15 March 2005
This image of Cyclone Ingrid [JPG 204KB] was acquired by the MODIS instrument onboard the TERRA satellite at 2.54 ESDT on 8th March 2005 as it moved westward towards the North Queensland coast. TERRA continued to acquire images of Cyclone Ingrid as it passed over the northern coastline of the Australian continent. The satellite acquires data from almost the entire surface of the Earth every day.
This data was downlinked by Geoscience Australia's ACRES Data Acquisition Facility in Alice Springs and made available to the public within 3 to 5 hours of the satellite overpass.
12 January 2005
The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor onboard the AQUA satellite captured this image of the bushfires approaching Port Lincoln on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula between 3:43 and 3:47 pm EST on 11 January 2005. The MODIS instrument acquires data in 36 spectral bands over a 2330km wide swath. Geoscience Australia downlinks MODIS data at the Alice Springs and Hobart data acquisitions facilities.
The progress of the fires was also tracked by the Sentinel bushfire tracking system. This system uses near real-time processing of MODIS data to determine and display fire hotspots locations within 40 minutes of the satellite overpass. The mapping system allows users to identify fires which pose potential risks to communities and infrastructure.
10 January 2005
ACRES is pleased to announce the release of ACRES ASTER products. This latest release extends the range of satellite image product options available from ACRES to better satisfy the varying needs of customers.
ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is a sensor onboard the TERRA satellite which follows a similar orbit to Landsat 7. ASTER can be used for a range of applications including geological and mineral studies, land use and environmental studies, mapping, water resources and generation of digital elevation models (DEMs).
ACRES will be offering ASTER data from two sources:
ERSDAC archive: Under a recently signed agreement, ACRES can now distribute all ASTER data acquisitions (over 800,000 scenes) from the comprehensive archive at the Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Centre (ERSDAC) in Japan. Such an agreement now makes it very easy for Australian customers to access ASTER data simply and conveniently from ACRES. Importantly, ACRES can also organise future acquisitions of ASTER data over a customer's area of interest.
ACRES Archive: The ACRES archive currently contains over 20,000 scenes of ASTER data acquired over Australia, mostly between March 2000 and June 2002. This data is now available to customers. The ACRES ASTER archive will grow over time with the addition of ERSDAC ASTER data that is copied from imported data.
For further information on ASTER, please see: