Strategic Research Agenda for USE HAAS High-Altitude Aircraft and Airship Remote Sensing Applications Christian Barbier (CSL, B), Bavo Delauré (VITO, B), Arie Lavie (CTI, Is) 1
OUTLINE 1. The USE HAAS Study 2. Typical HAAS Remote Sensing Missions 3. Payload Requirements 4. Platform Requirements 5. Conclusions and Recommendations 2
1. The USE HAAS Study USE HAAS 3
The USE HAAS SRA USE HAAS SRA Vol. 1 Executive Summary Vol. 2 R&D Needs Vol. 3 Missions and Applications Telecoms : Commercial Government Blue Light Security : Control Protection Management Remote Sensing : Monitoring Mapping 4
2. Typical HAAS Remote Sensing Missions Exploit HAAS unique advantages : Can be rapidly deployed Are able to integrate hard-to-reach users Offer step-change in performance and availability Combine high capacity (terrestrial systems) and wide coverage (satellites) Allow stationary positioning for permanent long-term observation Can substitute expensive satellite systems for many remote sensing applications «Missing link» between satellite and aircraft systems 5
2.1 Forest Fire Monitoring Every year, an average 45,000 forest fires break out in Europe. Between 1989 and 1993, 2.6 Mha of woodland were destroyed by fire in the Mediterranean alone. Most of these fires are caused by man and are enhanced by many natural factors (drought, wind, topography, ). The consequences of forest fires are human, economical, environmental. USE HAAS Reference : European Commission, Forest Fires in Europe 2004, Official Publication of the European Commission, S.P.I.05.147 EN European Communities 2005. 6 Burnt areas (a) and number of fires (b) in five Southern EU Member States
HAAS Ca pabilities Reference : D. Caballero, HAAS Applications in Integrated Forest Fire Ma&nagement Some Ideas for HAAS FF Services Design and Implementation, presentation materials, USE HAAS Workshop Nr 1, RMA, Brussels, 12 July 2005. Dull, Dark, and Dangerous (3-D) capability Cost vs. Dedicated satellites Day/night operation Local coverage with mobility to other zones (mosaic) Permanent VIS/IR feeback, other sensors can be mounted Permanent rely system for communications and positionning 7
Basically at all stages of FF management cycle : Phase 1: Previous to the fire Prevention, forest fuels, meteorology, infrastructures Preparedness, causes, potential fire, pre-deployment Detection, identification, localization Phase 2: During the fire Detailed report and mapping of the situation context awareness Monitoring and tracking of fire fronts; hot spots Forecasting of fire propagation conditions (fuel status, meteorology, spotting) Position and navigation of fighting forces Communication and information channels Phase 3: After the fire Mapping of the scar and evaluation of damage (as input to, e.g., relief funds) High-priority recovery areas identification (erosion) 8
Application Requirements USE HAAS Reference : D. Caballero, HAAS Applications in Integrated Forest Fire Ma&nagement Some Ideas for HAAS FF Services Design and Implementation, presentation materials, USE HAAS Workshop Nr 1, RMA, Brussels, 12 July 2005. 1. Spatial Dimension Before a fire starts : synthetic risk maps over a large region (i.e., 100 x 100 km, medium resolution, 1/25000). Once a fire starts : detailed information over a small area (i.e., 10 x 10 km around the fire outbreak, high resolution, 1/5000). 2. Temporal Dimension Fefore the fire starts : Long-term risk prevention planning (1 year) Short-term risk mapping (1 week) Preparedness (1 day) Fire detection ( every 15 minutes) Once fire starts : Quick local mapping (within the first 30 minutes after fire) Monitoring of fire front (every 30 minutes) Tracking of forces position (every 5 minutes) 9
3. Others HAAS products should be coupled and compatible with other spatial and non-spatial information sources, corresponding to existing or upcoming ad-hoc information networks and on-ground sensors in inter-operable environments. Specific sensors should be developed and implemented in forest fire managements (including micro-meteorology observation devices). 10
2.2 Mapping Higher requirements in position and elevation accuracy, and in spatial and spectral resolution (exemplified in the trend towards multi and hyper spectral sensors). Continuous sensor evolution. Need of regular surveys of the same area. Popular web-services (Google Earth, NASA Worldwind, Microsoft Virtual Earth). Gradual change from vector maps (topographic maps, cadastral maps, engineering maps), to image maps (i.e. ortho-images that have the same metric properties as vector maps. 11
HAAS Capabilities Spaceborne instruments cannot generate dm-level resolution and positioning for imagery in a consistent way, their overpasses are fixed, so they cannot collect imagery at any given time or when the area is covered by cloud. Manned airborne platforms are very flexible, offer superior image resolution and positioning accuracy, but they have to operate in congested air space and take cloud cover into account. As they are quite expensive to operate, they are only put to use when conditions are very close to optimal. Performance comparison betwen a HALE UAV XS camera and 3 commercial airborne cameras in typical belgian metrorological conditions : Ground pixel size 0.15 m 0.20 m 1.00 m UAV 60 910 77 820 98 530 125 890 98 530 125 890 ADS40 41 340 64 400 56 100 87 380 415 380 647 020 DMC 53 680 83 620 71 790 111 830 447 330 696 790 UltraCam 46 030 71 700 61 650 96 020 396 500 617 610 12
