The ability to fly at very low altitude while being secured to tethers is a significant advantage in environment such as the cloud mountains of the Peruvian Andes, where adverse weather and complex terrain make the deployment of imagery collection systems very difficult and the cloud cover hinders the collection of satellite imagery.

Furthermore, the Instrument's capability to relay live geo-referenced imagery and data enables for potential remote field trips and monitoring of in situ work from abroad, providing unprecedented simplifications in the research process.

The group of Dr. Kenneth Feeley [http://www2.fiu.edu/~kfeeley/] at FIU will use the Instrument in the study of Ecology of the Andes.