CSIRO today released a CD-ROM, designed to help teachers and students around the world to learn about remote sensing of the Earth from space. The disk contains sample data from satellites operated by members of CEOS, the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, whose annual meeting concluded in Canberra today.

The disk also includes lesson plans, text books, case studies, glossaries and contact address information to help inexperienced users of remote sensing discover how to find drinking water in India; how to locate the source of the Amazon; how to manage fish stocks in Tanzania; and how grass and forest fires in China can be located and controlled, through the help of images of the Earth obtained from satellites.

The project was managed by the CSIRO Office of Space Science & Applications, building on work of the Science and Technology Agency of Japan, the Indian Space Research Organisation, and other international space agencies and research organisations.

CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr Malcolm McIntosh, who launched the CD today in Canberra, said "The CD contains information previously too expensive, obscure or inaccessible to be readily usable in educational circles or in remote areas.

"The case studies contained on the disk show practical benefits from space technology, such as advancing quality of life and supporting sustainable development. The new Australian space program, centred on the FEDSAT project to build small but useful satellites, will follow a similar approach", said Dr McIntosh.

Copies of the CD are available, at $20 each including postage, from The Information Officer, CSIRO Office of Space Science and Applications, GPO Box 3023, Canberra ACT 2601, fax 06 2167222.

Review copies are available for the media.

More information: from Jeff Kingwell, or Wayne Deeker, tel 06 216 7200 or 014 847 526.