NATIONAL REPORT 
OF 
AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAMMETRIC 
AND REMOTE SENSING SOCIETY 
1988-1992 
TO 
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRY 
AND REMOTE SENSING, WASHINGTON, AUGUST 1992 
  
INTRODUCTION 
The Australian Photogrammetric and Remote Sensing Society 
(APRSS) is jointly sponsored by three bodies, the Institution 
of Surveyors (Aust), Australian Institute of Cartographers 
and Remote Sensing Association of Australasia. The Society 
also has two affiliated members comprising the state societies 
for photogrammetry and remote sensing in New South Wales 
and Victoria. The Society acts as an executive, playing a 
coordinating role between the sponsoring bodies and affiliated 
members on the one hand, and the International Society on 
the other. 
This report presents a summary of the significant activities in 
photogrammetry and remote sensing in respect of conferences 
and developments in acquisition and applications of data in 
Australia over the last 4 years. Major advancements have been 
made particularly in the development of products for the 
acquisition of data for photogrammetry and remote sensing, 
analytical stereoplotters for mapping from photography, 
including analogue-to-analytical conversions, and software 
for image processing. These developments will be discussed 
under the relevant Commissions. 
CONFERENCES 
The Remote Sensing Association of Australasia has held 
successful conferences at intervals of 3 years, the most recent 
being held in Perth in October 1990. This conference will be 
referred to later in this report under Commission VII 
activities. The interval for the national remote sensing 
conferences will change in 1992 to 2 years with the next 
conference being scheduled for 2-6 November 1992 in 
Wellington, New Zealand. The First Australian 
Photogrammetric Conference (FAPS) was held in Sydney in 
November 1991 and proved to be very successful. Sessions 
during the conference were devoted to a workshop of ISPRS 
Commission V. This Conference attracted some 120 
delegates, 11 manufacturers who displayed new product lines 
and over 60 abstracts were received. A total of 55 papers 
were presented at the Conference which lasted for 3 days. 
The main theme of the Conference was close-range 
photogrammetry and its theory and applications in Australia 
and New Zealand. Some papers on other topics were also 
presented. Highlights of the conference were Invited 
Lectures by prominent authorities such as Professor Armin 
Gruen from Switzerland and Dr Clive Fraser from USA. 
Proceedings of both these conferences are available through 
the Society address. 
COMMISSION I 
1. DEVELOPMENTS IN DATA ACQUISITION 
EQUIPMENT 
(i) Laser Airborne Depth Sounder (LADS) 
LADS is a laser airborne sounder which surveys the sea 
floor from an elevation of 500m at the rate of 50 square 
kilometres per hour, producing digital records for later 
processing for hydrographic charting. Ten thousand 
soundings are recorded per square kilometre in swaths 
of 250 km wide to a resolution of 0.22metres. LADS is 
100 
installed in purpose-modified Fokker F27-500 aircraft. 
Itis a new development that will provide a cost effective 
means of acquiring hydrographic data for charting. 
Experimental designs for LADS were originally 
produced by the Defence Science and Technology 
Organisation (DSTO) in South Australia. BHP 
Engineering and Vision Systems Limited have 
subsequently developed the system for trial by the 
Australian Navy. The technology has now reach the 
commercialisation stage. 
BHP Engineering Pty Ltd 
Vision Systems Building 
Technology Park 
The Levels 
South Australia 
Telephone: +61 8 343 0447 
Facsimile: +61 8 349 7528 
Vision Systems Limited 
Second Avenue 
Technology Park 
The Levels 
South Australia 
Telephone: +61 8 349 5988 
Facsimile: +61 8 349 5989 
(ii) Airborne Laser Terrain Scanner (ALTS) 
ALTS is currently under development by BHP through 
its research laboratories. It is a laser based scanner with 
a 1 sq. m pixel that scans the terrain in 500m swaths at 
right angles to the aircraft, recording elevations with a 
resolution of 0.3m. The system will record data for the 
production of digital terrain data at the rate of 100 
square kilometres per hour in near real time. 
(iii) AuSAR 
Surveillance 
AuSAR is being developed by DSTO for the Australian 
Defence Forces as a low cost system for coastal all- 
weather surveillance, search and rescue, topographic 
mapping, remote sensing and environmental 
monitoring. The system is particularly targeting at 
mapping scales of 1:50,000 in areas where weather 
conditions prohibit the application of optical or electro- 
optical systems for data acquisition. Trials are currently 
underway. 
tic Aperture R. for M 
Defence Science & Technology 
Microwave Radar Division 
PO Box 1500 
Salisbury, South Australia 
Telephone: 61 8 259 6931 
Facsimile: +61 8 259 5200 
(iv) Airborne Multi-Spectral Scanner (AMSS MkII) 
GEOSCAN Pty Ltd has completed the development of 
24 spectral channel scanner, which records electro- 
magnetic radiation in the wavelength range from 0.45 to 
12.0 micrometres, in 10 visible/near infrared, 8 
shortwave infrared and 6 thermal bands. The IFOV is 
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