We met with Professor Peter Rayner from the  University of Melbourne, an atmospheric chemist interested in the carbon cycle at the global scale, Dr Nicholas Deutscher a DECRA fellow in the Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry at UOW and Dr Phil DeCola, Chief Science Officer, Sigma Space Corporation. The atmospheric Scientists are measuring carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from space. The satellites they use like the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) can also pick up signals for solar induced fluoresence (SIF) a signal emitted from chlorophyll in leaves.  We are measuring SIF and active fluoresence using our LIFT instrument and trying to understand how the signals are related at the leaf level. So we are basically trying to answer the same question at different levels with the aim of scaling from one to another. The LIFT measures leaf level (centimeter scale) the satellites canopy level with meter resolution. the challenge is the bridge the gap between these scales.  The other connections are with scientific colleagues from around the world who we all work with in different capacities.  Dr Joe Berry from the Carnegie Institution being an obvious example. It was great to start making those connections and hopefully start to bridge the gap.

(Photo : Screenshot courtesy of NASA)