Week 11: HABL Ballon Launch

Introduction:

This week in class we launched the HABL rig into the upper atmosphere. The rig contained a flipcam which would document the journey, hopefully to ‘space’, in video form. The balloon we used had the possibility of reaching altitudes of over 60,000 feet, which would technically be in the Stratosphere. Luckily we got a warm clear day for the launch, our class gathered and brought the balloon out to the center of campus and let it fly.

Methodology:

We had been working in preparation of launch for over a month. We began almost halfway through the semester with initial designs and research of what the balloon would need to survive a flight to the stratosphere. We had no goal for the official height the balloon reached; we just hoped to see the curvature of the earth and potentially the black of ‘space’. On launch day we brought the rig out and prepped it by placing the camera inside along with a GPS, saran wrap, hand warmers and insulation. The view hole was big enough for a clear view of video at all times. The balloon was filled to nearly a diameter of 8 feet and the rig was attached with about 4 feet of slack. We didn’t fill the balloon to capacity because it would increase in size as it rose. The helium molecules in the balloon increase size as the surrounding air pressure goes down; as a result the balloon volume goes up. With the camera rig hanging below the balloon we had hopes of the camera staying mostly at a downward angle through the upper air turbulence. Also the rig had an attached parachute to help protect it as it fell back to earth.

Discussion:

The balloon took off with high hopes, there wasn’t much wind, and there was a good amount of uplift from the balloon itself. There was a brief scare when it was leaving campus as it flew within about 20ft of a construction crane. However, after that close call it had a rather glorious flight up. After a few minutes we lost sight of the balloon and had to wait for the fateful return of the attached GPS to earth.

See this launch video taken by a camera on campus.

After about an hour we finally got a tracking signal from the GPS unit telling us that the rig had landed near Marshfield, WI. The balloon went up for over an hour and landed about an hour drive away from campus, that’s some good fuel efficiency! Unfortunately the camera only could hold one hour of footage so the video cut out shortly after the balloon popping. Luckily there are some fantastic images we were able to take from the video. Take a look at the images here.

Conclusion:

This was by far the most amazing thing we did in this class. How many people can say they launched a balloon into ‘outer space’? We did it as a class with a relatively small price tag, and a great experience working as a team. Though there were a few issues with the rig, for example the condensation on the video camera lens about a half hour into the video. However, these things can easily be adjusted for greater success for other runs or for the future generation.

This link is to the classes edited video of the balloon rig video.

Yeah we sent a balloon into space.

Week 12: Arc Pad Data Collection

Introduction:
This week in Field Methods we set up a geodatabase for deployment and collected data in the field. This geodatabase was set up for a Trimble Juno GPS unit. Our goal was to go out and collect data on features that can be found at the UWEC Priory. The gathered data will be compiled into useful maps for the University to use for upkeep and possibly renovation for the Priory.

Study Area:
 The UWEC Priory was the location for field collection for our created domains. The Priory is located south of Eau Claire, WI (see Figure 8-1) and is useful to our university as a nature and children’s center. Since we had visited the Priory multiple times we were familiar with the landscape which made the process easier.

