Arctic Earth Observation and Surveillance Technologies

The main purpose of the Arctic EO project is to conduct education and applied research on new technologies that support sustainable development of industry and communities in the High North. For Arctic EO's part, this work included creating expertise, technologies and services that both supported and benefited from the extensive activities that already existed in remote sensing from satellite and unmanned aircraft in Tromsø and combine this competence with the other strong institutions and companies in Narvik and Trondheim on control and navigation of autonomous systems. ArcticEO has focused on developing services based on combined use of data from drones and satellites to develop new operational services that would support industry and service development in the North. Topics we specifically addressed were the detection and monitoring of icebergs, the characterization of sea ice on a rough to a fine scale, ie with resolution from km to cm which is important for handling sea ice in connection with both oil and gas activities and in connection with navigation through the northern sea routes. On land we researched methods for using aircraft and satellite radar sensors to evaluate snow avalanches (more killed in snow avalanches than in car accidents in Troms over the last 10 years) to reduce road closure, evacuation of towns and loss of tourists. These radar sensors are also used to develop algorithms for determining the amount of water bound up in the snow throughout the winter so that you can calculate expected drainage in the snow melt and optimize hydro power production and reduce the likelihood of flooding and flood damage. The project developed a separate bachelor program under the Department of Engineering and Security Sciences, which will graduate about 25 students a year. 5 PhD students and 5 post doc fellows have been involved in the project.

This proposal outlines a project aimed at advancing education, basic and applied research on new technologies for both large scale Earth observation based on satellite observations, and local scale surveillance using UAS. The project will develop compete nce and new technologies, which will improve our ability to monitor and survey oceanographic phenomena (including ship traffic and pollution), sea ice, glaciers and snow covered areas, the Earth atmosphere, and environmental processes in Northern and Arct ic regions. This will in turn aid a deeper understanding of the environmental changes due to increased industrial and commercial activities in the North (including the Arctic), and improve the decision basis for sustainability and safety associated with t hese activities. The resulting products and new technologies will also offer new business opportunities and jobs within the fields of EO, space and UAS technology where Northern Norway already are leading internationally. The project will comprise three interrelated research and development areas: 1. Methods and Algorithms: Development of basic methods and algorithms for information retrieval from data from Earth observation sensors, quality assurance and modification of existing satellite algorithms f or arctic conditions. 2. Models: Development of numeric models for prediction of the impact of emissions from polluting sources, as well as physical and statistical models describing the electromagnetic (EM) interaction with the Earth surface 3. Platfo rms and sensors: Develop a UAS platform and sensors dedicated to surveillance tasks and reliable routine operation in the Arctic under all kinds of conditions. The research conducted include development of modeling methods and algorithms and thorough eva luation of these within a framework that should allow for integration into future operational surveillance facilities.