New three-dimensional radar and hi-resolution aerial images of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas released starting Friday could boost both recovery and research efforts in Haiti in the wake of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck on Jan. 12.
Satellite images and aerial photos have been important resources, but the flatness of those images makes it hard for viewers to identify what they’re looking at.
On Thursday (January 21, 2010), remote-sensing scientists from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York began collecting new aerial images of the Port-au-Prince area. They’re using a twin-engine Piper PA-31 Navajo that houses numerous sensors, including a light-detection and ranging, or LiDAR, instrument that generates the 3-D data. It has a camera that shoots with enough resolution to make out cars and occasionally people and multiple infrared instruments that sketch out details invisible to the naked eye, such as hidden sources of heat and water.
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