Methods: 
The first part of this activity was to make our geodatabase for data collection in the field with my group; Laurel, Phil and I. Each group in the class was tasked with the development of a geodatabase that would house our GPS data. We were responsible for deciding what features we would collect data on, our group decided to collect data on trees. To aid with the collection process we created domains for features within the geodatabase for classifying the collected trees. These tree domains included the condition, notable features and type of tree. The condition of tree domains were as follows; woodpecker damage, visible damage, fallen, new growth and other. For the notable tree features the options were; extra-large, extra-small, new growth and other. For both of these tree domains we added ‘other’ in case there was a remarkable trait that wasn’t a predefined domain. If there was a trait listed as ‘other’ we could enter that trait as text in the field that correlated to the feature domain. To be accurate when finding the types of trees we found the typical species of foliage that grew in the Eau Claire area; mixed hardwood, aspen, oak, red pine, white pine and jack pine. The feature class was then ready to be used for collecting data. (see Figure 12-1)
 For collecting data in the field our instructor provided each class member with a Trimble Juno GPS unit complete with the ArcPad application. These units are capable of nearly everything; they can be used as a cellular phone, palm pilot, internet browser, GPS, e-mail and more. The units were connected to the computer and we loaded our ArcMap map onto it, the map had the point boundary and trees feature class added in. With the ArcPad application on the Juno we could add points and edit feature classes as we saw fit.
We headed out to the Priory with our Juno’s ‘ready’ to go. The plan was to go out and walk the paths and take note of notable trees along those paths. Once my group arrived at the Priory we found out that only one of us had a Juno with the items properly loaded on. So we set out with only one working Juno and began gathering data on trees along the paths. To add data to our created feature classes is simple, in ArcPad you just click the add point tool and it creates a new point. This new point has the GPS coordinates attached and we just had to enter all the features the tree had. After some time we decided it was best to go along another path and collect trees on the other side of the Priory. We retraced and crossed the field and walked along a different path.
Data collection came to a close and we went back to campus to upload our gathered data to the geodatabase on the computer. When uploaded the created points and data are added to the trees feature class in ArcMap. (see Figure 12-2)

Discussion:
As mentioned before we were unable to gather data on a large number of trees due to time constraints. However, we were able to create maps with a fair amount of notable trees along the trails. Figure 12-3 shows the various types of trees that are located along the trails. We were surprised to not find any Jack Pine trees and only one Red Pine. From reading about the foliage in the county I suspected that there would be many trees of that type. When I was recording data I was looking specifically for a Jack Pine in hopes of getting at least one, unfortunately I was unsuccessful. The other trees that are of the <all other value> classification are dead or dying trees and we were unable to verify the species that they were.
The next feature of trees that I mapped out was the notable characteristic that each tree had. (see Figure 12-4) There are a lot of extra-large trees that caught our eyes as we hiked along the trails.The trees that are classified as Other were fallen trees or had visible damage, which leads into the next mapped out classification, tree conditions.
Most of the trees were healthy and notable because of their size, but a few had conditions that could be noted upon. (see Figure 12-5) The trees with different types of damage consisted of some that were fallen, some with storm damage and some with wildlife damage. There seems to be a sizable population of woodpeckers just north of the Priory building considering how many trees were affected by woodpeckers. Surveying the foliage in the area could be very interesting to help try and pinpoint wildlife populations and potential threats to the trees.
Though we were able to gather some data, the gathering process went awry at the start. Two of our group members didn’t have the data on the Juno properly uploaded, and only Laurel knew how to use ArcPad. We had to have a crash course on ArcPad from our instructor and GIS facilitator before we were able to go out and collect data. We also needed to have more than one person gathering data; in the allotted time we were only able to gather data on 14 trees.

Conclusion: 
The exercise was very beneficial in a few ways. The first benefit being that I was able to learn how to use ArcPad on a Juno. This skill set will be very beneficial to me as I further encompass myself into the geospatial realm. Another plus to doing this assignment was we had to trouble shoot our own methods of the entire process. We had only one out of three working Junos, and our group barely knew how to use ArcPad prior to the exercise. Though it wasn’t the most efficient way of learning how to use software, it was a good heads up for us to always be prepared.

Week 9: Balloon Mapping Part I

Introduction:

For this week in class we constructed our balloon mapping rig and put it to the test. The idea came from the Grassroots Mapping website where they have examples and tutorials of how to make a balloon mapping rig. Our activity as a class was to run a test of the Balloon Mapping by creating a rig, launching it, kiting it around campus and then georeferencing the images. We would use the images to create our own aerial image of the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire campus. This week was used as a testing session so if anything went wrong we could correct it for the following week’s activity and suffer no setbacks.

Methods:

In preparation for this activity we had done previous planning in Week 3 of our Field Methods class. However, with more time to think about the plans we made our professor decided to make changes. It started with the rig set up for our camera. The initial design called for a cut open 2-liter soda pop bottle that housed the camera inside with the viewer looking down (see Figure 9-1) but after some thought there were changes made. The new rig consisted of a small hard foam box that had a view hole cut into the bottom of it (see Figure 9-4). This design offered more protection to the camera and we hoped that the camera would stay in its position and capture high quality photos at a perpendicular angle to the ground.

