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A well-traveled, multidisciplinary ambassador is helping scientists see things they've never seen before. This ambassador, known as HARLS-CS, is an integrated suite of high-tech equipment that offers mapping and modeling capabilities unavailable at any other U.S. research institution.
The High Accuracy/Resolution Landscape and Structure Characterization System expands research
activities in fields as diverse as crop health study, urban planning and homeland security.
"Suppose someone released aerosol with anthrax," said Fred Limp, the director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST). "Where will it go? What will it do? In order to predict its movement it is necessary to have accurate three-dimensional maps of all buildings, trees and the landscape. With the HARLS-CS now we can actually map an entire city in 3-D."
HARLS-CS allows researchers to quickly and accurately measure landscape and building-sized objects and create precise three-dimensional representations. This fits with technology already available at CAST, which is used for large-scale applications such as fields and lakes, or small-scale applications, such as characterization of teeth.
"In the past year, HARLS-CS has really been places," said project coordinator Jackson Cothren, an assistant professor of geosciences. The travelogue includes several archeological surveys, such as American Indian burial and ceremonial mounds in Spiro, Okla., and the study of remnants of a World War I era "army city" outside Fort Riley, Kan.
The HARLS-CS is currently being used by 13 faculty and students in CAST, the Archeological Survey, the Archeo-Imaging Lab and departments of anthropology, architecture, biological sciences, biological and agricultural engineering, civil engineering, entomology, geosciences and environmental dynamics.
The HARLS-CS suite contains a laser profiler, field spectroradiometer, multispectral camera, digital cameras, GPS, supporting software and a towable lift boom. Cothren brings together this diverse equipment to create a comprehensive way of looking at problems in need of resolution.