Australia

A new, freely available and open-source app that uses aerial survey data to map and identify wild animals, has been launched by researchers from Edith Cowan University. The app is intended to help researchers and community groups across the world to conduct wildlife imagery surveys. Known as WISDAM — Wildlife Image Survey Detection and Mapping — the ...

Skykraft, an Australian company, has signed a Participating Project Partner Agreement for the “Demonstration of Collaborative Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)” project. This agreement, supported by an International Space Investment (ISI) India Projects grant from the Australian Government, will promote joint space projects between Australia and India. The primary goal ...

In response to the rising threat of GPS jamming in drone warfare, researchers at the University of South Australia (UniSA) have pioneered a celestial navigation system that uses star-based visual data as an alternative to the global positioning system. Combining celestial navigation with vision-based technology, UniSA’s remote sensing engineers have created a lightweight, cost-effective system ...

Marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent in a warming world, as rising ocean temperatures trigger these mysterious and damaging phenomena. The profound effects of marine heatwaves on ecosystems – from coral bleaching to disruptions in biodiversity – explain why scientists believe great urgency is required to understand their development and longevity. As we grapple with the challenges of climate change, ...

According to the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the updated space-related export controls will promote the USA’s innovation and technology leadership while protecting its national security and foreign policy interests. The relaxed restrictions also apply to the United Kingdom and Canada. Specifically, the new ruling removes licensing requirements for items involving ...

Natalia Ocampo-Peñuela, assistant professor of environmental studies, and a team of Colombian researchers have introduced a transformative approach to mapping bird species distribution across Colombia, harnessing community science data and innovative modeling techniques. Their latest study, published with open access in the journal Diversity and Distributions, presents high-resolution range and Area of Habitat (AOH) maps ...

Observing sites such as the Amazon basin from space has underscored the capability of satellites to better detect signs of drought, according to a new study. Led by Military University of Technology Poland and Griffith University, the researchers combined two advance satellite-based methods to improve monitoring of hydrological droughts.  Advance satellite-based methods, such as the ...

A landmark agreement has been signed between Australia and Greece, as both countries look to enhance their work in the field of space. Both nations are new to space technology but are hoping to work together to go further faster and help solve challenges common to both countries. The initial key focus for the companies ...

A comprehensive geospatial mapping project has commenced at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s (AWC) Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary (Bunuba and Kija country) in the central Kimberley, to assist in the site’s post-flooding restoration. The newly launched J2 Geospatial Intelligence Service (J2 GIS), a social enterprise of the veteran-led non-for-profit Disaster Relief Australia (DRA), has signed on to ...

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced an investment of A$566-million over the next decade to bolster geoscientific research across the nation. The Geoscience Australia-led initiative, welcomed by industry bodies such as the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) and the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec), aims to unlock the vast potential of Australia’s ...

Klau Geomatics has introduced the Brumby RTK Lidar system, an innovative mobile mapping solution equipped with powerful Edge Compute capabilities, enabling the generation of highly precise georeferenced point clouds in real time. Brumby can be deployed on drones, light aircraft or as a mobile mapping system (MLS). It processes data into a georeferenced point cloud ...

Researchers at The University of Western Australia have led the development of a new technique for accurately mapping shallow and coastal marine habitats. Dr Sharyn Hickey and Dr Stan Mastrantonis, from UWA’s School of Agriculture and Environment, School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute, were co-authors of the research published in the ISPRS Journal of ...

Australian remote sensing startup Esper wants to capture hyperspectral imagery from space at a fraction of the price of its competitors. The company, which launched its first demonstration satellite this Monday on SpaceX’s Transporter-10 mission, is entering a field rife with competition. There’s a reason for that: Hyperspectral is an incredibly powerful type of remote ...

The Climate Council’s Heat Map of Australia is an interactive tool that shows how cutting climate pollution will limit extreme heat in our neighbourhoods. It projects the average number of hot and very hot days, as well as very hot nights, for each suburb by 2050 and 2090, and across three scenarios: no action, continuing ...

Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) have created a global atlas for potential pumped hydro storage sites located in former mining areas. “Mining sites can be shaped during the end stages of mining to form a pumped hydro reservoir,” the scientists explained, noting that mining sites are often located close to the power network ...

At Geo Week 2024 in Denver, Maptek unveiled its latest innovation: Maptek GeoSpatial Manager. This groundbreaking solution simplifies and streamlines workflows, revolutionizing how mining and civil engineering projects manage data from laser scans and drones. Maptek is a leading provider of innovative software, hardware, and services for the mining industry. GeoSpatial Manager effortlessly connects users ...

Version 3 of Australia’s free Ginan service, an open-source toolkit for determining precise point positioning with centimetre-level accuracy based on GNSS observations, has been released. Version 3 enables users to use Ginan to determine precise orbits for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, knowledge which in turn is used to boost the accuracy of positioning measurements ...

Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia have investigated the effects of wildfires on the electricity production of rooftop PV systems and have concluded that residential solar arrays could be used for wildfire detection and monitoring, due to their sensitivity to smoke. In the study “Quantifying the impact of wildfire smoke ...

A modern, sustainable society depends on the mining industry to supply crucial materials. Batteries and electric vehicles require metals like lithium and cadmium, wind turbines require rare earth metals and our cities need aggregate materials like gravel and sand for construction. On the other hand, the mining industry also produces materials like coal which are ...

Dark streets and risky intersections as well as well-lit parks and vibrant night-time destinations will be mapped in New South Wales for the first time in an effort to improve women’s safety. Women and gender diverse people are being asked to contribute to a digital crowd-mapping project by anonymously identifying places where they have felt ...

The Australian Government’s Exploring for the Future program is continuing to deliver for the resources industry with the release of a new tool to support the discovery of minerals critical to the net zero transformation. The Heavy Mineral Map of Australia, developed by Geoscience Australia in collaboration with Curtin University, has been created using heavy ...

The Australian and New Zealand governments, with support from FrontierSI, are conducting a survey with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to understand the opportunities and barriers for integrating SouthPAN signal support in your GNSS chips, devices and equipment. SouthPAN is the first Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) in the Southern Hemisphere and provides improved positioning and navigation ...

From today, anyone around the world will be able to access an Australian-led data initiative aimed at reducing the rates of family, domestic and sexual violence. The Evidence Portal is a new online tool created and maintained by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), one of the leading research organisations in Australia on ...

A two-year project to survey and model nearly 233,000 hectares of land — equivalent to the size of the Australian Capital Territory — to upgrade Queensland’s spatial cadastre, has been completed as a vital part of delivering the Inland Rail project. The spatial cadastre is used to accurately identify the location of the new rail ...

The Australian Navy has tested a new Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) equipped drone designed to support amphibious operations. Using the sensors, the drone, an S100 unmanned aerial vehicle, performed bathymetric and littoral light detection during this year’s ‘Exercise Sea Raider’. Deployed from the HMAS Adelaide, the drone projected green wavelength laser beams through the ...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has released a compilation of national-scale geological, geophysical and mineral resource datasets from Australia, Canada and the US through a collaboration between the three countries’ federal geological surveys. “Geology doesn’t stop at the border and neither does our data,” said USGS scientist Anne McCafferty, who led the effort. “Scientists will ...

Nominations are open for the She Maps Geospatial in Schools Awards, which seek to recognise the “engaging, creative and innovative contributions” of outstanding Australian teachers and students. The awards aim to recognise high achievement in geospatial learning and teaching, highlight students and teachers who are making a contribution to geospatial learning beyond the classroom, and ...

Police are urging travellers to properly prepare before driving in the outback after botched Google Maps directions left an Alice Springs nurse stranded in the Central Australian desert without food or water. The 22-year-old, who asked their name not be used, was driving solo from Alice Springs to the popular Harts Range rodeo late at ...

SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (SmartSat), Australia’s space research centre, has signed a new agreement with European Space Agencys (ESA) Philab to collaborate on Earth Observation (EO) research. The European Space Agency’s Philab is a leading research centre with a mission to accelerate the future of Earth Observation through transformational innovations and new technologies, including artificial ...