Airborne and satellite radars record Frascati grape harvest The
slopes of Frascati overlooking Rome boast rich, volcanic soils:
wine has been produced there since time immemorial. However the
latest vine crop should go down in history as the single best
documented harvest ever. Part of Frascati's Controlled Origin
Denomination – 'Denominazione d'Origine Controllata' or DOC in
Italian, a wine's legally demarcated home region - was surveyed
in ultra-sharp detail using an airborne radar sensor both before
then after last October's harvest. This two-stage ESA campaign
was called BACCHUS-DOC, and was intended to complement a number
of radar and optical satellite acquisitions by ERS-2, SPOT,
Landsat, IKONOS and QuickBird. Following processing of raw data,
the results are now under study by a team from ESRIN, ESA's
European Centre for Earth Observation located within the area of
study, and the nearby Tor Vergata University. In particular they
are investigating to what extent the BACCHUS-DOC airborne and
satellite ra