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HUNGARY: RESULTS AND TRENDS IN THE REMOTE SENSING R+D AND 
APPLICATIONS 
The activity in the field of natural resources management and 
thematic mapping is based mainly on four complementary, medium- 
term programmes supported and coordinated by the State Office for 
Technical Development and the Hungarian Academy of Science. 
In the programme, about 50 executing institutions are involved, 
partly in international cooperation. 
As far as the data acquisition and remote sensing oriented 
hardware/software systems are concerned, new developments in the 
data collection technology are as follow: a dual—frequency 
microwave radiometer (including air—ground telemetry and mobil 
in—site analysis workstation) for soil moisture aerial survey and 
mapping has been elaborated. The system operates L—, S—band 
microwave and thermal infrared sensors. The software development 
is executed in Indian cooperation. 
An 9.4 GHz X-band side-looking real aperture airborne radar 
(SLAR) for all-weather applications is also under construction. 
In case of an altitude of 1000 meters, the pixel size is about 
15m (8=45°). 
These developments are in final phase having successful flight 
campaignes and the systems will be ready for operations next 
year. A service, which will be provided by the prime contractor 
F<5MI Remote Sensing Centre. 
For remote monitoring and 3D mapping of atmospheric pollution, 
laser radar technology was developed. According to foreign 
experiences, potentially, this LIDAR technique is useful also 
for assessing biomass, identifying plant types and estimating 
timber yields. Further applications include the measurement of 
hydrocarbon leakage from pipelines or storage tanks as well as 
the assessment of toxic gases in industrial environment. The 
system developed has two continuous wave power source, which are 
tunable to about 4o lines in the wavelength region between 9 pm 
and lipm, where generally the most hazardous gases have more or 
less pronounced absorption properties. 
Useful also for ground truth of satellite data (especially the 
European Remote Sensing Satellite ERS-l's Synthetic Aperture 
Radar), a computer controlled, dual—polarized X—band 
scatterometer was developed and tested . During the first field 
measurement tests, bare soil was investigated; the backscattered 
data were taken at 10.3 GHz in different incidence angle. 
Field spectrometer for use in (satellite and in—situ) comparative 
investigations of spectral signatures of objects was developed 
and used in several international campaignes orchestrated by the 
Intercosmos cooperation. Similar spectral assessments and 
reflectance measurements were executed in soil and vegetation 
mapping, water quality analysis using commercially available 
spectrometers and SPOT satellite imagery. Convenient for ground 
truth measurements, mobil stations have been designed and built. 
For use in geology and mineral exploration, transportable field 
radar operating in the 400—500 MHz range was developed.