Merrick to provide helicopter-acquired remote sensing data products and services

Merrick & Company’s geospatial solutions business unit (Merrick GeoSpatial Solutions) is expanding its services and will now provide helicopter-acquired remote sensing data products and services. The firm is purchasing a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor that will be co-mounted with additional sensors for high resolution color orthophotography, high resolution oblique imagery, color infrared orthophotography, and hyperspectral imaging. Currently, Merrick has three existing multi-sensor platforms mounted in fixed-wing aircraft. The addition of a helicopter to the fleet will allow the firm to acquire higher accuracy, higher fidelity, and higher density remotely sensed data. Merrick’s helicopter system will be ideal for smaller area mapping projects such as flood plains, wind/solar farms, and forestry tracts as well as linear projects such as transmission corridors, transportation systems, coastlines, railroads, levees, airports, pipelines, sea ports, and international borders.

“Of our four LiDAR systems, the helicopter is going to provide our clients an option for even greater positional accuracy, feature extraction, and multi-sensor data fusion ,” said Brian Raber CMS, GISP, GLS, vice president, Merrick.

Merrick has been using fixed-wing aircraft to acquire aerial mapping data for 50 years. Currently the firm is mapping the lower half of the U.S. Atlantic coastline for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, mapping oil seepages in South America for oil exploration purposes, and dam breach analysis studies in the State of Oklahoma for the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

Merrick & Company is a $100 million geospatial, engineering, architecture, design-build, and surveying firm. The firm serves both domestic and international clients by providing geospatial technologies, products, and services for infrastructure, energy, government and security markets. The firm’s most recent remote sensing and data management services have been provided for Xcel Energy, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Mobile District), ISA (South America), and the Colombian Navy (South America). Merrick operates eight offices in the U.S. , two offices in Mexico, and one office in Canada.

More information about Merrick’s GeoSpatial Solutions business unit is located at Merrick GeoSpatial Solutions