Dr Samantha Lavender presenting the work of the AquaWatch AUK UK Phase 2, a Space Agency Internal Bilateral Fund project at ISRSE-40. Picture courtesy of Andy Palfreyman of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
Pixalytics is delighted to be part of the team selected through the UK-Australia International Bilateral Programme to deliver AquaWatch AUK, a Satellite Mission Development for Water Monitoring Innovation.
The project has been awarded £479,000 to build on the successes of earlier work to use Earth Observation (EO) to address global water quality challenges. The work is being led by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, and alongside Pixalytics, the partners in the project are Assimila Ltd, University of Stirling, RAL Space, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) who are Australia’s national science agency, and Deloitte (Australia).
AquaWatch-AUK is a suite of activities that aim to improve water quality measurements by integrating satellite and in-situ data alongside modelling to allow critical water resources to be managed more efficiently and effectively. This is the third phase of the AquaWatch-AUK activity, and Dr Samantha Lavender’s experience and knowledge in utilising satellites to monitor water quality via remote sensing is supporting the activity.
Our role in the project is to build on previous work that investigated the role of EO’s current and future capabilities in providing water quality data to support UK’s overseas territories in both managing sustainable development and supporting the challenges resulting from climate change, specifically the Pitcairn Islands – considered a pristine ocean environment unaffected by coastal pollution except for marine plastics; and Anguilla – where tourism development is being impacted by climate change and could lead to pollution issues. This time, rather than focusing on the end-user application, we are looking at what’s needed from water quality focused satellites. We are currently working on this through the ESA Scout candidate NAIAD, and will consider a companion satellite to be launched by Australia.
Dr Lavender said “It’s exciting to collaborate with the broad AquaWatch-AUK team again, water quality is critical for understanding the health of the marine environment. The provision of insights from satellites is only one source of information, but a critical source and we’ve struggled to launch high spectial resolution water quality focused missions.â€
AquaWatch-AUK is one of 23 projects selected by the UK Space Agency to strengthen international space partnerships, develop national capabilities and boost economic growth, supporting the Government’s Industrial Strategy; and this project will help strengthen the UK-Australia Space Bridge.
Space Minister Liz Lloyd said: “This £6.5 million boost shows Britain leading the way in space innovation. From improving mobile coverage to monitoring Earth’s forests, these 23 projects will create jobs, strengthen partnerships with our allies, and keep the UK at the cutting edge of space technology. It’s an exciting time for our space sector and great news for British businesses reaching for the stars.â€
This is an exciting project to be involved with, and we are looking forward to continuing to work with our partners to leverage EO data to support the improvement and monitoring of water quality data.
