Aerial Surveys

[Kou Quintana]

ClearSkies services ensure that the equipment we broker is in good condition and priced right to give you an overall great buying or renting experience. We import and export Remote Sensing technologies such as photogrammetric hardware/software solutions as well as lidar solutions.

We have built our reputation by providing clients and manufacturers with ethical representation allowing for a better customer experience in purchasing these sophisticated systems. If you have high-quality aerial survey equipment to sell or rent, or you are looking to acquire any aerial survey equipment, ClearSkies brokerage services can help you.

We are the largest global broker for pre-owned aerial survey equipment. We are deeply experienced with remote sensing technologies such as photogrammetric hardware/software solutions, lidar solutions, medium and large format survey cameras, and aircraft platforms. When we broker a sale, we support the transaction from beginning to end, including support for export/import.

ClearSkies Geomatics is an authorized North American reseller for state-of-the-art SOMAG Gyrostabilized Mounts. These mounts combine traditional physics with modern electronics. SOMAG AG Jena is a world-renowned company that develops and manufactures Gyro Stabilization Devices to carry airborne, land and marine sensors. We also partner with other manufacturers such as Phase One, Phoenix Lidar Systems, and Lead'Air to offer new products.

Renting is a great way to keep your high-quality lidar, aircraft, and complete systems busy between projects. If you have a unique project, or are exploring expanding your services, renting a system may make the best sense.

Some of our systems are both for sale and for rent, others just renting opportunities. Check out the page and contact us for details. We help our clients on both sides of a lease to ensure the proper leasing contract, insurance, mob/de-mob details are clearly established.

We often team with professional mapping organizations in fulfilling their aerial photography needs. Our customer base is located throughout the United States and their projects have taken us to almost every state in the Union. We are known for the accuracy and quality of our aerial products, the dependability of our service, and our professional staff.

Inter-agency agreements were established between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Department of Interior and the Marine Mammal Laboratory, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce. The intent of these agreements was to provide funding to conduct surveys of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) and other marine mammals in the Alaskan Arctic.

The Aerial Surveys of Arctic Marine Mammals (ASAMM) project was a continuation of the Bowhead Whale Aerial Survey Project (BWASP) and Chukchi Offshore Monitoring in Drilling Area (COMIDA) marine mammal aerial survey project. BWASP was conducted from 1979 to 2010 and targeted the autumn migration of bowhead whales through the western Beaufort Sea, although line transect data on all marine mammals sighted were collected. COMIDA surveys were conducted in the Chukchi Sea Planning Area in the northeastern Chukchi Sea from 1979 to 1991 and 2008 to 2010 to monitor marine mammal distribution, relative density, and behavior during the open-water (ice-free) months, from mid-June or early July to the end of October. BWASP and COMIDA surveys were funded or conducted by the Minerals Management Service (now BOEM) and the Bureau of Land Management, and starting in 2008, the Marine Mammal Laboratory began co-managing the projects with BOEM. In 2011, these projects were merged into ASAMM. Survey protocols remained consistent from1982-2019.

The goal of ASAMM was to document the distribution and relative abundance of bowhead, gray, fin, humpback, killer, minke, and right whales, belugas, and other marine mammals in areas of potential oil and natural gas exploration, development, and production activities in the Alaskan Beaufort and northeastern Chukchi seas.

Data from the ASAMM surveys provides important historic context to relate variation in marine mammal distribution or abundance to other variables, such as physical oceanographic conditions, indices of potential prey density, and anthropogenic activities if information on these variables is available.

In 2019, the program conducted a bowhead whale abundance survey in the Alaskan and Canadian Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf. This project, ASAMM Bowhead Abundance (ABA), is a collaboration between NOAA, BOEM, the North Slope Borough, and our Canadian colleagues in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Inuvialuit Game Council, and Fisheries Joint Management Council.

The most recent population abundance estimate for this stock is approximately 17,000, derived from a 2011 survey. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) sets the aboriginal subsistence quota for BCB bowhead whales, requiring a new population abundance estimate every 10 years. Based on IWC rules, a new abundance estimate was required by spring 2021.

