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UNE students get the 'big picture'

November 01, 2006

Dog geoglyphA group of students from The University of New England (UNE) has made one of the world's biggest pictures - so big, in fact, that it could be seen from outer space. The picture (or 'geoglyph'), titled 'Dogs and Bones', is 1.4 km long and 0.6 km wide. It depicts a group of blue heeler dogs - and bones.

The image has been marked into paddocks adjacent to UNE with a combination of herbicide, mowing, digging, and marking paint, and using Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology.

It is literally a huge undertaking and took UNE staff and students weeks to plan. The project is part of the curriculum in a unit titled 'Remote Sensing and Surveying', in which students learn about surveying technology and satellite images.

The unit's coordinator, Dr Paul Frazier, said: 'The project aims to make a picture big enough to be seen from space, and provides a unique opportunity for the students to combine surveying and navigation skills with satellite image analysis. But most of all it is simply an enjoyable way to end a semester of hard study.'

The project captured the interest of leading corporate entities, which offered sponsorship to help conduct the activity. Geosciences Australia provided satellite imagery from two new online satellite sensors (ALOS PRISM and AVNIR-2) and Sinclair Knight Mertz provided Quickbird satellite imagery. Pedigree Dogfoods liked the picture topic so much that it offered the project operational funds.

The satellite imagery is the same as that used by Google Earth, and the Dogs and Bones images should be available soon on Google Earth.

Posted by Leon Braun at November 1, 2006 01:16 PM