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Prof. Daniele Perissin of the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science (ISEIS) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) received the ‘Dragon Programme’ award from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC) in appreciation and recognition of his outstanding contribution to the success and achievements of the second phase of the Dragon Programme, the largest cooperation programme on space remote sensing between ESA and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST). The award presentation ceremony took place at the Dragon II Symposium held in Beijing earlier.

Professor Perissin is the author of a very advanced software for processing long series of Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) images to detect millimetric movements of the ground from space satellites. The software, called SARPROZ, is now used in ISEIS for teaching and research purposes. Professor Perissin joined the Dragon Programme in 2006 and since then has been working on the detection of terrain movements in China using In SAR. In the Dragon II Programme held from 2008 to 2012, Professor Perissin carried out a research on using radar images taken from Italian satellites to reveal the surface subsidence of Shanghai caused by the newly excavated subway tunnels, showing impressive details of ground deformation above the tunnels. The technique he developed serves as a remarkable tool for monitoring the stability of buildings from the space and was highly recognized by the Dragon scientific committee. Apart from CUHK, Wuhan University and the Polytechnic of Milan also participated in the research. 

The ‘Dragon Programme’ aims to create a strong cooperation between European and Chinese researchers working in the field of earth observation. The programme focuses on science and applications development in China using mainly data acquired by the European satellites. Immediately following the success of the Dragon II Programme, ESA and MOST started the Dragon III Programme (2012-2016) this month. Prof. Lin Hui, director of ISEIS, has been selected as Principal Investigator to lead the Chinese researchers on the special project on ‘Monitoring Cryosphere Dynamics in the Tibetan Plateau with Integrated Earth Observations’.