Courtesy of InRelief.org, we can view recent footage shot by a Navy P-3 Orion surveillance plane of a humanitarian aid drop over Haiti. It's part of an ongoing collaboration between the military and civilian relief agencies on the ground, an effort to "crowdsource" earthquake relief by sharing maps, satellite imagery and other time-sensitive data.
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Hours after the disaster, the Pentagon released footage shot from an RQ-4 Global Hawk. The imagery shown here is another example of this kind of collaboration. Researchers at San Diego State University's Immersive Visualization Center (a.k.a. the "Viz Lab") have been helping the Navy process imaging data collected during the earthquake relief effort. As an SDSU news item notes, Viz Lab co-director Eric Frost and Viz Lab staffers have been toiling "around the clock" to process the stream of images being relayed from Haiti, including aerial footage collected by P-3s.
It's a fairly innovative use of a patrol aircraft that was originally designed for anti-submarine warfare. According to the SDSU news item, the Viz Lab is combining images from aircraft, sats and GPS devices to create layered, multi-level maps that can help rescue workers assess the damage, plot relief efforts and navigate the ruins.
Data processed by the Viz Lab can also be accessed at Haiti Crisis Map. For more P-3 footage, click here.
[Spotter: JR]
