Expert Oblique Aerial Photography - Dat' · PDF fileMIDAS or other oblique cus-tomers to...
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Dat'Air, Inc. 113 S. Hoagland Boulevard, Kissimmee, FL 34741 +1 (407) 343-7571 Expert Oblique Aerial Photography Dat’Air, Inc., a worldwide, new-concept Oblique Aerial Imaging Company expands the possibility of oblique imaging upward. Dat'Air is a group of well-known companies who have decided to join forces and offer a unique international service in oblique photography. Dat'Air is equipped with a wide range of specialized oblique camera systems capable of operating at much higher altitudes than any commercial oblique systems on the market today. We have developed state of the art oblique imaging systems which would not be cost effective for MIDAS or other oblique cus- tomers to acquire and main- tain for such a limited mar- ket. Dat'Air does not compete for ordinary oblique imaging. Instead we offer this supple- mentary service to Midas clients to round out their abilities to obtain higher resolution imagery while avoiding restricted or difficult airspaces. These exclusive cameras have been specially engineered to cope with higher altitude photography and provide consistent photogrammetric accuracy up to 20,000 feet. Conversely, these cameras are also capable of collecting extremely high resolution imagery from lower altitude, down to 0.2" (0.5 cm) GSD. Built to the standards of true metric aerial mapping cameras and meeting their rigidity, geometric stability, sharpness, etc., these cameras can be flown at higher altitudes in high performance twin engine airplanes or at very low altitudes installed in slow flying helicopters. [email protected] Downtown Manhaan 3.5”pixel resoluon from 7500’ AGL
Transcript of Expert Oblique Aerial Photography - Dat' · PDF fileMIDAS or other oblique cus-tomers to...
Dat'Air, Inc. 113 S. Hoagland Boulevard, Kissimmee, FL 34741 +1 (407) 343-7571
Expert Oblique Aerial Photography
Dat’Air, Inc., a worldwide, new-concept Oblique Aerial Imaging Company expands the
possibility of oblique imaging upward.
Dat'Air is a group of well-known companies who have decided to join forces and offer a unique international service in oblique photography. Dat'Air is equipped with a wide range of specialized oblique camera systems capable of operating at much higher altitudes than any commercial oblique systems on the market today. We have developed state of the art oblique imaging systems which would not be cost effective for
MIDAS or other oblique cus-tomers to acquire and main-tain for such a limited mar-ket. Dat'Air does not compete
for ordinary oblique imaging.
Instead we offer this supple-mentary service to Midas clients to round out their abilities to obtain higher resolution imagery while avoiding restricted or difficult airspaces.
These exclusive cameras have been specially engineered to cope with higher altitude photography and provide consistent photogrammetric accuracy up to 20,000 feet. Conversely, these cameras are also capable of collecting extremely high resolution imagery from lower altitude, down to 0.2" (0.5 cm) GSD. Built to the standards of true metric aerial mapping cameras and meeting their rigidity, geometric stability, sharpness, etc., these cameras can be flown at higher altitudes in high performance twin engine airplanes or at very low altitudes installed in slow flying helicopters.
Downtown Manhattan 3.5”pixel resolution from 7500’ AGL
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Equipped with these technologically advanced MIDAS systems, Dat'Air is able to carry out oblique photo missions that were previously unachievable with any existing commercial oblique imaging equipment and to offer highly professional oblique photography services worldwide.
We provide a turnkey product, including flight planning, mission planning, image collection, full radiometric image correction, high accuracy mapping processing, etc. or any range of services you may need from image acquisition onward.
Why fly higher?
This is the intellectual concept behind our business. In many parts of the world, large areas in and around cities and airports have tight altitude restrictions that limit the possibility of photography. In developing these high altitude MIDAS systems we hope to provide an indispensable service to companies that have a need to complete a difficult oblique or 3D project but do not have the equipment necessary to attain the required resolution (s) for that project.
Contrary to most aerial oblique photo operators who are limited to one or two types of medium altitude oblique camera systems, Dat'Air operates a number of exclusive cameras which allows our helicopters and airplanes to advantageously fly under or above the ceilings of most restricted area and traffic controlled airspaces.
Notre Dame 2” pixel resolution from 5000’ AGL
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Why are we necessary?
In the USA, controlled airspaces at major airports extend to 12,500 feet or even higher. This creates considerable opera-tional difficulties for aerial survey aircraft above and around large cities. No doubt that in turn this also generates considera-ble challenges for Air Traffic Controllers to manage airline traffic around a small survey aircraft going back and forth in the middle of their airspace. It is not uncom-mon that ATC will turn down a survey plane because of excessive workload in their area. On the other hand, Dat'Air oblique cameras equipped with longer focal length lenses specially modified and adapted for aerial photography allow the aircraft to be flown right above the ceiling of the controlled area (+ 500 feet) without disturbing air traffic and often without the need to even request a clearance. Recently one of Dat'Air aircraft flew a large survey within the extremely busy New York airspace at 7,500 feet, just above JFK airport without the requirement to obtain an ATC clearance. This allowed Dat'Air aircraft to fly a very large continuous block of photography uninter-rupted, instead of having to cut the area into manageable small blocks around restricted and con-trolled areas. Our high altitude approach is considerably more efficient and therefore less time consuming. A mission can be completed in exactly the time allocated to fly it. Dat'Air services include planning, logistics, acquisition, image QC/QA and post processing to the client's deliverable standards.
Knowing that these capabilities require very specialized equipment and knowledge as well as a careful, continuous calibration process, Dat'Air services are normally offered as a turnkey solution that our clients can offer to their customers.
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What can we accomplish for you?
We can provide very high resolution oblique imagery in areas that are not accessible by normal
MIDAS or other oblique systems currently on the market. Using one of our customized MIDAS sys-
tems we can obtain these resolutions from a variety of altitudes.
The chart below provides some insight into the flexibility of the systems we have created:
We can achieve the resolution you need at altitudes you never thought possible!
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Overcoming Class B Airspace The map on the following page shows the North Eastern quadrant of the USA. We highlighted thirteen major cities with Class B airspaces. Three of these extend up to 7,000 feet, three to 8000 feet, five to 10,000 feet and one even to 12,500 feet (Atlanta). The primary purpose of a Class B airspace is to reduce the potential for midair collisions in the areas surrounding airports with high density air traffic operations. Aircraft operating in these airspaces are subject to specific operating rules and to air traffic control. Traffic operating under visual flight rules, like most survey aircraft, must be identified on radar and explicitly cleared into the airspace before they can enter. As of now, there are 37 Class B airports in the United States which basically cover most major cities. It is clear that having a survey aircraft operating within Class B is an added workload for air traffic controllers and it is not uncommon for them to turn away survey aircraft because of high traffic volume. Surveying these cities is a challenge for all aerial operators, particularly those with oblique projects which require a vast amount of additional flight lines compared to standard verti-cal mapping survey. The oblique cameras are typically inclined at 45 degrees. This requires the aircraft to be flown further out in all four directions of the area of interest to insure it is seen from all angles. Dat'Air has a range of special oblique cameras which allow their aircraft to fly at the optimal alti-tude above the ceiling of most major cities in the USA and worldwide. Dat'Air uses four different camera systems which allow an optimum coverage for each airspace. Dat'Air operates a low alti-tude system which capture 2 inch (5 cm) from 5,000 feet, a medium altitude system which capture 2 inch (5 cm) from 8,000 feet, a high altitude system which capture 2 inch (5 cm) from 11,000 feet and a very high altitude system which capture 2 inch (5 cm) from 13,000 feet. A fifth system is available for extreme high altitude above 18,000 feet. These cameras are specially designed and adapted for high altitude operation and are immune to temperature and pressure variations. They use the best lenses available on the market with the highest optical quality possible today. So far these type of cameras are only owned and operated by Dat'Air. As an example, a few years ago it took a well-known companies aircraft more than three weeks to partly complete an oblique Pilot Survey of Las Vegas for a client. They were unable to obtain a clearance to overfly the airport itself at the required altitude. Air traffic control was so busy around the Thanksgiving holidays that they restricted their operation to a couple hours early morning and kept them away from the city for the rest of the day. Had their airplane been equipped with a high altitude system able to capture 2 inch (5 cm) from 11,000 feet they would have competed the survey in two days, including the airport.
