The scientific arm of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.
Balloon Photography


Aerial images of the marsh plant community are captured with a megapixel digital camera mounted on a tethered balloon. Digital images from 250-300 feet high capture the fine details of vegetation composition and distribution. Fitted with a 0.7X wide-angle converter each image covers an area of approximate 3 acres. Each pixel at ground level represents approximately ¾ of an inch on each side.
 

The camera is equipped with a timer that triggers the shutter at set time intervals. We have the best results when the timer is set to 30 seconds and image size to 3 MB. With a 512 MB memory stick, 170 images can be stored and captured from a 1.2 hour flight. An important limitation is the wind. Winds should be less than four miles and hour. In our area, we are also limited to 250 feet when we fly our camera within 5 miles of an airport.



Images are geo-referenced using known geographic features on the ground and several of them are joined in a seamless mosaic covering many acres. These balloon aerial photos are then used to ground truth high-resolution hyperspectral images classifications. They are also used to identify training sites from satellite images and to develop spectral libraries for vegetation classification. Among the applications currently using balloon photography is the monitoring of plant establishment in restoration sites, mapping invasive species distribution and mapping endangered populations.