Establishment of a Scientific-Information Complex for Aerospace Polygons on the Territory of Republic of Bulgaria

Contract N-НИК-003/07 between the SRI-BAS and the Scientific Research Fund at the Ministry of Education and Science, 2007 – 2008. The contract is implementing together with scientists and specialists from National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology-BAS.

Leader: Sen. Res. Eugenia Roumenina, PhD

The major objective of the project is to establish a scientific-information complex with thematically distributed satellite and sub-satellite data base for the aerospace polygons on the territory of the PRB.

The subject matter of the scientific-information complex will be: Establishment, development, training, collection of thematically oriented data and transfer of techniques, instrumentation and technologies for remote sensing and monitoring of the environment, unfavourable and hazardous natural and anthropogenic processes and phenomena.

In the beginning of the 70-ies, under the Intercosmos Programme, a network of aerospace polygons was established for conductance of international quasi-synchronous sub-satellite experiments. Seven polygons were fixed for Bulgaria: Pleven, Shoumen, Rila, Plovdiv, East Rhodopes, Pchelina and Novi Iskur. Their conductance on the Bulgarian side was assigned to the SRI-BAS. As a result of more than 80 conducted experiments, a great stack of aerial photos and satellite images was piled up. To make them adequate for use by modern geoinformation technology means, they should be entered in a thematically distributed data base. This data base will be supplemented with the agrometeorological information available on the NIMH-BAS network as well as with new satellite photos.

The scientific-information complex will be used as a system, providing easy access to the data, their quick visualization, processing and analysis. It will support the scientific-research activity of the scientists from the BAS institutes working in the field of earth sciences. The complex will be also used to improve the training provided to Masters and post-graduate students in the field of remote sensing of the Earth.