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Hyperspectral remote sensing already is important in geoscientific research in the fields of geology, soil, exploration and mining. New hyperspectral satellite systems are already in operation (e.g. PRISMA and DESIS; Caporusso et al. 2020; Alonso et al. (Sensors 19(20):4471–4515, 2019)) and more systems are planned e.g. the European Copernicus Next Generation Hyperspectral Satellite CHIME (Nieke and Rast 2018). The German system EnMAP was successfully launched into space on 1st of April 2022 (DLR 2022). The potential of hyperspectral airborne and satellite borne data for mining-related applications is discussed. Investigated are the information contents of hyperspectral data for exploration target recognition and their dependency on spatial resolutions of different sensor platforms. Airborne data offer high spatial resolution of 2.5 m with limited areal data acquisition, whereas hyperspectral spaceborne sensors guaranty nearly worldwide data availability with the same spectral characteristics but medium spatial resolution (30 m). The aspects of high spectral resolution and high versus medium spatial resolution targeted mineral mapping is investigated. The methodological concept includes processing aspects, standardized data availability for mineral mapping and mineralization targeting for operational application, to maintain/allow application of hyperspectral data even for non-remote sensing experts. Based on hyperspectral airborne data acquired in the Aggeneys region in South Africa, spaceborne hyperspectral data are simulated following the EnMAP specifications, and the concept for targeted mapping of surface alterations of a lead zinc deposit is discussed.

The sustainable management of agricultural land requires reliable information about soil physical and chemical properties. Among these properties, soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key attribute, as it serves as an important indicator for soil health and helps fighting climate change through carbon storage in soils. Since direct measurements are costly, visible near-infrared spectroscopy (VIS-NIR-SWIR) from 400 to 2500 nm is often used to estimate SOC, leveraging a statistical model which relates SOC analytical data to the spectral information obtained in the laboratory from a collection of sieved, air-dry samples. This study evaluates VIS-NIR-SWIR to predict SOC content of southwestern German soils after resampling the recorded soil spectral library (SSL) to match Sentinel-2 bands. It also examines whether these prediction models can then be applied to Sentinel-2 satellite imagery for rapid mapping of topsoil SOC content at a state-wide scale.A suite of 1500 VIS-NIR-MIR soil spectra, recorded from air-dried, 2-mm, sieved soil samples, were associated with SOC analytical data obtained from different soil surveys done by the State Authority for Geology, Resources and Mining (LGRB) in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. Partial least squares (PLS) regression and support vector machines on PLS latent variables (PLS-SVM) were used for spectroscopic modelling. Final estimates showed good results with regards to PLS-SVM with a ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) of 1.96, while slightly less accurate predictions were found for calibration models based on resampled spectra with a RPD of 1.64. The successful spectral prediction model for SOC from resampled spectra was subsequently used to produce a high-resolution map of topsoil SOC content on croplands for entire Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. To identify bare dry soil pixels a worfklow was established that creates per-pixel composites utilizing three years of Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and spectral indices. Direct standardization (DS) was used for the correction of environmental factors such as variable moisture conditions using a set of representative locations with both dry spectra and Sentinel-2 band values.Preliminary results indicate that a calibration model based on resampled spectra from a region-specific SSL can be applied to multi-temporal Sentinel-2 data for rapidly estimating the spatial distribution of topsoil SOC content. Unlike official SOC products currently available for Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, the given approach can easily be updated if additional data becomes available or new sensors emerge, for instance, from hyperspectral satellite missions such as EnMAP or CHIME.

