Scanning done

So we finished the two towers today, although I don't know which one was Orthanc. I'm quite happy not to have to lug the scanner up, down, across or under anything for a while, other than on and off the odd boat or plane. The view from the towers is pretty special though, even if it is a little harder to appreciate when you're pouring with sweat and cursing gravity.

Looking down on the drought plot. Andy top centre, next to the runnel, looking up slightly nervously before making his way up (in harness of course) to help me bring stuff down.

Looking out into the treetops, seeing what the scanner is seeing.

The scanner is picking up the upper part of the canopy beautifully from on the tower platforms. If (and it's a bit of an unknown right now) we can hand-register the scans together from bottom to top, we'll have an amazing profile of wood and foliage all the way up. Another first I reckon.

A first view of a single scan, from the tower (which is the little red dot in the centre). Colours are height (0 to 43m in red).

Another view of the same scan.

These images are just single scans, and of course the platform and scaffolding obscure significant chunks of the view. But we're still seeing trees from out towards the edges of the plot, as well as the upper crowns, which is really encouraging. These were taken from platform 12 of about 20, so the upper views will be even better.

Meanwhile, the guys working on the panels in the drought plot are slowly but surely putting them back on, repairing some, replacing rotten ones. The scale of the experiment is much more obvious with the panels on - it's really something to see. And feel - the temperature underneath is pretty steamy, unsurprisingly, given it's effectively a 10,000 sq m greenhouse.

I bet you could grow some serious courgettes in here.

The team spent the afternoon trying to ID trees from the census data in the scanner data, to make our lives easier later. So far so good on that too. Tomorrow, we'll finish off a few loose ends, and hopefuylly try out the drone if it's calm. We also want to scan the station so we can give them a nice laminated print to remember us by ;-) We'll then pack up our stuff and load it on the boat before supper, as we're heading out downriver in the pitch dark at 4am, to catch the 8am catamaran from Brevez to Belem. Lucy has had her mind very much on a waterfront ice cream in Belem for about a week. I wouldn't say no either. I will miss this though.

Not many of these in North London.