Our research includs:

• Developes and integrates the full vertical stack of observational platforms (from satellites and aerial vehicles, to surface vessels and autonomous underwater vehicles, and fixed sensors) into coherent, interoperable systems for environmental monitoring and ecosystem understanding.The concept brings together remote sensing, in-situ robotics, optical and acoustic sensing, and AI-driven data processing to enable simultaneous, multi-scale observations of ocean and coastal environments
• How how data from platforms operating at vastly different spatial and temporal resolutions can be fused, quality-controlled and interpreted to automate sampling and to yield actionable ecological and environmental insight. NTNU has been a pioneer of this approach since the SFF Centre of Excellence AMOS (2013–2023), and the Observational Pyramid concept has since been refined and applied across projects ranging from Arctic fjord ecosystems to coastal water quality monitoring.  

Projects that relate to the Observational Pyramid concept and involve team members: 

SFI Harvest: Centre for Research-based Innovation investigating sustainable harvesting of marine resources, including studies of plankton and marine ecosystems using multi-sensor observation systems.  

DiverSea: Horizont Euope project coordinated by NTNU that develops methods for mapping and monitoring biodiversity in coastal seas using technologies such as DNA-based monitoring, remote sensing and autonomous observation systems.

HYPSCI: Research project exploring the use of hyperspectral data from NTNU’s HYPSO satellites for ocean science applications and integration with in-situ ocean observations.

ARIEL: Research Council of Norway project developing technologies for real-time hyperspectral imaging from UAVs and small satellites for Earth observation.

HYPSO satellite program: Small satellite missions developed at NTNU to observe ocean colour and environmental processes using hyperspectral imaging.

System-of-Systems: A system-of-systems approach to real-time integrated ocean environmental monitoring (SoS).

CLIMAREST: CLIMAREST develops and demonstrates marine ecological restoration tools and activities at five demonstration sites across Europe including Svalbard.

AMBIOS: Autonomous platform for multi-layer mapping of marine biodiversity.