Satellite interferometry (InSAR) is a reliable and proven technique to monitor and map geohazards over wide areas. In the last years, InSAR is increasingly becoming an everyday tool for geoscientific and applicative analyses; many different users, ranging from academia to the industry, work and rely on InSAR products.The European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) was conceived and is being implemented as a direct response to growing user needs. The EGMS is implemented under the responsibility of the European Environment Agency in the frame of the Copernicus Programme. The EGMS products are part of the portfolio of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. The EGMS provides consistent, regular, standardized, harmonized, and reliable information regarding natural and anthropogenic ground motion phenomena over the Copernicus Participating States and across national borders, with millimeter accuracy. The EGMS distributes three levels of products: (i) basic, i.e. line of sight (LOS) velocity maps in ascending and descending orbits referred to a local reference point; (ii) calibrated, i.e. LOS velocity maps calibrated with a geodetic reference network (a velocity model derived from thousands of global navigation satellite systems time series is used for calibration so that measurements are no longer relative to a local reference point) and (iii) ortho, i.e. components of motion (horizontal and vertical) anchored to the reference geodetic network. The products are generated from the multi-temporal interferometric analysis of Sentinel-1 images in ascending and descending orbit at full resolution. The data is available and accessible to all and free of charge through a dedicated viewer and download interface.The accessibility to EGMS accurate and validated interferometric data offers the geoscientific and professional communities the opportunity to study geohazards at the European level, including difficult-to-reach areas or where the availability of ground motion data has so far been scarce or null. The EGMS provides, for example, information useful for the identification and monitoring of slow-moving landslides, natural subsidence, or subsidence due to groundwater exploitation or underground mining activities and volcanic unrest. In addition, the Service establishes a baseline for studies dedicated to localized deformation affecting buildings and infrastructure in general. This presentation will offer a first evaluation of the EGMS products under geoscientific aspects. Case studies from different European environmental contexts will be shown to demonstrate how the EGMS products can be successfully used for geohazards-related studies.

Advanced interferometric SAR processing techniques (Persistent Scatterer Interferometry, Small Baseline Subset) are able to detect and monitor various surface displacements caused by e.g. gravitative mass movement, subrosion, groundwater extraction, fluid injection, natural gas extraction. These processes can e.g. cause damage to buildings and infrastructure, affect ecosystems and agriculture or affect the economic use of the geological underground by influencing the hydrogeological setting. Despite the maturity and operational readiness of the PSI technology it is rarely used in operational workflows of the German user community (e.g. from responsible authorities). In order to support the operational use of this technique a “Ground Motion Service Germany” has been designed by the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) in collaboration with the user community, land surveying agencies, SME and research institutions. A major outcome of this collaboration is the user request regarding a PSI-WAP (Persistent Scatterer Interferometry Wide-Area-Product) dataset of the entire nation (approx. 360,000 km 2 ) based on Sentinel-1 data. For this reason the PSI mapping coverage is increased by mosaicking PSI data products from adjacent SAR data stacks. Several case studies has been performed to demonstrate the design of the service. Within this paper one case study regarding the PSI-WAP technique and the calibration/validation scheme is presented. The pilot study is focusing on the built up of an officially approved PSI-WAP dataset. The study area covers an area of > 30,000 km 2 and is located in the Northwest German Basin. This is the first time a PSI-WAP analysis is performed in this area. Several natural processes (e.g. compaction of marine sediments, peat growth/shrinkage) and anthropogenic activities (e.g. natural gas extraction, rock salt mining) are causing surface displacements in the study area. The PSI-WAP analysis is based on six adjacent ERS-1/-2 data stacks covering the timespan from 1992 until 2001. Each data stack consists of 49 to 73 acquisitions. A comparison of the PSI results with thematic data (e.g. cumulated volume of extracted natural gas and location of natural gas fields) indicates that a part of the detected land subsidence is caused by natural gas extraction. To summarize, this paper shows i) the design of the “Ground Motion Service Germany” and ii) a pilot study to exemplarily demonstrate a PSI-WAP, the calibration/validation scheme and value-added-products.

