Airborne Research Australia

ARA's capabilities and approach to airborne environmental research and monitoring are unmatched worldwide in terms of the available sensing toolkit combined with the most cost-effective, flexible and clean airborne platforms available today operated by a small team of multi-talented specialists. To build up such a capability in South Australia was... only possible through philanthropic and other support, starting with the late Joyce and Don Schultz of Glen Osmond to the Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith Trust, as well as the Commonwealth and especially the ARC LIEF grant programme. ARA's airborne platforms are unique. To study the environment, one should use a platform that does not affect the environment by flying over it. Being essentially (manned) motorgliders with modern very quiet and clean engines using unleaded petrol, these aircraft leave a minimal footprint during research flights making it possible to map even the most sensitive environment without disturbing it and/or its inhabitants such as protected areas of the Great Barrier Reef or World Heritage Areas in southern Tasmania or the Kimberley in Western Australia. In environmental research, it is absolutely essential to establish baselines for parameters such as health of vegetation, land cover or air quality, so that one can then judge changes over time. Airborne observations are a very efficient tool to do this. Just one example is the currently occurring mangrove dieback along the NE-Australian coastline. ARA, together with a team of Australian and international researchers, is in the process to document the current status and then monitor the phenomenon over time to try to understand the processes involved. * LiDAR works like radar, but using beams of light reflected from features on the ground such as vegetation, buildings, etc. at very high resolution. ** Hyperspectral means scanners which can "see" not just three wavelengths like ordinary cameras (red, green and blue), but thousands of them extending far beyond the visible spectrum. This enables ...Read More