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Susan Smith, Managing Editor
Industry News
Remote Sensing Satellite Data Provides One Piece of the Puzzle
By Susan Smith
So much good geospatial work goes on in the trenches, among people who are relying largely on volunteers and as a result, are not able to get important projects operational or data out for public consumption. With all our reporting of great products and programs being developed, there are still some that are not getting off the ground, so to speak, because of a lack of funding.
Lack of funding is a whole topic by itself, but suffice it to say that it has widespread ramifications in the geospatial field where a lot of data resides in places where it can’t be accessed or is under utilized.
Max Bleiweiss and Joleen Atencio, a recent MS graduate from NMSU. |
“Towards that end, I thought that if I were to share my data with the university, then maybe I could get the university to help do the research to determine what kind of products would be useful,” Bleiweiss explained. “So we started down a long road of establishing a remote sensing center, processing the data, moving it to the university, and archiving it. We have used some of it in some research but to this date, none of it is in a operational real time support mode.”
Currently in the mode of archiving data, the Center has not been able to gain sufficient funding to bring itself to a fully operational status. Students are helping maintain the data archives, and much of the work is done by volunteers.
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Color-IR image from the ASTER sensor, 06/23/2002 -- it is composited of the "green", "red", and "near infrared" bands from ASTER (15m pixel size) being "mapped" to R, G, B -- red shows "green vegetation" and is of the same region of the ET map sent earlier. Some of this same information is used as input to the REEM model. |
The U.S. Forest Service are now doing remote sensing of fire detection. Other areas CARSAME could contribute to are in dust storm detection and monitoring. Dust storms are a real problem throughout the state of New Mexico. As it is a sparsely populated state, often the only way to get useful information is by satellite remote sensing. “With satellite remote sensing we can also provide input information for range management and drought monitoring. Right now drought monitoring is primarily done on a county level. We could do things that would give us information down to the level of a couple of kilometers.”
CARSAME is currently working with some professors of civil engineering using similar satellite data to estimate the evapotranspiration from riparian zones along the river and irrigated agriculture, “with the idea that we can maybe help determine a more efficient use of water if we were able to get something like this going into a real time operational mode,” Bleiweiss pointed out. Using remote sensing in addition to techniques that provide point measurements, regional crop water use can be estimated for large areas. Satellite images can provide new information on crops, water shortage, insects, disease, etc. by applying an assessment of energy balance to each pixel to map spatial variation of the evapotranspiration across the crop canopy.
At one point, CARSAME was funded under Governor Richardson’s water innovation fund to do some of that work, which involved partners, one of which was the Elephant Butte Irrigation District. CARSAME is using their technology to forecast the water needs in real time, which will allow better scheduling of releases from the reservoirs of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District.
CARSAME has five remote sensing ground stations that were donated by White Sands and were running real time operational. Two were devoted to geostationary satellites, which can be used for more than just meteorology (as you might see on the Weather Channel). Three of them have polar orbiting satellites which receive similar information but their spatial resolution is better and they broadcast what they’re seeing in real time.
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ET map of a portion of the Mesilla Valley, just below the city of Las Cruces, based on the satellite data from the ASTER sensor on board the NASA-TERRA satellite. |
Bleiweiss credits graduate student Scott Williams with finally getting the ground stations back online and receiving data. “We’re now in the process of trying to use that to start repopulating our web page with more current information.”
Remote sensing is not all Bleiweiss does, however. “We also get involved in atmospheric modeling which can provide useful information as far as forecasting what the weather is but also to assess what the atmospheric conditions have been in the immediate past,” said Bleiweiss. “That information can be useful in precision agriculture, helping to forecast dust storms and model the progression of the dust storms. All this technology exists, it’s a matter of putting it to everyday use.” Bleiweiss contends that it’s fun to do research but it’s time to take it off the shelf and make it useful to everybody.
