Realtime Airborne Imagery for Emergency GIS Applications Demonstration and Evaluation with Monroe County Office of Emergency Management August - September 2010 Information Products Laboratory for Emergency Response (IPLER) http://ipler.cis.rit.edu/ Developing Technology and Information Products for Emergency Response Funding for this effort provided by a grant from DHS Command, Control, and Interoperability Division
WASP Program Background Project began in 2002 as a NASA grant to develop a new system for wildfire detection and mapping for the US Forest Service Wildfire Airborne Sensing program (WASP) Follow-on grants added realtime processing and data downlink from aircraft Integrated Sensing Systems Initiative (ISSI) Added scope to include general incident response applications
Information Products Laboratory for Emergency Response (IPLER)- Related Projects (NSF) Collaborative project with UB, commercial, and government partners Promote remote sensing technologies and derived information products (World Bank) Haiti disaster response 250 sq. miles mapped at high res in color, IR and LIDAR (NASA) Rochester Airborne Imagery database for Education and Research (RAIDER) (DHS) Rochester Airborne Sensor Technology for Emergency Response (RASTER) DHS funded research and demonstration Local level demonstration of RS technologies and info products (NSF) Science Masters Program - Decision Support Technologies for Environmental Forecasting and Disaster Response Preparation of MS students in IS, CS, ES for careers in emergency management field Web site at http://ipler.cis.rit.edu/
Key Demonstration Hardware Elements 4-band multispectral camera system Geometric and radiometric calibration INS system On-board data processing and storage 5.8 GHz operating band Up to 7 Mbps (actual data rate) Fixed omni antenna on aircraft Requires active tracking on ground LWIR MWIR 2-axis tracking antenna RIT B76 rooftop Color SWIR
Multi-Band Imagery Example LWIR can see internal fuel tanks SWIR detecting hot objects/surfaces and reflective materials. Also good for detecting water (non-reflecting) LWIR good for temperature measurement and detecting relatively cool objects Long wave IR Short wave IR Vis is good for color and very high resolution MWIR good for detecting relatively warm objects/surfaces Mid wave IR Visible
RAIDER Provides Users Easy Access to Imagery Rochester Airborne Imagery Database for Education and Research http://raider.cis.rit.edu/ Funded by RIT and NASA through a New York Space Grant Promote usage of remote sensing through easy access to high quality data Particularly educational users in New York State Free access to educational/public sector users Web-based data portal with map-based archive search Similar to USGS Center for LIDAR information Coordination and Knowledge (CLICK) <http://lidar.cr.usgs.gov/ > On-line archive of all* RIT airborne image data WASP (color, SWIR, MWIR, LWIR) WASP-Lite (6 band color, LWIR) LIDAR (next phase) Open Standards-based architecture * Except where contractually constrained by original data collection sponsor
WASP System Block Diagram GPS Ant INS/GPS processor Deployable Thermal cal IMU Cameras IR (3) RGB Image Processing Realtime Ortho-photo Specialty Algorithms (e.g. fire) Pre-stored DEM Pre-stored thermal cal tables (when not using deployable cal e.g. realtime) Digital radio On-board storage realtime after landing (sneaker-net) Radio receiver Ground processing Display & Dissemination (RAIDER)
Airborne Tracking and Data Downlink Airborne Data Processor GPS TCP/IP 5.8 Ghz High bandwidth link (imagery data) Low bandwidth link (position data) APRS 144 MHz Steerable antenna Aircraft Ground Pointing information Fixed omni-antenna
Operational Concept Digital Radio Link Resolution of downlink imagery is a function of the bandwidth of the link Airborne sensor and data processing system flies over target area View full resolution data Downlinked imagery is aligned to map Downlink display - view imagery as it is collected Transfer full resolution data set Aircraft lands
Demonstration Summary Two flights conducted prior to marathon date Test system functionality Collect imagery for basemap Actual marathon flight was cancelled due to weather Collected and downloaded over 700 images (> 500 MB) at up to 22 miles Demonstrated dynamic tasking Imagery to ground of county defined coordinate within 5 minutes In-flight switching from color to Thermal IR Ground-based server to remote user ( last mile ) is a challenge
Demonstration Overview Georeferenced imagery 7 Mbps data rate Antenna roof of Building 76 on RIT campus Ingest data into GIS workstation for exploitation View imagery on RAIDER Ingest data into GIS workstation for exploitation Monroe County Mobile GIS Van Monroe County Server At EOC Wireless (AirCard or wifi) View imagery on RAIDER Direct download of images over cable Wireless (AirCard or wifi) RIT Server RAIDER Web Interface
Realtime Aircraft Tracking (Test Flight) Excellent network connectivity at 22 miles Ginna nuclear power station Marathon route area Ground station antenna on RIT campus
Mobile GIS van (MCU-4) Mobile Command Post RAIDER demo in MCU-4 Mobile Communications Van (MCU-1)
Marathon Route Covergae Base image map
Ginna Imagery in Color and Thermal IR Hot water plume Thermal Infrared - delivered in realtime, 22 miles range Color (delivered post flight)
Realtime vs Post Processed Imagery Realtime image Imagery is down sampled to allow faster transmission over downlink Post flight processed image
Thanks!