Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Aircraft Deployed to North Dakota for Emergency Response Image Collection

On April 7, staff from the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations were deployed to collect data in areas of heavy flooding on the Red River in North Dakota. Data were collected with NOAA's newest King Air aircraft, capable of eight-plus hour flights and designed specifically for emergency response mapping missions. Flights were conducted in the Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota region. In addition, staff tested mobile device applications developed by NGS research personnel. These new mobile applications are expected to aid first responders by providing imagery data collected by NOAA aircraft directly to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. For more information, contact Jonathan Neuhaus.