World Bank, GFDRR, RIT, ImageCAT Remote Sensing Mission to Haiti ‐ Status Report ‐ 16 January 2010

[sg...@worldbank.org]

World Bank, GFDRR, RIT, ImageCAT Remote Sensing Mission to Haiti ‐ Status Report ‐ 16 January 2010

For additional information please contact: Stuart Gill (sg...@worldbank.org)

The RIT Wildfire Airborne Sensor Platform (WASP) is being deployed to Haiti to acquire very high resolution imagery and LIDAR data in support of the World Bank's mission to provide aid to the victims of the recent earthquake. The mission is being facilitated through ImageCat and is sponsored by The World Bank through The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).

The data collected from this mission will be public domain and we hope widely utilized to assess damage and serve reconstruction efforts. Both Yahoo! and Google will support the dispersing of the interpreted data layers and the raw data collected by RIT.

Coordination is also being implemented between the World Bank team (ImageCat, RIT and others) and NOAA and Google to ensure efficient and comprehensive collection of future datasets, including the VHR optical imagery.

Mission Summary

Sensors

RIT is bringing a unique collection of sensing modalities covering both the visible and infrared spectrum as well as high resolution 3D measurements. When combined together, these sensing modalities offer an extremely rich information set. To the best of our knowledge, based on what we have heard from other agencies such as NOAA, the WASP resolution and diversity of sensors is unique.

Imaging Instruments Sensor	Wavelength	Resolution	Utility
Color	400 ‐ 900 nm	0.15 cm	Visual damage assessment
Shortwave IR	1000 ‐ 1700 nm	0.83 cm	Water detection, smoke penetration
Midwave IR	3000 ‐5000 nm	0.83 cm	Fire detection, smoke penetration
Longwave IR	8000 ‐ 9200 nm	0.83 cm	Water surface contamination, storage tank fill levels

3D Measurement Instrument

Leica ALS‐60 LiDAR, 2 points/m2 ; allows precision measurements of building and ground surface displacements.

Aircraft

Piper PA‐31 Navajo, tail number N350GB

Operational Overview

The objective is to cover as much of the disaster area as possible in one day of flying. However, we are currently in the process of developing an expanded flight plan (an additional day or two) to include areas outside of the immediate PaP area. Details of this expanded plan will be provided in the next report.

The aircraft and sensor will depart from Rochester, NY on the first day an export license becomes available and will arrive late in the afternoon in the Dominican Republic. All flight operations over Haiti will be based from the Dominican Republic. At no time, except in the case of emergency, will the aircraft land in Haiti.

Data collection operations will begin early morning of the next day, weather permitting, and continue through the day covering as much area as possible. The aircraft will return to the Dominican Republic that evening and depart early the following morning for Rochester NY. The total time that the aircraft with the sensor will be in the Dominican Republic or over Haiti will be approximately 36 hours. Imagery collection will be dependent on weather conditions, but we foresee a single collection day, as described above. Note: Low cloud ceilings might delay the collection day and subsequent travel and processing time‐line.

All data collected by the sensor will remain on the aircraft until it returns to Rochester, NY for processing. Upon arrival in Rochester, collected data will be transferred via a removable hard drive to the RIT campus for processing.

A nominal timeline based on receipt of an export license on Tuesday morning is shown below:

Tues 1/19/10

0600 Aircraft launches from Rochester, NY

1000 License received by RIT, copy faxed to fixed base operator at Charleston Intl Airport (CHS)

1300 Sensor aircraft arrives at CHS and picks up copy of license

1700 Aircraft arrives at Gregorio Luperon Int Airport (MDPP) Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

1800 Crew rest

Wed 1/20/10

0600 Aircraft departs MDPP for Haiti mission

1200 Aircraft returns to MDPP for fuel

1300 Aircraft departs for Haiti mission

1900 Aircraft returns to MDPP

2000 Crew rest

Thurs 1/21/10

0600 Aircraft departs MDPP for Rochester NY

1100 Aircraft arrives at CHS for customs

1800 Aircraft arrives Rochester NY, data removed from sensor for processing at RIT

Stuart P. D. Gill
---------------------------------------
Disaster Risk Management
Sustainable development
Latin America & Caribbean
The World Bank
1818 H St NW
Washington DC

+1 202-4580859
sg...@worldbank.org