A LOW-COST AIRBORNE MULTISPECTRAL MEASUREMENT SYSTEM FOR ESTUARINE MONITORING

A FEASIBILITY STUDY WILL BE CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE HOW TO ADAPT A NEW-TECHNOLOGY, MULTISPECTRAL, VIDEO-BASED IMAGING AND ANALYSIS CAPABILITY TO THE AIRBORNE MEASUREMENT OF ESTUARINE CONCENTRATIONS OF PHYTOPLANKTON PIGMENTS AND SUSPENDED SEDIMENTS. THIS ACCOMPLISHMENT WOULD PROVIDE A LOW-COST REMOTE SENSING SYSTEM THAT COULD BE DEPLOYED FROM SHIP OR SHORE USING TETHERED BALLOONS, REMOTELY PILOTED AIR-CRAFT, OR SMALL PILOTED AIRCRATE. THE SYSTEM WOULD PROVIDE HIGH RESOLUTION MULTISPECTRAL IMAGE DATA IN SIX USER-DEFINEDSPECTRAL BANDS IN THE 400-1100 NM WAVELENGTH REGION, AND VERY HIGH RESOLUTION (2.5 NM) SPECTRAL RADIOMETER DATA IN THE SAME BAND. DATA WOULD BE DIGITIZED AND ANALYZED USING A PORTABLE IBM PC-BASED COMPUTER WITH SPECIAL DIGITIZING HARDWARE AND MEASUREMENT SOFTWARE. BOTH REAL-TIME AND NON REAL-TIME ANALYSIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE. THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL PROVIDE A FLEXIBLE CAPABILITY FOR ESTUARINE ALTERNATIVEAPPROACHES.