The objective of ABA was to apply ASAMM line-transect methodology to transects covering the Beaufort Sea shelf and Amundsen Gulf, with additional transects west of Pt. Barrow, east of Banks Island, and possibly in Viscount Melville Sound, within a three-week period in August. This area time period is when the majority of the population is typically within a relatively small area and can likely be surveyed using aerial line-transect methods.

The most recent abundance estimate for the Western Arctic bowhead stock, collected during spring 2019, indicates there are approximately 12,505 Western Arctic bowheads, with a 95 percent confidence interval ranging from 7,994 to 19,560 whales.

Aerial survey is a method of collecting geomatics or other imagery by using airplanes, helicopters, UAVs, balloons or other aerial methods. Typical types of data collected include aerial photography, Lidar, remote sensing (using various visible and invisible bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as infrared, gamma, or ultraviolet) and also geophysical data (such as aeromagnetic surveys and gravity. It can also refer to the chart or map made by analysing a region from the air. Aerial survey should be distinguished from satellite imagery technologies because of its better resolution, quality and atmospheric conditions (which can negatively impact and obscure satellite observation). Today, aerial survey is sometimes recognized as a synonym for aerophotogrammetry, part of photogrammetry where the camera is placed in the air. Measurements on aerial images are provided by photogrammetric technologies and methods.[1]

In order to carry out an aerial survey, a sensor needs to be fixed to the interior or the exterior of the airborne platform with line-of-sight to the target it is remotely sensing. With manned aircraft, this is accomplished either through an aperture in the skin of the aircraft or mounted externally on a wing strut. With unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the sensor is typically mounted under or inside.

The Fairchild Aerial Surveys (FAS) collection is perhaps the most significant of the UCSB Library's aerial photography holdings. This collection contains the earliest (1927) photography held by the Library, and makes up the bulk of the collection covering southern and central California from the late 1920s to the 1950s. FAS imagery came to the USCB Library in at least two parts: 1) as part of a 1986 gift from Teledyne Geotronics and, some years later, from California State University at Northridge; and 2) in January 2013, the UCSB Library acquired the majority of the FAS vertical aerial photography collection at Whittier College. The FAS imagery obtained from Whittier College alone consists of 750,000 photographs taken between 1927 and 1965. Other portions of Fairchild imagery are located at UCLA and CSU- Northridge, the New York and New Jersey state archives, and the National archives. The UCSB Library holds the largest and most complete collection of FAS imagery.

The FAS photography at the UCSB Library consists of rolls of film, paper prints, cut-frame negatives, and/or positive transparencies. Some of the earliest FAS photography was captured on unstable nitrate film. In order to preserve this early imagery, the negatives were reproduced onto positive transparency film and the original nitrate film was destroyed. In cooperation with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the UCSB Library is preserving the last remaining imagery on nitrate film acquired from Whittier College by having it scanned.

The U.S. Geological Survey has been collaborating with the Bureau of Land Management to develop statistically reliable methods for wild horse and burro aerial survey data collection and analysis for more than a decade. In cooperation with Colorado State University, the U.S. Geological Survey tested several methods in herds with known abundance, resulting in two scientifically defensible aerial survey and population estimation techniques. These methods are now being applied by the Bureau of Land Management across the western United States, enabling better management of wild horses and burros. The purpose of these Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is to provide detailed instructions to the Bureau of Land Management wild horse and burro specialists who need to fly aerial surveys for management.

This report provides multiple SOPs that are related to Equus caballus (wild horse) and Equus asinus (wild burro) double-observer aerial surveys, along with datasheets, pre-survey checklists, and a quick-guide to the methods. SOP 1 describes how to carry out wild horse and burro aerial surveys as an aviation crew member. SOP 2, SOP 3, and SOP 4 relate to data management, and are important for the wild horse and burro specialist or other lead staff who will be responsible for documenting and archiving records from the survey. SOP 5 details double-observer reporting via a data entry spreadsheet and provides reference for analyzing double observer data to obtain population estimates. SOP 6 presents general principles for preparing aerial survey flight lines. SOP 7 provides instructions for using abundance estimates from aerial surveys to project population size forward in time. The appendixes provide survey datasheets, pre-survey checklists, and a quick-guide to SOP 1.

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