Associate Professor/Professor of Remote Sensing - University of Southampton

Associate Professor/Professor of Remote Sensing

University of Southampton : Geography and Environment

Research Group : Global Environmental Change & Earth Observation
Salary:   £47,328 to £63,449
Full Time Permanent
Closing Date:   Sunday 22 March 2015
Interview Date:   Thursday 07 May 2015
Reference:  510115WR

Geography and Environment are inviting applications for a
Professor/Associate Professor of Remote Sensing. Of particular interest are
candidates with an international reputation of research excellence who can
complement and expand our existing research areas within the Global
Environmental Change and Earth Observation research group :

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/geography/research/groups/global_environmental.page?.

You will be expected to establish an externally funded research program as
well as contribute fully to both undergraduate and graduate teaching.

Current research within Geography and Environment has a strong emphasis on
interdisciplinary initiatives that bridge traditional disciplinary groups to
address challenging problems. We are dedicated to maintaining our
world-leading reputation in remote sensing and we are now seeking a new hire
who has research interests that will enhance existing specialisms within the
group, and complement those in other Research Groups both within the
Department, and more widely within the University.

Salary and level of appointment will be commensurate with qualifications and
experience.
Interviews will be held on Thursday 7 May 2015.

Informal enquiries can be made to the Head of Academic Unit, Professor
Stephen Darby (S.E.Darby@southampton.ac.uk).

Further details of the application procedure can be found on the Southampton
University website :
https://www.jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=510115WR

Research Studentship (MPhil) in Novel platforms and applications for Ground Penetrating Radar

Title: Funded MPhil Studentship

School/department: Geography 

Supervisors: Dr Booker Ogutu and Prof Heiko Balzter

Start Date: 01/07/14 at the latest- earlier preferred

Entry Requirement: UK/EU only – first degree (BSc) obtained in last three years only

Closing Date: 01/06/14 (extended until 8 June)

Applications are invited for a 12 month research studentship in Novel platforms and applications for Ground Penetrating Radar funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)- IRSA grant, the University of Leicester and Sterling Geophysical Surveys Ltd.

The MPhil studentship will cover a maintenance grant for 12 months and a small amount for research expenses and travel. Full University student fees for UK/EU students for will be covered by Sterling Geophyscial Surveys Ltd. Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr Booker Ogutu for an informal discussion on 0116 252 7496 or by email to boo7@le.ac.uk.

The student will be based in the department of Geography, University of Leicester (http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/geography). The student will be encouraged to complete all aspects of the MPhil including submission by the end of the 12 month grant period.

Project Overview (as below or similar)

The project will use data collected by the student from both ground based Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and UAV mounted GPR equipment. The project will cover the following areas:

1. Techniques for analysing and estimating the accuracy and precision of data from UAV mounted GPR.

2. Test the applicability of existing georeferencing methods on the data collected by the UAV mounted GPR.

3. Research the different factors causing inaccuracy and error, and make recommendations to resolve identified issues and problems.

4. Evaluate the applicability of the UAV mounted GPR in determining peat depths.

5. Produce a final report suitable for submission for an MPhil award.

The University of Leicester has access to a number of sites that could be used to carry out field work and collect data. These include, a GPR test site, the site of a Roman villa that the Department of Archaeology are currently working on, and an area of extensive peat bog-land of interest to the Geography Department

Entry Requirements

Applicants must have a first-class or high upper second-class honours degree (or equivalent qualification) obtained in the last three years (2011, 2012, 2013 BSc graduates) in Geography, Geology, Geophysics or Surveying or a closely related subject and and complete the university online application process on http://www2.le.ac.uk/study/research/how-to-apply/online

Students must meet the University’s standard English language entry requirements.

This studentship is only available to new applicants who are permanently resident in the UK or another EU country. The studentship is for full-time study only and applicants must be able to commence their studies by 1st July at the latest.

Details of IRSA can be found at

http://www2.le.ac.uk/business/collaborations/support/irsa/irsa-innovation-through-the-research-support-accelerator

Date of advertisement: 5th May 2014

Closing date for applications: 1st June 2014 (extended until 08 June)

Shortlisting of candidates on 2nd June 2014, invitations to interview

Interviews will be held on week beginning 9th June 2014 and we anticipate making an offer within 24 hours of interview.

What can we look forward to from WorldView-3

DigitalGlobe is a big player in the provision of satellite imagery, so it’s no surprise that the earth observation community is looking forward to the launch of their new satellite, WorldView-3. The company already operates a constellation of satellites that are widely used in commercial image analysis (QuickBird, WorldView-1 and WorldView-2, http://www.digitalglobe.com/about-us/content-collection#overview). But besides the obvious benefits of more satellites giving greater coverage of the Earth’s surface, what other benefits will WorldView-3 be bringing to the party?

