Giant koala visible from space

October 17, 2007

A group of students from the University of New England has created what is possibly the largest picture of a koala ever made.

The koala image, which is visible from space, has been marked into paddocks next to the UNE campus with a combination of herbicide, mowing, digging, marking paint, and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology.

The inspiration for the artwork, described as a "geoglyph", came from ancient artworks such as the Uffington White Horse in England, a giant artwork carved into the chalk of a hillside and measuring more than 100 metres in length. The UNE geoglyph measures more than 400 metres; the Koala itself is 200 metres long – about the size of two football fields.

While the inspiration for the artwork may be ancient, it took cutting edge technology to create it. The project, offered through the School of Behavioural, Cognitive and Social Sciences, is part of a unit called "Remote Sensing and Surveying", which is designed to teach students about the latest applications of surveying technology and satellite imaging.

The coordinator of the unit and the geoglyph project, Dr Paul Frazier, said the students "really had fun with the task and rose to the challenge of integrating advanced GPS technology with satellite imagery to make the giant image to such exacting standards".

"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," Dr Frazier said. "The end result is really fun, but there is rocket science involved."

The koala is an icon of the New England area and was chosen by students and staff to follow the blue heeler "dog and bones" – the geoglyph created by last year's students.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at October 17, 2007 12:09 PM