Since we started class with a rig already set up we needed to have the balloon filled with helium and the string measured out. A group was designated to measure out 400ft of string. They went out into the hallway and measured the string in 50ft increments all of the way up to 400ft. (see Figure 9-2) With marks along the string it was easy to know when to stop the balloon from rising any higher and help maintain that altitude during the photo capturing session.

Meanwhile, myself and other classmates lugged the helium tank down the elevator and outside to the storage garage alongside of Phillips Science Hall. We brought the balloon out and connected the tube to the tank and started filling up the balloon. (see Figure 9-3) The balloon was filled until it was around 5.5ft in diameter and then we tied it off. To tie off the balloon we used zip-ties and had one at the top to start the seal, then placed a rubber ring onto the end, folded it over, then placed two more zip-ties on to secure the seal. The video that was made shows the output best.

With the balloon filled up and tied off we attached the string and rig using a carabineer. The rubber ring within the tied off portion of the balloon was a handy piece to have so we could easily attach the carabineer. With the rig with the camera securely attached to the balloon we were ready to start the continuous shot mode on the camera and GPS tracker and then launch the balloon. (see Figure 9-4) With the markers on the string we released the balloon with 400ft of string and began our mapping session.

The plan was to get a good portion of campus photographed so we began to walk throughout campus mall to gather our aerial photos. Our walk took us around the campus mall, but by the time we got back to the start position we had a problem. (see Figure 9-5) The wind was strong enough to flip our camera rig around, as a result the rig ended up facing the bottom of the balloon. We soon thereafter reeled in the balloon, this wasn’t the worst thing that could happen as we also wanted to test the video camera for our HABL (High Altitude Balloon Launch) rig that we would be launching at a date yet to be determined. Once reeled in we stopped the camera and went back to add more helium to the balloon.

After more helium added we used the same method to seal off the balloon and we attached the carabineer and this time we put on our video camera rig. (see Figure 9-6) The video camera we used was a Flip Cam, which is a very versatile camera that is small, high quality and waterproof. Once again we launched in the same place and began to walk the slightly arbitrary path again. This time we extended our walk as our professor wanted to get more footage of campus. We had to dodge trees and lamp posts frequently (see Figure 9-7) and the path we chose took us on the walking bridge that crosses the Chippewa River. (see Figure 9-8) With the wind picking up and our balloon seemingly running low on helium we decided to begin drawing the balloon in, that’s when disaster struck. Our professor was a few minutes too late in telling us to reel in the balloon and suddenly the balloon tore away from the string and the rig fell to the earth. Luckily our rig landed ‘safely’ right into the river and we were able to recover it. See the Video here.

With the balloon portion done for the week we headed back inside for the analysis of our images. We had many images to sort through, and few of them were at a proper perpendicular angle to work with. Once I amassed about 15 adequate images we were required to bring them into ArcMap, Erdas Imagine or Map Knitter and mosaic the images together. Map Knitter is an online website where you can import your images and georeference them simply by overlaying them on aerial imagery, typically from Google Maps. (see Figure 9-9) The Map Knitter website is a cool way to georeference the images and works quite handily, but I preferred to use ArcMap.

The images that were imported into ArcMap have no geospatial reference so the georeferencing tool in ArcMap was used to position the images correctly in our mapping session. We had to begin with a high quality aerial image of the UWEC campus as our control image. We used the Add Control Points to find good points to georeference the image from the camera to the given control image. The process is best used when you choose locations near the border of each image as a control point. Once you have a point in each corner of the image it is then time to move the control points to other areas on the image. (see Figure 9-10) For the first of our images it was difficult to do this, as is shown on the pictures, our campus is going through some major construction. The student union building on campus is no longer there along with complete changes to a majority of our campus mall. This made it difficult to georeference for some images unless you used only the images that were already georeferenced. 

