Terrestrial research, including ecology, will be
enabled by the Instrument's capability to acquire, manage, and analyze
super-resolution aerial imagery and sensor data.
The
Instrument's no-propulsion no-fuel super-resolution multi-sensor balloons are ideal
for ecology research within endangered areas. The Instrument' capability to
analyze data and mash up data of multiple sources will enable new discoveries.
The
team of Dr. Kenneth Feeley at FIU will utilize the
Instrument for their research on field crops. Current protocols
and methods to determine the health of the crops include the usage of drones or
sensors mounted on spray planes. These options are very expensive,
time-consuming in planning, and short-timed in execution, as fuel consumption
places a significant constraint. The speed, height, and angle of the airborne
collection system leave very little room for adjustment. The Instrument
provides an observation platform that can be quickly deployed, move at variable
speeds ranging from natural wind speed to those imposed by means of tethers,
and transit at low altitude (100 to 300 feet). All these characteristics can be
dynamically changed, including the angle of the imagery collection.
The
capability to collect multi-spectral imagery at different ranges of the light
spectrum allows for measurement of the health of the plants. Imagery
recognition algorithms enable for extensive analysis, quantification, and
classification.
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 will use the Instrument in the study of Ecology of the
Andes.
The
team of Drs. Steven Oberbauer and Nathan Healey
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.
The
team of Daniel Gann [http://gis.fiu.edu/?p=362]
at FIU and the FIU GIS-RS Center will use the Instrument for their research on scaling
and detection of wetland plant community dynamics.
The
team is developing mapping and monitoring methods that can bridging
the gap between
(1)
plot level acquired abundance data of vegetation to
larger spatial extents surrounding a plot and
(2)
the use of field data when training classifiers to
detect those communities utilizing remote sensing methodologies (i.e., high
spatial and spectral resolution satellite data).
Limitations
of existing map applications that provide aerial photography is the spatial
(sub-meter) and temporal resolution of the data (years).
A
combination of nadir view with oblique very high resolution aerial photography
acquired by an unmanned aerial system (UAS) can provide a valuable source of
high resolution plant community reference information that links ground
reference plot data to spatial extensive vegetation mapping using remote
sensing (RS) methods [Pauly, K.; Adams, S.; Tommaselli, A.; Perko, R.].
The
GIS-RC Center is specifically interested in monitoring of wetland plant
community and vegetation dynamics, where mobility for intensive sampling is
difficult and invasive to the ecosystem - access to oblique and nadir view
aerial photography can aid in the identification and estimation of species
abundances without extensive invasive ground surveys [Gilmore, M.S.; Korpela, I.; Fassnacht, F.]. Timing of data acquisition - phenological cycles - are important and the recognition of
species from photography requires a ground resolution of ~ 2cm or higher [Kaimaris, D.; Key, T.].
The
team has experience working with fixed wing UAS photography and see potential
benefits of non- or slow moving platform such as the ones within the proposed
Instrument would provide
(1)
higher and variable resolution with more precise and
consistent altitude and spatial position estimates,
(2)
better data quality due to slow motion or stationary
platform, and
(3)
no flight restrictions apply, which makes its
application temporally more flexible.
Very
high-resolution photography covering the spectral wavelength from blue to near
infrared is of great interest in this project.
This type of photography can provide valuable reference data when
processing and analyzing airborne or terrestrial LiDAR
or other high resolution remotely sensed satellite data.
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
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[PC11] K.
Pauly and O. Clerck. "Low-cost very high resolution intertidal vegetation
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[Per+13] R.
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[GM+08] M.S.
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[KOR04] I.
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[FK12] F. Fassnacht, and B. Koch.
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[KPT12] D.
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(2012): 9-18.
[KEY+01] T.
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