Airborne Real - time Cueing Hyperspectral Enhanced Reconnaissance The Airborne Real - time Cueing Hyperspectral Enhanced Reconnaissance , also known by the acronym ARCHER , is an aerial imaging system that produces ground images far more detailed than plain sight or ordinary aerial photography can . It is the most sophisticated unclassified hyperspectral imaging system available , according to U . S . Government officials . ARCHER can automatically scan detailed imaging for a given signature of the object being sought ( such as a missing aircraft ) , for abnormalities in the surrounding area , or for changes from previous recorded spectral signatures . It has direct applications for search and rescue , counterdrug , disaster relief and impact assessment , and homeland security , and has been deployed by the Civil Air Patrol ( CAP ) in the United States on the Australian built Gippsland GA8 Airvan fixed - wing aircraft . CAP , the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force , is a volunteer education and public service non - profit organization that conducts aircraft search and rescue in the U . S . Overview . ARCHER is a daytime non - invasive technology , which works by analyzing an object ’ s reflected light . It cannot detect objects at night , underwater , under dense cover , underground , under snow or inside buildings . The system uses a special camera facing down through a quartz glass portal in the belly of the aircraft , which is typically flown at a standard mission altitude of 2500 feet ( 800 meters ) and 100 knots ( 50 meters / second ) ground speed . The system software was developed by Space Computer Corporation of Los Angeles , California and the system hardware is supplied by NovaSol Corp . of Honolulu , Hawaii specifically for CAP . The ARCHER system is based on hyperspectral technology research and testing previously undertaken by the United States Naval Research Laboratory ( NRL ) and Air Force Research Laboratory ( AFRL ) . CAP developed ARCHER in cooperation with the NRL , AFRL and the United States Coast Guard Research & Development Center in the largest interagency project CAP has undertaken in its 63 - year history . Since 2003 , almost US $ 5 million authorized under the 2002 Defense Appropriations Act has been spent on development and deployment . , CAP reported completing the initial deployment of 16 aircraft throughout the U . S . and training over 100 operators , but had only used the system on a few search and rescue missions , and had not credited it with being the first to find any wreckage . In searches in Georgia and Maryland during 2007 , ARCHER located the aircraft wreckage , but both accidents had no survivors , according to Col . Drew Alexa , director of advanced technology , and the ARCHER program manager at CAP . An ARCHER equipped aircraft from the Utah Wing of the Civil Air Patrol was used in the search for adventurer Steve Fossett in September 2007 . ARCHER did not locate Mr . Fossett , but was instrumental in uncovering eight previously uncharted crash sites in the high desert area of Nevada , some decades old . Col . Alexa described the system to the press in 2007 : " The human eye sees basically three bands of light . The ARCHER sensor sees 50 . It can see things that are anomalous in the vegetation such as metal or something from an airplane wreckage . " Major Cynthia Ryan of the Nevada Civil Air Patrol , while also describing the system to the press in 2007 , stated , " ARCHER is essentially something used by the geosciences . It ' s pretty sophisticated stuff … beyond what the human eye can generally see , " She elaborated further , " It might see boulders , it might see trees , it might see mountains , sagebrush , whatever , but it goes ' not that ' or ' yes , that ' . The amazing part of this is that it can see as little as 10 per cent of the target , and extrapolate from there . " In addition to the primary search and rescue mission , CAP has also tested additional uses for ARCHER . For example , an ARCHER equipped CAP GA8 was used in a pilot project in Missouri in August 2005 to assess the suitability of the system for tracking hazardous material releases into the environment , and one was deployed to track oil spills in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita in Texas during September 2005 . Since then , in the case of a flight originating in Missouri , the ARCHER system proved its usefulness in October 2006 , when it found the wreckage in Antlers , Okla . The National Transportation and Safety Board was extremely pleased with the data ARCHER provided , which was later used to locate aircraft debris spread over miles of rough , wooded terrain . In July 2007 , the ARCHER system identified a flood - borne oil spill originating in a Kansas oil refinery , that extended downstream and had invaded previously unsuspected reservoir areas . The client agencies ( EPA , Coast Guard , and other federal and state agencies ) found the data essential to quick remediation . In September 2008 , a Civil Air Patrol GA - 8 from Texas Wing searched for a missing aircraft from Arkansas . It was found in Oklahoma , identified simultaneously by ground searchers and the overflying ARCHER system . Rather than a direct find , this was a validation of the system ’ s accuracy and efficacy . In the subsequent recovery , it was found that the ARCHER plotted the debris area with great accuracy . Technical description . The major ARCHER subsystem components include : Hyperspectral imager . The passive hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy remote sensor observes a target in multi - spectral bands . The HSI camera separates the image spectra into 52 " bins " from 500 nanometers ( nm ) wavelength at the blue end of the visible spectrum to 1100 nm in the infrared , giving the camera a spectral resolution of 11 . 