Professionals working in the mineral exploration industry will be interested in the release of new geophysical point-located gravity data for the Broken Hill - Menindee area in New South Wales.
Distribution of old
and new gravity data
© Geoscience Australia
The new data were acquired as part of Geoscience Australia's ongoing program to add to the Australian National Gravity Database. Data from the new and existing stations will assist in the ground truth study of recently acquired airborne gravity data over the same geographic area near Broken Hill.
The Broken Hill - Menindee gravity data set consists of 182 new gravity stations from a May 2003 gravity survey and 20,514 gravity stations from pre-2003 gravity surveys all located near Broken Hill. The diagram here shows the distribution of old and new gravity data. This new data set is an adjunct to the Australian National Gravity Database, released in May 2003, which contains information on gravity surveys conducted in Australia and its offshore territories.
The new data were acquired in May 2003 in three separate areas around Broken Hill. As part of the contract, terrain corrections were calculated for the new data as well as for the 20,514 existing gravity stations. This data release includes the terrain corrected gravity values presented as Complete Bouguer Anomaly values for both new and existing data. The existing data sourced from Geoscience Australia, NSW Department of Mineral Resources and industry surveys have previously been released with Simple Bouguer Anomaly values only.
A contract to rebuild the Mt Stromlo satellite laser ranging (SLR) facility has reinforced Australia's crucial role in international satellite tracking.
Geoscience Australia's Satellite
Laser Ranging facility at Mt
Stromlo destroyed by firestorm
on 18 January 2003
© Geoscience Australia
Geoscience Australia's Satellite
Laser Ranging facility at Mt
Stromlo at the time of its opening
in 1997
© Geoscience Australia
The Mt Stromlo station (pictured at right) was one of the most technologically advanced satellite laser ranging systems in the world. This new contract means that we can affirm Australia's position at the forefront of this important field."
Queanbeyan firm, EOS Space Systems Pty Ltd, who designed and built the original facility, has been engaged to rebuild the original $6m Geoscience Australia structure housed at Mt Stromlo which was completely destroyed earlier this year in Canberra's devastating firestorm.
"We expect the restored facility to rapidly attain the high global ranking achieved by its predecessor," said Federal Industry Parliamentary Secretary, Warren Entsch.
Geoscience Australia's Satellite
Laser Ranging facility at Mt
Stromlo at the time of its
completion in October 1998
© Geoscience Australia
Geoscience Australia's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Neil Williams, said the new facility would be rebuilt as one of the world's best tracking stations by an Australian company that is a world leader in this field.
"The Mt Stromlo SLR facility was one of only a small number of SLR stations in the Southern Hemisphere, determining the precise position and orbit of satellites crucial for global navigation, surveying, and communication links," said Dr Williams.
Reconstruction work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.