The survey data combines data from a number of different surveys into one merged dataset. The individual surveys consist of;
(1) Tellus Northern Ireland, 2005-2006
(2) Cavan-Monaghan, 2006
(3) Tellus Border, 2011-2012
(4) Tellus North Midlands, 2014-2015
(5) Block A1, 2015
(6) Block A2, 2016
(7) Waterford, 2016
(8) Block A3, 2017
(9) Block A4, 2017
(10) Block A5, 2018-2019
(11) Block A6, 2018-2019
(12) Block A7, 2019
Combined a total of 382,567 km of data were collected over a total area of approximately 70,438 km2. The plane flew along survey lines 200m apart at a height of about 60m.
The system measures gamma-rays released by elements in the ground. An instrument on-board the plane counts the number of rays to find out how much natural radioactivity is present in the ground.
This data shows the total radioactivity contained in the ground which can then be mapped.
This is a raster dataset. Raster data stores information in a cell-based manner and consists of a matrix of cells (or pixels) organized into rows and columns. The format of the raster is an image (TIFF). The image cell size is 50m which means that each cell (pixel) represents an area on the ground that is 50 meters across. The image also contains location information (GEOTIFF). Each cell has a different colour representing the amount of radioactivity in the soil or rock: blue for low, green for medium and red for high.
The Tellus survey is a national airborne geophysical and ground geochemical mapping project managed by the Geological Survey Ireland.