The Sharjah Space and Astronomy Hub at the University of Sharjah received a delegation from the Sharjah Environment and Protected Areas Authority, led by its chair, H.E. Aisha Rashid Deemas, along with several officials, during a visit to the hub’s headquarters. The two sides discussed prospects for joint cooperation in using space technologies and remote sensing to support environmental applications and strengthen sustainability efforts in Sharjah, drawing on data from CubeSats and the hub’s developing space projects.

During the meeting, the two sides also discussed the “Sharjah Sat-3” project, an extension of the hub’s CubeSat development program. The project aims to enhance remote sensing capabilities and provide advanced, high-resolution satellite data and imagery to support government agencies in Sharjah and across the United Arab Emirates. The discussions also covered potential applications for remote-sensing data and space technologies in environmental monitoring, including tracking climate change and desertification, observing urban expansion and land-use change, monitoring water quality along coastlines and in water bodies, generating vegetation indices, studying soil characteristics, and helping detect oil spills, illegal discharges in marine areas and random waste disposal sites. These efforts are expected to strengthen environmental protection and the sustainability of natural resources.

The two sides also reviewed services and applications that could be developed using space data and explored ways to apply artificial intelligence in the analysis and integration of satellite information to produce more comprehensive and accurate environmental studies.

The visit concluded with a tour of the CubeSat laboratory, where the delegation was briefed on the stages of satellite development, assembly and testing, as well as the mechanisms for operating the satellites and managing missions through the ground station. The delegation also toured the hub’s scientific exhibitions and became acquainted with its educational and research facilities specializing in space and astronomy.