Analysis of Operational Airborne ISR Full Motion Video Metadata

Digital metadata embedded into Full Motion Video (FMV) generated by Airborne ISR (AISR) platforms provides extensive data about ISR missions, aircraft and operations. In this paper, we analyze metadata generated by 80 AISR platforms over a week period to better understand what type of metadata is generated, how often it's sent, and how it meets metadata standards. Metadata analysis results show AISR platforms implement metadata differently, following multiple standards, transmitting at wide-ranging rates and sending a varying set of information, sometimes not according to specifications. We provide recommendations to improve metadata for specific platforms and ideas for future analysis of FMV metadata.