Satellite radar interferometry is widely considered as one of the most robust and reliable techniques for ground motion monitoring at local scale and over wide areas. In the recent years, satellite radar interferometry has undergone a rapid evolution thanks to the launch of the Sentinel-1 constellation, to the refinement of algorithms, and to the increased computational capability offered by cloud computing platforms. All these factors allow for the development of national or regional services based on satellite interferometric data. Italy, Norway, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands are the first European countries working to develop their own Ground Motion Service (GMS) at regional or national scale. Each service has its own characteristics, defined by the user needs and by the deformation regimes to be captured: some GMS work at regional scale with a high update frequency while other capture ground motions with e.g. one-year update frequencies over the entire nation. These examples demonstrate the high demand for interferometric products as wide area mapping or monitoring tools which are a direct request from national/regional entities and administrations involved in e.g. geohazard risk management or infrastructures monitoring.As of November 2016, the European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) Task Force laid the foundation for a new Copernicus service aimed to perform Sentinel-1-based ground motion monitoring which relies on satellite interferometric products at continental scale. The work of the EGMS Task Force led to the creation of the EGMS White Paper (https://land.copernicus.eu/user-corner/technical-library/egms-white-paper), which is considered the conceptual baseline for the EGMS. In 2017, the Copernicus User Forum and the Copernicus Committee unanimously approved the addition of the EGMS to the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service’s product portfolio. The European Environment Agency (EEA) was designated to be responsible for the Service implementation. The EGMS will provide consistent, regular, standardized, harmonized and reliable information regarding natural and anthropogenic ground motion phenomena over Europe. Moreover, the entire product portfolio will be freely available for every private or public user, following the Copernicus data access concept. The EGMS will stimulate a wider use of PSI products all around Europe. As such, it is expected to act as a baseline for those nations already having an operational GMS and as primary data for countries that do not.

The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources has recently launched a project to characterise soils and soil patterns using smart sets of newly developed and existing technologies on regional scales. The focus lies on the combination of airborne geophysical tools like gamma ray spectrometry and remote sensing techniques such as VIS-NIR-SWIR-LWIR hyperspectral and thermal infrared imagery. In order to calibrate the measurements all given methods will be implemented on ground and on soil samples in the laboratory. Additionally, geochemical, mineralogical and physical investigations well established in soil sciences will be incorporated. The aim is to map and evaluate the physical properties acquired from drones, helicopter and satellites. Using statistical methods and means of artificial intelligence areas of homogeneous physical soil properties will be determined. The resulting areas will be compared to soil classification maps and the distribution of soil substrates. Self organising map systems will be used for correlation of homogeneous areas and later interpretation. Major care will be taken to reduce effects from varying soil moisture and surface vegetation. The presentation will focus on ground based, airborne and space platforms and their instrumentation and current developments. Apart from off-road vehicles at least three different sets of drones will be used for detailed surveying, implementing newly developed gamma ray sensing systems, hyperspectral and thermal infrared cameras. The BGR helicopter will be equipped with a high-end gamma spectrometer and imaging hyperspectral sensors. We envisage using future hyperspectral EnMAP data to evaluate it against the helicopter results and further up- and downscaling strategies.

On 3 September 2017 official channels of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced the successful test of a thermonuclear device. Only seconds to minutes after the alleged nuclear explosion at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the mountainous region in the country's northeast at 03:30:02 (UTC), hundreds of seismic stations distributed all around the globe picked up strong and distinct signals associated with an explosion. Different seismological agencies reported body wave magnitudes of well above 6.0, consequently estimating the explosive yield of the device on the order of hundreds of kT TNT equivalent. The 2017 event can therefore be assessed as being multiple times larger in energy than the two preceding North Korean events in January and September 2016. This study provides a multi-technology analysis of the 2017 North Korean event and its aftermath using a wide array of geophysical methods. Seismological investigations locate the event within the test site at a depth of approximately 0.6 km below the surface. The radiation and generation of P- and S-wave energy in the source region are significantly influenced by the topography of the Mt. Mantap massif. Inversions for the full moment tensor of the main event reveal a dominant isotropic component accompanied by significant amounts of double couple and compensated linear vector dipole terms, confirming the explosive character of the event. The analysis of the source mechanism of an aftershock that occurred around 8 min after the test in the direct vicinity suggest a cavity collapse. Measurements at seismic stations of the International Monitoring System result in a body wave magnitude of 6.2, which translates to an yield estimate of around 400 kT TNT equivalent. The explosive yield is possibly overestimated, since topography and depth phases both tend to enhance the peak amplitudes of teleseismic P waves. Interferometric synthetic aperture radar analysis using data from the ALOS-2 satellite reveal strong surface deformations in the epicenter region. Additional multispectral optical data from the Pleiades satellite show clear landslide activity at the test site. The strong surface deformations generated large acoustic pressure peaks, which were observed as infrasound signals with distinctive waveforms even at distances of 401 km. In the aftermath of the 2017 event, atmospheric traces of the fission product 133Xe were detected at various locations in the wider region. While for 133Xe measurements in September 2017, the Punggye-ri test site is disfavored as a source by means of atmospheric transport modeling, detections in October 2017 at the International Monitoring System station RN58 in Russia indicate a potential delayed leakage of 133Xe at the test site from the 2017 North Korean nuclear test.

