The Airborne Sensor Facility develops and maintains a variety of aircraft and sensor systems for remote sensing research.
The sensors--including spectroradiometers and other digital imaging devices--are placed on a variety of NASA aircraft that fly at altitudes between a few hundred feet and 13 miles. These aircraft include both piloted airplanes and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Because they fly closer to the ground than satellites...(airborne sensors)...can gather more detailed data at higher resolutions. One pixel of information from an airborne sensor covers an area on a scale of inches to yards, rather than miles. In addition, researchers have more control over the area being surveyed, the resolution at which they gather data, and the dates and times of the surveys.
(Eli Silver, a professor of Earth sciences at UCSC who was named principal investigator of the facility in April) said he wants to develop remote sensing technology that will eventually help researchers detect life in extreme environments, including Mars. His team currently analyzes the spectral properties of fossil formations and living bacterial communities associated with coldwater seeps and volcanic geothermal areas on Earth. The sensors they have developed can record over a hundred separate wavelengths of light, which makes it possible to recognize the distinctive spectral signatures of a large variety of minerals and bacteria.
With the help of the Airborne Sensor Facility, Silver and his colleagues can test their sensors' ability to pick up fossil or bacterial signatures from different altitudes.
The smallest UAVs are approximately the size of a large remote-controlled model airplane (100 pounds, 12-foot wingspan) and their itinerary can be controlled by radio or preprogrammed before a flight. Their operation does not require flight crews or landing strips and would be practical in developing countries with minimal infrastructure.
Some UAVs can fly for 24 hours at a time, which would make it possible to follow a complete tidal cycle (Raphael Kudela, an assistant professor of ocean sciences) said.
Another advantage of UAVs is that they can be sent to explore very inhospitable environments.
"In the future, we could use unmanned vehicles to study volcanoes," Silver said.
~Flying robots with special 'cameras'.
Posted by Cieciel at June 26, 2005 07:19 AM