Airborne Multispectral Imagery for NSW

Bushfire Events

ARSPC 14, Darwin: 30th September 2008

Daniel Howes – NSW Rural Fire Service
Talk Outline
• Remote sensing and Fire Mapping at the RFS
– Background
– Daedalus Multispectral Sensor (“Linescanner”)
• Sensor Specifications
• “Fire Enhanced” RGB Combination
• Example Imagery
– “Incident Control Online” (ICON)

• Improvements to Remote Sensing Workflow

– Why?........Increasing demand
– How?........NDMP funded project
– Where........are the biggest bottlenecks?
– What........changes have already been made?
– The future?……..
Generic Background
• 2001 - RFS GIS Unit is created.

• Air Affairs Australia (Air Target Services)

for airborne intelligence
– Initial service on demand
– Exclusive RFS contract since 2004/2005
fire season

• Liaison between:
– Air Affairs Australia (ATS)

– RFS State Operations

– RFS Aviation

– RFS GIS
• State duty GIS Officer
 Sensor Background
• Daedalus 1268 Airborne Thematic Mapper (ATM) Spectral Wavelength Equivalent
– Rotating scanning mirror (“Linescanner”) Region (µm) Landsat TM
– 2.5mRad field of view (~19m pixels at 25,000ft) 0.42 – 0.45 –
– Designed 1960’s as Landsat testbed Blue
0.45 – 0.52 1
0.52 – 0.6 2
– 12 image bands Green
0.605 – 0.625 –
– 8-bit data digitised 0.63 – 0.69 3
with “Multiscan” Red
software 0.695 – 0.75 –
0.76 – 0.9 4
NIR
0.91 – 1.05 –

– Attitude data stored in 1.55 – 1.75 5

SWIR
a pseudo 13th band 2.08 – 2.35 7
8.5 – 13.0 6L
– Ortho-correction LWIR
in-flight using 8.5 – 13.0 6H
“xqInertia” software
GPS/INS N/A –
“Fire Enhanced” RGB Combination
• Daedalus 1268 Airborne Thematic Mapper (ATM) Spectral Wavelength Equivalent
Region (µm) Landsat TM
• RGB composite (LWIR, SWIR, Green) produces an 0.42 – 0.45 –
intuitive “fire enhanced” image Blue
0.45 – 0.52 1
– Active fire appears yellow/orange
– Burnt area appears red
0.52 – 0.6 2
Green
– Background appears green 0.605 – 0.625 –
0.63 – 0.69 3
Red
0.695 – 0.75 –
0.76 – 0.9 4
NIR
0.91 – 1.05 –
1.55 – 1.75 5
SWIR
2.08 – 2.35 7
8.5 – 13.0 6L
LWIR
8.5 – 13.0 6H
GPS/INS N/A –
Example “Linescan” Imagery • Burra Korain, Blue Mountains
– 12:23, 15th November 2006
– 12:59, 18th November 2006
– 12:15, 20th November 2006
– 14:21 – 14:30, 25th Nov 2006
Example “Linescan” Imagery 2 – 14:12, 29th November 2006
• Pilliga State Forest – 11:26 – 12:03, 30th November 2006
Example “Linescan” Imagery 3

• Smoke penetration capability

– Wandoo fire, Wagga Wagga
– 19:25, 6th February 2006
– 15:29, 7th February 2006
“Incident Control Online” (ICON)
• A multi-agency system to coordinate &
record operational fire combat activities

• Main functions are:

– Record incidents
– Create incident plans & situation reports
– Fire-ground Intelligence

• Components are:
– Statewide overview map of all incidents
– Desktop & online interactive mapping tools
– PDF Maps
– Automated daily email containing shapefile
extract of combined fire data

• Airborne Imagery
– Lots of manual handling
Talk Outline
• Remote sensing and Fire Mapping at the RFS
– Background
– Daedalus Multispectral Sensor (“Linescanner”)
– Sensor Specifications
– “Fire Enhanced” RGB Combination
– Example Imagery
– “Incident Control Online” (ICON)

