P & M Technologies collaborated with scientists around the world
on projects leading to innovative products and services based on plant science. We were
involved for many years in the development of space-based technologies in plant physiology,
most recently managing the FLEX/Sentinel-3 Tandem Mission Photosynthesis
Study and the follow-on FLEX Bridge Study for the
European Space Agency (ESA).
"We were pleased to be involved in a new & exciting area of research that will
one day permit detection of stressed crops and forests from satellites in space..."
– Dr. Gina Mohammed
ESA's Earth Explorer satellites provide an important contribution to the global endeavour
to further our understanding of the Earth system as a whole.
FLEX – Earth Explorer 8
P & M Technologies was an active participant in the European Space Agency's
Living Planet Programme as a member of the
FLuorescence EXplorer
(FLEX) project team.
The FLEX mission has been selected as ESA's new Earth Explorer 8 mission,
following a comprehensive assessment by ESA's Earth Science Advisory Committee (ESAC).
FLEX will give scientists a better understanding of an important part of the carbon cycle and will provide
important information about the health & stress of the planet's vegetation.
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The FLEX mission aims to provide global maps of vegetation fluorescence, which can be converted into
an indicator of photosynthetic activity. These data would improve
our understanding of how much carbon is stored in plants and their role in the carbon and water cycles.
Our Research Director, Dr. Gina Mohammed, helped to pioneer chlorophyll
fluorescence applications for early detection of plant stress in forest species. She has published extensively
on this topic – including a recent 50-year review of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) – and brought this expertise
to the FLEX team. Gina was a member of the
Science Committee for ESA's conference on
Remote Sensing of Fluorescence, Photosynthesis, and Vegetation Status, held in Frascati, Italy.