HR: 0830h
AN: G11A-0245    [PDF]
TI: Integrating an RGB - CIR Digital Camera With an Airborne Laser Swath Mapping System
AU: * Lee, M
EM: markage@ufl.edu
AF: University of Florida, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering 365 Weil Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611 United States
AU: Carter, W
EM: bcarter@ce.ufl.edu
AF: University of Florida, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering 365 Weil Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611 United States
AU: Shrestha, R
EM: rshre@ce.ufl.edu
AF: University of Florida, Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering 365 Weil Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611 United States
AB: The National Science Foundation supported Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) utilizes the airborne laser swath mapping (ALSM) system jointly owned by the University of Florida (UF) and Florida International University (FIU). The UF/FIU ALSM system is comprised of an Optech Inc. Model 1233 ALTM unit, with supporting GPS receiver and real-time navigation display, mounted in a twin-inline-engine Cessna 337 aircraft. Shortly after taking delivery of the ALSM system, UF researchers, in collaboration with a commercial partner, added a small format digital camera (Kodak 420) to the system, rigidly mounting it to the ALSM sensor head. Software was developed to use the GPS position and orientation parameters from the IMU unit in the ALSM sensor to rectify and mosaic the digital images. The ALSM height and intensity values were combined pixel by pixel with the RGB digital images, to classify surface materials. Based on our experience with the initial camera, and recommendations received at the NCALM workshop, UF researchers decided to upgrade the system to a Redlake MASD Inc. model MS4100 RGB/CIR camera. The MS4100 contains three CCD arrays, which simultaneously capture full spatial resolution images in red and near IR band bands, and a factor of two lower spatial resolution images in the blue and green bands (the blue and green bands share a single CCD array and the color bands are separated with a Bayer filter). The CCD arrays are rectangular with 1920 x 1080 elements, each element being 7.4 x 7.4 micrometers. With a 28 mm focal length lens, and at a flying height of 550 meters, the effective groundel is approximately 15 x 15 cm. The new digital camera should be particularly useful for studies of vegetation, including agricultural and forestry applications, and for computer automated classification of surface materials. Examples of early results using the improved ALSM-digital imaging capabilities will be presented.
DE: 1294 Instruments and techniques
DE: 1625 Geomorphology and weathering (1824, 1886)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
SC: Geodesy [G]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting