As of 2022, approximately 1,000 satellites are continually orbiting our planet, taking regular snapshots and measurements of the Earth’s atmosphere and surface. Images and data acquired by these satellites are used in a large variety of applications, from meteorology to natural disaster monitoring, tracking land use and biodiversity trends, and monitoring the effects of climate change. The use of satellites for these purposes is known as earth observation (EO).

The University of Malta is currently leading two research projects which make use of EO data and which have a national relevance. The first project, ‘Coastal Satellite Assisted Governance (tools, techniques, models) for Erosion’ (Coastal SAGE), tackles the unrelenting phenomenon of coastal erosion, which is of importance to the Maltese islands as the coast is one of the most-intensely used and visited areas. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) onboard satellites transmit radio waves down to the Earth’s surface and receive back the reflected waves to form an image.

The differences in the wave’s properties from two SAR acquisitions taken on different dates can be used to estimate millimetric changes in the positions of large boulders and sections of cliff on the Maltese coastline. The issue is that SAR data is affected by noise, which impacts the reliability of such estimates. Therefore, the Coastal SAGE project is using artificial intelligence techniques, such as neural networks, to reduce the noise present in the data.

The differences in the wave’s properties from two SAR acquisitions taken on different dates can be used to estimate millimetric changes in the positions of large boulders and sections of cliff on the Maltese coastline

The second project is ‘Water Resource Management Platform Using Earth Observation’ (WARM-EO). Malta has a semi-arid climate with a low availability of renewable water resources to sustain drinking water production and agricultural water demand. This, coupled with a high population density, exerts significant pressure on natural water resources and associated ecosystems.

The objective of this project is, therefore, to develop a water resource management platform which can estimate irrigation water requirements of particular crops at a national level. EO data is used to compute vegetation indices which are used in an evapotranspiration model to estimate the water lost from the soil surface and crops due to evaporation and transpiration.

Agricultural fields in Malta are small, requiring high-resolution imagery. We use computer vision and deep-learning techniques to improve resolution from 10 metres to three metres per pixel. Moreover, this project is fusing in-situ data from a number of weather stations scattered around the island, and making it available in a geographic information system that will allow end-users such as farmers and policymakers to visualise the results.

Gianluca Valentino is a senior lecturer at the University of Malta and leads the Coastal SAGE and the WARM-EO projects. Johann A. Briffa is an associate professor and is a co-investigator on both projects. Coastal SAGE and WARM-EO are financed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology, for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the Space Research Fund.

Sound Bites

•        Occasionally, single-letter misspellings in the genetic code, known as point mutations, occur. Point mutations that alter the resulting protein sequences are called non-synonymous mutations, while those that do not alter protein sequences are called silent or synonymous mutations. Between one-quarter and one-third of point mutations in protein-coding DNA sequences are synonymous. Those mutations have generally been assumed to be neutral, or nearly so. A new study involving the genetic manipulation of yeast cells shows that most synonymous mutations are strongly harmful.

•        Engineers have developed a new design strategy and 3D printing technique to build robots in one single step. The breakthrough enabled the entire mechanical and electronic systems needed to operate a robot to be manufactured all at once by a new type of 3D printing process for engineered active materials with multiple functions (also known as metamaterials). Once 3D printed, a ‘meta-bot’ will be capable of propulsion, movement, sensing and decision-making.

For more soundbites, listen to Radio Mocha every Saturday at 7.30pm on Radju Malta and the following Monday at 9pm on Radju Malta 2 https://www.fb.com/RadioMochaMalta/.

DID YOU KNOW?

•        Word of the day: infracaninophile — someone who loves underdogs.

•        The average Briton spends more time on the toilet than they do exercising.

•        Welsh Scrabble sets include two-letter tiles such as NG (10 points), RH (10 points), and DD (1 point).

•        In 1972, the Italian Academy of Cuisine registered the official width that tagliatelle should be at the Bologna’s chamber of commerce. They also left an 8-mm-wide golden tagliatella for comparison.

For more trivia see: www.um.edu.mt/think.