Flight Planning

Planning for aerial photography is critical to the success of projects. Many people use photographs obtained for some other purpose, simply to avoid costs of planning and acquisition.

Flight Planning
Federal agencies provide general use photographs that need to be evaluated with project objectives in mind. Objectives of the project determine procedures.

Must know primary use of the photographs.

Flight Planning
Most critical factor in aerial photography is the weather.

Many areas of the world have but few cloud free days. Most photography flown between 10am and 2pm local solar time.
Avoids long shadows. Prime time for puffy white clouds.

Flight Planning
Settles critical issues:

Where is project area? How many photos needed to cover the area at desired scale and resolution. When is the target in desirable condition? Is stereo viewing necessary? Are quantitative reflectance standards necessary?

Flight Line Spacing

Photograph Spacing

Geometric Factors
Focal length of the camera lens Camera/film format size Photo scale Size of area to be photographed Average elevation of the ground Overlap required? Sidelap required? Ground speed of the aircraft

Geometric Factors
Flying height above datum:

H=(PSR*cfl)+havg

Location, direction, and number of flight lines:

Ground coverage, C=PSR*(size of photo) Ground separation of photo centers if 40% advance needed is C*0.4

Geometric Factors
Time interval between exposures: 160km/hr 1000m/km Number of exposures per line Total number of exposures

2300m/photo x 3600sec/hr = 51sec

Other Specifications
Mission timing-critical for most photography.

Crop calendar (plant phenology). Sun angle effects.

Other Specifications
Ground control requirements.

Precise elevations for topography maps. Cfl = calibrated focal length, used for topography projects.

Camera calibration requirements.

Looking in Stereo

Looking in Stereo

Looking in Stereo