Gathering of the UK Remote Sensing Clans

The Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc) 2016 Annual Conference is taking place this week, hosted by the University of Nottingham and the British Geological Society. Two Pixalytics staff, Dr Sam Lavender and Dr Louisa Reynolds, left Plymouth on a … Continue reading

Gliding Across The Ice

There’s been a flurry of reports in the last couple of weeks, reporting melting ice and retreating glaciers in Greenland and the Himalayas respectively. A paper by McMillan et al (2016), titled ‘A high-resolution record of Greenland mass balance’ and … Continue reading

Brexit and the Earth Observation Market

Last week the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU). For us it was sad day, evidenced by the fact that on voting day Sam was at the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (EARSeL) Symposium in Bonn, Germany; … Continue reading

Monitoring ocean acidification from space

What is ocean acidification? Since the industrial revolution the oceans have absorbed approximately 50% of the CO2 produced by human activities (The Royal Society, 2005). Scientists previously saw this oceanic absorption as advantageous, however ocean observations in recent decades have … Continue reading

Flooding Forecasting & Mapping

Media headlines this week have shouted that the UK is in for a sizzling summer with temperature in the nineties, coupled with potential flooding in August due to the La Niña weather process. The headlines were based on the UK … Continue reading

Living Planet Is Really Buzzing!

This week I’m at the 2016 European Space Agency’s Living Planet Symposium taking place in sunny Prague. I didn’t arrive until lunchtime on Monday and with the event already underway I hurried to the venue. First port of call was … Continue reading

Sentinel’s Milestone and Millstone

There was be a significant milestone achieved for the European Commission’s Copernicus Programme with the launch of the Sentinel-1B satellite. It was the fourth satellite launched, and will complete the first of the planned constellations as the second Sentinel-1 satellite. It was launched … Continue reading

Blog of Many Colours

The aspect of art at school that really stuck with me was learning about the main colours of the rainbow and how they fit together – like with like, such as yellow, green, blue, and like with unlike such as … Continue reading

Satellite Data Continuity: Hero or Achilles Heel?

One of satellite remote sensing’s greatest strengths is the archive of historical data available, allowing researchers to analyse how areas change over years or even decades – for example, Landsat data has a forty year archive. It is one of … Continue reading

Four Fantastic Forestry Applications of Remote Sensing

Monitoring forest biomass is essential for understanding the global carbon cycle because: Forests account for around 45 % of terrestrial carbon, and deforestation accounts for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions Deforestation and forest degradation release approximately identical amounts of greenhouse … Continue reading