Vanguard Magazine

a arcTic www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 25 sar and military potentials Leblanc and his fellow researchers believe they may have stumbled upon (or in this case, flew into) a much-ignored phenom- ena that could have critical importance to SAR and Department of National De- fence operations. For centuries, native hunters and track- ers have mastered the art of discerning the paths taken by animals and people by "reading" the imprints left by their quarry on the ground or snow. Leblanc and his team believe they can apply the same principle to aide airborne searchers identify minute patterns in "dis- turbed snow" from the air to determine the movement of humans and vehicles. To accomplish this, searchers will need to rely on a hyperspectral imager, a device that collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. The goal of hyperspectral imaging is to gather the spectrum of each pixel in the image of a scene in order to find objects, identify materials or detect processes. The research is at the very early stages. In fact, the team is still looking for fund- ing. However, the researchers are con- vinced the detection of disturbed snow will be very useful in several applications: • Search and Rescue • Avalanche prediction • Arctic mammal winter feeding analysis • Military applications If proven effective, their method could have a tremendous impact on how the military, SAR teams, and scientific re- searchers conduct their operations. For example, said LeBlanc, stranded or lost snowmobilers account for nearly 80 per cent of SAR calls. "But rescuers can't just blindly follow snowmobile tracks in the snow because you're bound to come across dozens of them in a given area," he said. "Following the wrong track could be disastrous." But if rescuers had a way of discerning which tracks are more recent or which ones correspond with the time that person in trouble was on the trail, rescuers could have an advantage. Similarly, Canadian troops could use hyperspectral imaging technology to de- tect potential incursion into our territory in the Arctic or other areas where there is snow. The method can also aid scientific re- searchers in tracking things such as wildlife migration, breeding and feeding patterns. How it all began How Leblanc and his co-researchers came up with the idea of using disturb snow is a story in itself. The senior research officer and his com- panions were in an aircraft flying over a snow-covered expanse just outside Que- bec City as part of a research mission to- tally unrelated to disturbed snow. Inside the plane, the researchers trained their hyperspectral imager on the snow below. The human eye discerns the colour of visible light in mostly three bands – red, green and blue. The spectral imager di- vides the spectrum into many more bands and sees in different wavelengths. canadian troops could use hyperspectral imaging technology to detect potential incursion into our territory in the arctic. — Dr. George Leblanc

• Cover