Researchers of the St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPC RAS) developed a methodology aimed at remote assessment of the data quality arriving from instruments of the Russian satellite "Canopus-B-IR" probing the Earth's surface. The development allowed for increasing the accuracy of data used at climate study and ensuring the environmental safety.
Satellite "Canopus-V-IR" (customer: "Roscosmos") was launched into the space in 2017 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The spacecraft is intended for solving various operational monitoring tasks, particularly, man-made and natural emergencies, large emissions of pollutants into the environment.
"We have worked over the quality assessment of the materials of the space thermal survey by the satellite "Canopus-V-IK". The fact is that it is critically important to know how good is the reliability of information provided by remote sensing devices installed on the satellite. So, we have developed a special technique that allowed for testing the resolution of the device and the accuracy it measures the temperature of the Earth's surface with – this is a very important factor for solving various environmental problems," says the Director of the Scientific Research Centre for Ecological Safety of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SRCES RAS – of SPC RAS) Andrey Tronin.
Researchers of the Laboratory of Remote Methods of SRCES RAS have been developing equipment and methods for the use of thermal aerospace photography since the 1960s. The above are designed to measure the temperature of the Earth's surface from satellites or airplanes. Over the past years, extensive experience has been accumulated in the creation of thermal IR shooting equipment, and methods of using thermal imaging materials, methods of calibration and validation of satellite imagery data have been developed. In particular, the laboratory team took part in the interpretation of satellite images of the Mars’ surface.
The developed methods allow to accurately calibrate the equipment on the satellite, to increase the resolution of the received materials. Scientists have also proposed ways to map the air temperature based on satellite imagery.
Now the SPC RAS researchers plan to use their methods for projects executed by the new Russian hydro-meteorological satellite "Arctic-M". It was launched into space in February 2021. The spacecraft works in a highly elliptical orbit that allows for surveying the northern and Arctic territories of Russia.
"Our methods allow for calibrating the instruments of this satellite to receive reliable information about the temperature of the Earth's surface, the state of vegetation and other environmental parameters. Such data can be used in forecasts for the degradation of permafrost – the extremely urgent task. For example, it is important to prevent various dangerous infrastructure damages in the Arctic (gas pipelines, oil pipelines) that may occur due to movements in the permafrost," explains Andrey Tronin.
Beyond the above, scientists believe that it is possible to develop a methodology for mapping risks and damage to public health in the Arctic from environmental overheating in the context of global warming based on data from the Arctic-M satellite