Terrestrial research, including Arctic environmental research, will be enabled by the Instrument's capability to acquire, manage, and analyze super-resolution aerial imagery and sensor data.

 

The team of Drs. Steven Oberbauer and Nathan Healey [http://www2.fiu.edu/~oberbaue/AON-ITEX.html] at FIU will utilize the Instrument for their research on extreme environments such as the Arctic ecosystem of Alaska.

 

Research is carried out to monitor the impact of changing tundra vegetation in order to scale measurements to the regional and sub-regional level.

 

Remote sensing and imagery collection is often carried out by means of robotic trams and other robotic sensor systems suspended over the canopy, and aerial kite photography (AKP) [Goswami, S.; Boike, J.; Aber, J.S.; Myers-Smith, I.H.].

 

The Instrument's drifting or tethered lighter-than-air balloon system provides significant advantages. The ability to visualize instantaneously the area over which imagery and data is being collected, as well as to dynamically adjust the collection parameters, with live transmission of the geo-referenced data to the Instrument's server farm will transform data collection capabilities in extreme environments.

 

 

References Cited

 

[GOS11] S. Goswami, Monitoring ecosystem dynamics in an Arctic tundra ecosystem using hyperspectral reflectance and a robotic tram system. 2011.

[BJY03] J. Boike and K. Yoshikawa. "Mapping of periglacial geomorphology using kite/balloon aerial photography." Permafrost and periglacial processes 14.1 (2003): 81-85.

[SMR10] J.S. Aber, I. Marzolff, and J.B. Ries. Small-Format Aerial Photography: Principles, Techniques and Applications. Elsevier, 2010.

[SH+12] I. H. Myers-Smith, et al. "Tall Shrub Monitoring Protocol for Arctic Canada and Alaska." (2012).