The catapult launched Scan Eagle UAV is helping researchers conduct the most detailed study of Arctic ice and wildlife to date.

An arctic study currently underway by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to aid researchers who are studying changes in Arctic ice, weather, and wildlife, including seals and polar bears.

The project, headed up by Elizabeth Weatherhead of the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the first to use unmanned aircraft. It uses the Scan Eagle aircraft produced by Boeing and began in May of 2009. The study consisted of two to eight hour flights that covered three to five mile areas. Over the duration of the study, the aircraft cataloged tens of thousands of images of ice and wildlife from altitudes of 300 feet to 1,000 feet.

Boulder Labs in Boulder, CO. developed an image recognition program that the project team used to process the captured images identifying seals in 27,000 pictures. From this point, researchers indicated seal types and ice types on which seals were found as well as calculated ice floes and their size and distribution.

The focus of the project is understanding the types of ice that seals need to survive so that other ice studies can be focused on particular types of ice. The current study focuses on four types of seals: bearded seals, ringed seals, spotted seals and ribbon seals. These seals are dependent on arctic ice for many aspects of their lives including breeding, sleeping and protection. Understanding the ice preferences of each seal breed allows researchers to study the particular types of ice and how they are holding up to climate change and by extension the long term effects that climate change will have on seal populations. The Arctic Ringed Seal is likely to be listed as a threatened species due to ice loss and snow melt in its habitat.

UAV flights are center-place to continued study of seals and ice, allowing researchers to collect more data enabling the most detailed study of seal populations and their Arctic habitat to date. These types of studies are perfect applications for UAVs highlighting the non-military potential of these aircraft.

For more information on unmanned aircraft systems training, check out our UAV/UAS Training Resource Center or find UAV/UAS training near you.

Source: UAVs are aiding the study of Arctic ice and seals

This article was written by Matthew Everett, a private pilot, aviation writer, and frequent contributor to AviationSchoolsOnline.com. You can follow him on twitter @leaving_tf or find his blog at http://leavingterrafirma.com.

UAS like the Global Hawk and their cutting-edge sensors and cameras are revolutionizing intelligence gathering.

As the old adage goes, knowledge is power. From the early days of aviation, that adage has been applied in the form of aerial reconnaissance. As technology has improved, methods have progressed from a guy with a camera leaning out of a fabric biplane to unmanned aircraft sporting the latest in sensor technologies. With current military and civilian applications of unmanned aircraft systems rapidly expanding, a new industry is beginning to flourish.

The largest operator of unmanned aircraft, such as the Global Hawk, is the U.S. Military. Current engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan have put the aircraft to the ultimate test. By all indications, the aircraft have passed with flying colors. That’s no surprise when you consider that a UAS circling at more than 50,000 feet above the ground can take high-resolution pictures that allow you to distinguish between cars on the ground.

Even more amazing is the research and development work companies like Raytheon are performing to expand the capabilities of these aircraft. New technologies are being developed to allow these same aircraft to capture cell phone transmissions and locate the caller or detect nuclear and chemical labs. With so much available in one self-sufficient aircraft that can orbit an area nonstop for days, no wonder the military is buying more and more.

It’s not often that an industry develops and flourishes in lean years like the UAS industry, but given their ever-expanding applications, the industry will continue to boom for quite some time. Despite Pentagon budget cuts in areas like fighter jets and ships, the UAS industry is expected to expand from $3 billion in revenue to more than $6 billion within the decade.

In total, the military currently has more than 7,000 drones of various sizes deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite some high-profile cases of armed drones, most are primarily used for surveillance. The Global Hawk is the top of the food chain in the surveillance realm offering more than a days worth of endurance, the capability to operate at more than 60,000 feet above the surface, and a suite of the most advanced cameras and sensors ever developed.

The current fleet of UAS are generating so much data that the military isn’t equipped to process it all. According to Pentagon officials, UAS have generated so much video footage in the last year alone that it would take 24 years for single analyst to watch it all. A single UAS with the multiple cameras and other sensors generates enough data to perform unprecedented levels of reconnaissance, but without people to process the data, it doesn’t do much good. In short, the military and an ever-increasing number of civilian companies are looking to hire qualified operators and analysts to cope with the information and it looks like the jobs are here to stay.

For more information on unmanned aircraft systems training, check out our UAV/UAS Training Resource Center or find UAV/UAS training near you.

Source: The changing face of aerial reconnaissance

This article was written by Matthew Everett, a private pilot, aviation writer, and frequent contributor to AviationSchoolsOnline.com. You can follow him on twitter @leaving_tf or find his blog at http://leavingterrafirma.com.