55-b Honchar St., 01601, Kyiv, Ukraine
Phone/fax: (044) 216 9405
e-mail:
casre@casre.kiev.ua;
http:// www.casre.kiev.ua
The Centre for Aerospace Research of the Earth (CASRE) was set up in 1992 according to a decision of the NAS Presidium as a legal entity on the basis of subdivisions of the NAS Institute of Geological Sciences and Kyiv Institute for Aerospace Techniques to conduct and develop fundamental and applied research of the Earth by remote sensing methods.
The Centre carries out research in the following areas:
1. Evaluation and management of natural and agricultural resources, including oil and gas exploration, as well as assessment of the current state of forests and soils.
2. Ecological monitoring of territories, aquatories, urban agglomerations etc.
At present the Centre's staff is 108 employees, of whom 49 workers are research scientists, including 2 NAS corresponding members, 3 doctors of sciences and 32 candidates of sciences. CASRE consists of 4 departments: the Department of Aerospace Research in Geology, the Department of Aerospace Research in Geoecology, the Department of System Analysis, the Department of Energy-and-Mass Exchange in Geosystems. Leading experts in remote sensing, geologists, mathematicians, biologists, geographers, engineers work in the Centre. The Centre is headed by Prof. V. I. Lyalko, Dr. Sc. (geology and mineralogy), an Honorary Worker of Science and Technology, Winner of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology and NAS Vernadsky Prize, a corresponding member of NASU and International Academy of Astronautics. NAS corresponding members V. I. Lyalko and O.D.Fedorovsky head the scientific school 'Energy-and-Mass Exchange in Geosystems'.
The Centre specializes in acquisition and thematic interpretation of remote sensing data, processing of the Earth surface images and preparation of geo information products. The processes of energy-and-mass exchange in geosystems and their impact on some physical, chemical and biological mechanisms sensitive to various natural and anthropogenic factors and responsible for spectral response from natural objects are studied here. These studies are of fundamental and applied nature. Development of models describing formation of spectral response from natural objects, investigation of their relationships with relevant features of the environment and their quantitative evaluation are basic for this approach. New satellite computerised technologies to control and forecast the environment changes and evaluate natural resources have been elaborated using these spectral models. The technologies for acquisition and thematic processing of remote sensing data aided in studying the impact of the Chornobyl NPP disaster, exploring for hydrocarbons and thermal waters, detecting tectonic structures, assessing the current state of forest massifs and their fire risk, forecasting crop yield etc.
Further prospects of Centre's activities are related to operating the satellite segment of the system to monitor environment of the whole Ukraine and its regions, forecasting crop yield and fire risk in forests, searching for ore and hydrocarbon deposits, evaluating changes in urban agglomerations and soil quality and studying geodynamical processes affecting the areas of restructured coal mines.