There is no one in any of the surrounding states that are doing anything like this, according to Bleiweiss. Arizona doesn’t have any satellite ground stations for remote sensing. Some remote sensing research is done at Colorado State, where they work with a lot of the same data that NMSU uses, but their interests are primarily in meteorological applications. “Besides meteorological applications we’re interested in getting into agriculture and environmental issues, hydrologic modeling, and dust storm modeling,” said Bleiweiss.
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ET map of a portion of the Mesilla Valley, just below the city of Las Cruces, based on the satellite data from the ASTER sensor on board the NASA-TERRA satellite. |
CARSAME’s data comes from NASA in a real time subscription service, which is automatically shipped on a daily basis. The polar orbiting satellites cover a swath from which they receive information which is approximately 2-3,000 kilometers wide. CARSAME’s ground stations enable them to get information covering the U.S. from Canada to Mexico. “It’s available daily, or with a geostationary satellite it’s available every 15 minutes.”
Ideas for getting funding still abound: an endowment may set it free from having to beg for money every year, but it would probably be a larger amount to begin with. Also EPSCOR is an agency that provides funding for states where the funding from particular agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) is less than the average for the funding for the rest of the states. EPSCOR is designed to provide infrastructure building to allow those states to become more competitive when they go out and submit proposals. “Without this infrastructure you’re kind of in the mode where we are right now,” explained Bleiweiss. “You need something set up and running before you can ask for money to do things.” CARSAME has an NSF/EPSCOR proposal pending to help get their remote sensing center real time operational.
Bleiweiss sees remote sensing satellites as one piece of the puzzle, and the more pieces you have the better able you are to figure things out. “I think we really do understand the issues of real time and operational,” he said. “If you’re not doing things now, it doesn’t do any good to collect information and try to come up with a report in a week or two weeks. You need to get information out to users immediately and you also can provide information throughout the region to people who are doing research.”
In the past, NASA has attempted to establish regional application centers for remote sensing. Bleiweiss said if they can develop an application center for New Mexico, there’s no difference between doing that and doing one for Arizona, and the cost is not significantly more. “There is no reason why we couldn’t share our information with our neighbors. I would hope the usefulness of this information could mitigate some of the cost. This isn’t something only for Las Cruces or New Mexico, it’s for the whole region.”
Visit the CARSAME website
Top News of the Week
Satellite imagery provider DigitalGlobe released CitySphere 2.0, an enhanced version of its extensive library of on-demand digital satellite imagery of the most populated global cities. CitySphere 2.0 features the addition of dozens of never-before-available views of global cosmopolitan cities such as Dubai, Seoul and Jakarta, plus city images from less developed geographic regions across Africa, South America and Asia. CitySphere 2.0 also includes integrated aerial imagery capabilities for select worldwide cities, such as San Juan and Edinburgh, where demand for surface-detail imagery is especially critical in evaluating economic development and environmental issues.
Acquisitions/Agreements/Alliances
Virtual Geomatics, a provider of LiDAR solutions, announced that the company has signed a reseller agreement with Sanborn to serve as a reseller to its customers of the VG4D Suite consisting of Production Manager, Data Manager and Viewer.
Virtual Geomatics also announced that the company has signed a reseller agreement with Third Coast GeoSpatial (3cGeo), a Texas based leading geospatial industry consulting firm, to serve as a reseller of the VG4D Suite consisting of Production Manager, Data Manager and Viewer.
Definiens announced it teamed up with Sydney-based Lagen Spatial to deliver highly-integrated image analysis solutions and services, especially to governmental customers. Lagen Spatial conducts consulting business, software distribution and reselling for spatial or location based technologies.
Geospatial Holdings Inc., a solutions provider of proprietary technologies to accurately map and geometrically assess underground pipelines, announced on Tuesday (1 July) the formation of Geospatial Pipeline Services LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.
Geospatial Pipeline Services has reportedly been formed to integrate the company's Smart Probe Pipeline Mapping Technologies with various trenchless pipeline rehabilitation methods. It will offer its specialised pipeline services throughout North America.
