Ambassador Unites Diverse Disciplines, Unique Research Capabilities

Fayetteville, Ark. - A well-traveled, multidisciplinary ambassador for the University of Arkansas is helping scientists see things they've never been able to see before. HARLS-CS, as this ambassador is known, is an integrated suite of high-tech equipment that offers mapping and modeling capabilities unavailable at any other U.S. research institution.

The application of the technology also plays a pivotal role in a project that has garnered national attention for a university graduate student.

The High Accuracy/Resolution Landscape and Structure Characterization System, better known as HARLS-CS, dramatically expands research activities in fields as diverse as crop health study, urban planning and even homeland security.

"Suppose someone released aerosol with anthrax," mused Fred Limp, the man responsible for bringing HARLS-CS to the University of Arkansas. "Where will it go? What will it do? In order to predict its movement it is necessary to have accurate three-dimensional maps of all buildings, trees and the landscape. With the HARLS-CS now we can actually map an entire city in 3-D."

Limp is the director of the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST). HARLS-CS allows researchers to quickly and accurately measure landscape and building-sized objects and create precise three-dimensional representations. This fits seamlessly into technology already available at CAST, which is used for large-scale applications such as fields and lakes, or small-scale applications, such as characterization of teeth. These different levels of precision and accuracy creates new opportunities for surveyors, researchers and engineers to create useful 3-D models of landscapes and buildings

"The idea is (to characterize) the medium resolution," said project coordinator Jackson Cothren, an assistant geosciences professor. "We have aerial photographs, satellite photographs, all kinds of things for far away and all kinds of things for close up. The idea was to purchase these pieces of equipment and put them together into a complementary suite of instruments.

Over the summer, HARLS-CS traveled with geosciences professor Steve Boss to Yellowstone National Park, where he and his colleagues used its laser scanner to measure bluff erosion on the lake, as well as underground gas deposits. Working with Boss, graduate student Barbara Pickup used the HARLS-CS suite as part of her research into the lake's shoreline. For that research, Pickup has just been named a prestigious Canon National Parks Science Scholar. She is one of only eight students in the world selected to receive the $78,000 fellowship and the only recipient ever from the University of Arkansas.

CAST purchased the HARLS-CS equipment with a three-year, $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and additional monies from the University of Arkansas. In the ensuing year it has been used by researchers from several disciplines at the university, as well as those from other institutions such as Ohio State University. Commercial applications may not be far behind.

"Lots of different groups, from city managers to surveying professionals to engineering companies, are very interested in seeing how these instruments are going to work," explained Limp. "We are testing and developing strategies and methods that these companies may use down the road, creating an economic impact. The research directions in which we're going have broad applicability."

"In the past year, HARLS-CS has really been places," Cothren explained. The travelogue includes several archeological surveys, such as American Indian burial and ceremonial mounds in Spiro, Okla., and the study of remnants of a World War I era "army city" outside Fort Riley, Kan.

One of the first projects was the archeological visualization of cave art located at a popular American Indian bluff shelter. HARLS-CS equipment is facilitating the 3-D visualization of the petroglyphs created by the Caddo tribe more than 400 years ago.

"The petroglyphs are located under a cliff," said Cothren, "so you give the archeologists not only a view of the petroglyphs themselves but also where they are in relation to their surroundings."

HARLS-CS has inestimable value to many researchers and students. When Limp began crafting the proposal for NSF funding, he enlisted 12 co-principal investigators from across the UA campus.

The HARLS-CS is initially being used in research and research training by 13 faculty and students in nine units across three colleges as well as by the Arkansas Archeological Survey. Currently, those users include CAST, the Archeological Survey, the Archeo-Imaging Lab and departments of anthropology, architecture, biological sciences, biological and agricultural engineering, civil engineering, entomology, geosciences and environmental dynamics.

The HARLS-CS suite contains a laser profiler, field spectroradiometer, multispectral camera, digital cameras, GPS, supporting software and a towable lift boom. Cothren's job as project coordinator requires him to bring together this diverse equipment to create a comprehensive way of looking at problems in need of resolution.

"My role is much more technical and less applicational," Cothren explained. "I do research into how to integrate the results from these different instruments. . A lot of work goes into understanding how those instruments work individually, how they work together, how accurate they are and what applications they can be used for given those constraints."

Limp stresses that Cothren is more than the keeper of the HARLS-CS keys. "Jack's the human component of the system. Jack's as important a part of the equipment as the equipment itself."

For additional detailed information on HARLS-CS such as applications, personnel and equipment specifications, as well as project photographs, visit www.cast.uark.edu/cast/harls/