Aerial Imagery Based on Commercial Flights as Remote Sensing Platform

Area of Science:

• Geosciences and Remote Sensing
• Aerospace Engineering
• Data Science

Background:

• Current remote sensing platforms like satellites, aircraft, and unmanned aerial systems (UASs) have limitations in coverage, frequency, and spatial resolution.
• High-altitude platforms often compromise data quality or accessibility for remote sensing applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility of using commercial flights as a novel platform for widespread remote sensing.
• To simulate and quantify the potential coverage, resolution, and data storage requirements of this approach.

Main Methods:

• A simulation model was developed to assess remote sensing capabilities using commercial aircraft equipped with cameras.
• Analysis focused on estimating spatial coverage, temporal resolution, ground sampling distance, and data volume for Europe.

Main Results:

• The simulation indicates 83.28% coverage of Europe with aerial photography, averaging one image every 30 minutes.
• Achieved a ground sampling distance of 0.96 meters per pixel, generating approximately 20 million images or 4 petabytes of data daily.
• Detailed results are available for specific European countries, airlines, and camera types.

Conclusions:

• Commercial flights offer a viable and high-coverage alternative for large-scale remote sensing data acquisition.
• This method presents a significant opportunity for enhanced geospatial data collection, despite substantial data management challenges.