Summary The Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB), located in Spain and Portugal, is one of the world's largest polymetallic massive sulphide complexes with predominantly Cu, Pb and Zn mineralisations. The mining potential is still existing, but as prospecting and exploration is becoming increasingly expensive, there is a need for efficient and application-oriented methods to identify potential targets. The synergistic combination of remote sensing and geophysical data provide information on the Earth's surface and subsurface and aims to meet these demands. Terrestrial hyperspectral data as well as airborne radiometric and gradient magnetic data are acquired in and around the open pit of Los Frailes in Spain to i) test this approach locally on the known occurrence of an original ore body and ii) to search for potential prospecting and exploration targets in the adjacent area. The hyperspectral, radiometric and gradient magnetic data confirm the former presence of the known ore body due to mineralogical, potassic and magnetic patterns. Furthermore, the data reveal similar signals higher up in the stratigraphy, indicating another ore body. This potential prospecting and exploration target will be investigated by further airborne and field data to validate the model.

Acceso electrónico sólo desde el IGME, Landslides are one of the most widespread geohazards in Europe, producing significant social and economic impacts. Rapid population growth in urban areas throughout many countries in Europe and extreme climatic scenarios can considerably increase landslide risk in the near future. Variability exists between European countries in both the statutory treatment of landslide risk and the use of official assessment guidelines. This suggests that a European Landslides Directive that provides a common legal framework for dealing with landslides is necessary. With this long-term goal in mind, this work analyzes the landslide databases from the Geological Surveys of Europe focusing on their interoperability and completeness. The same landslide classification could be used for the 849,543 landslide records from the Geological Surveys, from which 36% are slides, 10% are falls, 20% are flows, 11% are complex slides, and 24% either remain unclassified or correspond to another typology. Most of them are mapped with the same symbol at a scale of 1:25,000 or greater, providing the necessary information to elaborate European-scale susceptibility maps for each landslide type. A landslide density map was produced for the available records from the Geological Surveys (LANDEN map) showing, for the first time, 210,544 km2 landslide-prone areas and 23,681 administrative areas where the Geological Surveys from Europe have recorded landslides. The comparison of this map with the European landslide susceptibility map (ELSUS 1000 v1) is successful for most of the territory (69.7%) showing certain variability between countries. This comparison also permitted the identification of 0.98 Mkm2 (28.9%) of landslide-susceptible areas without records from the Geological Surveys, which have been used to evaluate the landslide database completeness. The estimated completeness of the landslide databases (LDBs) from the Geological Surveys is 17%, varying between 1 and 55%. This variability is due to the different landslide strategies adopted by each country. In some of them, landslide mapping is systematic; others only record damaging landslides, whereas in others, landslide maps are only available for certain regions or local areas. Moreover, in most of the countries, LDBs from the Geological Surveys co-exist with others owned by a variety of public institutions producing LDBs at variable scales and formats. Hence, a greater coordination effort should be made by all the institutions working in landslide mapping to increase data integration and harmonization., Earth Observation and Geohazards Expert Group (EOEG), EuroGeoSurveys, the Geological Surveys of Europe, Bélgica, Geohazards InSAR Laboratory and Modeling Group, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España, Risk and Prevention Division, Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, Francia, Engineering Geology Department, Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, Grecia, GeoHazard team, Geological Institute of Romania, Rumanía, Geological Survey of Slovenia, Eslovenia, Croatian Geological Survey, Croacia, Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Geological Survey of Italy, Italia, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, Suiza, Geological Survey of Austria, Austria, Polish Geological Institute, National Research Institute, Polonia, Geological Survey of Ireland, Irlanda, Czech Geological Survey, República Checa, Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Alemania, Geological Survey of Norway, Noruega, Cyprus Geological Survey, Chipre, Geological Survey of Sweden, Suecia, Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya, España, British Geological Survey, Reino Unido, Geological Survey of Slovakia, Eslovaquia, Geological Survey of Lithuania, Lituania, Federalni zavod za geologiju, Bosnia y Herzegovina, Geological Survey of Estonia, Estonia, Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Portugal, Geological Survey of Hungary, Hungría, Norwegian Water and energy Directorate of Norway, Noruega

