Looking back to see the future: Change in the Lambert Glacier and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. To develop a comprehensive understanding of the Lambert Glacier of East Antarctica, from the time of the last maximum glaciation to the present, through an integrated and interdisciplinary study combining new field evidence - ice retreat history, geodetic measurements of crustal rebound, satellite measurements of present ice heights and changes therein - with other geological and glaciological data an ....Looking back to see the future: Change in the Lambert Glacier and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. To develop a comprehensive understanding of the Lambert Glacier of East Antarctica, from the time of the last maximum glaciation to the present, through an integrated and interdisciplinary study combining new field evidence - ice retreat history, geodetic measurements of crustal rebound, satellite measurements of present ice heights and changes therein - with other geological and glaciological data and numerical geophysical modelling advances. The project contributes to the quantitative characterisation of the complex interactions between ice-sheets, oceans and solid earth within the climate system. Outcomes have implications for geophysics, glaciology, geomorphology, climate, and past and future sea-level change.Read moreRead less
Caught in a vice: Modelling crustal deformation in Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is trapped between the collision of the Australian and Pacific Plates. This proposal uses GPS methods to measure and model the tectonic motion across Papua New Guinea, identifies and quantifies areas undergoing regional deformation near plate boundaries and within tectonic blocks, and evaluates the tectonic processes associated with such deformation. Numerical models will be developed to match the observed site ....Caught in a vice: Modelling crustal deformation in Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is trapped between the collision of the Australian and Pacific Plates. This proposal uses GPS methods to measure and model the tectonic motion across Papua New Guinea, identifies and quantifies areas undergoing regional deformation near plate boundaries and within tectonic blocks, and evaluates the tectonic processes associated with such deformation. Numerical models will be developed to match the observed site motions, thereby revealing the nature of the active plate boundaries and the characteristics of the Earth's crust and mantle. The project will produce new results necessary for assessing the tectonic hazards of Papua New Guinea.
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Simultaneous localisation and image fusion for robotic explorations. Australia has played a leading role in the field of autonomous system research that s becoming increasingly prevalent in industrial applications such as environment monitoring, remote sensing, and battlefield intelligence. Unstructured and landmark-deficient operating conditions impose significant challenges in achieving accurate mapping and localisation. This research will develop a framework for image-based mapping and fusion ....Simultaneous localisation and image fusion for robotic explorations. Australia has played a leading role in the field of autonomous system research that s becoming increasingly prevalent in industrial applications such as environment monitoring, remote sensing, and battlefield intelligence. Unstructured and landmark-deficient operating conditions impose significant challenges in achieving accurate mapping and localisation. This research will develop a framework for image-based mapping and fusion, thus contributing to the key enabling technologies for autonomous systems. The outcomes of this project will contribute to the current international leadership of Australia in this fast-evolving technology.Read moreRead less
Environmental geodesy: variations of sea level and water storage in the Australian region. It is essential for Australia's long-term planning and security that the effects of global warming on our nation's water resources and coastlines are quantified. Sea level variations projected into the future vary around Australia and have large uncertainties, yet the impacts have substantial social and financial ramifications for our community. Australia hasn't yet quantified accurately its critical water ....Environmental geodesy: variations of sea level and water storage in the Australian region. It is essential for Australia's long-term planning and security that the effects of global warming on our nation's water resources and coastlines are quantified. Sea level variations projected into the future vary around Australia and have large uncertainties, yet the impacts have substantial social and financial ramifications for our community. Australia hasn't yet quantified accurately its critical water resources nor how they are changing. This proposal will address both these issues, providing for the first time valuable and accurate information for planning appropriate strategies to mitigate the impact of sea level rise and water storage on the Australian society.Read moreRead less
