Portable Airborne Multispectral-Imaging System

A portable instrumentation system that includes an airborne and a ground-based subsystem acquires multispectral image data over swaths of terrain ranging in width from about 1/2 to 1 km. The system was developed especially for use in surveying coastal environments; it is also well suited for performing remote sensing in connection with agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, environmental decontamination, and general environmental monitoring. The system can be stowed in two suitcase-size containers that can be transported as check-in luggage on a commercial airline. Once the system has been delivered to its destination and unstowed, the airborne subsystem can be launched over unprepared terrain and controlled from the ground-based subsystem, which can be operated from a minivan or a similarly sized vehicle.