Ritter Range Aerial Search Imagery

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TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:28am PT

i am posting this aerial imagery taken with a RED Mysterium X camera in early August primarily for search coordination and area familiarization in the search for Matt Greene

the RED camera is probably about as far away as you can get from a 'point and shoot' camera...everything has to be set by hand

i was shooting at approximately f8 (modified on-the-fly to optimize the exposure histogram), 1/48 shutter speed, 800 ASA (native for the Mysterium X sensor), using a cinema 35mmm Angeneux 25-250 zoom lens (mostly at about 150-250), using an 4x5 inch ND 1.9 filter and an IR filter (required because the camera is ultra sensitive to IR), shooting at 60 fps the first day and 30 fps the second day

this all seemed to make sense before we tried it...but not quite what i will use in the future

i was shooting through a cardboard and gaffers tape matte box taped to the aircraft side window, with the 4x5 inch filters taped inside, supported by a folded up out-of-date aeronautical map...this setup has been through several levels of evolution during our weeks flying Jeff Lowe and Connie Self around the western mountains last year (using a much lighter camera)

air turbulence made handling the 40 lbs plus camera in awkward positions challenging and provided a good workout...let's see 2 to 3 G turbulence and hard turns times 40 lbs...hmmm...and don't let it smack into the pilot or flight controls...

our able pilot (Chelsea thinks I am too wild at it) was flying maneuvers that would be the envy of many highly experienced hot shots...in order to get the mountain in the camera frame, flying in a side slip at high speeds (well over 160 mph), while constantly maintaining vigilance for sudden down drafts and large chunks of planet positioned at impractical locations in the flight path

i initially had problems with maintaining focus as the outer ring of the Angeneux rolled across the base of the 'matte box', so i taped it locked into focus at infinity...i didn't figure out a practical way to mount the RED 'bomb' view finder to manage precise focus settings and there was no room in the front seat for my assistant camera person/focus puller as would be normal on a movie set

if we were using the 'bomb' view finder, the operator would be readily identifiable by a black eye...

we were also challenged by air turbulence exceeding the G-force rating of the RED hard drives and knocking the camera off-line

we also had problems with the camera battery launching into the air and pulling the plug

the solution was for my assistant cameraman in the back seat, Tony Rogerson, to hold both of these in his hands in the air to cushion the shocks

Tony also had the duties of shooting random video with a Sony EX-1 camera, managing our oxygen supply bottle, and verifying that the gear light was green when we landed!

Tony also had a special assignment which he managed very well: to not throw up all over the equipment...

this is my first experience shooting this camera from the airplane, and not happy with the results...we are thinking of going back and shooting at faster shutter speed and faster frames per second to minimize rolling shutter distortions, and improve image stabilization

we have lots of extra light, as indicated by using the 1.9 neutral density filter...so we can get away with using faster shutter speed and frame rate...i just didn't want to take the time to re-engineer our matte box/filter setup when the air was predicted to get bumpier in a little while...as we got to verify on the way home...

this seems to be the highest res accepted by SuperTopo, but is not adequate to spot a person at this scale

we are able to zoom in substantially on the original images using tools such as RED CineX or Aperture

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:35am PT

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:36am PT

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:37am PT

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:39am PT

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:41am PT

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:42am PT

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:43am PT

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:45am PT

DonC

climber

Aug 18, 2013 - 12:01pm PT

Tom - I've got Aperture and would be happy to spend some time looking. I've spent quite a bit of time in the Minarets so I can orient myself quickly. What's the best way to get some of the full resolution images?
Don

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 12:17pm PT

email me at tfcochrane@earthlink.net

where are you? we are in Santa Cruz...

the fastest way to get a copy is to provide a hard drive

tdg119

Social climber

Northampton, PA

Aug 18, 2013 - 12:39pm PT

Humor me...how big would a person be on one of these low-res pictures? Pinhead? Smaller?

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 01:06pm PT

just a small dot

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Aug 18, 2013 - 05:22pm PT

Tom,
I believe what you have labeled "North Notch" is actually Ritter Pass.
pic 21-16-04

To the left of Ritter Pass, in 20-53-56 the ridge resumes with barely visible Waller Minaret (3557 mtrs on the Mount Ritter USGS quad)
Then, the spur ridge, coming towards the camera is Leonard Minaret, then Turner (3547) and Jensen on the ridge. Both indistinct.
Then, going left is North Notch, possibly above the "neck" in the glacier right of center in 21-16-10
Still in 21-16-10, the bases of Dawson, Bedayn, RIce and Eichorn (3700 m) Minarets, not easily recognized.
The base of Eichorn is at the top of the large, rectangular glacier.
--Note the chasm that drains this glacier.-- to Iceberg Lake.
Cecile Lake at lower left is a key feature in this pic.

To the left of 21-16-10 is the N Face of the Clyde Minaret (3738 m) with the distinct ribs, sometimes climbed from the left side of the glacier (Clyde route among others).
Far left is South Notch, to the left of Clyde Minaret and below Ken Minaret.
See the distinctive wavy band across the head of the Clyde glacier. A feature in many of the pics.

20-54-00 is a closeup of the Clyde glacier with the chasm and wavy band.

20-54-10 shows South Notch, Kehrlein Minaret to it's left, E Face of Clyde on far right.
The easier route across South Notch is the snowfield highpoint in shadow.

Do you know the camera direction in 10-54-14, -20 and -24?

Working backwards from the distinctive curving orange band on the Clyde glacier in 22-22-56
22-22-52 and -48 show chasm draining the Clyde glacier.
Also on the Clyde -41 and possibly -37 and probably -02; 22-30-20. Several other pics are closeups of the Clyde.

Down to 23-00-26 and -15
These are looking north on Amphitheater Lake in the cirque formed clockwise by Clyde (upper right corner), Ken, Adams, Michael and Eichorn.
Very steep and difficult shoreline. South face of Eichorn and East face of Michael rise above the giant talus field which might be the base of Amphitheater Chute.

Cragman and Flanders should probably double check my notes.

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 18, 2013 - 05:38pm PT

Tom I am looking forward to recieving your imagery.

I am very intrigued with the possibilities of crowd sourced SAR.

Currently available civilian Sattelite imagery is not adequate for locating individuals on land in all but perfect situations.

It should be possible to get high enough resolution imagery via overflight. Another strength of aircraft overflight is the ability to make several passes which helps determine if a subject is stationary or ambulatory.

Another difficulty is the ability to quickly distribute a well organized selection of imagery in a format easily searched by the average internet user. Kind of a specialized area of expertise that would benefit from a funded entity that could do this quickly on demand from various SAR groups.

Efficient procedures for taking reports and following up all the way to actual boots on the ground will need development.

I am SURE in the next months or years this will become a tool that saves lives.

I am looking forward to digging into your imagery and developing some experience that might be helpful in future efforts.

Of course I'll also be hopeful that we find Matt.

Even if this effort does not turn out as we hope.. I think it can be a crucial learning experience that will lead to saving lives and providing comfort to loved ones in the future.

Your teams effort cannot be a waste.

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 18, 2013 - 11:15pm PT

Thank you High Traverse...I'll make the corrections

This is just the sort of input I was hoping for, and as noted I had no previous familiarity with this area...

Climbski2, will send a set of five Blue Ray disks with the RED RAW data in the morning...

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 19, 2013 - 01:38am PT

just updated my first post describing our aerial video work

and please review my edits to the image descriptions

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Aug 19, 2013 - 02:17pm PT

Tom,
one clarification. I think my note was ambiguous
You have added:

2013-08-16 at 21-16-10
The bases of Clyde, Dawson, Bedayn, Rice and Eichorn (3700 m) Minarets

That order is mixed.
Right to left (the direction of your flight) e.g. North to South, the order is Dawson, Bedayn, Rice, Eichorn and Clyde.
This is important since we know Matt climbed Clyde.

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 19, 2013 - 09:04pm PT

today i sent RED RAW sets of five Blue Rays (100Gb) to climbski2 in Reno and Christian in Brooklyn

let me know that they arrive in good order

i have one other set of these, which took all day to make

if anyone else wants one, the better approach would be to buy online a hard drive at Best Buy, using my name to pick it up

we can then quickly transfer the files to the hard drive and mail it to you

we are probably going to make another pass at this when the weather improves

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 19, 2013 - 09:53pm PT

Got the single edited disk today. Spending a lot of time just orienting myself to the terrain. Google earth to -vid.. back and forth. Takes time just to figure out what/where stuff is.

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 20, 2013 - 12:23am PT

it might help to realize that we were basically flying clockwise circles around the range with the right side of the airplane (and camera) facing the range

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 21, 2013 - 06:27pm PT

Just received the disks. I'll Copy em to HardDrive and if it would help I'll gladly send em back.

Edit
504pm All Disks copied, Learned how to view in full res and zoom in. Lots of work now finding and searching clips of the areas I think have potential. Cataloging the clips and noting the ones to search will take a few hours.

The DATA rate is beastly at full resolution. Might be time to invest in 4 SS drives and RAID them.

Resolution zoomed out is not adequate but zooming out is critical for reference location. Zoomed in is barely adequate resolution at times. Higher shutter speeds recommended. 1/500 or above if possible. Depth of field not important and suggest locking focus at infinity.

REDCINE is an excellent program and is taking advantage of all 4 cores at My overclocked speed of 4.4G.

PS you guys were bookin! High airspeed = safety and glad to see that.

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 21, 2013 - 09:25pm PT

What peak is this? South of Clydes Minaret and directly above deadhorse lake. (cecil lake in the foreground)

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 21, 2013 - 09:53pm PT

You are correct that is cecil lake in the foreground.

The peak in question is just off the map SSW across deadhorse lake from the indicated position of Pridham. (the ridge in between to pridham is hard to make out)

Another pic of it

Just seems like a good smaller day objective for a guy in Mammoth with crampons who is waiting for his car to be fixed. Also perhaps enough off the beaten path of ritter/banner that he might not have been discovered. It would be familiar to him having done clydes.

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 21, 2013 - 10:50pm PT

Coo but in that case Summit post is incorrect :) And I'd take yours and QITNLs advice over a questionably marked map anyday.

Thanks Dean

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 21, 2013 - 11:01pm PT

Thanks again.. the gully just seems to be one of the few (current at the time of disapearance) snow routes in the area other than on Ritter/Banner that go anywhere worth going. (thus I can see why you went up it) It grabbed my attention pretty quickly as a real route and not just a dead end snowfield.

Like pretty much everything in the area it's perfect for incapacitating a solo climber. Just one loose rock could do it.

And theres about a trillion of those all over this range unfortunately.

I'll be looking at any imagery in this area for a while

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 22, 2013 - 01:15am PT

The peak I have indicated is to the south (left and out of frame)of Starr minaret.

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 22, 2013 - 02:24am PT

Thanks. It does seem a fairly quick approach from Minaret/falls.. devils postpile Johnston meadows area. Aprox 5 to 7 miles and 3 k elevation to base of the gully. Well within Matts apparent ability for a day hike. We are all grasping at straws. I'm avoiding ritter/banner (they have had more traffic) and looking for a good second alternative is all.

Perhaps this will help with orientation.

In this image it's hard to make out deadhorse lake. Trust me it's there.. the vid is much better for showing it.

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Aug 22, 2013 - 11:33am PT

climb2ski
In the photo you posted.
From Right to Left
Obviously Clyde and then Ken (rather obscure compared to Clyde), South Notch (above Cecile).
Left of South Notch on the ridge is the short spire Kerhlein. Then the low rugged ridge from Kerhlein coming due east towards Cecile Lake with Pridham (also obscure) and Riegelhuth with its steep N Face in shadow.

Continuing R->L is the short, steep ridge between Kerhlein and Starr Minaret.
Then the long high ridge from Starr to The Watchtower, southwest of Deadhorse Lake with the big ice filled couloir draining into the steep valley south (left) of Deadhorse Lake.
The very high and rugged Watchtower marks the end of the Minarets group.

a couple of pics from Bob Burd's site
Pridham from summit of Riegelhuth, Starr well to the left of Pridham
http://www.snwburd.com/bob/trip_photos/riegelhuth_minaret_1/DSC03797_w.html
Starr from NE (perhaps from summit of Pridham which Bob climbed on the same outing)
http://www.snwburd.com/bob/trip_photos/riegelhuth_minaret_1/DSC03806_w.html
The dramatic snow filled couloir so prominent from Tom's aerial pic is obscured by the East ridge of Starr.

EDITED for corrections.

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 22, 2013 - 11:41am PT

Thanks guys .. Just trying to understand the lay of the land. Perhaps I should delete the pics as they were questions not meant to fill others in with bad info.

I know the pics are not very good at this angle. But there is still something I am having trouble accounting for.

The peak (Watchtower) I have indicated by the square is SOUTH by SW of Deadhorse lake. This is very clear when watching the video but not showing well in the screenies I have labeled. Which puts it south of Starr peak on the same ridge.

Not really very material to the search (other than accuracy if folks ask for info or looking for it.)

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 22, 2013 - 12:30pm PT

More clarity on a different flyby.

A. Dead Horse Lake
B. Unnamed lake east and directly below Starr
C. Starr
?. ??

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Aug 22, 2013 - 01:31pm PT

I agree with QITNL
? peak is The Watchtower. Beck Lake pass to it's South (or behind in this view). Long ridge running north joining it to Starr Minaret. Earlier pic shows the two Beck Lakes clearly.
I had it wrong in my earlier post. Your new pic clarifies it well. I've edited my earlier post to minimize subsequent confusion.

Note: The Watchtower eastern couloir is mostly hidden from the main part of the Minarets, Cecile Lake, etc.

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Aug 26, 2013 - 11:35am PT

BUMP

SplitPants

Social climber

Aug 26, 2013 - 11:42am PT

Ok I have what is likely a dumb question as I am clueless about this type of technology.

Would it be of any benefit to crowd source examining this video using the local theater in Mammoth? Get a bunch of volunteers in there to examine in unison on a big screen. Just kind of thinking out loud based on reading the information in this thread......

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Aug 26, 2013 - 11:45am PT

Interesting idea. Why don't you contact Tom Cochrane directly? (just click on his his name below the avatar)

climbski2

Mountain climber

Anchorage AK, Reno NV

Aug 26, 2013 - 11:45am PT

I spent many hours looking carefully at all close up video provided of the east side of the Ritter range. From Banner to the Watchtower on several passes. Simply did not find anything. :(

This does not mean much really. I was also UNABLE TO RULE OUT any search areas. Only very short bits of the footage were of high enough resolution to be useful. It is a very difficult thing to take a camera up there in a small cramped bumpy aircraft shooting through the window and get the best results the first try. I do think this can be a usable tool. But it is very challenging.

Up thread I made some suggestions. Shutter speed being possibly a big key to getting the full sharpness his equipment should be capable of in each frame. Other issues make this a VERY difficult endeavor. Huge props to Tom Cochrane and the whole team involved.

Most cinematography is shot with relatively low shutter speed compared to still photography of fast moving subjects. (in this case it would help to reduce the effect of camera motion while zoomed in)

The reason slow shutter speed are generally used in cinematography/videography is that it makes the viewing experience much smoother. I have shot 1/1000 on professional video equipment in the past. It makes for a strange looking harder to watch film for most uses. But very sharp images. Which would be better for SAR usage.

TomCochrane

Trad climber

Santa Cruz Mountains and Monterey Bay

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 28, 2013 - 03:20am PT

working to refine this technique...unfortunately also have other fires to fight...Chelsea had to pass her Biannual flight review...the airplane is due for an expensive annual inspection...not to mention...

today we flew a local test flight with the RED Mysterium X at 1/2000 shutter speed, 30 fps, 800 ASA (native for the Mysterium X sensor), using a cinema 35mmm Angeneux 25-250 lens zoomed to 250 mm, with no filter, and aperture at f5.6 to balance the exposure histogram

some of it worked really well, depending upon light angle

trying to figure out how to fit in a matt box with a circular polarizer and IR filters and extra support for hand-holding the heavy camera and an optical flat to replace the plexiglass window

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Aug 28, 2013 - 12:25pm PT

Tom,
did you get any photos of the Castle Rock region? I'm managing a shaded fuel break project in CRSP and would love aerial photos if you took them. We've cleared the Kings Creek Truck Trail from Skyline to Vajrapani.
PLEASE, don't go out of your way to take more pics. Don't need them that badly