"Providing Remote Sensing Technologies"

TerraVerde Technologies is dedicated to bringing its customers the most practical and cost effective remote imaging solutions. Remote imaging allows the micromanagement of crop fields and other vegetation by providing clear images that show the stress points caused by soil conditions and insects. This allows the concentration of resources to be placed on plants that actually need it, rather than healthy plants.

Satellite imagery, by far the most common way of obtaining remote images, has several downfalls which we have attempted to avoid. Satellite imagery comes with a hefty price tag, a price tag that does not always yield the promised benefits. Satellite images have to be ordered in advanced, as the satellite may only pass over a given area in daylight once or twice a week. Overcast days present more problems; the satellite produces useless images of clouds, making it necessary to schedule more pictures and costing more money.

The TerraHawk system, an integrated turn-key system, makes remote imaging easy. It takes multispectral images from an aircraft, allowing the user to take images with much shorter notice, a boon when working with the weather. By allowing impromptu flights the TerraHawk system eliminates the need to plan weeks in advance to get images and provides the added benefit of only taking images when the day is clear. Imaging can be done on consecutive days as needed. Also image processing can be done the same day as opposed to waiting for the satellite to transmit the images to the company and then waiting for the company to mail the images.

Using the TerraHawk system is easy. The Geospatial Systems Multispectral Camera attaches to gimbals that automate roll, pitch, and yaw stabilization. Included with the system is an easy to use, sunlight readable, moving map LCD display providing the pilot with real time location in relation to the fields. Once over the fields, the camera takes images at a preset time interval or overlap percentage. The images are then stored on an internal hard drive. The DragonFly program controls the moving map display and can copy images to an external USB hard drive to allow further processing.