December 1, 2003
NOAA Uses Applanix DSS system to survey Hurricane Isabel damage

Sept. 22, 2003 — Hurricane Isabel left her permanent calling card after slamming into the coast of North Carolina last week. North Carolina now has a new inlet courtesy of the Category 2 storm located near Cape Hatteras Village. A NOAA Twin Otter aircraft flew multiple flights Friday through Sunday where it took detailed images of the altered coastline at the request of several North Carolina state agencies, including its Emergency Management Agency and Department of Natural Resources.

The flights were carried out by the NOAA Ocean Service. The NOAA aircraft was equipped with an Applanix-Emerge Digital Sensor System or DSS camera where it took more than 600 images of the North Carolina Coast. This was the maiden voyage of the camera which NOAA is using for research and development of the technology for use in NOAA programs, such as coastal mapping. NOAA acquired the camera two weeks ago.

The camera, which was mounted on the bottom of the NOAA aircraft, has an integrated GPS/Inertial system that allows direct geo-referencing of the imagery without the use of ground control points. The images were taken at an altitude of 7,500 feet.

Unlike the NOAA image of " Ground Zero" at the World Trade Center in New York, which took two weeks to process using film, the North Carolina digital images were produced in about two hours after the aircraft landed.

One NOAA image shows the altered North Carolina coastline near Cape Hatteras Village where a new inlet was created by the waters pushed by Hurricane Isabel. The new inlet is located near the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Park, which is north of Cape Hatteras Village. Another image shows the storm’s destructive force where buildings were moved from their foundations. (Click NOAA satellite image for larger view of Hurricane Isabel close to making landfall taken Sept. 18, 2003, at 7:53 a.m. EDT. Click here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit "NOAA.")

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation’s coastal and marine resources. NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

About Applanix Corporation
Applanix, a Trimble Company (NASDAQ: TRMB), develops, manufactures, sells and supports products and solutions for Mobile Mapping and Positioning. Applanix’ Position and Orientation Systems ( POS) are used in a variety of applications, including road profiling, GIS data acquisition, aerial surveying and mapping, railroad track maintenance and seafloor mapping. Established in 1991, Applanix strives to support customers around the world with exceptional service.

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