Earth Observation:
Data, Processing and Applications

The project to develop Earth Observation: Data, Processing and Applications started in 2013 under the sponsorship of the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI), Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO). CRCSI, and later FrontierSI, provided valuable administrative support during development of this publication series and Bushfire and Natural Hazard Cooperative Research Centre (BHNCRC) contributed additional financial support. The ongoing endorsement for this project by CRCSI CEO, Peter Woodgate, is most gratefully acknowledged.

Initial content was derived from the microBRIAN Resource Manuals and the comprehensive sets of lecture slides that had been developed by Megan Lewis and Stuart Phinn over decades of university lecturing. Additional content was provided by various contributors along the way as fully acknowledged in the relevant publications.

The microBRIAN image processing system was a commercial, microcomputer-based software suite developed by CSIRO during the 1980s which enabled efficient access to image analysis tools specifically designed for Earth Observation datasets. The microBRIAN Resource Manuals were written to accompany the software and explained image processing tools in terms of their underlying science. This series was used as tertiary texts throughout Australasia for over a decade and comprised four publications (two published as standalone texts and two substantial manuals):

  • Harrison, B.A., and Jupp, D.L.B. (1989). Introduction to Remotely Sensed Data: Part ONE of the microBRIAN Resource Manual. CSIRO, Canberra.
  • Harrison, B.A., and Jupp, D.L.B. (1990). Introduction to Image Processing: Part TWO of the microBRIAN Resource Manual. CSIRO, Canberra.
  • Harrison, B.A., and Jupp, D.L.B. (1992). Image Classification and Analysis: Part THREE of the microBRIAN Resource Manual. MPA Pty Ltd., Melbourne.
  • Harrison, B.A., and Jupp, D.L.B. (1993). Image Rectification and Registration: Part FOUR of the microBRIAN Resource Manual. MPA Pty Ltd., Melbourne.

The original ‘group-of-five’ editors for Earth Observation: Data, Processing and Applications, Barbara Harrison, David Jupp, Megan Lewis, Stuart Phinn and David Hudson, expanded to include nearly 200 (mostly grey-haired) editors, chapter authors and contributors of images or case studies. While Barbara Harrison was the primary author and senior editor, and coordinator of all contributions, she readily acknowledges the valuable input from all contributors, especially David Jupp, who again ensured all mathematical content was correct and complete. Megan Lewis read every word of multiple drafts for most sub-volumes with impressive attention to detail. Megan and Stuart also supplied many of the images and processing examples and provided significant input. David Hudson was an integral part of this project in various administrative roles as well as shaping the content and structure of Volume 1.

All contributors have been acknowledged appropriately in the publications and this practice will continue for future revisions. For the full list of contributors, please consult the relevant recommended citations (page 2 of each volume/sub-volume) and the Acknowledgement pages (page 3 of each sub-volume). A summary of the principal contributors was included in the Member Spotlight article in the EOA Newsletter, November 2022.

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of these publications with all text being reviewed independently before release. Names of reviewers are listed in the Acknowledgements pages of each sub-volume. Readers are encouraged to notify the editors if any errors are detected by emailing EO Publications.

Earth Observation: Data, Processing and Applications was initially hosted on the CRCSI website from 2016, then transferred to the Earth Observation Australia (EOA) website in 2020. The support and promotion of both hosting organisations is gratefully acknowledged. This new website has been developed to offer greater flexibility in delivering future revisions of this publication and related content.

From Peter Woodgate (CEO, CRCSI):

“These publications represent one of the most extensive and thorough bodies of work in Earth Observation produced in Australia. All contributors are to be congratulated for their efforts and none more so than the Editor-In-Chief, architect, and designer, Barb Harrison.”

Excerpt from speech by Megan Lewis, EOA President, at award ceremony of the Australian Earth Observation Forum, 2022, when Barbara Harrison was Highly Commended for making "a significant and sustained contribution to activities that have developed the Australian EO community and/or its capabilities":

“Barbara has and continues to make a sustained and significant contribution to EO capabilities through her role in developing and coordinating the EO community to publish Australian text and reference books for remote sensing and Earth Observation. This began in the 1980s with her work on microBRIAN (Barrier Reef Image ANalysis system), the first commercialised image processing system in Australia. That work translated to the microBRIAN Resource Manuals, that were uniquely Australian and particularly rigorous in their content. They provided a unique and clearly explained link between the physics and mathematics of image data collection and its processing. This approach was lacking in the majority of texts at the time, and all were northern hemisphere focused. Since early 2013 Barbara has been chief editor and coordinator of the multi-volume “Earth Observation: Data, Processing and Applications”. She has coordinated a huge group of EO practitioners across Australia to build on the original textbooks so that they are now one of the most comprehensive, freely available instructional resources for remote sensing anywhere in the world. As a result of Barbara’s work, current and future generations have an outstanding learning resource for Earth Observation that draws on extensive national collaboration and provides a deep scientific base that can be built on into the future.”