scholarly journals Ionospheric Polarization Techniques for Robust NVIS Remote Sensing Platforms

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 3730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep M. Maso ◽  
Jordi Male ◽  
Joaquim Porte ◽  
Joan L. Pijoan ◽  
David Badia

Every year more interest is focused on high frequencies (HF) communications for remote sensing platforms due to their capacity to establish links of more than 250 km without a line of sight and due to them being a low-cost alternative to satellite communications. In this article, we study the ionospheric ordinary and extraordinary waves to improve the applications of near vertical incidence skywave (NVIS) on a single input multiple output (SIMO) configuration. To obtain the results, we established a link of 95 km to test the diversity combining of ordinary and extraordinary waves by using selection combining (SC) and equal-gain combining (EGC) on a remote sensing platform. The testbench is based on digital modulation transmissions with power transmission between 3 and 100 W. The results show us the main energy per bit to noise spectral density ratio (Eb/N0) and the bit error rate (BER) differences between ordinary and extraordinary waves, SC, and EGC. To conclude, diversity techniques show us a decrease of the power transmission need, allowing for the use of compact antennas and increasing battery autonomy. Furthermore, we present three different improvement options for NVIS SIMO remote sensing platforms depending on the requirements of bitrate, power consumption, and efficiency of communication.

Author(s):  
Calvin Coopmans ◽  
Long Di ◽  
Austin Jensen ◽  
Aaron A. Dennis ◽  
YangQuan Chen

Remote sensing is a field traditionally dominated by expensive, large-scale operations. This paper presents our efforts to improve our unmanned aircraft (UA) platforms for low-cost personal remote sensing purposes. Safety concerns are first emphasized regarding the local airspace and multiple fail-safe features are shown in the current system. Then the AggieAir unmanned system architecture is briefly described including the Paparazzi UA autopilot, AggieAir JAUS implementation, AggieNav navigation unit and payload integration. Some preliminary flight test results and images acquired using an example thermal IR payload system are also shown. Finally Multi-UAV and heterogeneous platform capabilities are discussed with respect to their applications. Based on our approaches on the new architecture design, personal remote sensing on smaller-scale operations can be more beneficial and common.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (19) ◽  
pp. 4163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chisheng Wang ◽  
Junzhuo Ke ◽  
Wenqun Xiu ◽  
Kai Ye ◽  
Qingquan Li

Current satellite remote sensing data still have some inevitable defects, such as a low observing frequency, high cost and dense cloud cover, which limit the rapid response to ground changes and many potential applications. However, passenger aircraft may be an alternative remote sensing platform in emergency response due to the high revisit rate, dense coverage and low cost. This paper introduces a volunteered passenger aircraft remote sensing method (VPARS) for emergency response. It uses the images captured by the passenger volunteers during flight. Based on computer vision algorithms and geocoding procedures, these images can be processed into a mosaic orthoimage for rapid ground disaster mapping. Notable, due to the relatively low flight latitude, small clouds can be easily removed by stacking multi-angle tilt images in the VPARS method. A case study on the 2019 Guangdong flood monitoring validates these advantages. The frequent aircraft revisit time, intensive flight coverage, multi-angle images and low cost of the VPARS make it a potential way to complement traditional remote sensing methods in emergency response.


Author(s):  
Raj Bridgelall ◽  
James B. Rafert ◽  
Denver D. Tolliver

The ongoing proliferation and diversification of remote sensing platforms offer greater flexibility to select from a range of hyperspectral imagers as payloads. The emergence of low-cost unmanned aircraft systems (drones) and their launch flexibility present an opportunity to maximize spectral resolution while scaling both daily spatial coverage and spatial resolution simultaneously by operating synchronized swarms. This article presents a model to compare the performance of hyperspectral-imaging platforms in their spatial coverage and spatial resolution envelope. The authors develop a data acquisition framework and use the model to compare the achievable performance among existing airborne and spaceborne hyperspectral imaging vehicles and drone swarms. The results show that, subject to cost and operational limitations, a platform implemented with drone swarms has the potential to provide greater spatial resolution for the same daily ground coverage compared with existing airborne platforms.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wuming Zhang ◽  
Xinping Guo ◽  
Guoqing Zhou ◽  
Guangjian Yan

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Gaffey ◽  
Anshuman Bhardwaj

Owing to usual logistic hardships related to field-based cryospheric research, remote sensing has played a significant role in understanding the frozen components of the Earth system. Conventional spaceborne or airborne remote sensing platforms have their own merits and limitations. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as a viable and inexpensive option for studying the cryospheric components at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolutions. UAVs are adaptable to various cryospheric research needs in terms of providing flexibility with data acquisition windows, revisits, data/sensor types (multispectral, hyperspectral, microwave, thermal/night imaging, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and photogrammetric stereos), viewing angles, flying altitudes, and overlap dimensions. Thus, UAVs have the potential to act as a bridging remote sensing platform between spatially discrete in situ observations and spatially continuous but coarser and costlier spaceborne or conventional airborne remote sensing. In recent years, a number of studies using UAVs for cryospheric research have been published. However, a holistic review discussing the methodological advancements, hardware and software improvements, results, and future prospects of such cryospheric studies is completely missing. In the present scenario of rapidly changing global and regional climate, studying cryospheric changes using UAVs is bound to gain further momentum and future studies will benefit from a balanced review on this topic. Our review covers the most recent applications of UAVs within glaciology, snow, permafrost, and polar research to support the continued development of high-resolution investigations of cryosphere. We also analyze the UAV and sensor hardware, and data acquisition and processing software in terms of popularity for cryospheric applications and revisit the existing UAV flying regulations in cold regions of the world. The recent usage of UAVs outlined in 103 case studies provide expertise that future investigators should base decisions on.


Author(s):  
Karl F. Warnick ◽  
Rob Maaskant ◽  
Marianna V. Ivashina ◽  
David B. Davidson ◽  
Brian D. Jeffs

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