Background (3/7/97, Steve Hennessy) Jay Stratakes, PM of the Predator Program, allowed me to view and borrow tapes from his library. We need to dupe/digitize them and return them ASAP. This will insure we can review and digitze the rest of the library noted below. Digitization is preferable for experimental reasons and due to the fact that the image quality can already be low due to haze. Some of the tapes should also just be duped in order to help the R&D community see significant portions of the missions and "absorb" how the system is used. I basically did a spot scan of the tapes at ~10 minute intervals, noting the activities. As such I may have missed interesting things or switches between eo/ir and l/m/h resolution. On some of the tapes, I just used an "interest threshold" and did not complete the review. Each tape needs a full review and hopefully the interesting segments will be digitized. (++) In the far right indicates I thought the tape content was of quite good quality or interesting. Some general observations: EO image quality can be quite poor due to haze and atmosphere, but it seems to be 80% of the content of the tapes. It may be interesting to look at video-based image restoration for TV (if unique research can be done here). Even though the IR seems to cut through the haze in those instances where I see a switch, it is only used 20% of the time There was a great deal (est. 60%) of "LOC Scan" (line of communication scan: follow roads) activities, some with tracking of moving vehicles at various resolutions and contrasts. These sometime included "checkpoint-like" scenes with moving vehicles and humans intermixed. There as also a significant amount (est. 20%) of scanning of military vehicle parking areas. In these, the "soda straw" effect of the sensor is really notable. Tapes Scanned and Rejected: 29 June 96: 1,7 4 July 96: 1,2,3,4 5 July 96: 1,3 14 July 96: 1,3,4,5 16 July 96: 1,2,4,5 5 Feb. 97:1 Tapes Remaining to be Scanned: 31 May 96: 4 25 June 1,2,3 26 June 96: 1 27 June 96: 1,2,3,4,5 3 July 96: 1 6 July 96: 1,2,3,6 7 July 96: 1,2,3,5 9 July 96 1,2,3,4 11 July 96: 1,2,4 "3/20 Payload Sarajevo JPO" "1 APR. Payload JPO 3" "Payload #2/3 1 APR. JPO" "SSN/UAV Demo - Selected Clips" Mission Tape Summaries (Hi-8, NTSC Video): Format: xx June xx RnTn "Date, Rack N, Tape N" hr lc eo c hr: high ground resolution (many pixels on object); mr: medium resolution lr: low resolution lc: low contrast (many scenes are highly affected by haze/moisture) vlc: very low contrast mc: medium contrast hc: high contrast eo: electro-optic sensor: RGB video camera ir: infrared sensor: Platinum Silicide c: C band, live video, line-of-sight ku: KU band satellite link, 2-10 hz imagery, intra-frame compression 29 June 96 R2T2 00 flight 12 hr lc eo c Village - eo/ir switch 24 flight 32 flight 40 flight 50- 70 m-hr mc eo c Bridge head/checkpoint area. Moving vehicles and people (++) 70-120 needs further scan 29 June 96 R2T3 00 mr hc eo c LOC scan, moving vehicles (++) 10 mr mc eo c field, moving humans, c-band breakup (++) 20 mr mc eo c LOC scan, c-band breakup 30 mr mc eo ku LOC scan, parked convoy, moving vehicles and people (++) 40 mr mc eo ku LOC scan 50-120 needs further scan 29 June 96 R2T4 00- 20 mr mc eo ku LOC scan, moving vehicles (++) 30- 40- 50 mr hc eo ku LOC scan, moving vehicles, convoy, buses, depot (++) 60- 80 same as 40, but vlc 80-120 needs further scan 29 June 96 R2T5 00 mr mc eo ku Depot moving vehicle, men. Some hr (++) 20- 30 mr mc eo ku Depot parked guns (++) 40- 50 same as 30, vlc 60- 70 flight 70-120 needs further review 29 June 96 R2T6 00- 23 lr vlc eo ku very poor contrast buildings, river 33 flight 43 mr hc ir c home field landing 50- 120 not reviewed 2 July 96 R2T2 P004 00 lr lc eo ku Village 61 lr hc ir ku Village, Hills occluding village 65 mr vlc eo ku Village, Hills, clouds 72 mr hc ir ku Village, Fields 86 lmhr lc eo ku LOC scan, some clouds 2 July 96 R2T3 P004 00 mr vlc ir ku Building facility 12 hr lc eo ku Facility, Buildings, Motor Pool 42 hr lc eo ku Cantonment: guns, vehicles (++) 88 hr hc eo ku Tanks trees buildings tents. moving veh and people (++) 99 mr lc eo ku LOC scan, woods, tents 2 July 96 R2T5 POO4 00 mr hc ir c LOC scan, small moving veh, IR focal plane pattern evident mr lc eo c same as above in eo 06 lr hc ir c LOC scan, village, destroyed bridge, fuel tanks (++) 13 mr lc eo c same as above in eo 26 to 50 flight to base 103 mr hc ir c home base airfield and landing 5 July 96 R2T2 00 flight 15 mr vlc eo c roads and village 30 hr mc eo c large industrial facility, moving veh and parked trucks (++) 45 mr vlc eo c Industrial facility, parked tanks, moving veh (++) 60- 115 mr vlc eo ku facilities, roads, extremely low contrast, haze 5 July 96 R2T4 00- 15 clouds, ir flicker (shutter?) 30 mr mc eo c LOC scan, movers, convoy (++) 45 mr lc eo c road network, depot, moving people (++) 60 mr vlc eo c tracked mover along road, moving people (++) 75 mr vlc eo c site/bridge, parked tanks, moving people, some c breakup (++) 90- 105 mr mc eo c Road network, village, parked vehicles, moving vehicles 5 July 96 R2T5 00 mr vlc eo c road network, buildings, depot, moving people (++) 15 mr hc ir c industrial area near river, parked vehicles (++) 30 mr vlc eo c LOC scan, haze 45 mr vlc eo c destroyed bridge 60- 90 Fly to homebase, landing 14 July 96 R2T2 00 mr lc eo c quarry-like site, railyards, building 10-20 flight-clouds 30 mr vlc eo ku LOC scan 40 mr vlc eo ku natural terrain 50- 60 mr vlc eo ku LOC scan, bad haze 70 hr vlc eo ku Depot, trucks, guns (+) 80 lr vlc eo ku LOC road network 90 hr mc eo ku Depot, lines of military vehicles (++) 100 mr vlc eo ku LOC, village 110 mr vlc eo ku LOC, buildings 16 July 96 R2T3 00-30 in flight 30-52 lr hc ir ku LOC scan, village Prominent flicker (IR shutter?) 60 mr mc ir ku LOC scan, village, moving vehicles (++) 66-77 hr hc ir ku Military depot thru clouds. Trucks, APC's (++) 90 clouds flight 100 mr mc ir ku LOC scan, village 16 July 96 R2T5 00 flight 10 flight 20 mr vlc eo/ir? c large buildings, faint movers 30 mr lc eo c fields, veh tracks in fields 33 hr vlc eo c track moving vehicle 40 mr lc eo c LOC scan, no movers 50 mr vlc eo c Village 60 mr vlc eo c Tent city, faint movers 70-90 mr hc ir c Airport, parked combat vehicles, long dwell, switches to eo (++) 90-110 Flight