The NSF/NCAR GV HIAPER flew forward, left, right, and downward facing digital cameras for in-flight image capture.
The forward camera is a Point Grey Research Hi-Res Flea Hi-Color, 1024x768 resolution. The Navitar DO-412 lens has a focal length of 4 mm and the field of view is about 62 x 48 degrees with some barrel distortion. This camera is located on the right wing pylon. Exposure time is automatically controlled by the camera. The image gamma is 1.0 (linear response), resulting in high-contrast images when viewed on ordinary displays.
The left-facing camera is a Point Grey Research Scorpion SCOR-20SO - Color, 1600 x 1200 resolution resolution equipped with an Edmund Optics 6mm lens (#67-709). The field of view is 75 x 54 degrees with approximately 7% barrel distortion. Exposure time is automatically controlled by the camera. The image gamma is 1.0 (linear response), resulting in high-contrast images when viewed on ordinary displays.
The right-facing camera is a Point Grey Research Flea 3 (FL3-FW-14S3C-C) - Color, 1384x1032 resolution equipped with an Navitar 3.5 mm lens (DO-3514). The field of view is 94 x 73 degrees. Exposure time is automatically controlled by the camera. The image gamma is 1.0 (linear response), resulting in high-contrast images when viewed on ordinary displays.
The downward-facing camera is a Allied Vision ProSilica GT4907 monochrome camera with Zeiss ZF.2 100mm F/2 lens stopped down to F/8. Field of view is 20 x 15 degree. The camera was mounted such that the long ('horizontal') dimension is fore-aft to the plane. The images were taken with 3x3 binning giving a resolution of 1621 x 1076 pixels. Exposure time is automatically controlled by the camera. The images were recorded with 8-bit pixel depth. The gamma was set to 0.5, so that the scene contrast is approximately normal when viewed on ordinary displays. The sensor has significant response to wavelengths longer than 700 nm so the image brightness may not match visual brightness.
For all cameras, images were acquired once per second and stored as JPEG-compressed files. No image processing was performed beyond converting the raw pixel data from the color cameras to 24 bit/pixel color images. Applying a sharpening filter as is ordinarily done by consumer digital cameras will considerably improve the appearance. The UTC date and time are encoded in the filename as YYMMDD-HHMMSS.jpg.
TI3GER Field Phase - Data Sharing
TI3GER Post Field Phase - Data Archive
Research Participant Notice (Required, non-UCAR employee)
Participant Photographic Release (Required, non-UCAR employee)
Safety Briefing, Code of Conduct and Emergency Contact (Required, ALL participants)