A multispectral imager built by Fluxdata was launched into space aboard the Japanese HTV-2 mission, heading to the International Space Station (ISS), on 22 January 2011.
In the upcoming months after arrival, the Fluxdata imager, a key component of the International Space Station Agricultural Camera (ISSAC), will be installed in the Window Observation Research Facility (WORF) by the crew onboard the ISS.
ISSAC was developed by students and faculty of the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks in support of their Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium (UMAC) research efforts.
ISSAC will take frequent multispectral images of vegetated areas on the Earth, specifically focusing on the northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions of the US.
Through UND's campus-based operations centre, ISSAC will provide end users with the ability to select specific geographical areas of interest and request the collection of imagery that will be downlinked, processed and delivered within one to two days.
The data and information ISSAC provides will be used for a range of activities, including: nitrogen application maps to improve fertiliser use, agriculture management zone decision-support systems to improve nutrient and invasive species management, and rangeland management tools to improve livestock allocation and evaluation.
The rapid responsiveness of ISSAC imagery may also aid in disaster management, flood monitoring and wildland fire mapping.
The imaging sensor assembly of ISSAC is based on Fluxdata's FD-1665 3CCD Multispectral camera technology.
The system's Green, Red and Near-infrared spectral response bands were selected to emulate those of the Landsat 7 satellite and provide many of the same benefits for vegetation and moisture discrimination, monitoring and identification.
