Recreating Remote Sensing Technology

Sometimes in order to understand lectures from the classroom, you have to get outside and apply the theories. That is what a group of junior undergraduates did in their remote sensing course at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. A design made up of a helium weather balloon attached to a protected digital camera and cell-phone with GPS capabilities was lifted more than 80,000ft (24,000m) above the earth with a maximum horizontal speed of 120 mph (190 km/h). The camera was set to automatically take pictures of the earth, and the trajectory was mapped using the cell-phone; the sensor traveled from Syracuse to Poughkeepsie, NY (a distance of about 150 miles/240km). This project shows that behind all of the technology we are exploring, there is a way to (relatively) reproduce the process. I hope this keeps you down to earth... or not.

To check out more on the story and see images of the launch and those taken by the sensor, click here.