A total of 35 specialist presentations were made on these subjects over the 3 days of the symposium.
Many of the presentations concentrated on the current state of research and development as regards the automated evaluation of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images. The spotlight was on subjects such as surface change detection, geo-referencing, infrastructure analyses, SAR interferometry and tools for radar image processing.
Much time was also given in the presentations to the current SAR-Lupe program. The first of five SAR-Lupe satellites was launched into orbit at the end of last year and successfully started operating at the beginning of this year, with IABG "Defence & Security" and "Space Flight“ being instructed by the BWB (Federal Department for Defence Technology and Procurement) to provide project support. In addition, the IABG Space Flight Centre was commissioned to carry out the environmental tests on all five satellites.
In this context, presentations also dealt with the procurement of space-supported infrastructures for future intelligence capacities. The question of what contribution civil programs such as TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X could make to remote sensing and the generation of height models also met with considerable interest amongst the listeners.
A further group of topics covered the future performance potential of radar sensor technology, especially its use on cost-effective trial elements, tactical UAVs and HALE / MALE platforms.
The symposium was rounded off thematically by contributions from IABG on the current state of the standardization of intelligence images and/or results within NATO and the operational incorporation of various intelligence systems into multinational exercises and demonstrations.
The symposium was accompanied for the first time by an in-house trade fair, with a total of 8 exhibiting firms / research institutes: Diehl / BGT Defence, Esri Geoinformatik, Geosystems, TRIDELITY Display Solutions, FGAN-FKIE, FhG / IITB, CREASO and IABG. These provided mainly an overview of software-based solutions in the area of aerial and satellite image processing and automated evaluation methods. On its own stand, IABG informed visitors about the areas of remote sensing using aerial and satellite image cartography, human-factor analyses and UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle) simulation.
The breaks were also intensively used for a lively exchange of views and for discussions between the users or consumers from the Armed Forces on the one hand and the delegates from research and industry on the other.
A guided tour of the IABG Simulation, Integration and Test Centre (SIT) rounded off the accompanying program at this year's event.
Both organizers and participants rated the symposium a complete success. In particular, the variety and consistently high level of presentations was praised unanimously by the audience. The popularity achieved by this symposium is reflected not only in the large number of participants, but also by the fact that this year's event attracted visitors from the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria.
The 6th Federal Armed Forces aerial photography symposium will be held in spring 2008 at the FGAN (Research Institute for Applied Sciences) in Wachtberg-Werthoven.