• Improvements to Remote Sensing Workflow

– Why?........Increasing demand
– How?........NDMP funded project
– Where........are the biggest bottlenecks?
– What........changes have already been made?
– The future?……..
Why?........Increasing Demand for Linescan Imagery
• Section 44 (S44) – “A major bush fire(s) where an appointment has been made or is imminent
under the provisions of Section 44 of the Rural Fires Act, 1997, giving the Rural Fire Service
Commissioner coordination of the incident through an appointed Incident Controller”

Fire Fire runs Imagery Sum of Runs per

Season flown used S44-days S44-day
2006/2007 444 403 407 0.99
2005/2006 81 58 190 0.31
2004/2005 14 12 54 0.22

this ÷ this = this

• Figures do not include:
– Interstate assistance
– Non-fire activities (e.g. Floods)
How?........Natural Disaster Mitigation Programme (NDMP)
• “NDMP project (“Airborne Imagery for Bushfire Events”) – started January 2007
• Aims:
– Reduce time taken to deliver linescan imagery to operational decision makers
– Increase the consistency and quality of imagery delivered

IN-FLIGHT
Downlink

PRE-FLIGHT POST-FLIGHT

Quick-look receipt
Data receipt

Acquisition ICON upload

Where……..are the biggest bottlenecks?
100%

90%
• Timeliness of 2006/2007 Fire
Season Data Delivery 80%

Percentage of the Total Number of Images

70%

• Expectation that imagery is 60%

loaded into ICON within 2 JPEG Receipt

Zip Receipt
hours of acquisition 50%
Zip Receipt - ICON
Data Acquisition - ICON
40%

30%

• Project ultimately aims to 20%

better this expectation.

10%
– <1hour
0%
0:00 0:30 1:00 1:30 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30
Time (hh:mm)

Totals received within: Time for 95% Max Time

• Conclusions
– Initial focus on a more 1-hr 2-hrs 3-hrs 4-hrs (hh:mm) (hh:mm)
reliable downlink system Quick-look 62% 91% 98.5% 99.7% 2:30 4:02
Data Receipt 19% 59% 86% 98% 3:50 4:20
– Secondary focus on
automation of manual tasks Data-ICON 51% 79% 98% 98% 2:30 22:56
Acq.-ICON 3% 26% 48% 72% 5:40 20:19
Talk Outline
• Remote sensing and Fire Mapping at the RFS
– Background
– Daedalus Multispectral Sensor (“Linescanner”)
– Sensor Specifications
– “Fire Enhanced” RGB Combination
– Example Imagery
– “Incident Control Online” (ICON)

• Improvements to Remote Sensing Workflow

– Why?........Increasing demand
– How?........NDMP funded project
– Where........are the biggest bottlenecks?
– What........changes have already been made?
– The future?……..
Changes made?........Migration to Satcom Downlink

• Telstra CDMA-1X
– Used until 14th October 2007 • Inmarsat Satellite Communications

• Significantly faster & more reliable delivery of imagery.

• No adverse impact on operational flights.
Changes made?........ Intelligent File Transfer & Automation
• Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
– Microsoft Product designed for use with disrupted network connections.
– Allows restart of interrupted transfers.
– Informs users when transfers are complete.

• A 3rd party GUI has

been adapted for use in
the RFS aircraft.

• A webservice is called
upon successful transfer
to trigger subsequent
automated tasks.
The future?........ Ongoing plans
• Immediate process automation aims
– Loading of imagery into ICON
– Image rectification

• Challenges
– Identifying which ICON incident images refer to
– Capturing metadata with each image
• Time of acquisition, time of RFS receipt, time of ICON upload
• Altitude, pixel size, consistent fire names, cloud cover percentage
– “New” (unidentified fires)
– In-flight automation vs On-ground raw data processing
– Image formats
– Distribution lists vs Central access
– Data Archiving
– Education of data users

• Blue Skies
– (Semi-) automated fire feature extraction
– Image de-striping / Image matching algorithms
– Higher bit sensor digitisation
– Additional band combinations / ratios
Summary & Questions