Hansa Luftbild’s modern corridor mapping is an ideal technique for the planning, documentation, survey and surveillance of corridors such as the electricity grid, pipeline networks, and the roads, and rail system. With a combination of laser scanning, digital and thermal imagery as well as Differential GPS (DGPS) Hansa Luftbild can complete many tasks on the basis of only one flight.

Hansa Luftbild flies corridors by helicopter, which makes low altitude flights and high resolution capture possible. The carrier platform is equipped with a laser scanner digital camera, thermal camera, and DGPS. These ensure accurate positioning (refer to figure right). The collected data is an ideal basis for generating 3D-terrain and surface models, which is of great advantage in surveying, documenting and planning routes for e.g. overhead power lines, pipelines, roads and rail track.

The laser scanner captures terrain at a pulse rate of 100 kHz, which at a flying altitude of 200 meters generates 15 points per square meter. The density of the points enables different perspectives – cross-sectional and longitudinal profiles can be derived.

The digital camera delivers either real colour or colour infrared images with a pixel resolution of 5 cm at a flying altitude of 200 meters. The digitally rectified aerial photos serve as the base information for a geographic information system and can at the same time be used to verify the classification of laser data.

Fractures in overhead power lines, the illegal tapping of or leakages in pipelines, and heat loss from city heating networks can all be located with the aid of a thermal camera. Hansa Luftbild’s thermal camera provides video output of 768 x 525 pixels with a resolution of 10 x 14 cm at a flight altitude of 200 meters. Image capture is at a frequency of 30 Hz, which corresponds to 30 full scenes per second.