Tuesday 27 December 2016

The Fall of Hyperion

Bad news on the Hyperion front. 

I posted in a burst of enthusiasm earlier in the year about free satellite hyperspectral datasets that I had found for Ireland. The Hyperion sensor on the EO-1 satellite was recording long strips over agricultural areas in Munster and Connaught. NASA had even agreed to let users request it to capture new sites of interest - which i did almost immediately for a number of our coastal projects around the country. Unfortunately due to a GPS malfunction on the satellite and also I am presuming problems with cloud cover, none of my coastal test sites were ever successfully mapped. Really disappointing as this would have been an invaluable source of hyperspectral imagery for Ireland. To make matters worse - we won't have a chance for a repeat request as the satellite is being decommissioned this month. 


No more free hyperspectral satellite tasking for geospatial researchers.


3 comments:

  1. Bad luck ! Cloud cover is one of the major obstacle for obtaining multispectral optical imageries along coastlines.

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  2. Disappointing. What level of investment would be needed for the ESB to put up it's own satellites for this purpose?

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    Replies
    1. ESA? has at least one hyperspectral satellite in the works that I know of. FLEX - will measure fluorescence worldwide (real time plant stress) but isn't due to launch until 2020 and will be relatively course resolution.

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My name is Conor. I am a Lecturer at the Department of Geography at Maynooth University. These few lines will (hopefully) chart my progress through academia and the world of research.