In November 2006, the Australian Federal Government announced AUS$15.8M in funding for geospatial research infrastructure through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Funded within a broader capability area titled "Structure and Evolution of the Australian Continent", NCRIS has provided a significant investment across Earth imaging, geochemistry, numerical simulation and modelling, the development of a virtual core library, and geospatial infrastructure. Known collectively as AuScope (www.auscope.org.au), this capability area has brought together Australian=92s leading Earth scientists to decide upon the most pressing scientific issues and infrastructure needs for studying Earth systems and their impact on the Australian continent. Importantly and at the same time, the investment in geospatial infrastructure offers the opportunity to raise Australian geodetic science capability to the highest international level into the future. The geospatial component of AuScope builds onto the AUS$15.8M of direct funding through the NCRIS process with significant in-kind and co-investment from universities and State/Territory and Federal government departments. The infrastructure to be acquired includes an FG5 absolute gravimeter, three gPhone relative gravimeters, three 12.1 m radio telescopes for geodetic VLBI, a continent-wide network of continuously operating geodetic quality GNSS receivers, a trial of a mobile SLR system and access to updated cluster computing facilities. We present an overview of the AuScope geospatial capability, review the current status of the infrastructure procurement and discuss some examples of the scientific research that will utilise the new geospatial infrastructure.

Item Type:	Conference Extract
Keywords:	Earth imaging, geochemistry, numerical simulation, modelling, virtual core library, geospatial infrastructure, AuScope
Research Division:	Engineering
Research Group:	Geomatic engineering
Research Field:	Geospatial information systems and geospatial data modelling
Objective Division:	Information and Communication Services
Objective Group:	Other information and communication services
Objective Field:	Other information and communication services not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Watson, CS (Dr Christopher Watson)
UTAS Author:	Coleman, R (Professor Richard Coleman)
UTAS Author:	Lovell, JEJ (Dr Jim Lovell)
UTAS Author:	Dickey, JM (Professor John Dickey)
ID Code:	62247
Year Published:	2009
Deposited By:	Geography and Environmental Studies
Deposited On:	2010-03-11
Last Modified:	2015-06-16
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