Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
A new research project will employ South Australia’s own satellite, Kanyini – which is due to be launched any day now – to map and monitor native vegetation and crop health across the state.
The data could be used to help provide vital insights to farmers by pre-emptively detecting impacts on crop health, as well as informing ecosystem recovery following climatic events, such as bushfires.
Kanyini is a 12kg 6 unit CubeSat, designed, built and tested entirely in SA.
It is hoped Kanyini will launch this month onboard SpaceX’s Transporter-11 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in the US.
Once in low Earth orbit (LEO) about 500 kilometres above the Earth, Kanyini’s onboard instrument, HyperScout 2, will provide “hyperspectral” imaging information of key areas as far south as Kangaroo Island and stretching to the far northern pastoral region.
The SA Ecomaps project – a collaboration between SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), the Department for Environment and Water (DEW), the Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA), and the University of Adelaide – will develop proof-of-concept capabilities to monitor biodiversity and crop health from space.
“It’s an optical sensor based on light from the Sun reflected off the plants or off the ground surface – wherever the light hits,” Davina White, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Lead at PIRSA, told Cosmos.
The hyperspectral imaging component of HyperScout 2 collects and processes information from a number of narrow wave bands in the visible to near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, which are of particular use for vegetation imaging.
HyperScout 2 senses this light and produces an image, as well as a unique spectral signature or “cube”, a bit like a fingerprint for plants, in each pixel of the image.
“That’s what enables us to discriminate between different types of vegetation, the health of the vegetation, other impacts on the condition, and growth stage of the vegetation,” says White.
“One of the unique capabilities of hyperspectral sensors is that with those unique signatures you can pick up sensitivity that’s not visible to the grower.
“There’ll be changes in the signature that can be picked up that will be more subtle than visible, enabling an earlier detection of an impact. Early detection of stress, for example, be that from water, other climatic factors, or nutritional.”
Providing that information directly to growers could translate into better management and mitigation strategies throughout the growing season.
“One of the roles of PIRSA is to build that resilience and recovery within the regions and communities and I think this is an approach that would assist in that way,” says White.
The other major component of the project will be to understand the impacts of climatic events, such as bushfires, on native species biodiversity. One of the key study sites, Kangaroo Island, suffered a major loss of biodiversity following the devastating 2019-2020 bushfires.
“It’s looking at how to best manage that postfire recovery and what are the best solutions for growers. It’s more of a holistic approach rather than looking at it in isolation,” says White.
“What are the interactions going on here? Which vegetation types seem to be dominating? And can we get a better understanding?”
Data collected on the ground will be used to validate Kanyini’s imagery, as well as to augment its capabilities. For example, LIDAR will provide 3-dimensional information about the structure and density of vegetation for an additional level of detail.
“An issue that’s occurred postfire on Kangaroo Island is that blue gums are growing more rapidly, and recovering to the point that that’s becoming problematic, compared to other species,” says White.
Monitoring this recovery could help inform better management following bushfire emergencies in the future.
SA Ecomaps is a 18 month project to determine Kanyini’s capabilities in comparison to other satellite capabilities currently available, and to provide proof-of-concept solutions specific to the needs of South Australia.
“We need to see how well more narrow wave bands perform with a slightly broader spatial resolution,” says White.
“That’s the question that needs to be answered in the project. To find out what would be the ideal configuration … that will provide the best outcomes for industry and the ecological biodiversity component as well.”