Well first, a bit of background. Like its sister satellites QuickBird and WorldView-2, WorldView-3 (WV-3) is multispectral. This means that it is observing light reflected from the Earth at a number of different frequency bands across the electromagnetic spectrum (unlike WV-1 which only observes one bands of frequencies, i.e. panchromatic). Typically these bands are sited within the red, green and blue portions of the spectrum, with a fourth band within the Near Infra-Red (NIR). The three RGB bands allow us to produce images as the human eye would see, whilst the NIR band is useful for delineating features such as land/sea boundaries or identifying clouds -- basically any feature where we’d expect a sudden change in temperature. This is the approach of QuickBird and many other commercial satellites. 

 

 WorldView-2 takes this approach a little further, by utilising 8 bands in the Visible and NearInfra-Red spectra (VNIR). I’ve listed the bands used by all of these satellites in the accompanying table. We can see that as well as the standard RGBand NIR, WV-2 has some additional bands -- Coastal Blue, Yellow, Red Edge and a second NIR band. Each of these bands is chosen to be sensitive to a particular feature on the surface. For example, the Coastal Blue band is more sensitive to moisture within an image than the traditional Blue band, so it can be used to improve on water depth measurements around harbours. These additional bands really help with image analysis because the additional information allows for more accurate image classification and segmentation which would be carried out with analysis software such as ENVI. 

WorldView-3 takes the advances made with WorldView-2 the next step forward and includes 8 more bands within the Short-Wave Infra-Red (SWIR) region of the spectrum (http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/WorldView3-DS-WV3-Web.pdf), in addition to the VNIR channels of WorldView-2 (also listed in the table).  This allows WV-3 to observe a much wider range of the electromagnetic spectra than most other commercial satellites, and will allow us to start looking for the individual spectral signatures of materials. The accompanying plot shows the spectral signatures of three minerals. The light blue regions on the plot denote the VNIR bands covered by WV-2and WV-3. The light red regions denote the SWIR bands covered by the 8 new WV-3 bands. This shows just how much further the new bands penetrate into the electromagnetic spectrum. The spectral profiles of each pixel in an image can be compared to a spectral library (such as the reflectance spectras shown) to classify what material is contained within that pixel.

 

This type of automated spectral classification is commonly carried out in ENVI with hyperspectral data (from satellites containing hundreds of spectral bands) which can sometimes be costly to acquire. However, the ability to remotely monitor materials is invaluable to a great number of industries for example in forestry applications where we see users wanting to monitor tree health and pest infestation in remote regions. WorldView-3 brings a limited version of this capability to users at a reduced price, so we still won’t expect the accuracy of a hyperspectral satellite, but it really is a step beyond the features we could extract from multispectral data. So, I’ll stick with Digital Globe’s marketing and refer to it as ‘super-spectral’.

WorldView-3 will be launching in the next few months, so the first data is likely to be available at the beginning of 2015. As a partner of Digital Globe, we’ve been preparing for this. In fact, our parent company developed the SWIR sensor aboardhttp://www.exelisinc.com/news/pressreleases/Pages/Exelis-delivers-first-of-its-kind-commercial-payload-to-DigitalGlobe-for-WorldView-3-satellite.aspx). The data will be able to be loaded into ENVI as soon as it’s available, so I advise you to keep an eye out for further updates because this instrument looks like it will be a great addition.

Author: James Slater / Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Ball Aerospace satellite readied for launch by DigitalGlobe

WorldView-3 spacecraft to enhance Longmont firm's high-resolution imagery capabilities

By Charlie Brennan, Camera Staff Writer

 

