Digital Aerial SketchMapping
Everett Hinkley, Tom Zajkowski, and
Aerial sketchmapping is the geo-locating of features that are seen on the ground below the aircraft, and the subsequent recording of those features. Traditional aerial sketchmapping methods required hand-sketching on hardcopy maps or photos, and the translation of that information to a digital file. In 1999, the
After a great deal of testing and evaluation, two systems have emerged and are in common use today; a two screen system and a pen tablet system. Advantages to the D-ASM system include automatic tracking of the aircraft’s position on a map base through a link to a GPS receiver and a significant reduction in the time spent digitizing data into a Geographic Information System (GIS). Now a mature system, the D-ASM has been widely accepted by the sketchmapping community.
Following initial system development, a D-ASM was shown to wildfire Air Attack crews who liked the concept, but wanted the system to be smaller, and for it to include a means to get the information down to the incident command in real time. Two technological developments solved these requirements; commercially available touch-screen pen tablet computers and the NASA developed long-range high speed data link named RIPCom. The Remote Internet Protocol Communications System (RIPCom) culminated from a successful two-year collaboration between NASA-Goddard and RSAC.
The integration of the D-ASM and RIPCom systems enable fire fighting experts to collect pertinent information about an incident and rapidly disseminate this information to the incident’s command through wireless devices. Possible customers within the wildfire community include; Air Attack, Helitack, Situation Unit Leaders, Operations Chiefs, and Incident Commanders.
Monitoring Methods Session - Tuesday Afternoon
corresponding authors:
Everett Hinkley
USDA Forest Service
Remote Sensing Applications Center
2222 West, 2300 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84119
801-975-3752
ehinkley@fs.fed.us
Encyclopedia ID: p62
