Boebel, Olaf

Burkhardt, Elke

Kindermann, Lars

Zitterbart, Daniel

English

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Search A A AOverview Sat 5 - Mon 7 June Tue 8 June Wed 9 June Thu 10 June Fri 11 June Sat 12 June Sun 13 - Mon 14 June My scheduleSearch the programme SearchAUTOMATED WHALE DETECTION AND LOCAL, HIGH RESOLUTION ICE MAPPING USING A 360° SHIP-BASEDTHERMAL IMAGERD.P. Zitterbart1,2, L. Kindermann1, E. Burkhardt1, O. Boebel1 1AWI, 2Erlangen University Time: Sometime between Friday 11 June 16:00 and 17:30 theme: Theme 5. New frontiers, data practices and directions in polar research session: T5-2 Polar observing systems event: Poster session PS3 - Section A location: Hall C Ship borne visual observations are the predominant method to detect whales in the context of cetacean research and mitigationefforts during noise producing anthropogenic marine activities. Detections in most cases rely on spotting the whales’ blow, whichis frequently of low contrast and visible for a few seconds only, requiring utmost concentration of the observer. Hence, toreliable conduct such observations for multi-week periods on a 24h per day basis, large teams of observers are necessary tocompensate for observer fatigue and the limited human field of view. Moreover, visual observations are restricted to daylighthours. For high-latitude regions, a whale’s blow contains fluid droplets which are significantly warmer than the polar environment,making thermal imaging a promising detection method for both day- and night-time. Here we present first results from a ship-borne, 360°, thermal imager, FIRST-Navy (RDE, Germany), which provides a continuous video stream of the ship’s perimeter. Theimager is mounted in the crow’s nest of RV Polarstern and comprises a fully stabilized gimbal and a high resolution, 8-12 µmcooled infrared scanner. Video data collected near Spitsbergen reveal that whale blows were clearly visible up to a distance of at least 1.5 km, even underrelatively warm water conditions of 6°C. With decreasing water temperatures, detections ranged up to 3 km. Currently,automated detection algorithms are under development, with first results from an ongoing Antarctic cruise to be presented atthis conference. In addition, the IR video data may be used to generate a high resolution infrared map of the ship’s immediate surrounding(approximately 1km). In particular, such images directly represent the local ice coverage in real time. This may be used forresearch applications, such as the calibration of satellite-based ice imagers or navigational purposes (finding leads or avoidinggrowlers), particularly at night. Tip a friend  Print viewIPY-OSC secretariat, The Research Council of Norway, PO Box 2700 St.Hanshaugen, N-0131 Oslo, Norway - Editor: Kristen UlsteinMessage LogTheme 1. Linkages betweenPolar Regions and globalsystemsTheme 2. Past, present andfuture changes in PolarRegionsTheme 3. Polar ecosystemsand biodiversityTheme 4. Humandimensions of change:Health, society andresourcesTheme 5. New frontiers,data practices anddirections in polar researchT5-1T5-2T5-3T5-4T5-5Theme 6. Polar scienceeducation, outreach andcommunicationExcursionsPolarEXPOEarly Career ScientistProgrammePlenary SpeakersPolarEXCHANGE with SueNelsonPolarCINEMAPolarFESTIVALPolarTEACHERSRelated events Home Venue Programme Registration News Organisation Guidelines Press room Downloads Web TV17.05.2011 Automated whale detection and local, …http://ipy-osc.no/abstract/377428 1/1

Automated whale detection and local, high resolution ice mapping using a 360° ship-based thermal imager.

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