Proceedings Article | 13 August 2010
KEYWORDS: LIDAR, Imaging systems, Image resolution, Cameras, Long wavelength infrared, Sensors, Earthquakes, Infrared imaging, Short wave infrared radiation, Mid-IR
The Wildfire Airborne Sensor Program (WASP) is an imaging system designed, built, and operated by the
RIT Center for Imaging Science. The system consists of four cameras: a high resolution color camera and
SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR cameras. When flown with our corporate partners, Kucera International, the imaging
system is combined with a high-resolution LIDAR. This combination provides a full-spectrum, multimodal data
collection platform unique to RIT. Under funding by the World Bank, the WASP system was used to image
over 250 sq. mi. in Haiti (approximately 15,000 visible and 45,000 infrared frames) from January 21 - 27, 2010
in support of the earthquake relief efforts. Priorities of collection were the area surrounding Port au Prince, the
city of Leogane, several other badly damaged towns, and, at the request of the USGS, a high resolution LIDAR
collection over the fault line. The imagery was used in the field by disaster relief workers and by collaborators
at the University of Buffalo and ImageCat, Inc. to perform building damage and road network trafficability
assessments. Additionally, large area mosaics and semi-automatic processing algorithms were developed for
value-added product development. In particular, a methodology was developed to extract the locations of blue
tarps (indicative of displaced persons) from the images. All imagery was made available to the public through
outlets such as Google Earth, the University of Buffalo, the US Geological Survey, the United Nations, and other
sites.
