In keeping with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Memphis District’s (District) policy to survey the Mississippi River at approximately 10-year intervals, Photo Science was requested to supply aerial photography, photogrammetry, elevation data generation, hydrographic surveying, and GIS services in support of the development of new Comprehensive Survey Books for the estimated 350 stream reach miles of river maintained by the District. The project needed to be planned, mobilized, and flown within a three week time frame to meet low river level project requirements. Photo Science provided flight planning and aircraft / crew coordination to acquire black-and-white aerial photography to support high-resolution (one-foot pixel) black-and-white orthophotos, as well as LiDAR data acquisition of this 1,600 square mile area. The flight mission required airborne GPS and IMU as well as flying at elevations necessary to produce negative scales at 1"=1,250'. A ground control network was also planned to support the aerial photography, LiDAR, and hydrographic project requirements. LiDAR data was collected using a 50-Khz, multiple return sensor that collected in-track and cross-track mass point spacing of less than one-meter. Photo Science utilized both automated and manual vegetation removal techniques to produce a bare earth digital elevation model suitable for two-foot contour generation.

Working in cooperation with the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Station (GCMRC), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) tasked Photo Science to collect very high-resolution color aerial photography to support ongoing Colorado River Ecosystem streamflow and sediment resource research. Mission planning was critical for this effort due to task specifications requiring the data to be collected in conjunction with a water release in the Colorado River; the capture of 11 sites throughout the canyon; and data collection occurring in one day over the Memorial Day weekend. To meet these requirements, the aircraft needed to fly at an altitude below the canyon walls to capture the data; and to maintain the highest level of accuracy, the aircraft sampled the airborne GPS ground stations at twice the normal rate to ensure constant positional accuracy.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District tasked Photo Science to create a detailed GIS dataset of benthic habitat, i.e., submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) for near shore coastal areas from Tarpon Springs south to Boca Grande. Photo Science flew an aerial photography mission to acquire true color imagery and was accomplished utilizing airborne GPS procedures for determining camera position and an Applanix IMU to obtain additional camera information to insure the three-meter positional accuracy. The imagery was scanned at 24-microns to provide a two-foot ground sample distance or 24-inch pixel resolution of the digital image file and each image was orthorectified. This imagery served as the primary source for photointerpreters to delineate and classify SAV features.