Earth observation (EO) information is now a major input to environmental monitoring and early warning capability at global, regional and national scales. The next decade will see a burgeoning of the amount and breadth of information available from satellite-based sensors.

NRI has a long history of working with overseas partners and organizations to use satellite data in many aspects of Earth observation. This has involved the direct use of information received from satellites, as well as the development of techniques which enhance the local delivery of Earth observation information, with specific reference to global change in developing countries.

Staff involved in EO have developed applications based on monitoring vegetation change; fire monitoring; land, lake and sea-surface temperature estimation; tracking urban change; and developing flood monitoring systems based on high resolution remote sensing systems. We have investigated ways to improve the early warning of natural disasters including drought, desertification, flood and volcanic eruptions, and combine this with end-user based initiatives in global change impacts assessment and adaptation. We have a long standing relationship with the Space Science and Engineering Center of the University of Wisconsin - Madison, with whom we have jointly developed visualization tools for atmospheric sounder data to improve local weather forecasting. We are now actively collaborating to develop new applications based on current and up-coming sounder systems, through improved modelling of cloud physics and better rainfall estimation.

We have collaborated with the EU Joint Research Centre at Ispra, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the World Health Organization and the Malaria Research and Training Centre, Mali. This work contributes to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, the Global Observation of Forestry Cover Project, the Global fire Monitoring Centre, the Global Vegetation Fire Project and the World Fire Web.

Our ultimate goal is to develop local and field scale products that can be delivered where and when most needed. The research led by our remote sensers has a significant component of NRI's activities supporting its strategic vision for better management of environmental vulnerability through a combination of enhanced management of resource systems and better management of livelihood assets.