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Special acquisition techniques also require special processing requirements, an aspect that was fully integrated and implemented from the ground up in the very creation of Dat'Air. The image processing engine applied to Dat'Air acquired photography is a software suite developed by the industry-renowned Stellacore Solutions, LLC. As part of the Dat'Air group of companies they specialize in providing solutions for achieving extreme fidelity results from multi-sensor payloads such as MIDAS systems. The Stellacore software is currently used to process over 18 million oblique frame images per year.
Image Processing Solutions with PictoVera®Oblique
The DAT’AIR Standard High Fidelity Mapping Product
The standard high fidelity product provided by DAT'AIR is five views (1-nadir (down) and 4-oblique (back, forward, left, and right at 45 degree off nadir)) 8-bit JPEG imagery with adjusted EO and cali-brated sensor model information. The standard product achieves precision to 1 pixel or better and relative local accuracy to 1.5x GSD 2D/ 2x GSD 3D or better simultaneously across all directions. The standard product exceeds most high fidelity expectations. However, additional options are available which further exceed high fidelity expectations and provide greater return on investment.
Contact DAT'AIR for further information on:
Enhanced adjusted EO via the inclusion of ground control
Enhanced imagery
Horizon up oblique
16-bit TIFF
Color adjustments per view
Color adjusted across all views
Image sharpening
3D surface models
3D terrain models
Ortho rectified nadir mosaic
Aerial Oblique Imagery view and information extraction/exploitation solutions
The geometric fidelities recently obtained on projects flown with Dat’Air’s cameras have provided precisions below 0.4 pixels simultaneously across all looks, relative accuracies of less than 1.5xGSD for 2D and less than 2xGSD for 3D processing. When applying ground control, absolute accuracies are less than 2xGSD for 2D and less than 3xGSD for 3D processing.
Obviously the accuracies of the data will be determined by several factors that most of you, as professionals in the industry are already aware of, including available base station data, ground control, image resolution, etc...
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Dat'Air is entirely focused on acquisition of oblique imagery otherwise unobtainable. Our ability to leverage the latest, ultra-high resolution digital sensors and high definition lenses allows us to deliver performance that would not have been possible until very recently.
Combined with highly specialized aerial photography equipment, we can provide the technical solutions adapted to each acquisition project. In addition to operating our own airplane and helicop-ter, Dat'Air has partnered with aerial photography companies around the world with the ability to provide an appropriate aircraft for our systems.
Together, Stellacore, Dat'Air and our aerial photo operator partners provide special performance aviation solutions, which include both aircraft and sensor solutions engineered for altitudes and conditions beyond those normally encountered in oblique acquisition and not attainable by other providers.
We feel the business case is clear for our clients to add Dat'Air's specialty service to their list of subcontractors bringing them above and beyond the competition in responding to customer needs. We are looking forward to helping them in expanding, once again, the envelope for innovative acquisition technologies.
Wherever in the world your business needs take you, and whatever the altitude or special technical demands your projects may impose, Dat'Air's network of highly customizable camera-ready systems worldwide guarantees you will have the solutions you need, when and where you need them.
Dat'Air, Inc. 113 S. Hoagland Boulevard, Kissimmee, FL 34741 +1 (407) 343-7571
Moving Forward
Specialty MIDAS High Altitude Acquisition Camera System