Announcements
Pictometry International Corp., a provider of geo-referenced aerial image libraries, whose proprietary technology is used globally to capture oblique image libraries, announced today that it will be holding two day-long Regional Technology Seminars for county officials and government agencies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania involved with Public Safety/9-11 and GIS/assessment.
The seminars, which are scheduled for July 9 (Public Safety) and July 10 (Planning, Assessment, Transportation and GIS), are being hosted by the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety in Conshohocken, PA and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission in Philadelphia. Pictometry Technology Seminars are held throughout the year in several regions across the U.S. For more information on regional seminars, call 888-771-9714.
Below is a schedule outlining the next three ERDAS webinar topics and the solutions featured:
July 16 – Rapidly Connect & Share Your World (ERDAS TITAN)
July 17 – ERDAS IMAGINE 9.3…IMAGINE What’s Next!
For more information about ERDAS or its products and services, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 866 534 2286, or visit the website.
Adding to existing facilities at Noida and Hyderabad, RMSI has opened a new 7,500 sq. ft. development center at Dehradun in the state of Uttranchal in India. The office is equipped with high-end IT Infrastructure built on premium workstations, servers and storage products from leading solution providers. The new facility is designed to improve efficiencies and to further enhance the services provided by RMSI to its clients in North America.
People
DMTI Spatial (DMTI), a provider of enterprise Location Intelligence solutions, has announced the appointment of Kristina Cleary to Vice President, Marketing. As a member of DMTI's senior management team, Ms. Cleary will be responsible for the development and execution of a strategic marketing plan in support of the company's aggressive growth objectives. In this role, Ms. Cleary will manage overall market positioning including product marketing, marketing communications, corporate communications, and public relations. Ms. Cleary replaces John Sorrell who has been appointed Vice President & General Manager, Mapping Solutions.
New Products
Pictometry International Corp., a provider of geo-referenced aerial image libraries, whose patented and proprietary technology is used globally to capture oblique image libraries, announced today that 34 counties in 18 states across the country have recently purchased the Pictometry ChangeFindr® Suite of products. Coverage from these sales represents more than 3 million parcels nationwide. International ChangeFindr projects in Mexico and Canada are also underway.
Geospace Inc., a provider of geospatial information and solutions, today announced the release of FeatureObjeX 1.0, a new user-friendly software tool for the automatic and semi-automatic extraction of visual features in satellite and aerial images designed to minimize image analysis time.
ESRI Canada is collaborating with IDS Scheer Canada, SAP Canada Inc., and Loki Innovations (RIVA Modeling) to deliver an enterprise infrastructure management system to the City of Kitchener. The enterprise system will be tightly integrated with Kitchener’s corporate financial programs and introduce a comprehensive infrastructure management system that will be used to track work orders and accounts, contracts and projects, and service requests.
GeoSage is pleased to announce the release of new version of advanced image fusion and pan-sharpening software: DOS-based HighView (Version 3.0). This latest version is specifically designed to rapidly process a large volume of the recent generation of high-resolution satellite imagery (QuickBird and IKONOS) and the future GeoEye-1 and WorldView-2 imagery.
A fully-functional trial version is available here. Anyone with QuickBird and IKONOS imagery in GeoTIFF format directly from DigitalGlobe and GeoEye data vendors is invited to evaluate the whole range of image pan-sharpening methods and enhancement options included in the software.
Snowflake Software released a performance video on GML loading. Proving the capabilities of a high performing, scalable and reliable software tool can be difficult on paper. Seeing the tool in action, however, is an entirely different experience. Visitors to Snowflake Software’s website can now view a hands-on video demonstrating the capabilities of GO Loader and just how it can load GML 2 and GML 3 datasets.
