Featured Articles

  

Guess the Location of our Featured Image of the Month and Win Free ImageBoost on Your Next Order!

Who doesn't like free stuff?! In fact, we know that our GeoView readers most certainly do; and who are we not to oblige you.

In this and future editions of GeoView, if you are the first reader to guess our mystery location in the Featured Image of the Month, then you will win 25 square kilometers of free eMap ImageBoost on your next order. That is a $100 prize you can cash in on simply by reading our newsletter each month!

What do Helicopters, SUVs and Mapping Have in Common?

Fact is that in 2011 helicopters and SUV's may just be the geospatial collection platforms that generate more mapping data and revenue than airplanes. Really?

The rapidly evolving capabilities of low-altitude helicopters equipped with LiDAR, a medium format digital camera, ABGPS, IMU and other sensors provide for extremely accurate and detailed collection of ground topography and human-made features. These technologies have matured over the past several years and offer a near-to-perfect geospatial data collection device to serve the electrical transmission industry.

 

Satellites in the News - NASA's Newest Addition, Glory

In the coming weeks, NASA is poised to launch their most recent Earth Observation Satellite, Glory, however their efforts to date have been unsuccessful. There is a very short window that can be used for Glory's launch so the conditions on the ground have to be 100% ideal on the chosen date. The most recent attempt was on February 25th and this launch was postponed due to a malfunction in the ground support equipment for the launch vehicle, the Taurus XL rocket.

In Focus - Japan's Ambitious Space-Based Solar Power Plan

In the 80's there was a song by Timbuk3 called, "The Future's so Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." I'm not sure what the boys from Timbuk3 are up to now, but I doubt their future's as bright as the song prophesied. Japan, however, hopes that the future is bright...to aide in their move to solar power.

Tracking Our Underwater Resources From Space

About 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, and within that vast underwater world is a resource that more than a billion people are dependent on as a principal source of animal protein - i.e. fish. In an effort to support sustainable fishing while continuing to feed the world's population, the art and science of finding fish has gone out of this world...literally.

Partner Updates

Intermap Technologies' Elevation and Imagery Data Enhances Oil & Gas Exploration Surveying Efforts in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Marathon Oil Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas, and the fourth-largest U.S.-based integrated oil and gas company, includes Indonesia as part of its primary deepwater exploration program. In 2006, Marathon was awarded a 1.2 million-acre block off the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. Companies with interests in Indonesia, the only member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Southeast Asia, face numerous challenges to their exploration and production efforts, including the acquisition of cloud-free elevation and imagery data.

SPOT Constellation Tracks Floods Along Australia

Since late December 2010, rain has been falling on Queensland's eastern seaboard, causing massive amounts of rainwater to rush down the slopes of the East Australian Cordillera and into the Murray-Darling River system.

The Darling is Australia's longest river system, crossing nearly 3,000 km of outback and eventually reaching the Indian Ocean on the south coast near Adelaide. Due to the amount of water and distance, it is projected that the flood waters will take up to 2 months to empty out into the ocean!

  

DigitalGlobe 8-Band Challenge Results Summary

The recent Geospatial World Forum held in Hyderabad, India was a very successful event. The recognized researchers had the opportunity to present their findings either through talks or poster presentations. The results presented were well received and generated many interesting discussions. Overall, the findings showed that high-resolution 8-Band WorldView-2 satellite imagery is superior to any other commercially available multispectral imagery for remote sensing based analyses; with the varying levels of improvement depending on the specific research target.

 

Monthly Columns

Word of the Month - Ground Control Points, Part II

In this edition of WOM, we continue our discussion from last month on ground control points (GCPs) with a focus on tips to improve the collection of this data specifically for use in the orthorectification of high-resolution satellite imagery (e.g. IKONOS, GeoEye-1, QuickBird and WorldView-1/2). Having completed a plethora of orthorectification projects over the last half decade at eMap, these tips are a combination of lessons learned from the field as well as lessons learned during the production process.

  

Geospatial Freebie of the Month - USGS Landsat Data

Have you ever been in need of a free base map with 30-meter resolution to use in a project that covers a region? Or perhaps you are interested in tracking changes in the landscape with remote sensing techniques and need historic imagery to use in this analysis? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then the USGS Global Visualization Viewer (GVV) needs to be your next stop on the web which grants you free access to a library of more than 100,000 orthorectified Landsat 4, 5 and 7 scenes.

The Beaten Path - Colorado Ski Resorts

Colorado is a state that is known for its natural beauty, partially due to its 'purple mountain majesties' which become saturated in champagne powder come ski season. Skiing is a sport that historians date back to approximately 1000 A.D., but the history of resort skiing in Colorado is considerably younger. There are currently 25 active resorts in the state, with the oldest continuously operated resorts being Araphaoe Basin (A-Basin) and Aspen Mountain which opened in 1946.

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.

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 »
View 2011 articles here »

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