World Landslide Forum (4º. 2017. Liubliana, Eslovenia), Exposure to hazards is expected to increase in Europe, due to rapid population growth in urban areas and the escalation of urbanization throughout many countries. In the framework of the European Geological Surveys (EGS), the Earth Observation and Geohazards Expert Group (EOEG) has carried out a survey based enquiry regarding the integration of geohazards (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, ground subsidence, floods and others) into urban and land-use planning. Responses from 19 European countries and 5 regions reveal heterogeneous policies across national borders. 17% of the countries have not yet implemented any legal measures to integrate geohazards into urban and land-use plans and half of the participating countries have no official methodological guides to construct geohazard maps. Additionally, there is a scarce knowledge about real social impacts of geohazards and resulting disasters in many of the countries, although they have a significant impact on their national economies. This overview stresses the need for a common legislative framework and homogenization of the national legislations as well as mutual guidelines which adopt the principles applicable to the management of geohazards and explain the process to be followed in the production of hazard documentation. This is especially relevant in case of landslide and subsidence hazards; although those are of great importance in Europe, there are no common guidelines and practices similar to Directive 2007/60/EC on the assessment and management of flood risk. Based on their expertise, EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) have the potential to coordinate this activity in European geohazard guidelines and to promote the interaction among stakeholders., Geohazards InSAR Laboratory and Modeling Group, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España, Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, Francia, Engineering Geology Department, Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, Grecia, GeoHazard team, Geological Institute of Romania, Rumanía, Geological Survey of Slovenia, Eslovenia, Croatian Geological Survey, Croacia, Geological Survey of Italy, Italia, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, Suiza, Geological Survey of Austria, Austria, Polish Geological Institute, National Research Institute, Polonia, Geological Survey of Ireland, Irlanda, Czech Geological Survey, República Checa, Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Alemania, Geological Survey of Norway, Noruega, Cyprus Geological Survey, Chipre, Geological Survey of Sweden, Suecia, Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya, España, British Geological Survey, Reino Unido, Geological Survey of Slovakia, Eslovaquia, Geological Survey of Lithuania, Lituania, Federalni Zavod Za Geologiju, Nigeria, Geological Survey of Estonia, Estonia, Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Minas, Portugal, Geological Survey of the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia y Herzegovina

The China Scholarship Council (CSC) and to the LMU International Office for supporting Li‟s doctoral research at the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munchen.

Land subsidence can cause severe damage for e.g. infrastructure and buildings and mass movements even can lead to loss of live. Detection and monitoring of these processes by terrestrial measurement techniques remain a challenge due to limitations in spatial coverage and temporal resolution. Since the launch of ERS-1 in 1991 numerous scientific studies demonstrated the capability of differential SAR-Interferometry (DInSAR) for the detection of surface deformation proving the usability of this method. In order to assist the utilization of DInSAR for governmental tasks a national service-concept within the EU-ESA Program “Copernicus” is in the process of preparation. This is done by i) analyzing the user requirements, ii) developing a concept and iii) perform case studies as “proof of concept”. Due to the iterative nature of this procedure governmental users as well as DInSAR experts are involved. This paper introduces the concept, shows the available SAR data archive from ERS-1/2, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X as well as the proposed case study. The case study is focusing on the application of advanced DInSAR methods for the detection of subsidence in a region with active gas extraction. The area of interest is located in the state of Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany. The DInSAR analysis will be based on ERS-1/2 and on TerraSARX/ TanDEM-X SAR data. The usability of the DInSAR products will be discussed with the responsible mining authority (LBEG) in order to adapt the DInSAR products to the user needs and to evaluate the proposed concept.