Discussion:

Though we lost the balloon at the end of the activity the day was a great success. We tested out the balloon mapping and found that we would have to find a less windy day to get the best results. The day we chose to test the winds were stronger than we anticipated. Though we reeled out 400ft of string, the balloon was always at an acute angle to the ground which gave us lower than desired resolutions for the captured images. (see Figure 9-11) To go along with the balloon not being at the designated height it was always bobbing around which made the camera rig sway back and forth fairly rapidly. The continuous shot camera generally had no issues focusing and capturing good images. Some images, though not perpendicular to the ground, were fantastic images to see such as Figure 9-12 which gives a great shot of our new student union. Later in the flight, the rig rotated within the holster and ended up looking at the bottom of the balloon since the camera rig wasn’t secured well enough for a constant downward viewing angle. The camera inside fell out of place also and ended up taking numerous shots of the inside of the hard foam capsule. (see Figure 9-13)

Creating the rig for the balloon was rather simple since we had so many groups working on different pieces. There were no issues to speak of while filling the balloon with helium, nor were there any with attaching the rig either time. The launch also went swiftly with the wind carrying the balloon out and up quickly. The group who marked up the string to show the lengths that we were releasing the balloon up into the air placed a black piece of tape at the 400ft mark so we could find the point to stop unreeling at. (seeFigure 9-14)

One problem that arose was that we believed to be a deficiency of helium in the balloon close to the end of each of our flights. The balloon wasn’t as high as we had hoped and although the wind was blowing strong we expected the buoyancy of the balloon to keep it higher than it was. When we brought it in the first time we inflated it with more helium in hopes of it flying higher than it had been.

Another problem that came up was the detachment of the balloon to the string, see the video here. As I mentioned before it was lucky that we were crossing the river so the rig had a safe place to fall to. I believe that the rig broke off because of the rubber ring we used to attach the carabineer end of the string to the balloon. It was being tugged and pulled on the entire time we were out flying the balloon and rubber isn’t usually all that durable. It certainly wasn’t the balloon ripping or popping because it took off and flew out of site in just a few minutes. (see Figure 9-15) The rig that fell to the river had the entire thing intact along with the carabineer and the rest of the string was reeled in from the river.

Once back inside we had the opportunity to view the images immediately and we soon saw what we had to work with; a few out of hundreds. As mentioned before most images were at bizarre but fantastic angles capturing images of the surrounding landscape, but few were at the angle we wanted for mosaicking. So we hoped the video footage from the Flip Cam would serve fruitful to our cause. After a short viewing session it was easy to tell there wouldn’t be much use as it was a dizzying clip of rapid movement.

After working the images in ArcMap with the georeferencing tool I was able to create a satisfactory mosaic of images to represent a small portion of campus. I did my best to georeference the sidewalks together but it was a challenge to use the full images. It was a challenge due to the fact that the edges of the images are warped due to the lack of altitude that the image was taken at. (see Figure 9-16) I attempted to remove the edges of the photos to try and obtain the most perpendicular portions of the images using a raster extraction tool. I tried extract by circle but found it to be inefficient and very time consuming. The images we were working with were not of good enough quality to spend so much time working with, but it was a good chance to practice for the major mosaicking we would be doing for the real balloon mapping activity.

Conclusion:

In conclusion this week’s activity was a fantastic precursor to what will be a great mapping opportunity. We had multiple trial and error issues that arose while conducting the test and we documented those properly to help have the best chance of success when we fly our true mapping balloon. The important things to take from the test that we conducted are that we need a better way of attaching a camera to the balloon, and we need a more suitable day weather-wise for balloon mapping. Georeferencing the images we captured was a bit painstaking but it is an awesome way to piece them together in a single viewing apparatus. I certainly hope we can find a better day to be able to balloon map as this map will be one of the first of our new campus layout at UWEC.

Week 8: Final GPS Navigation

Introduction:

Week 8’s GPS navigation activity was yet another extension of the previous navigation activities we have been doing at the UWEC Priory and to keep things interesting we added a little ‘spice’. Groups were geared with their maps, a list of coordinates, a Garmin eTrex GPS and a paintball gun. The goal for this week’s activity was to navigate to all 18 points as fast as possible with the first group having their travel cards fully marked wins.

