Consider imaging, the cornerstone of ISR and targeting. The original one or two sensors now function as multiple sensors, augmenting circumscribed soda-straw views with mega-wide ones while maintaining or improving resolution. This has been enabled by several remarkable camera and sensor systems, particularly two related ones: DARPA/BAE Systems’ rotating ball-headed ARGUS-IS, and the Air Force/Sierra Nevada Gorgon Stare belly pods. Both modalities are staggeringly competent for multi-intelligence missions and adaptable to various platforms. Gorgon Stare (GS) is a video-capture technology for the Air Force. A Wide-Area Aerial Surveillance System (WAAS), it’s typically mounted on General Atomics, Inc.’s MQ-9 Reaper attack drones. GS’s underslung pod system, with 12 cameras and sensors, gives Reaper and its hunter-killer ilk two key chief abilities: longer loiter time and identification of individuals or objects from complex background noise. It’s been much praised.
Wide Area Aerial Surveillance Technologies Evolve for Homeland Security and Other Applications |
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| The LEAPS (Lightweight Expeditionary Airborne Persistent Surveillance) sensor gives the RQ-7 Shadow Unmanned Aircraft System a WAAS sensor that weighs just 54 pounds and can downlink imagery to ground stations via Tactical Common data Link. Logos Technologies |
The Wide Area Aerial Surveillance (WAAS) systems that found improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan now lend themselves to domestic counterterrorism, border patrol, drug interdiction, and disaster management.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last March conducted its first test of WAAS technology to track people, vehicles, and objects in areas of 5 to 10 square kilometers. In 2013, Sierra Nevada Corporation and ITT Exelis – makers of the Air Force Gorgon Stare WAAS system – will offer commercial Vigilant Stare services with a sensor field of view covering 16 square kilometers. WAAS becomes wide area persistent surveillance (WAPS) with the integration of long-endurance platforms.
Synoptic sensors on manned and unmanned aircraft and tethered aerostats today collect wide-area video imagery for near-real-time and forensic (after-the-fact) analyses. In Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, WAAS put kinetic events in context for ground commanders. According to Dr. Michael Eismann, senior scientist for electro-optical and infrared sensors in the Air Force Research Laboratory(AFRL) Sensors Directorate, “The value of that is we and others started to recognize the value for other applications. In countering IEDs, it’s not how do we find them, but how do we find the activity associated with IEDs?”
Sensor, Listening Device Integration Provide Battlefield Intelligence Boon | SIGNAL Magazine
ARGUS-IS
Sensor systems such as
the Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance-Imaging System
(ARGUS-IS) offer radical improvements for ISR. This sensor system was developed
for special operations by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA). BAE Systems provides the optics and processing technologies. Argus was
envisioned to be mounted in a pod on the A-160 Hummingbird (SIGNAL Magazine,
June 2007, page 43, “High Hover”) unmanned rotary wing aircraft headed for
Afghanistan. However, an A-160 crash during trials prior to deployment is
delaying the move.
The 1.8-gigapixel sensor
operates with four optical telescopes functioning with 92 5-megapixel focal
plane arrays. These arrays use cell phone camera chips that provide multiple
video streams in real time. Imaging system output supplies extremely large
high-resolution mosaic images and video.
ARGUS-IS and its
follow-on infrared nighttime capability, ARGUS-IR, are able to provide persistent
area surveillance to detect and track targets. This sensor system significantly
advances the U.S. Army’s capability to protect soldiers through improved search
and surveillance.
Hovering at altitudes
above 20,000 feet for up to 24 hours, “the A-160 with its ARGUS payload would
offer ideal capabilities light years beyond earlier wide-area persistent
surveillance systems,” the official continues. Earlier developmental testing
also took place on a Sikorsky Blackhawk helicopter.
“The volume of the data
is so great from such a large image area that no datalink pipes yet made can
carry it,” the defense official stresses. “So, ARGUS-IS functions like the eyes
of a house fly with some 64 independent video windows transmitting imagery from
the sensor system. These high-resolution multiple video windows can zoom in or
out, as needed, to precisely locate targets,” the official reveals. The
real-time video sensor onboard processing system, coupled to ground processing,
provides interactive multiple target designation, tracking and engagement.
Argus - What Drones Can See From 17,500'...
This is cutting edge photography, and then some. The size of the area covered, and the high quality of the imagery, are beyond incredible! This imagery is taken from 17,500' up. I'm ex-tremely impressed, but I think just about anyone, particularly those with experience in SERIOUS photography, and especially those having a military photographic background, will also
be. From 17,500', the drone can see you, but you can't see it.
lindarobb@charter.net on Thu, 5 Dec 2013 12:43:06 -0600
Excerpt from a PBS story.
http://www.youtube.com/v/AHrZgS-Gvi4
Spy Drone Can See What You are Wearing From 17,500 Feet 4:54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHrZgS-Gvi4
Published on Jan 31, 2013
NOVA: Rise Of The Drones: http://video.pbs.org/video/2326108547
Gorgon Stare
Another wide-area persistent surveillance system is the U.S. Air Force’s Gorgon Stare. Developed under the aegis of the Air Force’s 645th Aeronautical Systems Group, it widely is known by its Big Safari code name. This podded sensor system also provides citywide or equivalent area coverage.
Gorgon Stare was
developed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to increase time on station. An
earlier similar but separate Air Force/SAIC wide-area surveillance sensor
system, Blue Devil Block 1, already is flying on manned aircraft. Four of these
contractor-flown Beechcraft King Air C90 unpressurized propeller-driven
aircraft are limited in altitude and about three hours on station in
Afghanistan before having to land and refuel.
Gorgon stare persistent wide area airborne surveilance waas system Persistent Wide Area Airborne Surveillance (WAAS) System GORGON STARE Gorgon Stare (GS) is a Persistent Wide-Area Airborne Surveillance (WAAS) System. A Multi-Mission/ Multi-Mode Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platform with a unique EO/IR toolset providing wide-area (city-sized) continuous stare coverage. Currently fielded on an unmanned aerial system, GS feeds simultaneous reports to multiple individual users with individual taskings. The sensor is packaged in a turret maximizing the overall ISR imaging capability in a networked imagery/video distribution system. Specifically tailored for ISR operations in forward tactical areas, GS can provide a wide-area over watch with ten (10) focused video feeds sent directly to individual users on the ground. High resolution real-time motion video of activities of interest are collected to supply pattern-of-life and post-event forensics. Real-Time Motion Video - Direct to Dispersed Ground Personnel
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