More and more useful spectral information has been supplied to geoscientists from sophisticated space sensors with increasing detecting ability. Because the quality of spectral information depends on its sensor characteristics, sensor development is the key to remote sensing techniques. As an Earth observation space sensor the German MOMS-2P (Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Stereo Scanner) was launched May 1996 aboard the PRIRODA Module docked on the Russian MIR Space Station in a preoperational mission for about three year duration. Technical features of the Sensor are three-line along-track stereo imaging, high spatial and spectral resolution, optimized multispectral and panchromatic bands and combination of stereo and multispectral imaging. The advanced sensor on the MIR-station can receive data covering the earth surface from N51.6° to S51.6°. This paper gives a critical review of the new generation of optical satellite sensors for earth observation, with special emphasis on the technical development of the sensor MOMS-2P and demonstrates newly acquired MOMS images that can be applied to many fields of thematic investigations.

The synergetic approach of optical and microwave remote sensing data has become a new dimension, due to the availability of different sensor systems for Earth observation. In geoscientific remote sensing the extraction of specific parameters as components of rocks and soils, grainsize, moisture, surface roughness and in addition morphological features is an important goal for an advanced interpretation of lithological, pedological and structural phenomena. The synergetic use of optical and radar sensors improves the separation of the units clearly due to the combined use of different observation principles. The applicability of spectral bands in the visible and infrared region and the microwave region has to be investigated. Beside the petrographical and geochemical informations extracted from optical data using, for example, specific absorption features, this integrated data set includes physical information like roughness and dielectricity from SAR data.

An area in the Negev desert in Israel was chosen to demonstrate the capability of the SIR-C sensor system to differentiate lithological units. In addition DAIS hyperspectral data were investigated. The area around Timna mountain is characterized by Cambrian sandstones, carbonates and alluvial fans of Pleistocene and Holocene age. The mountain itself consists of diverse magmatic rock assemblage. The whole area is mapped using conventional methods. The remote sensing data are sensitive for the mapping parameters and allow the extraction of their spectral and radar signatures. Specific areas have been classified on their lithology, mineralogy, stratigraphy, grain size distribution, surface roughness and weathering state. In addition, field measurements of the roughness of the alluvial fan's terraces and of the Cambrian rocks surrounding Mount Timna were investigated. The stereoscopic images taken were used as a basis for the height models of the different targets and the standard deviation (RMS) of the height was calculated. This was used as the parameter for the surface roughness and can be correlated with the radar backscatter. The SIR-C system offers the unique possibility of multi-frequency and multi-polarized data. The sensitivity for the surface roughness for the different wavelengths of X-, C- and L-band in accordance to their incidence angle ranges between 0,13 and 27 cm absolute RMS. The RMS measured for example in the alluvial fan ranges between 0,25 and 7, this corresponds to a smooth surface with pebble size of a few mm and a coarse terrace up to 50 cm block diameter. It can be shown that the age of the terraces corresponds to the backscatter. The more ancient the terrace the lower is the backscatter, the smoother the surface, the younger and rougher the terrace, the higher is the backscatter.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

