Burke, C, Rashman, M, McAree, O, Hambrecht, L, Longmore, SN, Piel, AK and Wich, SA (2018) Addressing environmental and atmospheric challenges for capturing high-precision thermal infrared data in the field of astro-ecology. In: Proceedings of SPIE . (SPIE. Astronimcal Telescopes and Instrumentation, 10th-15th June 2018, Austin, Texas, USA).

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Abstract

Using thermal infrared detectors mounted on drones, and applying techniques from astrophysics, we hope to support the field of conservation ecology by creating an automated pipeline for the detection and identification of certain endangered species and poachers from thermal infrared data. We test part of our system by attempting to detect simulated poachers in the field. Whilst we find that we can detect humans hiding in the field in some types of terrain, we also find several environmental factors that prevent accurate detection, such as ambient heat from the ground, absorption of infrared emission by the atmosphere, obscuring vegetation and spurious sources from the terrain. We discuss the effect of these issues, and potential solutions which will be required for our future vision for a fully automated drone-based global conservation monitoring system.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	astro-ecology; thermal infrared; automatic object detection; weather conditions
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute Natural Sciences & Psychology (closed 31 Aug 19)
Publisher:	Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers
Date Deposited:	06 Jul 2018 11:39
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2022 15:16
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/8925

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