Phoenix Thermal Imaging System Unit 4 – Phoenix Thermal Imaging System

Unit Objective At the end of this unit, the student will be able to list and describe three of the characteristics of the Phoenix thermal imaging system.

Outline Line scanners Phoenix DSP (digital signal processing) A-kB detection algorithm Phoenix output products Metadata Delivery methods

… while simultaneously … WHY IR LINE SCANNERS? Map extremely large areas in a very short period of time … while simultaneously … Detecting very small fires Extremely accurate for geo-positioning pixels Ability to over-sample = multiple looks at same area Multi-channel fire detection & false target rejection Fire detection is a basketball sized spot of heat at about 100 degrees F above the background temperatures.

Aerial Line Scanning Line scanners sample the ground recording the reflective energy of the objects below as the aircraft flies. This data is recorded to disk and/or output to a printing device. FLIR and hand-held devices can be pointed at objects and record what they “see” to a video tape.

What is Phoenix? Phoenix is a digital image processing system coupled with a dual-channel line scanner Maps 6 mile swath width (at 10,000 ft AGL) while detecting 6-8 inch heat sources (at 10,000 ft AGL) Collects data, processes fire detections, and creates imagery in near real-time Launched in 2003 First major deployment in 2004 in Alaska Phoenix: RS-25 scan head developed by Texas Instruments in the 1960’s

PHOENIX System Specifications Two channel thermal IR line scanner 3-5 µm band for intense heat 8-12 µm band for background terrain 1.25 milliradian IFOV – 3.5 meter pixel at nadir, 10,000 feet AGL 120 degree FOV – 6 mile swath at 10,000 feet AGL 256 gray scale 1680 pixels per scan line 200 scan lines per second 3.5 meters = 12.5 feet

Some Things To Remember About Phoenix Imagery What is captured in the imagery is the relative variation in heat across the fire area No one-to-one correspondence between pixel values and ground temperature The technician can adjust the heat “threshold” value during runs across the fire area. Doesn’t allow for automated extraction of heat* *(2015 will see a new method of fire detection that utilizes auto-extraction of heat) There is more heat in the imagery than just the red ( value = 255) pixels! Actually there are 256 values as 0 counts

Want To Know More About Ak-B and Phoenix? http://nirops.fs.fed.us/docs/about-more/07-Sunbird%20group.pdf “Report on Forest Service IR Systems and Target Discrimination Module” ftp://ftp.nifc.gov/nirops/documents Phoenix_FS_Airborne_IR_Detection_Mapping.pdf

Extreme Heat Detects “Blob” Imagery Extreme heat can cause the heat detects to “Blob” NOT BLOOM!!!! Blooming is an artifact of a saturated detector. NIROPs System detectors DO NOT saturate!!

Implement “De-smoke” Implementing the de-smoke methodology allows the IRIN to “see” the heat perimeter under the blob.

Heat “Halo” Effect “Halo” Effect Mitigated Using Color Tiff Heat Halo Effect (occurs at the edge of the “blob”) is an artifact of utilizing the de-smoke methodology and can be mitigated as this does not occur on the color Tiff

PHOENIX System Installation – N144Z

Phoenix Data Products Phoenix is a digital imaging system Digital imagery that is delivered via Aircell link to an FTP site. Digital imagery that is uploaded to an FTP site Digital imagery that can be delivered via USB “thumb drive”. AirCell connects to the internet at about 10,000 MSL. Once the aircraft drops below this altitude AirCell will disconnect and uploads will resume from the ground.

Phoenix Output Products 1 GeoTiffs Color Grayscale w/color gradient of heat levels Un-rectified Tiffs (w/headers) No header on the ortho-rectified products to assist in GIS applications

Phoenix Output Products 2 JPEG Mosaic(s) Active Heat shape file (point) Metadata Active heat shape file is tripped (detected) heat. It should not be used as a heat boundary shape file. Fire is dynamic and can change or vary greatly from run to run!!

Phoenix Digital Strip Imagery Phoenix digital strip imagery incorporates a number of features that are illustrated in the following slides. Imagery utilizes this naming convention: 031028_2203_Paradise_1 Run Proper case fire names come from N149Z the King Air all uppercase names come from N144Z the Citation Jet Date YYMMDD Time at the start of the first run Incident Name

Phoenix Imagery: Un-rectified Tiff Header Information Digital File Name Date (YYMMDD) and Time (MDT) IR Tech Name Aircraft Heading Date Time Fire Name Run #

Metadata Full metadata is created for all Phoenix imagery HTML format FGDC - compliant format

Mission : Delivery 75% of imagery delivery is via the AirCell platform. Aircell is the company that provides in-flight Internet for commercial airlines (“GoGo”). N149Z and N144Z have the business aviation systems; A Wi-Fi hotspot in the sky 25% of imagery delivery is via internet uploads to FTP (ftp.nifc.gov/nirops) site. Typically as a FreeArc compressed self-extracting archive (.exe) occasionally as a WinZip (.zip) Please do not attempt to download files until notified via Twitter.com or phone. Even just selecting the file while waiting for download or continually refreshing FTP site will lock the file. If AirCell disconnects then upload can not resume because YOU are now the file owner. PATIENCE!!!

IR information sharing Facebook Group – Infrared FreeArc link - We are using version 0.666 http://freearc.org/Download.aspx download the Windows installer and the Add-on: FreeArc PowerPack (standard set of external compressors) FreeArc documentation http://freearc.sourceforge.net/index.htm Installing FreeARC and its power pack can mitigate a corrupted FreeARC archive. This usually happens when the AirCell disconnects during an upload.

IR information sharing (cont.) Twitter.com accounts* NIROPS_N144Z and NIROPS_N149Z *Direct messages can be sent to each account but may not be answered quickly as Twitter does not assign the same priority as the 140 character Tweets. Please let the Tech know if you have a corrupt file upload ASAP!! BUT….. DO NOT discuss system errors or problems on Twitter as they will be seen by the public!! Each follower MUST follow each other to send direct messages. (Ie If I follow you but you don’t follow me we will never see direct messages we sent to each other.) It is also nice to know that all files have been received and extracted!!

Review Objective At the end of this unit, the student will be able to list and describe three characteristics of the Phoenix thermal imaging system.

A-kB Detection Concept Channel A, Mid-IR: 3-5 µm Channel B, LWIR: 8-14 µm The signal levels vs. fire threshold heat detects. New color heat gradient scale. Yellow is coldest but is still detected heat up through magenta which is the most intense heat. Red and purple are heat detects somewhere in the middle of the gradient. Courtesy Dave Chamberlain, CSC

A-kB Detection Output From Phoenix System for 2015 Channel A Mid-IR: 3-5 µm Channel B LWIR: 8-14 µm Detected Heat Gradient Magenta = Hottest Purple/Red = Hot Orange = Colder Still Hot Yellow = Coldest But Still of Concern The new color gradient for detected heat. This depends greatly on the operator fire threshold setting.

New for 2015 Automated Twitter Messages & File Uploads While file is uploading a message will be sent via Twitter The file name while uploading on the FTP site will have the word “uploading” at the front of its name. Once complete the “uploading” will be removed from the file name and a message will be sent via Twitter. If after an extended period of time the “uploading” has not been removed from file name, assume there is a problem and wait for Technician/Pilot to re-upload. If the name of the file still contains “uploading” the file will be corrupt and unusable. This is the new format for 2015. Until the flight crews are used to this, Direct Messages on Twitter may go unanswered until we have the time to see them. We are trying to free up resources so the Phoenix DSP can run faster. Opening multiple Internet Windows and applications can slow the system down.

Questions?