Tracking the response of terrestrial and ocean waters to climate variations using space gravity observations. Climate change puts Australia at risk from sea level rise and an increase in the occurrence and intensity of droughts. We need to learn about issues concerning the water cycle that are still poorly understood, such as whether droughts cause a reduction in only surface water or also water stored in underground reservoirs and what happens to ocean waters when thermal expansion causes an in ....Tracking the response of terrestrial and ocean waters to climate variations using space gravity observations. Climate change puts Australia at risk from sea level rise and an increase in the occurrence and intensity of droughts. We need to learn about issues concerning the water cycle that are still poorly understood, such as whether droughts cause a reduction in only surface water or also water stored in underground reservoirs and what happens to ocean waters when thermal expansion causes an increase in sea surface height in some regions but not others. This proposal will provide new and accurate scientific information on the risks of sea level rise through the effects of thermal expansion of the oceans, in particular in shallow coastal zones. It will help us to understand droughts, variations in water resources and groundwater recharge patterns.Read moreRead less
MoistureMonitor: A multi-mission soil moisture monitoring system for a water limited future. A long-term soil moisture record for Australia is critical to understanding climate change feedback mechanisms and their impacts on water management. This project will validate, downscale and harmonise soil moisture retrievals from three satellite missions across this decade, each using a new and different low resolution antenna technology and interpretation approach. Moisture Monitor, the framework to d ....MoistureMonitor: A multi-mission soil moisture monitoring system for a water limited future. A long-term soil moisture record for Australia is critical to understanding climate change feedback mechanisms and their impacts on water management. This project will validate, downscale and harmonise soil moisture retrievals from three satellite missions across this decade, each using a new and different low resolution antenna technology and interpretation approach. Moisture Monitor, the framework to deliver this soil moisture record, will be verified using airborne campaigns and hydrological monitoring infrastructure in the Murrumbidgee catchment. Important outcomes will be validation of a new soil moisture satellite and development of a high resolution soil moisture product for improved land and water management and policy for Australia.Read moreRead less
Quantifying sea-level trends and extremes along Australia's coastal margin. Multi-decadal changes in sea-level, and sea-level extremes, cannot be well quantified along most global coastlines, including Australia's, because the high spatial variability of sea-level is under-sampled by the sparse set of long, high quality tide gauge records. Satellite altimetry provides an alternative data source with greater spatial sampling, yet experiences contamination from land within tens of kilometres from ....Quantifying sea-level trends and extremes along Australia's coastal margin. Multi-decadal changes in sea-level, and sea-level extremes, cannot be well quantified along most global coastlines, including Australia's, because the high spatial variability of sea-level is under-sampled by the sparse set of long, high quality tide gauge records. Satellite altimetry provides an alternative data source with greater spatial sampling, yet experiences contamination from land within tens of kilometres from the coast and also suffers from regionally correlated biases. This project proposes to address these problems through re-tracking radar altimetry waveforms to derive new data in the coastal margin, enabling the production of new inferences on sea-level change and extremes at dramatically improved spatial resolution around Australia.Read moreRead less
Space gravity: squeezing the last drop of hydrological information out of current and future missions. Australia needs space gravity measurements in order to estimate regional-scale total water storage changes on our continent. This project will deliver the analysis capability required to exploit all the measurements of the current Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission and to place Australia in a state of readiness for the 2017 GRACE Follow On mission.
Making human place knowledge digestible by computers. This project aims to develop the tools that will enable people to interact intuitively with computers about places and the relations between places. People understand their environment in a different way to computers; they think of places and their relations, while computers use coordinates and maps. People’s interaction with maps is cognitively costly and error-prone, which is becoming untenable in situations needing time-critical decision m ....Making human place knowledge digestible by computers. This project aims to develop the tools that will enable people to interact intuitively with computers about places and the relations between places. People understand their environment in a different way to computers; they think of places and their relations, while computers use coordinates and maps. People’s interaction with maps is cognitively costly and error-prone, which is becoming untenable in situations needing time-critical decision making. The project will revolutionise the design of information services where computers deal with humans and location in time-critical or stressful situations, including emergency calls, disaster response and local search queries. The uptake of this design by industry will lead to economic benefits as well as a safer society living in a smarter environment.Read moreRead less
From environmental monitoring to management: extracting knowledge about environmental events from sensor data. New, high-detail sources of environmental sensor data are useless without new methods for identifying patterns and extracting knowledge from that data. This project will develop improved techniques for interacting with environmental sensor data to assist environmental scientists and manager in understand the important events that are occurring.