Luciad, software provider for distribution and high performance visualization of geospatial information, will be presenting a number of new product capabilities for ATC/ATM and Air Command and Control applications at Farnborough on July 14-20. The Farnborough International Airshow in the UK is the biggest, most internationally attended aerospace event in the world.
LuciadMap is the company’s flagship software suite designed to build aeronautical information systems with superior graphical capabilities. In its recent release, LuciadMap V8 offers pioneering support for the upcoming AIXM 5 standard, high responsiveness with complete control over performance parameters, and powerful new capabilities for the handling of large amounts of data, without the need for preprocessing.
Around the Web
Military Grid Reference System Primer
Events
| GEOBrasil Summit 2008 | |
| Date: | July 15 - 17, 2008 |
| Place: | Imigrantes Convention Hall
São Paulo , Brazil |
| GEOBrasil Summit 2008 presents new trends, products and services earmarked for integrated solutions connected with mapping, localisation, navigation, geographic localisation and analysis for management of public and private companies. Integrated events: GEOBrasil, GNSS Navis, GEO Oil & Gas and GEOCities.
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| Spatially Enabled Government 2008 | |
| Date: | July 21 - 24, 2008 |
| Place: | Rydges Lakeside Canberra
Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia |
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SEGS ’08 will focus on Maximising the Value of Geospatial Data in Government to Enhance Service Delivery and Evidence Based Policy Learn Strategies to Overcome the Challenges of: 1 Expanding interoperability between government departments
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| GeoWeb 2008 | |
| Date: | July 21 - 25, 2008 |
| Place: | Vancouver
Canada |
| The theme for the GeoWeb 2008 conference is Infrastructure: Local to Global. This implies the GeoWeb has a local or community dimension as well as a global one – that the integration of local infrastructures will give rise to a global infrastructure – that global aggregators will drive the creation of local infrastructures.
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| Sanborn LIDAR seminar series | |
| Date: | July 22, 2008 |
| Place: | Hilton Garden Inn--Tyson's Corner
8301 Boone Blvd., Vienna, VA 22182 USA |
| Please be our guest! Sanborn would like to invite you to our first annual LiDAR Seminar Series–featuring a brief introduction into the basics of LiDAR, it's latest technological developments, and a comprehensive overview on application trends. We will also be hosting a live software demo for customizable 3D and cross section viewing.
We are very excited and are confident your attendance will bring you nothing less than a valuable, informative experience. There is no charge to attend this event and a continental breakfast will be included. I would like to announce the location and time for the last two seminar events. The seminar in Albany NY will take place on August the 14th from 8-11 AM
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| 2008 ESRI Education User Conference (EdUC) | |
| Date: | August 2 - 5, 2008 |
| Place: | Marriott Hotel & Marina
San Diego, CA USA |
| Meet with members of the worldwide GIS education community during this one-of-a-kind forum. Hear from your peers about ways GIS technology enhances learning and provides solutions across disciplines and around campus. Explore how to use GIS software in your field, maximizing teaching, understanding, and managing with innovative applications.
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| ESRI Survey & Engineering GIS Summit | |
| Date: | August 2 - 5, 2008 |
| Place: | San Diego Convention Center
San Diego , CA USA |
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Join more than 400 surveyors and engineers in exploring the possibilities of GIS technology. See how GIS software integrates with surveying and engineering tools to provide more complete business solutions and field processes. User presentations, access to ESRI experts, and a wide range of session topics are geared to meet the needs of all attendees, regardless of GIS experience.
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| 2008 ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) | |
| Date: | August 4 - 8, 2008 |
| Place: | San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA USA |
| Join us at the 2008 ESRI UC, where GIS users from industries worldwide come to discover solutions, share information, and learn best practices, tips, and tricks. Whatever your industry, position, or GIS experience, you will come away with ideas, insight, and inspiration to launch or grow your GIS projects. The ESRI UC brings together more than 14,000 professionals who work with or are interested in GIS solutions for their organizations or communities. Come see how ESRI technologies can help you meet your goals. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego.
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