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Unmanned airborne systems (UAS) based remote sensing offers flexible tool for environmental monitoring. Novel lightweight Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) based, frame format, hyperspectral imaging in the spectral range from 400 to 1600 nm was used for identifying different species of trees in a forest area. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this was the first research where stereoscopic, hyperspectral VIS, NIR, SWIR data is collected for tree species identification using UAS. The first results of the analysis based on fusion of two FPI-based hyperspectral imagers and RGB camera showed that the novel FPI hyperspectral technology provided accurate geometric, radiometric and spectral information in a forested scene and is operational for environmental remote sensing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unmanned airborne system (UAS) remote sensing using lightweight multi- and hyperspectral imaging sensors offer new possibilities for the environmental monitoring applications. Based on the accurate measurements of the way in which the object reflect and emit energy, wide range of affecting variables can be monitored. Condition for reliable applications is reliable and accurate input data. In many applications, installation of geometric and radiometric reference targets in the object area is challenging, for instance, in forest or water areas. On the other hand, UASs are often operated in very poor conditions, under clouds or under variable cloud cover. Our objective is to develop an autonomous hyperspectral UAS imaging system and data processing chain that does not require any ground reference targets. Prerequisites for this kind of a system are an appropriate sensor setup, stable and well-calibrated instruments and rigorous data processing. In this paper, we will describe the new hyperspectral UAS imaging system that is under development. Important applications for the proposed system include precision agriculture, forest monitoring and water quality monitoring. Finally, we will consider the use of the system in forest inventory application and present the first results of the summer 2014 campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]