airborne sensors

digital cameras

Digital cameras are emerging rapidly in the professional surveying industry. Costs for film, development, time and then scanning are becoming a thing of the past.

The camera records using the usual channels, red, green and blue, to provide true colour information when combined. Simultaneously the camera records in black and white and colour infrared for special applications like analyses of vegetation and crop diversity. The Vexcel UltraCam-D digital frame camera is installed in a GSM3000 gyro-stabilized mount. It has virtually unlimited FMC (Forward Motion Compensation) which enables high resolution photography, down to 3cm Ground Sample Distance (GSD), without any distortion due to movement at high and efficient flying speeds.

The use of UltraCam-D digital camera has marked remarkable improvements of the final product with the 12-bit dynamic range enabling superior image purity, clarity, contrast and visibility of details in shadowed areas. Other great advantages are the absence of grain and dust particles and the ability to operate under low light conditions.During one single flight up to 2.700 images can be recorded, making flights with high forward and lateral overlap possible. Imagery with increased overlap forms an excellent starting point for making true orthos and highly accurate digital elevation models. Using these as a basis, highly advanced products such as virtual city and landscape models can be generated. The Leica ADS40 pushbroom scanner installed in its dedicated gyro-stabilzed mount has already been operated extensively by Aerodata for a number of special projects in different countries and can be made available on request.

analogue (film) cameras

Analogue photogrammetric cameras are still extensively used for aerial photography by Aerodata. Advantages are that the camera doesn’t “fill up” with imagery. You can just switch film in-flight. This is advantageous if digital backup and disk capacity are not available in the project area.
Aerodata Surveys operates ZEISS LMK2000 and Wild RC10 cameras.
Depending on type they are equipped with FMC (Forward Motion Compensation) and gyro-stabilized mount and missions can be executed using 15cm, 21cm or 30cm lenses.
As before the images on film can be used directly in analogue and analytical stereo plotters for stereo compilation and map production.
Nowadays however, in most cases the film is digitised by scanning in our Leica DSW500 photogrammetric scanner for further use in digital workstations for photogrammetry and orthophoto production.

position and orientation systems

At all times the orientation and position parameters for each image are recorded during the flight.
In the year 2000 Aerodata Surveys was one of the first European companies buying the Applanix POS/AV 410 GPS/INS system, mounted on the ZEISS LMK200 camera, while in 2004 a second system (POS/AV 510) was added. This latest system is installed inside the Vexcel Ultracam-D.

laser scanners

Over the years Aerodata used different types of laserscanners, dedicated to the specific project needs. Aerodata’s experience covers projects with Riegl LMS-Q560, Toposys Falcon, Leica ALS 50 and Optech ALTM 3100.
These scanners differ in technology, in laser pulse frequency, swath width and multiple return characteristics. Depending on the specific project need, any of the above systems can be made available.

hyperspectral scanner

The AISA Eagle is a fully integrated pushbroom system capable of detecting data in the range of 400 – 970 nm with a spectral resolution of 2.9 nm. It can acquire any band combination ranging from a few spectral bands to full hyperspectral data sets of 244 of bands. Typical ground resolutions vary from 0.5 m up to 5 m. it is used for environmental mapping and monitoring projects.