# Presentation: 246643

## Surdex Team2005 NAIP Post Season Summary6 December, 2005

**Ron Hoffmann, President****Craig Molander, SVP Business Development****John Boeding, SVP Production/Operations****Tim Bohn, NAIP/NRI Project Manager**

## Team Project Areas

- 7 complete states – all natural color, film acquisition
- Additional state (Indiana) for PhotoScience team – processing only (aerotriangulation  CCM production)
- Flight line miles:  ~166,000
- DOQQs: 41,982 (including Indiana)
- Counties: 656 (including Indiana)

## Team Members

- Surdex Corporation – prime contractor, all production
- Keystone Aerial Surveys – flying and scanning
- Great Lakes Aerial Surveys – flying
- Horizons – flying
- Tim Tyler Surveying and Mapping – flying

## Aerial Photography

- 11 Aircraft (5 companies) – 8 pistons, 3 turbines
- GE/MJ Harden unable to participate as planned – equipment problems with leased aircraft
- >96% efficiency (<4% rejections)

## Photography Performance

- Granted early start in Nebraska
- Over-ran only Wisconsin (3 days)
- Flew over 80% of total days

## Timeline Analysis

- From production databases, the following dates were tracked for analysis:
- Acquisition of photography
- Image scanning (through QC)
- Aerotriangulation blocks (“AT blocks”)
- DOQQ/ortho generation
- Balancing (OrthoVista, “ovistas”)
- Shipment of CCMs
- Note: little, if any, time difference between AT blocks and ortho generation (aerotriangulation actually initiates ortho scripts)

## Oklahoma Timeline

## Oregon Timeline

## Timeline Analysis

## Overall Performance

- Primary indicator is “time delay” relating acquisition of photography to shipment of CCM
- Most critical to end-users performing Compliance
- Measure of production performance
**Time delay** = days from last exposure acquired in a county until shipment of the CCM

## Overall Performance

## Overall Performance

## Time Delays by Project Area

## Total Effort – Normalized

## Normalized Differences

## Observations

- Time from acquisition to completion of scanning is single largest time difference
- If flying goes smoothly, scanning will lag
- Scanning through completion of AT blocks/orthos next largest
- Often related to “fractionated” areas where flying is incomplete – must wait until there is enough to work with

## New Implementations

- Continuing investment in the enhancement of flight and production databases:
- Development undertaken before and during project
- More items and metrics tracked than in previous years
- More queries and reports created in response to production requirements
- Daily posting of standard status reports
- Real-time status queries

## New Implementations

- Scanned imagery saved at 12 bits/pixel – took remapping to 8 bpp out of the hands of the image scanner software
- Colorimetry handled using look-up tables for groups of exposures (eg: a mission)
- Dodging, colorimetry, remapping (128bpp) performed in a single step
- Less setup time required
- Less subjectivity by scanning technician
- More consistent colorimetry and tone balance

## New Implementations

- Automated prediction of smearing and occlusions in DOQQs due to rugged terrain (eg: Oregon)
- Ray trace algorithm using photo geometry and DEM
- Occlusions and “grazing slopes” detected
- Independent of orthorectification
- Results contained in database
- Pixel masks/shape files created for assessment
- Eliminated need for specific QC
- Initial CCMs delivered with only “touch-up” for extremely bad areas (not affect agricultural areas)
- DOQQs/CCMS revised before final deliveries (using areas from adjoining DOQQs/orthos)

## New Implementations

- Established standard schedule for full-time Surdex pilots
- 15 days in field, followed by
- 5 days off
- Back-up crews work 5-day stints
- Less fatigue on aircrews
- Better for the “home front” – known schedules
- Aircraft maintenance performed during most crew exchanges
- Nearly all required aircraft inspections performed in-house

## Recommendations

- Increase percentage of initial payment (60% - 70%) to accommodate increasing cost of acquisition (fuel...)
- If more stringent specifications are adopted, consider initial CCM delivery at less stringent specifications to avoid lengthening delivery schedules
- If sample products are used, suggest using raw  imagery to ensure approval timeframe does not interfere with product delivery
- Request ’05 survey results prior to beginning of ’06 work to ensure user issues are addressed
- Examine use of MG3 compression – which is proprietary, time-consuming, error-prone