Updated: 07 Mar 2005

TERSS Board Members

1. CSIRO Division of Marine Research

The CSIRO Division of Marine Research became fully operational on 1st February 1997. The Division, created from the merging of the Divisions of Fisheries and Oceanography, brought together the scientific expertise and energies of CSIRO's oceanographic, marine environmental and biological research effort. Marine Laboratories are located in Hobart, Tasmania, at Marmion, Perth in Western Australia, and at Cleveland near Brisbane, Queensland.

The Division of Oceanography Marine Laboratories in Hobart provides on-site support for TERSS. The staff insure that there is ample tape storage available for new satellite passes and assist the ACRES TERSS support technical staff in fault recognition and resolution.

2. CSIRO Office of Space Science and Applications (COSSA)

CSIRO currently expends approximately $AUS 27 million per annum on space related activities, including radio-astronomy, Earth observation, and space communication technology. COSSA helps to co-ordinate CSIRO strategy and activities in space, and manages facilities, information systems and contracts to support CSIRO's space research and use of research aircraft.

It is the focal point for CSIRO's international and interagency co-ordination in respect of space, representing CSIRO on the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and the International Astronautical Federation (IAF).

The Earth Observation Centre, a program administered by COSSA, carries out R&D supporting the successful application of Earth observation in a wide variety of applications which benefit Australia's industry, economy, environment and society.

3. University of Tasmania

The University of Tasmania comprises several campuses across Australia's island state of Tasmania. It is the only University in the state, with a total enrolment of around 12,000 students.

The University of Tasmania is one of Australia's oldest and newest universities. Founded in Hobart in 1890 it was the fourth university in Australia.

In 1991 a merger between the Tasmania State Institue of Technology (formally the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education) and the University of Tasmania formed the new University of Tasmania. The new university combines the long tradition of academic excellence with the dynamic engergy of a modern institute of technology.

4. Bureau of Meteorology

The overall mission of the Bureau is to observe and understand Australian weather and climate and provide meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic services in support of Australia's national needs and international obligations. This overall mission involves four separate basic missions:

• Monitoring, observation and data collection to meet the needs of future generations for reliable homogeneous national climatological data;
• Research directed to the advancement of meteorological science and the development of a comprehensive description and scientific understanding of Australia's weather and climate;
• Service provision of meteorological and related data, information, forecast, warning, investigation and advisory services on a national basis; and
• Coordination of Australia's involvement in international meteorology.

5. Australian Centre for Remote Sensing (ACRES)

The Australian Centre for Remote Sensing (ACRES) is Australia's major satellite Remote Sensing organisation, which was established as the Australian Landsat Station in 1979.

ACRES is a centre within the National Mapping Division of Geoscience Australia, Commonwealth Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources. BAE Systems is employed under contract to provide operations and maintenance services.

ACRES mission is to support Australia's environmental management and economic and social development by fostering geographic information solutions in the field of remote sensing.

ACRES primary functions are to acquire, archive, process and distribute remotely sensed data acquired from earth observation satellites for both scientific and operational applications.

ACRES operates two facilities, the Data Acquisition Facility (DAF) in Alice Springs and the Data Processing Facility (DPF) in Fernhill Park, Canberra.

Data over the whole Australian landmass, most of Papua New Guinea and Eastern Indonesia are obtained at the DAF Alice Springs site with the aid of a 9.14m steerable parabolic dish antenna. The data are recorded in digital form on DLT (Digital Linear Tapes) and transferred routinely, by domestic freight service, to the DPF, where they are catalogued and archived.

ACRES is a member of the Tasmanian Earth Resources Satellite Station consortium (TERSS), which operates a receiving station at Hobart, Tasmania. ACRES provides satellite scheduling, data archiving, data cataloging and product generation services for the consortium. TERSS can acquire data over New Zealand and a small part of Antarctica as well as a large expanse of the Southern Ocean.

6. Australian Antarctic Division

The Division, based at Kingston, near Hobart, conducts and supports science programs in the Antarctic, sends representatives to Antarctic Treaty and other international meetings on Antarctic affairs, and administers Australian territory in the region. Since 1936 Australia has claimed 42 percent of Antarctica as sovereign territory. Macquarie Island (part of Tasmania) and the Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands are also Australian territories.

Scientific research has always been integral to ANARE. Development of important land-based physical and biological databases half a century ago has been augmented with studies of the physical properties and biology of the vast Southern Ocean, using ice-strengthened research ships.