The ERS-1/2 tandem mission opened a new dimension in the detection of recent displacements of active tectonic structures like the Dead Sea Rift in Israel. The investigations are mainly concentrated on the northern coastal plains of the Gulf of Aqaba and the Wadi Araba. The test site is part of the Aqaba-Levant-Structure situated in the Israel/Jordan/Egypt triangle. It is an active fracture zone with continuous seismic activity. Existing faults developed parallelly and vertically to the major stress component are reactivated and vertical and horizontal movements can be observed. Displacements can be expected twice or even more times a year. ERS-1/2 data were studied to detect reactivated fracture zones and corresponding displacement caused by the earthquake of November 1995. For studying of the recent displacements ERS-1/2 data sets before and after the earthquake of November 1995 were analysed using the differential interferometry approach. First results will be demonstrated and displacements of several cm will be discussed. Additionally, optical and microwave data like TM and SIR-C/X-SAR were analysed intensively for studying the complete geologic and tectonic framework of the Dead Sea Rift. For an overall understanding of the process and the interpretation of these remote sensing data, especially the interferometrically processed SAR data, small scale geological, tectonic, soil and land-use maps and DTMs have to be set up. The relevant parameters are extracted from the remote sensing data and completed by ground-truth data. The scientific goal of the project focuses on the evaluation of remote sensing data for a better understanding of the movements along the Dead Sea Rift. In general it can be stated that radar data are an excellent tool for the detection of structural elements especially in areas were faults are covered by loose sediments. Recent small scale displacements caused by earthquakes can be detected using the phase information of the radar signal whereas the geological setting caused by the tectonic displacements can be detected by optical data.

The experimental data of the spaceborne Modular Optoelectronic Multispectral Scanner MOMS-02 acquired on the German Spacelab D2 mission will be used in the near future for a broad range of geo- scientific objectives. The simultaneous acquisition of high spatial resolution multispectral and stereo data by one system enables a real combination of thematic and topographic information, thus consid- erably improving the verification and interpretation of dynamic changes of the Earth's surface by means of remote sensing. The sensor was successfully launched on board of the Second German Spacelab Mission D2 on Space Shuttle flight STS-55 from 26 April to May 6 1993. The MOMS-02 system itself is a combination of two modules, a panchromatic, high-resolution stereo module with one nadir-looking (resolution 4.2 m x 4.2 m) and two tilted channels and a 4-channel multispectral module covering the visible (VIS) and near infrared (NIR) range of the electromagnetic spectrum at 12.8 m x 12.8 m ground resolution. The width and centre wavelength of the multispectral spectral bands are optimised for the detection of the spectral response of vegetation and for the discrimination of Fe-bearing rock and soil surfaces due to significant absorption in the VIS/NIR spectral range. The paper gives an overview on geoscientific applications in Australia, Egypt and South America. First images of MOMS-02 data clearly show the ability of the multispectral, as well as the combination of multispectral and high resolution data, to improve geoscientific studies that were done with Landsat TM data in the past. In the near future the MOMS-02 science team will produce high accuracy digital elevation models derived from the stereo data which will be used in combination with MOMS-02 or other sensors multispectral datasets for a wide range of geoscientific and environmental applications (e.g. landuse, erosion risk, natural hazards), as well as for radiometric correction of satellite images. After the first experimental mission on Spacelab D2, MOMS-02 is planned to be deployed in early 1995 on the Russian space platform MIR incorporated in the environmental PRIRODA module. This mission, offering the opportunity of multisensor data registration with a repetition rate of 2 to 7 days, is considered an indispensable step to achieve high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution environmental monitoring at global scales.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

One of the major tasks of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR – Bundesanstalt fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe) is to contribute to a sustainable future supply for Germany with minerals for industrial use. Part of the BGR’s strategy is to develop innovative ways of mineral exploration. The presented study focusses on airborne technologies, being applied and developed in ongoing projects. The methods used can be classified in established methods and newly evolving systems. The repertoire of established methods includes airborne electromagnetics, magnetics, radiometry and hyperspectral imaging. Systems based on latest technologies are full tensor magnetic gradient (FTMG) systems and audio-frequency magnetics (AFMAG) systems. Since a single airborne system usually cannot reveal the whole complexity of mineral bearing structures, new combinations of survey systems are being tested and new techniques are under development. The projects used to demonstrate and develop new systems, combinations and designs are E3 (Ore exploration in the Ore Mountains of Saxony, Germany), HYPGEO (New procedures for exploration of mineral raw materials using hyperspectral and geophysical sensing systems) and DESMEX (Deep Electromagnetic Sounding for Mineral Exploration). HYPGEO is being introduced as a new conceptual project combining different sensing systems and resources of BGR and partners.