Camera

ALLSKY is a wide field intensified camera with all-sky lens. It measures total radiative output in the 400 - 900 nm band.

This camera consists of a 15 mm f2.8 Canon lens, an XX1332 image intensifier with large 48-mm photocathode, and a Sony handycam camcorder (recording of video output on Hi-8 tape in NTSC format - 640 x 480 pixels). The field of view is about 160º when mounted so that the dome does not obstruct. Moonlight is blocked by covering the zenith part of the dome.

The Itek Iris II Panoramic Camera has been employed to acquire high resolution land use and land cover data. The Forest Service has used this camera extensively for assessing timber resources and monitoring gypsy moth defoliation in the Appalachian hardwood forests. The Iris II provides a 4.5 x 34.7 inch (11.4 x 88.1 cm) image covering 2.0 x 21.4 miles (3.2 x 34.2 km) on the ground. The high resolution twenty-four inch lens provides a scale at nadir on the panoramic image of half-mile to the inch. With its 10,000 foot film capacity the Iris II allows extended flight duration allowing photography acquisition over very large areas.

Provides spectral (and imaging) information at a rate of 1000 frames per second for detection of ablation anomalies, flicker in bowshock emissions, spacecraft rotation, and wake.

The instrument consists of a digital intensified CCD camera capable of 1000 frames per second, equipped with a 600 l/mm objective transmission grating.

Hycon HR-732 cameras are used to acquire high resolution photography in a 9 x 18 inch format. These cameras can be flown in pairs or one camera may be paired with an RC-10 mapping camera. The HR-732s acquire high resolution photography with twenty-four inch focal length lenses providing an image scale of half-mile to the inch. The large scale high resolution photography provided by these cameras is used by agencies such as the Forest Service for timber resource management and by the Fish and Wildlife Service for wetlands inventories and wildlife habitat mapping.

The Ames digital imager is a cooled large format NikonTM1 D70 digital camera with a 70-300mm f5.6 Nikon lens. It is used hand-held behind a passenger window with exposure times 1/1000s. The camera uses a SONYTM ICX413AQ CCD detector with image format 3040 x 2014 pixels of size 7.8 microns. It measures total radiative output of the sample return capsule along its trajectory.

VIS is a standard video camera packaged for flight use and mounted in a downward looking orientation. It provides a continuous view of the weather and terrain below the aircraft flight track. The VIS camera has a resolution of 20 meters and will be mounted to verify the aircraft flight track.

This is a Daedalus AADS-1268 scanner that flies on the ER-2 aircraft and simulates the LANDSAT Thematic Mapper instrument, with slightly higher spatial resolution. The TMS is used for collecting data similar in application to data collected by the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor including Earth resources mapping, vegetation/landcover mapping, and geologic studies.

Sensor/Aircraft Parameters

Spatial Resolution: 25 meters (all bands) from 19.8 km (65,000 ft.)
Total Field of View: 42.5 degrees
Instant. Field of View: 1.25 mrad
Swath Width: 8.4 nmi (15.6 km) at 65,000 feet
Pixel/Scan Line: 716
Scan Rate: 12.5 scans/second
Ground Speed: 400 knots (206 m/sec)

Wild Heerbrugg RC-10 Mapping Cameras with a 9 x 9 inch image format are flown on virtually every ER-2 earth imaging mission. The RC-10s may be employed with six or twelve inch focal length lenses providing image scales of two miles to the inch and one mile to the inch respectively. RC-10 mounting stations include the ER-2 Q-bay, nose pod and the right and left wing pods.