 Chris, Jeff and Adrian Burcham at the Atwell-Hicks Poker Night
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather. We are making final arrangements for the Cooper Aerial Panel Workshop. I would like to encourage each of you to attend; it promises to be a fun and informative event. We look forward to seeing many of you there!
Special thanks to Atwell-Hicks for hosting there first annual Texas Hold'em poker tournament. We all had a great time.
Regards,
Jeff Cooper
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David Major
David is a project manager based out of Cooper’s Tucson office. After graduating from Eastern Arizona College, Mr. Major went to work for Greiner Engineering (URS Corp) in surveying and construction management. While at Greiner, David became certified for NICET Level I Road Construction, working on such projects as: Toltec Interchange, Ajo Highway Improvements, Tucson International Airport and Grand Canyon Airport.
David then came to work for Cooper Aerial in January 1991 as an editor in 1992 he began working in the compilation department, collecting data for mapping. In 2000 David made the transition to project management and has since been named Senior Vice President of Operations, Tucson.
Mr. Major is currently an active member of the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, as well as the Arizona Professional Land Surveyors, (APLS) and the New Mexico Mining Association. David served as the APLS Saguaro Chapter Secretary from 2002 to 2004.
David and his wife Becki have been married for 14 years. Together they have 2 children, Dylan and Madison. In his free time David enjoys spending time with his family, hiking, biking, and camping as well as restoring historic vehicles.
The entire Cooper Aerial staff would like to thank David for his honesty and incredible work ethic!
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Still to Come:
In next month’s newsletter we will discuss the steps involved in planning flight missions as well as the relationship between mission planning and panel placement.
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In recent years, advances in geospatial technology and services have become widely recognized as valuable tools in both Government and private sectors. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has been at the leading edge of the advances in the geospatial world. Cooper Aerial has long since understood the great value of providing customers with high quality products that integrate seamlessly with most organizations’ GIS.
At Cooper Aerial we have made strides to improve both our GIS technology and our GIS personnel. Our highly experienced and educated staff can implement photogrammetry data into a GIS of any kind. We have licenses for ArcView 9.2 with 3-D Analysis and Manifold GIS, by utilizing these software platforms we can transform our traditional mapping deliverables into GIS ready files or geodatabases. Cooper Aerial also has the ability to create surfaces (TIN) by utilizing the mass points and breaklines. These surfaces can be used to generate contours, slope analysis, and watershed analysis.
At Cooper Aerial we will continue to focus on GIS as both a service we provide to our valued customers and a tool we leverage to better serve them.
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Ortho Imagery
An orthophoto is an aerial photo that has been geometrically corrected to a digital elevation model (DEM) so that each pixel in the photo corresponds to an actual position on the earth’s surface. The DEM is created either by a compiler through a manual process or through an automated process in which an operator edits out any anomalies collected by the software. Because of this correction, an orthophoto can be used to measure true distances over the surface of the earth. A common use for an orthophoto is the creation of a Geographic Information System or GIS that allow operators to place linework, text annotations, or geographic symbols.
We collect our airphotos with both film based and digital sensory cameras, when collected with film we use one of our 3 Leica DSW 700 photgrammetric scanners. All such photographs are scanned at 10 microns. Once scanned we perform the Aerial Triangulaion or AT using Leica’s Orima software which performs complicated bundle adjustments and puts the photos in the correct coordinate system defined by the survey control. The DEM is then introduced into the project and the orthorectification process begins. Once the individual photos have been rectified, we bring them into Inpho’s Orthovista software to begin the mosaic process. This step involves seamline placement and tonal balancing that produces an overall product that appears as one continuous image. Finally we employ a rigorous QA\QC process where we visually inspect the entire mosaic to make sure any planametric features and control panels line up with the imagery and make any final tonal enhancements.
After completing this process, we are able to present our clients with a highly accurate orthophoto. It is important to be familiar with this process as a customer; a basic understanding enables you to have an open dialog, including any questions or concerns, with your aerial mapping provider.
We plan to continue our conversation on orthoimagery in a future newsletter at which time we will define accuracies and other important traits of orthoimagery, stay tuned!
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The Cooper Ground Target Workshop
Plans are in place for the Cooper Aerial Panel Workshop. Please join us on October 26, 2007 at 2:00pm at Phoenix Mountains Park
Apache Picnic Ramada (map) for an entry level introduction to the methods of determining the proper location and the building of stable aerial ground targets. The workshop will be lead by our very own Rick Bunger (RLS). Bratwurst & Sodas will be served.
Please fill out our online form to RSVP. We are looking forward to seeing you there.
Examples of good panels |
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