Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging today announced Digital Aerial Solutions (DAS) has obtained its second Leica ADS40 Airborne Digital Sensor, which will enable the company to double its collection capacity and facilitate faster turnaround in providing high quality digital data products to its customers.

The initial sensor was flown in a pressurized Cessna 421C aircraft specifically modified to accommodate the Leica ADS40 system in a mid-cabin sensor port. The second sensor will be flown in a Socata TBM 700 made by EADS. The Socata is a single-engine turboprop that was chosen for its versatility and low maintenance costs.

In order to accommodate the increased capacity generated by two ADS40 sensors, DAS has implemented Condor running on a state of the art High Performance Distributed Computing System (HPDCS) for image processing, to enhance its existing digital end to end solution. The introduction of the HPDCS into its production workflow enables DAS to successfully manage the large datasets acquired by both sensors.

Through the data collected by the Leica ADS40, DAS generates a range of standard imagery products including precision color orthorectified seamless mosaics, Digital Terrain Models and multispectral imagery. DAS serves a broad customer base that uses the data for a wide variety of applications such as urban planning, forestry and natural resource management, civil engineering, law enforcement and forensics, agriculture and emergency response projects.

Source: Leica Geosystems GI, Aug. 31, 2005