University research highlighted as Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation celebrates its 10th anniversary

The University's role in the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) has been highlighted on its 10th anniversary.

The CEOI was set up in 2007 and is funded by the UK Space Agency to support UK universities and industry in developing technologies for space and Earth Observation satellite technology.

Since 2007 more than 50 new technologies have been funded by the CEOI, including the CompAQS spectrometer under development at the University of Leicester, designed to measure air quality for space.

The University hosts the Leicester Institute for Space and Earth Observation which brings together a number of Departments within the College of Science and Technology to work on research associated with space and Earth Observation.

The University has benefited from CEOI grants. Our world-class air quality innovations team have received funding to monitor air quality from space.

In doing so they were able to develop two upstream space projects: (CompAQS) The Compact Air Quality Spectrometer and (HAPI) The High-resolution Anthropogenic Pollution Imager and two downstream projects: uTRAQ and the Hot Spot Mapper.

Researchers can produce real-time data on how polluted parts of the landscape are, including motorway junctions, airports, car parks and urban environments. This is valuable data for urban planners and legislators to mitigate the impact of pollution on life chances.