Mount Everest as you’ve never seen it before: Stunning images revealed as researchers begin work on first 3D model of the world’s highest peak

he motorised glider was flown by pilots Klaus Ohlmann and Jona Keimer 3D cameras captured the flight as it travelled over Mount Everest’s summit Footage will be used to build a 3D model of the Nepalese mountain with a resolution down to 15 centimetres This model will help improve forecasts of landslides and floods The unique twists, turns and layers of Mount Everest’s rocky terrain have been caught on 3D camera by a motorised glider. A pair of German pilots mounted the specialist Modular Airborne Camera System (MACS) to the wing of a Stemme S10-VTX glider before making the trip over Everest’s summit – 8,848 metres above sea level. Footage from the camera will now be used to build a high-quality 3D model of the Nepalese mountain, with a resolution down to 15 centimetres. Researchers plan to use this model to help improve forecasts of landslides and floods resulting from the outbursting of glacial lakes. The scheme was set up by the Mountain Wave Project (MWP) and researchers from the German Aerospace Centre, also known as Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR). MWP pilot Klaus Ohlmann and co-pilot Jona Keimer took an hour and a half to reach the summit, after taking off from the expedition base camp at Pokhara airport in Nepal on 28 January. They flew the glider along the Himalayas towards Mount Everest before using mountain waves to gradually gain altitude. ‘The conditions were ideal, despite the wind speeds at the summit of Everest, which neared 100 kilometres per hour,’ said Ohlmann. ‘The almost turbulence-free slope updrafts helped us ascend quickly.’ The MACS camera system, developed and built by DLR, was fitted to the glider in an unpressurised instrument container under the wing. Its three camera heads, arranged facing toward each other at a lateral slant, give a 120-degree field-of-view and can take high-resolution images of steep slopes. Due to the cold temperatures of the Himalayan summits, which can drop to below -35 degrees Celsius, engineers had to put the camera through a series of tests before the flight could take off. This included tests in a vacuum chamber, at moderate altitudes above the Alps and while subjected to unusual lighting conditions. While the pilots were given a specialist oxygen sysyem designed to help them fly to such high altitudes. The pictures from the camera will now be used to create detailed 3D colour computer images of the mountainous regions that the glider passed over. DLR has also developed its own software to create these images too, which is currently uses to evaluate data captured by Earth observation satellites. The first 3D models of the Everest flight will be available in the coming weeks. The researchers are keeping a blog to provide additional details of their adventurous research expedition to the Himalayas. The aircraft was supplied by the Faculty of Aerospace Technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen. Source & References Woollaston, V. 2014. Mount Everest as you’ve never seen it before: Stunning images revealed as researchers begin work on first 3D model of the world’s highest peak. [online] 31 Jan. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2549710/Glider-captures-3D-images-Mount-Everest-build-high-resolution-model-Nepalese-landmark.html [Accessed: 2 Feb 2014].