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Data

Photographic Aerial Survey

The traditional human-eye detection is still the main method in use to intiiate image captures containing objects of interest, but studies testing high-resolution photographic systems, or Photographic Aerial Surveys (PAS), will hopefully become a replacement. The new system uses cameras on the wing struts which take constant images along flight paths.

  • These images have no intervening Plexiglas and are much higher quality.
  • Taken at 45° down-angle, and with a lens that mimics the same sample field of view as the human eye.
  • 24MP and optimized for image sharpness.
  • Very low rate of 'positives' - perhaps 2% of images will have any wildlife or livestock present.
  • Around 500,000 images are available and more are being collected every year.
  • GPS metadata present for all images.
  • Overlapping images are taken at 2-second intervals.
Figure 4: The current photographic aerial survey in Tanzania.