buried by

layers of sediment. In addition to showing the location

of a fault, satellite images of earthquakes enable us to

visualize the structure of an entire region, which helps

us to understand the cause and impact of a quake. At

the moment, radar images of quakes can be used to

locate the source of an earthquake and to help predict

and therefore minimise the impact of future quakes.

However, as the number of radar satellites increases, the

repeat time between passes will be reduced, and the time

taken to determine the location of a quake will be

reduced from a few weeks to a few days. When this

happens, satellite images could become a valuable tool

for those planning the relief effort as the satellite images

could show the scale and extent of devastation across a

whole region.

Boreal forest fires

One of the regions where the impact of global warming

will be greatest is in the high latitude forests of the

northern hemisphere. In order to help us understand

the effect of environmental change on these boreal

forests, scientists based at the Climate and Land Surface

Systems Interaction Centre (CLASSIC), in association

with the Sukachev Institute of Forest and the Siberia

Earth System Science Cluster, have been studying the

relationship between environmental change and fire in

Siberian forests. Fire is a cause of major environmental

change in Siberia. For example 38,000 square kilometres

of boreal forest were lost to fire in 2003. Fire frequency

data from the MODIS satellite has been combined with

rainfall and population density data for Siberia. This

work to establish the factors that control of distribution

of fire in Siberia has shown that fire in the boreal forests

is influenced by regional rainfall anomalies, human

population density and large scale climate patterns, such

as the Arctic oscillation.

UK industry plays a major role in supporting the

priorities of UK scientists through the development of

technologies and instrumentations that can satisfy data

requirements. Working within ESA, BNSC leads the two

Global Monitoring for Environment and Security

(GMES) Service Elements (GSE) – Respond (humani-

tarian aid) and Terrafirma (geohazard risk management).

In addition, the UK is a member of the Disaster

Management Charter (DMC), where the UK DMCii is

helping to coordinate a constellation of international

satellites that contribute to the voluntary system called

upon in times of crisis. This is providing a very impor-

In order to improve the coordination of Earth observation activi-

ties in the UK, two centres have been created. The Centre for Earth

Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) is currently jointly funded by

BNSC Partner organizations NERC and the Department of

Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS), and aims to bring together

people from academia and industry in order to provide the UK with

an internationally competitive Earth observation instrumentation

and technology research and development programme. The second

centre is the complimentary National Centre for Earth Observation

(NCEO), which is currently under development and due to become

operational in spring 2008. This centre will build on the consider-

able Earth observation expertise in the UK and will use data from

Earth observation satellites to monitor global and regional changes

in the environment, so that we might predict future environmental

conditions. In addition, the NCEO will provide training in Earth

observation and will be responsible for knowledge transfer activi-

ties, including increasing awareness of initiatives such as GEO within

the UK Earth observation Community.

The UK’s commitment to Earth observation, and the use of Earth

observation data to address many of the problems facing our society,

is best highlighted through example.

Polar observation

Researchers, from the UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and

Monitoring (CPOM) have been monitoring the scale of changes in

Antarctic glaciers using satellite data. Scientists are studying radar

images of four Antarctic glaciers, the Totten and Cook glaciers on

the eastern Antarctic ice sheet, the Pine Island Glacier and the

Thwaites glaciers on the western Antarctic ice sheet. They have

discovered that over the past five years these glaciers have been

moving between 20 per cent and 100 per cent faster than in previ-

ous decades and are adding more water to the oceans, contributing

to rising sea levels.

Earthquakes

Researchers from the UK’s Centre for Observation and Monitoring of

Earthquakes and Tectonics (COMET) have been using radar images

from ESA’s ENVISAT satellite to pinpoint the location of earthquakes.

Source: NERC

Argo floats use a combination of in situ and satellite observation technologies

working together

ATIONAL

& R

EGIONAL

EPORTS