Thermal aerial search support over rural and bush terrain

The challenge

Ground searchers cover a small area slowly, and heavy vegetation hides an animal from a metre away. Time matters, and in cold conditions it matters a great deal. What ground teams need is a way to clear open ground quickly and to see into cover they cannot walk through.

The site

Farmland, bush, treelines and rural properties, with search areas set by where the animal was last seen and how far it could plausibly have travelled.

Equipment and method

Radiometric thermal search flown as systematic coverage of the priority area, working with the people already searching on the ground. Search points are coordinated live and the launch position relocated during the mission as the priority area shifts.

Airspace and safety

Rural airspace, with flights planned around light conditions since thermal contrast against cold ground is what makes a heat signature readable.

Deliverables

Live coordination with the ground team, positions of heat signatures worth investigating, and imagery of anything located.

Result

Searches flown through the year, with missing dogs and a cow located and returned to their owners. Not every search ends that way, and the flights that do not still clear a large area quickly and tell an owner where their animal is not. Either way the ground team is directed to the signatures worth walking to rather than covering ground at random, which shortens the search and keeps people off highway shoulders, river banks and unfamiliar land in the dark.

Read more about thermal imaging