Angela Lausch, a researcher at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ, Leipzig, Germany, is spending her sabbatical year 2015-16 in our lab. Dr. Lausch works on integrating biological information across spatial scales. She begins with measurements of plant traits, e.g. water stress, in the lab.
She uses hyper-spectral imagery, taken in the lab, to translate the biological information into spectral information. She then translates this information across ever-larger spatial extents using hyper-spectral imagery at low elevations with a micro-light aircraft and an octocopter, at higher elevations using a small plane and a gyrocopter, and most remotely using satellite imagery.
In-lab hyper-spectral sensor
Microlight Aircraft 
Octocopter
Gyrocopter 
Angela’s goal is to understand how we can transfer relevant biological information, e.g. drought stress, across scales, ultimately allowing us to map biological traits using satellite imagery.
Angela also is hoping to improve her English during her time in Ottawa. The rest of us may improve our English as well; she has already taught us a new word – ‘hemeroby’.