Civilian Earth - observing Satellites Used for Rapid Assessment
Release Date: 12 November 2004

OEA Technologies Inc has completed a year-long Earth - observing satellite investigation of military R&D opportunities in rapid environmental assessment. The work was conducted on behalf of Defence R&D Canada - Atlantic and focused on opportunities in the underwater warfare sector.

A rapid environmental assessment (REA) provides deployed forces with environmental information in littoral waters in tactical time frames. REA was born in 1995 when SACLANT (Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic) identified it as a new requirement. It emerged as a result of NATO's post cold-war shift in operations towards crisis response and littoral waters.

“It is important to realize that REA is not about building new pieces of kit or oceanography per se” said Dr. Brian Whitehouse, OEA president and prime author of the study’s final report. “It is more a matter of integrating civilian technologies into military architectures and understanding how oceanographic features and physical properties influence the performance of sensors and weapons – in real time.”

This week, DRDC Atlantic is presenting the results of the investigation to the Canadian Forces’ Maritime Environmental Systems Support and MILOC working groups during their meetings in Ottawa. The investigation has also caused OEA Technologies to add a military applications of civilian satellites section to its Web site and to modify its assessment of civilian Earth-observation satellites to include a REA rating for each satellite. An overview of the REA study, authored by staff from OEA Technologies, DRDC Atlantic and the U.S. Navy (Stennis Space Centre), appears in this month’s issue of Sea Technology Magazine.

There are five types of platforms for marine environmental sensors, however, REA operations favour sensors mounted on platforms that can be operated covertly, such as satellites, undersea gliders and shore-based installations. The study concluded that recent advancements in environmental sensors have had relatively minor impact on NATO REA operations, whereas advancements in covert platforms have expanded NATO’s capabilities. To a certain extent, this reflects the fact that REA and its civilian counterpart (i.e. operational oceanography) are platform limited and will remain so for the foreseeable future.