TIGHAR
Chatterbox => Extraneous exchanges => Topic started by: Chris Johnson on July 17, 2013, 04:52:53 AM
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Found this on the web so thought I'd share aerosee project (http://www.aerosee.org/index.php)
Could TIGHAR use this to further Map NIKU? (appart from Kite Photography)
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We could undoubtedly use drones to get more low-level aerial photography of the island but that's only useful in open areas. Much of the island has a heavy over-story of vegetation (scaevola, coconut palms, pandanus, buka, etc). Searching those areas takes boots on the ground.
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There is an aerial imaging technique used by some archaeologists that sees through vegetation/ground cover to some extent
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-6FKHFE
I assume it isn't cheap to rent and requires a great deal of expertise to operate and interpret the data
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I got nominally excited about that new technology until I read this part:
What are the limitations?
This technique is not necessarily the answer to every archaeologist’s dreams, as it does have limitations:
•There are many laser configuration and flight variables that can alter the resolution of the survey. All of these must be considered prior to commissioning a survey to ensure optimum conditions for the area under investigation.
•Despite surveying in winter, not all canopy and understory vegetation types are equally porous to the laser energy and where little light naturally penetrates to the forest floor a LiDAR survey may be of little use.
•Whilst under optimum conditions the method will show more discrete features such as charcoal platforms, it is inevitable that not all features of similar or smaller size will be discernible in the resulting images.
•Vegetation removal and hillshading are necessary parts of the data processing. However, both can either remove or hide features of interest. An understanding of the processes involved in producing these models and images are therefore essential.
•LiDAR does not distinguish between modern, archaeological or vegetation produced features in the hillshaded images. Features of potential archaeological interest can result from modern drain clearance, woodland thinning residue left by a roadside or bracken which has died over winter but when draped over a wire fence resembles an earth bank. Whilst it may be a long-term project, some ground-truthing will be necessary.
Bummer - sounds like it might work just fine if everything is perfect. As TIGHAR has found time and again when trying to deploy new technology at Niku, the island has an astonishingly ability to take "This worked fine when we tried it out at home" to "What the ...???" or "What do you mean we don't have a spare part for that?"
I'm not saying let's not consider it; any tool in the toolbox has the potential to be useful. What I am saying is the use and deployment of any new and untried technology in the unforgiving atmosphere of Nikumaroro has to be weighed very carefully when considering what else absolutely needs to be taken on the expedition.
LTM, who always weighs it before he totes it,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 CER
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I don't think LIDAR is practical for Niku but I've been eyeing it as a possible way to search the open muskeg of Newfoundland for a certain engine.
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I agree Monty, I just got curious when Ric mentioned that the value of aerial photography was limited by ground cover so I did a quick google search to see if there was technology out there that could penetrate it and this was the first good one I came up with. All of the cases on that page seem to be English woodlands which are very different than the vegetation and soil than that found on Niku. But if this technology exists there may be other more robust ones out there
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The plane in attached image is simillar to the white bird
But is this one made of wood or metal ?
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Looks like a Cessna tail and it has a rear window....so it has to be 1962 or after depending on the model. 182 and 210 followed by the 172 and 150 later.