Application Requirements USE HAAS Spatial : Carthographic requirements depend mainly on the scale of the final product. For topographic mapping, a precision of about 25 cm is usually sufficient; for engineering, these requirements are much stricter, sometimes even on the 5 cm level. Sensor :The main data source for carthographic mapping is large format metric imagery (film or digital). Small scale mapping has also been done on SAR data. For elevation information, SAR and LIDAR instruments are additional data sources. Temporal :Revisit cycles for mapping are usually long (up to the order of years). This could reduce drastically in the future with the increasing interest in up-to-date car navigation information. 13
3. Payload Requirements Multisensor (VIS/IR, HIS, ) platforms for multiple missions USE HAAS Sensors are mainly the same for large number of observation missions SAR-Systems supporting different modes (Stripmap, ScanSAR, Spotlight, IFSAR,...) also usable for multi-mission purposes. Platform could provide observation and communication services at the same time HAAS as a multimission platform High bandwidth downlink provides enough data-rate for multiple sensor data Standard data-interfaces allow easy integration in standard onboard dataprocessing and downlink systems Standard payload bays allow fast and flexible change of payload modules On-board processing (data management, feature extraction, classification, filtering, encryption, data compression) Ground processing : atmospheric, geometric and radiometric corrections; information extraction, to be defined based on user needs. 14
Example Scenario 15
User Requirements for Security and EO Appl. Spat. Res. Spat. Acc. Swath Width Swath Length Endur. Revisit Time System Response Time Spectral Requ. P/F stability Border 0.1 m 10 m 20 km 500 km > 1 year 30 min 5 min Radar, IR GPS/IMU Pipeline 0.05 m 5 m 400 m Length of pipel ine > 1 year 14 days 14 days Radar, optical, Lidar, hyperspectral GPS/IMU Crisis 0.2 m 0.5 m 2 km 2 km 1 month < 10 min 10 min Radar, IR, optical GPS/IMU Disaster 5 m 10 m 100 km 100 km ½ year 5 hours Radar, IR, optical, hyperspectral GPS/IMU Observ. of a refugee camp 1 m 1 m 5 km 5 km ½ year 1 hour 10 min Radar, IR, optical GPS/IMU Forest Fire 20 m 10 m 100 km 200 km ½ year < 10 min Radar, IR GPS/IMU Traffic Monitoring 1,5 < 10 m 20 km 20 km 2 months 1 min 10 min Optical, IR, radar GPS/IMU Cartography 0.05-0.5 m 0.05-0.5 m 2 km 2 km 1 10 years Optical, IR, radar GPS/IMU 16
1. Sensors USE HAAS The Sensor and Equipement Suite Surveillance Radar Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometric SAR Moving Target Indication (MTI) Optical imaging systems Thermography Hyperspectral sensors LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Microwave radiometers 2. Sensor motion compensation (D-GPS/IMU) Focusing Georeferencing 3. Processing capacity O/G O/B 17
4. Platform Requirements USE HAAS 1 m 0,1 m SAR Optical/IR Hyperspectral SAR Optical/IR Hyperspectral Payload mass 25 100 kg 20-30 kg 20 30 kg 80 250 kg 40 60 kg - Payload volume 0,5 m 3 0,1 m 3 0,1 m 3 1 m 3 0,3 m 3 - Power consumption 0,2 1 kw < 100 W < 100 W 0,5 4 kw 0,1 0,5 kw - 18
5. Conclusions and Recommendations Principal Application Areas for HAAS:- Telecoms Commercial Government Blue Light Security Control Protection Management Remote Sensing Monitoring Mapping All have significant economic and social impact All have overlap (and all require communications!) 19
USE HAAS The superior flexibility and the constant availability of the HAAS allow providing remote sensing data and communication services fast, at high update rates and over a specific target area. The sensor technologies are already on a high level of maturity. They need customized developments to meet the specific capabilities and the environment of HAAS platforms. The development will take advantage of similar improvement requirements from airborne and spaceborne missions. Basically the same sensors are required by a large number of observation missions. High-bandwidth downlink is necessary to support data from multiple sensors. Need of standard data interfaces to allow easy integration in standard data processing and downlink systems. Implementation of on-board processing (data management, feature extraction, classification, filtering, encryption, data compression) should be investigated. 20
Standard payload bays should be available for fast and flexible change of payload modules. Platform can and should provide observation and communication capabilities at the same time, leading to the concept of HAAS as a multi-mission platform. Bottlenecks for the use of HAAS for remote sensing and communication applications are mostly on the platform and not on the sensors. HAAS offers considerable potential to support a range of valuable applications and services. These applications and services will meet society s needs, contribute to European objectives and generate wealth. 21
Phased Development Approach USE HAAS Timeframe of Availability Short-term (roughly NOW!) Mission Duration Short-term (>few hours) Medium-term (5 10 years) Medium (>days) Long-term (10 years +?) Long (>months ) 22