MINDEN, Nevada -- As the search for missing adventurer Steve
Fossett continues, rescuers are turning to a super-vision camera
that can distinguish objects like wreckage far more efficiently
than the human eye.
The Civil Air Patrol has brought in a special plane from its
Utah branch fitted with super-vision equipment, called the ARCHER
-- an acronym for Airborne Real-time Cueing Hyperspectral Enhanced
Reconnaissance. The system is capable of panchromatic aerial
imaging far more detailed than plain sight or ordinary photography
can gather. The hyperspectral sensor was built by NovaSol, a
Hawaii-based company.
A special camera mounted to the belly of the plane transmits
detailed images in real time to a flat-screen monitor for operators
on the plane to examine. It also captures the views in its memory
at a rate of 30 GB per hour, to be analyzed more meticulously
and manipulated on the ground later. That data is tagged with
global-positioning coordinates as well, so searchers can return
to an area if ground technicians spot something.
"It is a better set of eyes than a human set," says Col. Drew
Alexa, director of advanced technology and the ARCHER program
manager for the Civil Air Patrol based in Colorado Springs,
Colorado. "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."
The technology was developed in the 1990s for a variety of
military applications, but Alexa led the charge to put it to
use in the CAP's search operations.
The CAP has owned 17 of these $32,000 units since a 2002 federal
grant provided $6 million to buy them. But they've only come
into use in searches like the Fossett effort since 2005, because
they needed to be individually tested and fitted onto single-engine
Gippsland GA-8 Airvans, an Australian aircraft that costs $450,000
each. The cost of the planes was covered by the U.S. Air Force,
which oversees the volunteer CAP.
Alexa cites searches in Georgia and Maryland where the ARCHER
spotted the plane wrecks in the past year, although in each
case the passengers were dead.
The ARCHER does have limitations. Its reflective-light technology
only works during the day, and it must fly at 2,500 feet --
much higher than the 1,000-foot altitude flown by the Cessnas
in the Fossett search. It also can only analyze a 0.1-square-mile
region at a time. And while it does provide information in real
time, the more intensive analysis takes many more hours.
"It usually works better where you have some information"
to narrow down the search area, Alexa says. "ARCHER does not
see underground, underwater, under the snow, and it’s not going
to see through trees. If plane is buried under a tree canopy,
it’s not going to see that."
Fossett, who's used custom-built vessels to set some of his
more than 110 air, land and sea world records, would be intrigued
if he knew, says longtime friend and Boy Scouts of America president
Rick Cronk. Fossett is a lifelong Boy Scout and president of
the National Eagle Scouts Association.
"He would be more than fascinated," Cronk says. "He loves
this stuff."
