FIDEX 2023
The ESA (funded) Fire Detection Experiment (FIDEX) campaign was planned and conducted in support of the Sentinel-3 fire product development and validation
The National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Airborne Earth Observatory (NAEO) maintains and operates the UK’s national capability for airborne remote sensing instrumentation. Funded by a recent UKRI investment exceeding £3.5M, the NAEO have utilised this investment to acquire new state-of-the-art commercial instrumentation representing one of the most comprehensive airborne earth observation sensor suites in the world.
King’s College London’s NCEO Group maintain and operate the instruments, and provide science and flight planning coordination – whilst the British Antarctic Survey provide the aircraft platform and NEODAAS / Plymouth Marine Laboratory process the data to Level 1b (calibrated and geo-coded). In addition to supporting UKRI funded research, we also frequently collaborate on large Space Agency projects funded by ESA and NASA.
We operate state-of-the-art broadband and hyperspectral imagers, covering the visible to longwave Infrared, as well as an advanced full-waveform LiDAR for terrain and vegetation mapping and a high-resolution digital camera for context imagery and photogrammetry. We also integrate guest sensors from organisations such as NASA-JPL and commercial companies.
The team have led and cooperated on campaigns in the UK and abroad. Leading on joint campaigns with NASA, ESA and other funders in the UK and Italy to understand and quantify the directionality of land surface temperature estimates derived from remote sensing, with results being used to inform future satellite mission design. NAEO has collaborated with the Canadian Forest Service and Kruger National Park (South Africa), to take high-resolution measurements of active wildfires at the same time as overpasses by satellites such as Sentinel-3 (S3). These campaigns allowed for the validation of the accuracy of satellite-derived wildfire data, and to develop new methods to determine the characteristics of real-world wildfires and their smoke emissions. Our team took part in the ESA MAGIC Campaign which saw 3 aircraft flying over sites in northern Sweden. Each aircraft had different instrumentation for detecting methane coming from mostly wetland areas. We also undertook accompanying ground measurement of methane to complement those coming from the aircraft. More details on previous campaigns can be found here as well as a rolling blog on any ongoing campaigns.
Recent Campaigns
King’s College London, Bush House (NE wing), 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG