SAR Altitude Guide Results

YOUR SAMPLES

Visual View | Standing Up | 50m | Slanted

Thermal View (White Hot) | Standing Up | 50m | Slanted

Thermal View (Iron Red) | Standing Up | 50m | Slanted

YOUR GUIDANCE

Length in pixels of the missing person on your smart controller screen

Is your probability of detection/recognition/identification above 79%*?

*79% was selected as the optimal probability for each type of remote sensing, as per the International Aeronautical Maritime SAR Manual.

Each level of remote sensing defined:

• Detection: the ability to notice an object but you cannot determine the object
• E.g., you can spot an object in the field but cannot discern whether it is a person or not
• Recognition: the ability to recognize what an object is but with minimal detail
• E.g., you can recognize the object as a person, but cannot discern whether it is the person you are searching for
• Identification: the ability to identify that an object is the object you are searching for
• E.g., you can identify the person as your missing person

According to Johnson’s Criteria, the length of an object on your screen that is required for a 79% probability of detection/recognition/identification is:

• Detection: 4 pixels
• Recognition: 15 pixels
• Identification: 25 pixels

Recommendations for optimization

For a missing person that is standing up, we recommend these flight parameters:

• Camera angle: -30^o
  • This makes the person a bigger object on your screen. You’ll see their full height, rather than their shoulder width.
• Altitude: 50m
  • You may not be able to recognize or identify at this height if viewing only a visual camera. For a visual camera, recognition requires a 20m altitude and identification requires sub 10m altitudes – but both altitudes would slow down your search and are unsafe distances to ground obstacles. You will still be able to detect the missing person at 50m with a visual camera.

Important Notice

Please take these recommendations with the following caveats in mind:

• These calculations were made by using a Mavic 2EA and a smart controller screen.
• The “missing person” in these images is 5ft11 and weighs 105kg; if your missing person is smaller than that, you may want to fly lower to compensate for a smaller search object.
• The thermal images were taken when the air temperature was 5^oC and the missing person’s body temperature was 36.9^oC (recorded by Tympanic method); if the temperature difference is less than this, you may want to fly lower to compensate for less contrast.
• The terrain in these images is flat with vegetation at 10.3cm tall; if you are searching over hilly or mountainous terrain and/or taller vegetation, you may want to fly lower to compensate for this background clutter.
• Flying speeds will also impact performance; flying too fast will cause you to miss your missing person, no matter the number of pixels. We recommend 5m/s (airspeed), it is steady and most efficient for the motors to get the best possible battery endurance.