Zephyr: A High Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Air Vehicle ...

Once I found that there was sufficient bandwidth and thus the camera (and itsinterface) could be used with Zephyr, I examined the software to find the camera’scapability. I found that in addition to the standard functions of zooming, rotating andfocusing, the camera could also track moving objects and follow their movementsalong the ground. The camera could also stay aligned with a particular point ofinterest on the ground if the object that is to be monitored is stationary. It could alsomove and focus on any particular object in its view, as well stream live video of whatit is viewing. It can stabilise itself in case Zephyr goes through any turbulence and bycounteracting this movement it can produce a non smeared picture.These are all advantages that Zephyr has over a satellite, including the fact that asatellite can only observe the ground when it falls under its orbit whereas Zephyr canobserve any area for any length of time and track any moving object.3.4.1 GPS SignalThe other main function of the software is that if the camera has a GPS signal thesoftware can use this to plot the camera’s position on a map. This means that whilethe camera streams live video of the earth below, the map shows the place names ofwhat the camera is seeing. In order for this to be tested to see how accurately itworked, a GPS antenna had to be connected to the camera.In order for a GPS antenna to work properly, it should be grounded/earthed. GPStravels at a speed of 1GHz, so by using the speed of light it is possible to calculate thewavelength:43