SkyEye 350 Optimare Medusa Airborne Oil Spill Monitoring Platform
Aerial Surveillance Systems, Inc and OPTIMARE Sensorsysteme have launched the SkyEye 350, Hawker/Beechcraft King Air 350-based MEDUSA Airborne Oil Spill Monitoring Platform. With the recent Gulf of Mexico BP Oil Spill Disaster pointing to the worldwide need for a robust and high-tech solution for workable and effective oil spill response plans, ASSI and OPTIMARE have joined forces to integrate the full suite of airborne sensors by OPTIMARE and the airborne maritime surveillance system MEDUSA into the SkyEye 350 multi-role, special missions, aerial surveillance aircraft.
Airborne oil spill monitoring by the SkyEye 350 allows for full and flexible investigation and tracking of all types of oil spills and the characteristics of those spills. These characteristics allow oil spill response crews and vessels to quickly and accurately assess and plot the areas of highest (thickest) oil concentrations and will allow decision-makers to move quickly in directing effective clean-up efforts, will allow the deterrence of potential polluters and will aid clean-up provability by storing secure, time-stamped and geo-referenced evidence of the spill scene for future reference.
The OPTIMARE MEDUSA System allows robust oil spill or illegal discharge, long-range detection and acquisition, real-time display as well as immediate post-overflight processing of remote sensing data. Post-overflight processing includes automated image analysis, pollution classification and GIS export. The MEDUSA System integrates multiple airborne imaging remote sensors into one user-friendly, robust, network-based data acquisition and processing framework and when combined with other remote sensors such as underwater, satellite-based and fixed buoy systems, will provide a heretofore unavailable capability for the detection, interpretation and analysis of oil spills and will allow for timely and effective disaster response and mitigation plans. No other airborne platform of its type exists in private operation in the world and this new service will provide oil companies, pipeline and drilling rig operators and shipping companies with rapidly deployable, low cost, comprehensive remote sensing capabilities for implementing effective oil spill response plans.
The FLIR Systems, Inc. Star SAFIRE HD was selected to be the electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor for the SkyEye 350. The Star SAFIRE HD is a second generation, multi-spectral imaging system. The specially modified EO/IR sensor package will capture stabilised high-magnification images that allow the SkyEye 350 to provide a wide range of low-medium-high-altitude tactical missions and long-range covert surveillance operation capabilities and will work in concert with the other systems to provide long-range oil spill detection and tracking of vessels, day and night.
The SkyEye 350 is the most technologically advanced, multi-role aerial surveillance platform in the world at its cost point. The aircraft is being offered at as a turnkey, COTS, user-friendly, exportable system to the US DoD, international and foreign government customers and is available now with the shortest available delivery lead-time in the industry.