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has completed assembly of its WorldView-3, the fourth remote-sensing satellite it has built for DigitalGlobe, scheduled to launch this summer from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The WorldView-3 spacecraft is billed by Ball Aerospace as the first multi-payload, super-spectral high resolution commercial satellite for Earth observations and "advanced geospatial solutions."
Ball, in addition to the satellite bus, will provide an atmospheric instrument that it calls CAVIS -— Cloud, Aerosol, Water Vapor, Ice, Snow.
CAVIS, integrated with the spacecraft, will monitor the atmosphere and provide correction data to enhance WorldView-3's imagery when it documents Earth features through dust, haze or other things that might impair visibility.
DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont but moving to Westminster next year, claims to own and operate one of the most agile and sophisticated collections of high-resolution commercial Earth imaging satellites in the world, capable of collecting more than 1 billion square kilometers of high-quality imagery every year.
WorldView-3 is described by Ball Aerospace as building on WorldView-2 and WorldView-1 technology by enhancing the satellite's control moment gyroscopes, which reorient a satellite over a targeted area in 4-to-5 seconds, compared to the 30-to-45 seconds required for traditional reaction wheels.
WorldView-3 utilizes the Ball Configurable Platform BCP 5000 spacecraft, which is designed to handle the next-generation optical and synthetic aperture radar remote sensing payloads, and is currently meeting or exceeding all its performance specifications on the WorldView-2 satellite.
Companies 'have grown up together'
For Jeff Dierks, Ball Aerospace program manager for WorldView-3 and its predecessor, WorldView-2, the next step in its partnership with DigitalGlobe only further cements what has been a rich relationship since the early 1990s.
"We have grown up together with them," said Dierks, noting that there has been cross-pollination in staff between the two companies since not long after DigitalGlobe was founded in 1992 as the WorldView Imaging Corporation.
In 1995, WorldView became EarthWatch Incorporated, merging with the BallAerospace commercial remote sensing operations, becoming DigitalGlobe in 2001.
"What's exciting is watching the business grow over the years," Dierks said. "DigitalGlobe has become quite a successful company, and is a remarkably different company than when they first started both in size and success."
And it has been fruitful as well for Ball Aerospace, which Dierks said was paid "a little over $200 million" for its design and build of the WorldView-3 spacecraft and CAVIS instrumentation.
Kumar Navulur, director of research and development for DigitalGlobe, expressed excitement about the advanced imaging capabilities that WorldView-3 will facilitate.
"There are several advantages with the WorldView-3, compared to our previous satellites," Navulur said. "The first one is the satellite will capture pictures at 1 foot, or 30 centimeters resolution," as opposed to the 50-centimeter resolution afforded by its precursors.
"The only caveat is that today, DigitalGlobe can only sell 50-centimeter to commercial customers. We have asked for a relaxation from the government, but at this point we don't know when we will be able to get it. In the worldwide market, 1-foot images are the sweet spot."
Navulur said WorldView-3 moves DigitalGlobe from multi-spectral imaging (utilizing up to 10 spectral bands) to super-spectral imaging (using 10-20 bands).
And, in addition to recording data in the visible and near-infrared parts of the solar spectrum, Navulur said, WorldView-3 also will be looking into the shortwave infrared spectrum, "where there is a lot more information."
Many uses of imaging data
Navulur cited examples of the data that such imaging will yield, and its applications. For agricultural clients, it will now be possible to look at things such as crop inventory and the moisture content of soil.
Forestry clients will be able to conduct inventories that differentiate not only between coniferous and deciduous trees, but between trees species.
Wildfire managers will be able to detect hotspots, which could have life-saving implications if firefighters can be steered away from lethal pockets.
And miners and geologists will be afforded a much better picture of the presence of mineral deposits, while those in the oil and gas industry will realize a similar benefit, Navulur said.
WordView-3 will be moved to its California launch site about two months before its summer liftoff, and integrated with its Atlas V rocket —- manufactured by United Launch Alliance, another Colorado company — and readied for delivery into its orbit altitude of 617 kilometers.
It should start collecting data about 45 to 90 days after launch, Navulur said.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Charlie Brennan at 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com at twitter.com/chasbrennan. 

GRSG Meeting, 9-11 December 2013, Berlin 'Status and developments in geological remote sensing' - First Call for Papers

Dear Members

The Geological Remote Sensing Group (GRSG) are pleased to announce that the 24^th annual meeting of the GRSG will be held in Berlin between 9-11 December 2013.

For further information or visit www.grsg.org.uk

The GRSG is an association of enthusiasts keen on the geological aspects of remote sensing. The current membership includes geologists and remote sensing experts employed within industry, academia and government agencies, as well as graduate students. The GRSG (est.1989) is a Joint Specialist Group of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society and the Geological Society of London. Although the parent bodies are both based in the UK the GRSG is an international organization with members around the globe. New members are always welcome.

The organising committee for GRSG Berlin 2013 include the UK-GRSG committee and also GRSG members in Germany: Cornelia Glaesser (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, MLU), Friedrich Kuehn (BGR) and Christian Fischer (DLR).

We look forward to seeing you in Berlin

Best Wishes, the Organising Committee

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The Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society
c/o School of Geography
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham  NG7 2RD
UK