Study Area:

As mentioned above we have been coming to the UWEC Priory for the previous two activities so as a group we are fairly familiar with its features, which helped to speed up the navigation activities. The UWEC Priory is located south of Eau Claire, WI (see Figure 8-1) and is useful to our university as a nature and children’s center. For the activity we had to navigate to 18 points, 12 of which we already navigated to in the previous two weeks, so with only six new points to find we figured it wouldn’t take all night to do.

Methods:

In preparation for the activity each member had to obtain a Garmin GPS unit from the University prior to going to the Priory. When we arrived our class met outside and each person was given a paintball gun (Figure 8-2) and protective gear before we started. Before we began our professor outlined the rules we had to abide by for the use of the paintball guns. They were; no shooting near the building so we don’t frighten the children at daycare, one must wear their mask at all times, no harming nature or wildlife on purpose, no shooting until the 5 minute grace period at the beginning was over and if we are hit in a firefight we must take a 5 minute ‘time out’.

With previous working knowledge of the GPS units we were given our maps and coordinate pairs and were ready to go. The points were given to us in UTM coordinate pairs (same as previous weeks) and each group of 3 people was able to choose their starting point, which was likely to be different from other groups to avoid constant fear of being ‘painted’. We had to use the readings on our GPS units to direct us to the starting location and once there we started up our track logs.

Our group decided to begin with point 1A and go from there to 6B, 5, 2B and so on and so forth. (see Figure 8-3) We decided on this for no particular reason other than the fact that most groups seemed to be going the same way, i.e. starting at 2A and going clockwise through the course, and some people in our group were less inclined to engage in firefights than I was, which probably would have happened had we gone in the same direction other groups did.

Once the activity for the day was done we had to upload our group’s points to a computer from the eTrex unit. Since we did the same thing a week before the uploading went fast and we placed our point shapefiles in the class geodatabase. The new shapefile was easily imported onto our previously made mapping session and there on the computer we could analyze our new course. We were instructed to make multiple final maps; one with only our own track log, mine has less than half the course since it ran out of battery, one with each group member’s track log, and one with every track log from every class member. (see Figures 8-3, 8-4 & 8-5)

Discussion:

With previous visits to the Priory it was relatively easy for us to navigate, while using a map and a GPS we were finding points with little to no issue. However towards the end of the activity we were becoming restless as we had been hit with a few paintballs and been trudging through the snow for nearly two hours. As you can see towards the end of the navigation we didn’t quite make it to points two and three. Two of our GPS’s had run out of battery and as a result we had to focus on using only one unit as a group. Soon thereafter our map was lost in a firefight and so we needed to combine efforts with another group, luckily we still needed the same points.

During the activity we had navigated to the first three points when we ran into our first ‘enemy’ group. We had them slightly surprised as we snuck up from behind and began firing. Paintballs are not the most accurate form of ammunition; they typically veer to one side after traveling about 20 feet through the air which takes a person’s aim nearly out of the equation. However, our group was able to make the first hit on one of our fellow classmates. After meeting up to see if our colleague was going to have a new bruise we decided to navigate together for a few minutes. We realized that our only chance for action was each other as the other groups were on the other side of the Priory. Our group elected to give them a head start on navigating to the next point and see if we would meet again, we did. The second firefight was between points 6A and 4B, and it was another battle of bad misses but we came out victorious once again. It was done with a wonderful flanking maneuver performed by yours truly. As described Figure 8-4, I swiftly moved around the target while one person distracted them with paintballs and my shot was dead on, though it was mostly luck, right to the face. After that firefight we only saw one other group for the rest of the time that we were navigating, which was a little disappointing. 

Conclusion:

All in all the paintballing just have a little ‘spice’ to the activity and had no real importance to our understanding of navigation and geographical skills. But it certainly made for an exciting way to top off the activity.

This navigation activity was the culmination of all that we had learned while we were out at the UWEC Priory. We first started with just a map and compass, then we changed methods using a GPS navigation unit, and in the end we compiled all the skills we learned with those previous two activities to navigate to all of the points in just one afternoon.

With these obtained skills in navigation with a map or GPS I am now confident in my ability to get somewhere that I need to go if one or the other fails.