Color Infrared (CIR) Imagery
Aerial imagery, whether it is panchromatic (gray scale), color, or color infrared (CIR) imagery, is based on the fact that each type of land cover, depending of its current condition, absorbs a particular portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, transmits another portion, and reflects the remaining portion, which can be recorded with a passive imaging system. In particular, most objects exhibit a negligible NIR reflectance, but actively growing plants exhibit a high NIR reflectance and stressed plants (either from disease or drought) exhibit a reduction in their NIR reflectance. In addition, there are subtle NIR reflectance differences between vegetation types and species that can aid in plant identification.
AeroPhoto Co Ltd takes advantage of the Near Infrared (NIR) band except from the typical RGB, offering a unique tool to assist with the assessment of the health, density, classification, state of vegetation (e.g. healthy, non-vegetated), and also to map submerged vegetation. CIR imagery is an incredibly valuable tool and when it is used in synergy with other geospatial data it can assist in the making of informed decision in the following applications:
As our society needs to be able to do more and more with decreasing resources and funds, the information derived from high accuracy CIR imagery will become even more valuable.
Airborne Hyperspectral and Thermal Remote Sensing
AeroPhoto Co Ltd uses hyperspectral (CASI) and thermal (TABI) cameras in cooperation with National Technical University of Athens. Those remote sensing data are processed using worldwide standards and utilized to various scientific projects.
Thermographic spatial information makes it possible to visualize the invisible heat radiation to the human eye and to measure the surface temperature of objects without contact, being used in numerous field applications such as creation of infrastructure heat-loss maps. Thermal mapping can also be used for pollution monitoring, in forestry studies to identify diseased or infested trees, for detection of power cable and pipeline leakage, or as a comprehensive inventory of the thermal insulation of all buildings in urban environments. The results of thermal imaging can also be presented in the form of a three-dimensional model.
Hyperspectral scanners (spectrometers) are instruments which receive multi-spectral images in many consecutive spectral channels, at every point of visible, near infrared, and mid-infrared spectral region. They collect data from over 200 channels, something that allows for each pixel in the viewing landscape, the construction of an effective continuous spectrum of reflectivity. Hyperspectral scanners’ aim is to allow the distinction between earth’s characteristics. They exhibit diagnostic characteristics of absorption and reflection in very narrow wavelengths that have been degraded due to the non-so accurate wavelength ranges of a conventional multi-spectral scanner’s channels.
Below we present some of the applications AeroPhoto Co Ltd is able to offer, categorized by type of market, by executing hyperspectral survey missions:
Agriculture
Forestry
Geology / Edaphology
Water resources (rivers, lakes, underground and coastal water, snow, ice)
Environment / Land use planning
Detection of illegal substance & oil sources
A- Detection of transformed ores,
B- Detection of geo-botanical abnormalities (farming illness due to large collection of hydrocarbons)
C- Detection of asphalt minerals in the soil, and
D- Detection of soils contaminated by oil leaks.