An amateur video of the 1986 Titan 34D-9 aborted launch provided the second perspective necessary to measure the volume of the abort cloud. In 1998 an analyst used the launch facilities shown in a frame of the video to provide the known landmarks needed to calibrate the field of view and the pointing angle of the camera for the image.
The analyst also chose various unknown landmarks (such as patches of sand on the hillside) and measured their pixel locations in x, y coordinates (shown in parentheses). Once the image was calibrated, each pixel could be converted to a specific azimuth and elevation from the camera site. As the camera was panned and zoomed, these landmarks provided the calibration for subsequent unknown features (tertiary calibration points) as they moved into the field of view. This method of transferring the calibration to subsequent imagery was used by Aerospace to interpret quantitatively the amateur photography of the abort cloud.
The simultaneous images collected at surf (amateur video) and program sites reveal the shape and size of the red abort cloud from almost right-angle perspectives. The map shows the position of the launch pad and the abort-cloud images taken at each identified camera site. The colored lines on the map show that the right and left edges of the images correspond to the angular field of view of the cameras and that the cameras are pointing at the abort cloud above the launch pad.
A pixel (+ sign at the top of the abort cloud) in the image from the surf site's perspective (north of the abort cloud) is projected by PLMTRACK as a ray (red line) into the simultaneous image from the program site's perspective (southeast of the abort cloud). The fact that the projected ray touches the top of the abort cloud in the sister image illustrates the usefulness of the PLMTRACK software and the accuracy of our calibration for both sites. If the analyst identifies the top of the cloud in both images, PLMTRACK reports the point of nearest approach of the rays projected from both sites and, therefore, the position of the top of the cloud.