Images of the Earth's surface taken from a UK satellite are being made freely available for researchers.
The images, captured by the £14m TopSat satellite, will be sent out on request by staff at Manchester University's national data centre, Mimas.
Last month, Mimas reached the unique agreement with Infoterra - a member of the TopSat Consortium - who contacted the university to suggest the collaboration.
The demonstration satellite, built by a Qinetiq-led consortium which also includes Surrey Satellite Technology and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, was funded by the Ministry of Defence and British National Space Centre.
Dr Kamie Kitmitto from Mimas, who is leading the project, will coordinate the orders and will make the data available to other academic users within the UK.
'We hope that this data will prove useful for researchers who need to map remote areas, detect change or plan field exercises, especially overseas,' added Dr Andy Wells, director of sales at Infoterra.
UK academics wishing to request an image should contact Mimas via email at Spatial@mimas.ac.uk
Glasgow trial explores AR cues for autonomous road safety
They've ploughed into a few vulnerable road users in the past. Making that less likely will make it spectacularly easy to stop the traffic for...