Abstract for presentation at The 13th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference

The PANRIIE SPOT 5 Satellite Imagery project required the acquisition of 2.5m colour data for the whole of NSW, more than 800,000 sq km, to be used as a baseline dataset for planning, natural resource management and a myriad of other applications across the state.
The SPOT 5 satellite acquires a 60km swath with each of its two sensors and can view the same area every 3 to 4 days, giving it great flexibility in acquiring large areas. However, strict management of the acquisitions is needed to minimise the time taken for such a large project. The daily acquisition schedule for the satellite is controlled by an optimisation application which programmes the satellite prior to each orbit taking to account aspects such as regional climate and seasons, local cloud and weather predictions, the priority of the area of interest and satellite loading.
Acquisition of the state-wide coverage was prioritised into geographical areas with early emphasis on the central west of NSW. Raytheon Australia’s ground receiving station is located in Adelaide which allows the use of the sensor’s store and dump capability – some data was acquired over NSW then downloaded as the satellite passed over the Southern Ocean. The contract required almost cloud free images and much interaction between Raytheon and DIPNR was required to achieve the best result with some areas having to be re-acquired as they did not satisfy the quality requirements.
The coverage was acquired from late October 2004 to August 2005 and consisted of 336 scenes with 80% of the scenes being acquired in the first five months. The success of this project depended on the close cooperation of Raytheon’s project manager, satellite controllers in Toulouse, France, operators at the Adelaide receiving station and quality assessors within DIPNR.