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Photo Gallery: AOP-1′s first test flights

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May 11, 2012

May 11, 2012

Veeeery carefully lifting the AOP to place it inside the Twin Otter.

Veeeery carefully lifting the AOP to place it inside the Twin Otter.

NEON’s very own remote sensing powerhouse just took its first rides in a plane this past week. The full Airborne Observation Platform is LiDAR + hi-res digital camera + visible to shortwave infrared imaging spectrometer from NASA JPL. The AOP crew proudly sent us photos of their instruments being integrated into our rented plane in the Twin Otter hangar in Grand Junction, CO. Over the next few weeks you can look forward to images and posts from Megan, an AOP technician, and Leah, a landscape ecologist specializing in remote sensing, about their adventures on the ground and in the air with the AOP at opposite ends of the country. Leah will explain how the AOP helps us efficiently capture ecosystem information over an incredibly large area – a key component of NEON’s mission to enable continental-scale ecological study.
AOP-1 in Otter belly. Repeat, AOP-1 in Otter belly.

The full airborne observation platform inside a Twin Otter plane for the first time.


AOP-1 inside the Twin Otter, ready for its first plane ride

AOP-1 inside the Twin Otter, ready for its first plane ride


Setting up calibration instruments outside the Twin Otter hangar in Grand Junction, CO.

Setting up calibration instruments outside the Twin Otter hangar in Grand Junction, CO.

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Permanent link to this article: http://www.neonnotes.org/2012/05/photo-gallery-aop-1s-first-test-flights/

1 comment

  1. Patrick a. Shea says:

    May 30, 2012 at 9:22 am (UTC -6 )

    Is NEON making any effort with the military services to use their surplus drones? The Raptor would be ideal for several canyon studies and for tracking invasives.