HYPERSPECTRAL SURVEY OF SICILY, ITALY

In 2003 a Remote sensing project was executed on behalf of the Italian Government's National Research Council to obtain a single, uniform and coherent imagery dataset of Sicily. The project collected data which was used in different studies, among these a study related to the availability and use of the water resources on the Island.

The information was collected using a Mivis hyperspectral scanner, property of the National Research Council of Italy, and operatively managed by CGR. This scanner has one of the most updated systems for monitoring and investigation of the environment; with its 102 channels it is able to provide a huge amount of information related to the behaviour of the terrain and the water in the visible, infrared and thermal infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The Mivis scanner is installed on a CASA 212/C aircraft. The CASA 212/C is able to host several different instruments at the same time and is able to fly stable at different altitudes and with long endurance. 

Sicily Island has a total area of 25 700 Sq.km and was covered from a relative altitude of 2 500 meters, corresponding to a ground resolution of about five meters. In addition, more detailed flights with ground resolution of three meters  were surveyed in some of the areas.

All the data collected for this project forms part of an important database and will be used as basis in comparisons with results from future similar projects.