̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Ian Parry

New research will use space telescopes to monitor energy efficiency of buildings

sc604 — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 11:57:09 +0000

̽��ֱ��funding will support companies and universities with radical ideas for how we tackle climate change through earth observation or address satellite communications challenges, from providing greater connectivity to remote places to increasing the efficiency of our homes.

Dr Ian Parry from Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy has been awarded funding for high-resolution thermal infrared space telescopes for monitoring the energy efficiency of buildings.

Thermal infrared (TIR) earth observation telescopes in low earth orbit can monitor the energy output of buildings. Parry and his collaborators will build and develop a prototype for the continuous alignment required for a space telescope, as well as developing end-user climate change cases for TIR telescope.

“This technology can give us a global health check to let us know if the world is on target to meet its carbon emissions targets. It also makes it clear who needs to act and what they have to do if the targets aren’t being met,” said Parry. “It’s a bit like trying to get someone to give up smoking. ̽��ֱ��person knows it's bad for them and they have good intentions and make promises, but they still fall short of what they need to do until they get a worrying wake-up call from a medical examination.”

Governments sign up to agreements but it’s the behaviour of organisations and individuals that will deliver – or not – the required actions. This technology will allow governments across the world, including our own, to deliver what was promised.

̽��ֱ��technology will identify anything bigger than about five metres across that is using large amounts of energy, such as buildings, houses, aircraft, ships or lorries.

“Normally I point my telescope at the stars but by pointing it at the Earth I can help address a really important issue,” said Parry.

“We want the UK to be a world leader in space technology which is why we are supporting our most ambitious innovators who are developing technologies to help solve some of our greatest challenges,” said Science Minister Amanda Solloway. “From slashing carbon emissions to protecting the UK’s critical services from harmful cyber-attacks, today’s funding will unshackle our most entrepreneurial space scientists so that they can transfer their revolutionary ideas into world class products and services, while helping to boost the UK economy.”

̽��ֱ��funding comes from the UK Space Agency’s National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP), which is the first UK fund dedicated to supporting the space sector’s development of innovations, allowing us to compete internationally on the world stage with other countries, like France and Germany, which have dedicated national funding for space.

Businesses, universities and research organisations were awarded co-funding for projects that will help the space sector create new high-skill jobs, while developing new skills and technologies on UK soil. Grants from the £15 million funding pot range from between £170,000 and £1.4 million per project.

“Space technologies have become deeply embedded in, and critical to, almost every aspect of our daily lives,” said Dr Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency. “With rapid technological innovation, space offers a broad and growing range of opportunities to support economic activity and protect the environment. From the satellites connecting our calls to the ones that tell us when to expect rain when we step outside, space technologies are fundamental to our day-to-day lives.Our space sector is constantly advancing and welcoming new ideas, and through this funding we are championing the best of this British innovation.”

In addition, £5 million of the programme funding has been set aside for international projects, which will focus on increasing exports and securing new inward investment, supporting UK science and the prosperity agenda by funding working relationships between world-leading researchers and institutions and developing space capabilities important to the UK's security interests.

̽��ֱ��UK space sector has grown by over 60% since 2010. ̽��ֱ��industry already supports £300 billion of UK economic activity through the use of satellite services and is expected to grow further as this new Government support unlocks commercial opportunities.

̽��ֱ��UK also remains a member of the European Space Agency. ESA membership allows the UK to cooperate in world-leading science on a global scale, enabling UK scientists and researchers access to a range of international research and development programmes.

A bold response to the world’s greatest challenge

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is building on its existing research and launching an ambitious new environment and climate change initiative. Cambridge Zero is not just about developing greener technologies. It will harness the full power of the ̽��ֱ��’s research and policy expertise, developing solutions that work for our lives, our society and our biosphere.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is one of 21 organisations awarded a share of over £7 million in funding meant to put the UK at the forefront of the latest advances in space innovation.

Normally I point my telescope at the stars but by pointing it at the Earth I can help address a really important issue

Ian Parry

NASA

Gulf of Mexico from space

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Beyond the blinding starlight

fpjl2 — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:19:53 +0000

Astronomers have conducted the first remote reconnaissance of a distant solar system, using new telescope imaging techniques to reveal the chemical composition of exoplanets orbiting a star 128 light years from Earth.

Project 1640 has harnessed new software and instruments to collect the first chemical fingerprints - or spectra – of the solar system’s four red planets.

Previous imaging studies had only managed partial measurement of the system’s outermost planet before light from the star itself blinded the technology.

Now, for the first time, scientists have been able to penetrate the starlight to read the unique light signatures of the chemical elements that make up the atmospheres of the four planets.

While the exoplanets proved “too toxic and hot” to sustain life as we know it, scientists believe that the techniques they are developing will one day give mankind the “first secure evidence of life on a planet outside our solar system,” according to co-author Ian Parry from the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge.

A detailed description of the study will be published in ̽��ֱ��Astrophysical Journal.

Project 1640 uses the Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California, and involves researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, CalTech, NASA, New York ̽��ֱ�� and the Space Telescope Science Institution, as well as Cambridge.

Until now, blinding starlight – tens of millions to billions of times brighter than given off by planets – has made analysing exoplanets extremely difficult.

̽��ֱ��new capabilities developed for Project 1640 allow the rapid characterisation of exoplanetary systems in a routine manner – the possibilities of which could well be providing the first evidence of the existence of extra-terrestrial life, say the scientists.

Ben Oppenheimer, from the Astrophysics Department at the American Museum of Natural History, said this new ability to go beyond starlight to read exoplanet atmospheres was like “taking a single picture of the Empire State Building from an airplane that reveals the height of the building but also a bump on the sidewalk next to it that’s as high as a couple of bacteria”.

Project 1640 does this by sharpening and darkening a star’s light. This technical advance involves the coordination of four major instruments – including the world’s most advanced ‘adaptive optics’ system, which can make millions of tiny adjustments every second to it’s internal mirrors for optimal imaging.

These techniques can reveal planets one to even ten million times fainter than the star at the centre of the image, after only an hour of observation.

Scientists have described some of the results from this initial study as “quite strange”, as the exoplanets are “redder”, emitting longer wavelengths of light, than celestial objects with similar temperatures – which could be explained by significant but patchy cloud cover on the planets, say researchers.

There is also an intriguing chemical imbalance in that the planets contain either ammonia or methane, but not both, running counter to basic laws of chemistry given the atmospheric temperatures.

̽��ֱ��solar system’s star, HR 8799, is also very different to ours. It is five times brighter and produces about 1,000 times more ultraviolet light than the Sun. These factors could impact the chemical ‘spectra’ of the planets, possibly inducing complex weather such as dense carbon fog.

Researchers are already collecting more data on this system to look for changes in the planets over time, as well as surveying other young stars. During its three-year survey at Palomer, which started in June, Project 1640 aims to survey 200 stars within about 150 light years of our solar system.

Study reveals chemical composites of exoplanet atmospheres 128 light years away. Scientists say techniques will “one day provide evidence of life beyond Earth”.

̽��ֱ��really exciting thing is that, one day, the techniques we’ve developed will give us our first secure evidence of the existence of life on a planet outside our solar system

Ian Parry

Ian Parry/Project 1640

Exoplanet imaging from Project 1640. After applying several advanced optical techniques the P1640 camera sees only a very small fraction of the light from HR8799 in this "speckle" pattern. ̽��ֱ��images of the 4 planets are still buried in this pattern

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