5 nm . Although ARCHER records data in all 52 bands , the computational algorithms only use the first 40 bands , from 500 nm to 960 nm because the bands above 960 nm are too noisy to be useful . For comparison , the normal human eye will respond to wavelengths from approximately 400 to 700 nm , and is trichromatic , meaning the eye ' s cone cells only sense light in three spectral bands . As the ARCHER aircraft flies over a search area , reflected sunlight is collected by the HSI camera lens . The collected light passes through a set of lenses that focus the light to form an image of the ground . The imaging system uses a pushbroom approach to image acquisition . With the pushbroom approach , the focusing slit reduces the image height to the equivalent of one vertical pixel , creating a horizontal line image . The horizontal line image is then projected onto a diffraction grating , which is a very finely etched reflecting surface that disperses light into its spectra . The diffraction grating is specially constructed and positioned to create a two - dimensional ( 2D ) spectrum image from the horizontal line image . The spectra are projected vertically , i . e . , perpendicular to the line image , by the design and arrangement of the diffraction grating . The 2D spectrum image projects onto a charge - coupled device ( CCD ) two - dimensional image sensor , which is aligned so that the horizontal pixels are parallel to the image ' s horizontal . As a result , the vertical pixels are coincident to the spectra produced from the diffraction grating . Each column of pixels receives the spectrum of one horizontal pixel from the original image . The arrangement of vertical pixel sensors in the CCD divides the spectrum into distinct and non - overlapping intervals . The CCD output consists of electrical signals for 52 spectral bands for each of 504 horizontal image pixels . The on - board computer records the CCD output signal at a frame rate of sixty times each second . At an aircraft altitude of 2 , 500 ft AGL and a speed of 100 knots , a 60 Hz frame rate equates to a ground image resolution of approximately one square meter per pixel . Thus , every frame captured from the CCD contains the spectral data for a ground swath that is approximately one meter long and 500 meters wide . High - resolution imager . A high - resolution imaging ( HRI ) black - and - white , or panchromatic , camera is mounted adjacent to the HSI camera to enable both cameras to capture the same reflected light . The HRI camera uses a pushbroom approach just like the HSI camera with a similar lens and slit arrangement to limit the incoming light to a thin , wide beam . However , the HRI camera does not have a diffraction grating to disperse the incoming reflected light . Instead , the light is directed to a wider CCD to capture more image data . Because it captures a single line of the ground image per frame , it is called a line scan camera . The HRI CCD is 6 , 144 pixels wide and one pixel high . It operates at a frame rate of 720 Hz . At ARCHER search speed and altitude ( 100 knots over the ground at 2 , 500 ft AGL ) each pixel in the black - and - white image represents a 3 inch by 3 inch area of the ground . This high resolution adds the capability to identify some objects . Processing . A monitor in the cockpit displays detailed images in real time , and the system also logs the image and Global Positioning System data at a rate of 30 Gigabyte s ( GB ) per hour for later analysis . The on - board data processing system performs numerous real - time processing functions including data acquisition and recording , raw data correction , target detection , cueing and chipping , precision image geo - registration , and display and dissemination of image products and target cue information . ARCHER has three methods for locating targets : In change detection , scene changes are identified , and new , moved or departed targets are highlighted for evaluation . In spectral signature matching , the system can be programmed with the parameters of a missing aircraft , such as paint colors , to alert the operators of possible wreckage . It can also be used to look for specific materials , such as petroleum products or other chemicals released into the environment , or even ordinary items like commonly available blue polyethylene tarpaulin s . In an impact assessment role , information on the location of blue tarps used to temporarily repair buildings damaged in a storm can help direct disaster relief efforts ; in a counterdrug role , a blue tarp located in a remote area could be associated with illegal activity .