Now THATS what I'm talking about

[RiverAux]

How about some more articles on CAP on the AF and other Dod web pages such as this one regarding the recent military exercise in Alaska?  http://www.northcom.mil/News/2007/051707.html

[flyguy06]

That was a good article. Good to see the "big" military recognizing CAP.

[ELTHunter]

That may be the first time I have heard of the ARCHER system actually being deployed for a real mission.

[mikeylikey]

Cool!  Does every wing have an Archer yet? 

[RiverAux]

No, last I heard there was one for every region.  Really doubt that it will ever be one per wing. 

[bosshawk]

RiverAux; you are correct, one ARCHER per region.  From what I gather from my CAP-USAF friends, it is highly unlikely that there will ever be more than the current number of ARCHER units.

We have one located in CA and I happen to be the stuckee to get it into use.

[isuhawkeye]

Archer,

Interesting subject. those of you who have them.  How useful are they?  can they really do anything to support our SAR/DR missions

[bosshawk]

isuhawkeye: the jury is still out on just what ARCHER will do.  Unfortunately, National did not do the necessary tests to determine just what the sensor will do.  Now, some of us in the field are setting up those tests and we will have some useful(we think) data by the end of summer.  Unfortunately, those who purchased the equipment and fielded it sold it before the necessary data had been collected.

In my humble opinion, ARCHER may have a number of valid uses: right now, we don't know what they are.

[sardak]

Title:      Hyperspectral Imaging of fecal contamination on chickens

Abstract:    ProVision Technologies, a NASA research partnership center at Sternis Space Center in Mississippi, has developed a new hyperspectral imaging (HSI) system that is much smaller than the original large units used aboard remote sensing aircraft and satellites. The new apparatus is about the size of a breadbox. Health-related applications of HSI include scanning chickens during processing to help prevent contaminated food from getting to the table. ProVision is working with Sanderson Farms of Mississippi and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. ProVision has a record in its spectral library of the unique spectral signature of fecal contamination, so chickens can be scanned and those with a positive reading can be separated. HSI sensors can also determine the quantity of surface contamination. Research in this application is quite advanced, and ProVision is working on a licensing agreement for the technology. The potential for future use of this equipment in food processing and food safety is enormous.
NASA Center:    Marshall Space Flight Center
Publication Date:    2003-01-22
Accession ID:    MSFC-0300214
Updated/Added to NTRS:    2006-09-15

Mike

[SJFedor]

Well hooray. Our next corporate sellout won't be to FEMA, the US Government, or local or state agencies. It'll be to Perdue and Tyson.

[RiverAux]

The guys in Arkansas will get a lot of flying....

[Hoser]

As to ARCHER, on an actual SAR WITH LIFE THREAT it is nearly worthless for several reasons. First the fact that there is one per region, it is simply logistically not feasible, unless the principle of " Even a blind sow finds an acorn now and then" happens due to right place,right time, second, finding a person with it is nearly impossible, unless it's Shaquille Oneal in an orange filght suit lying on a putting green. The data that is looked at in the chip viewer must be looked at in context, first, is what I am looking at part of Pootwaddle's Bonanza? Then if so is that piece of debris big enough to hold a body or injured person? On the Antlers OK mission I found debris that wouldn't probably have been found, and for defining a debris field for the NTSB, ARCHER can be the bee's knees. For DR missions ARCHER has application, primarily with change detect, which means a lot of "pre-incident" data must be collected and catalogued and stored. Considering change detect canvases are archived at 10gig/hr that is a lot of data. Anomaly detect can also be useful in DR as it can find say a barrel of polypoisonol that is entangled in a logjam in a flooding river. Signature match is as far as my experience with it dubious, as signatures taken from KNOWN target aircraft wreckage hit on Jim-Billybob's junk piles along with plane debris. Signatures taked with the field spectrometer are also suspect as signatures taken from the scene of a chemical plant fire and then loaded into ARCHER didn't even hit when we flew directly over the site. That type of use wasn't envisioned when the spectrometer was developed. I also question EER work with the spectrometer as you have to determine is the signature I am getting from the product of interest, is it from the surrounding dirt? A combination of both? Just the ambient lighting can alter the validity and accuracy of a signature.
If one looks at the bands used by ARCHER theories can be developed as to uses. ARCHER uses bands 2, 3 and 4. Band 2 is useful for  vegetation discrimination and health monitoring, man-made feature identification band 3 is useful for plant species identification, man-made feature identification and band 4 for soil moisture monitoring, vegetation monitoring, water body discrimination. With vegetation being an application in all three bands the immediate thought is for finding the Furry Freak Brothers' pot farms. That question was raised in my ARCHER class and we were told that in multiple stages of the pot plant growth cycle it is spectrally indistinguishable from other plants, but research was underway. I have yet to hear if anything has shaken out.  Space doesn't allow for more discussion on possible applications based on ARCHER band utilization.
As to real missions, I have looked for an airplane that broke up in flight in Oklahoma and much previously unknown debris was discovered. NCR/MO  attempted to determine extent of contamination from a chemical facility fire in Kansas City utilizing spectral signatures collected at the fireground. For our purposes the results were dismal, HOWEVER, just because we couldn't detect anything does NOT mean the data being sought is not present. It simply means our software is incapable of extracting it. IMHO, ARCHER shows the greatest potential with change detection. Roads, bridges, dams can be collected as a canvas then following a seismic event reflown and compared. We should be able to find changes undetectable to the human eye. IMHO Alaska would be a great place to test this due to the frequent seismic activity.
As to other regions using ARCHER on real missions I know it is happening, although I don't what exactly is being flown.


Mark Anderson, Capt.
ARCHER Operator
MO WIng