IFTN, Clear 30 or Google Imagery?

In eMap's May 2010 GeoView, I speculated on the future of Imagery For The Nation (IFTN) given that DigitalGlobe/Microsoft had announced their Clear30 (30 cm imagery) nationwide acquisition program. The program began last October and is now well on its way.

Read more here »

Specifics on the Q2 2010 US-Wide Parcel Layer Release

Officially released last month, the Q2 2010 US-wide ParcelPoint data layer features 15 new counties as well as updates to 3% of the counties currently available. In this release, there were over 688,000 parcels added to the national database through the addition of new counties and through the update of those already for sale.

Read more here »

Tracking Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak Using High-Resolution GeoEye-1 Satellite Imagery

The Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) is an invasive species that is native to the western states and Canada, and is especially abundant in Colorado. They infest pine trees, particularly ponderosa, lodgepole, Scotch and limber, by tunneling under the bark in larger living trees, mating and laying eggs. The larvae spend the winter under the bark and transform into pupae in June and July. The MPB then produces bluestain fungi that aids in killing the tree.

Read more here »

Data In Transit - The Power of Parcel Data in Google Earth

More than five years after its launch in June of 2005, Google Earth may have lost some of its initial luster, but there's no question that the globetrotting software tool has found a comfortable spot as a critical planning resource for corporations and governments around the world. With over 600 million downloads to-date, one can confidently say that Google Earth has successfully brought GIS and remote sensing technology to the ‘masses'.

Read more here »

In Focus - The Eagle Ford Shale

The shale formation that starts in east Texas and makes its way down to the southwestern border of Mexico has been called the next major natural gas site in the country. Until the 1990s, oil companies considered the gas deposits too deep and dense to access efficiently. But now the technology of fracking has allowed for easier access to the resources by a vertical and horizontal drilling process that works by forcing high quantities of pressurized water into the ground to force the gas up.

Read more here »

New Pixel Shapefile Delivered with Satellite Imagery Orders

Effective immediately, all DigitalGlobe satellite imagery products from QuickBird, WorldView-1 and WorldView-2 will now be delivered with a shapefile that defines the edge of the intelligent (non-blackfill) pixels.

Read more here »

DigitalGlobe Provides an Update to its Aerial Imagery Program

DigitalGlobe's exclusive partnership with Microsoft will deliver wall-to-wall aerial coverage of the contiguous US and Western Europe over the next 24 months producing imagery at 30-cm. For civil government customers, our Advanced Ortho Aerial Program (formerly called the Clear30 program) will offer 30-cm leaf-off metro imagery, coincidental CIR data and easy procurement.

Read more here »

SPOT Archive Tops 100 Billion Square Kilometers

Spot Image is proud to announce that as of June 2010 its global archive of SPOT satellite imagery has reached an important milestone with the collection of 100 billion square kilometers of Earth observation data acquired from 1986 to the present. The SPOT archive contains both panchromatic and multispectral imagery acquired over the past 24 years by five satellites with spatial resolutions ranging from 2.5 to 20 meters.

Read more here »

The Speculative Tasking Program

Do you have an area of interest around the world for which you just can't seem to find imagery?

Or do you have a project on the near horizon which will require imagery?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, then eMap International is pleased to offer you the perfect free service*, our Speculative Tasking Program.

Read more here »

Word of the Month - Map Accuracy

For the August edition of Word of the Month, we tackle the topic of map accuracy and its calculation. When ordering imagery products, be it from an airplane or satellite sensor, many of you have indicated a need for more accurate data. For these customers, there may be concerns about matching the data to other accurate geospatial layers; they may need to create an accurate baselayer inside of a land management system by extracting the extents of building, roads and other key features from the imagery; or they may need to meet an accuracy specification for a proposal to a state, local or federal government agency.

Read more here »

Geospatial Freebie of the Month - KoolCal

For this month's Geospatial Freebie we feature a freeware tool, KoolCal, that we could not live without! Perhaps some of you can identify with this work day full of multiple computers and multiple offices - you wake up at 5AM to spend two hours working on your home PC, then 8 hours in the office on your work PC and then off to the coffee shop for a work night cap on your laptop. If you can identify, then you likely face the same challenges we do, i.e. the need for an extremely light-weight and reliable calendar-memo application that follows you where you are working. KoolCal is the solution we use here at eMap.

Read more here »

Newly Released High Resolution Satellite and Aerial Orthomosaics

Each month, eMap has access to newly released digital orthomosaics of aerial imagery inside the United States and the European Union; and to orthomosaics of QuickBird satellite imagery in other international areas. This section introduces all of the aerial and QuickBird imagery datasets released in the last month.

Read more here »

GeoView Archive

If you missed a previous edition of GeoView, you will find a link to a web version of the newsletter below. For your convenience, we have summarized the key featured articles present in each edition.

View 2009 articles here »

View 2010 articles here »