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Intelligent GIS
4D Data Fusion for the Geospatial In
In today’s digital battlespace, GIS is a crucial component in the military
decision-making process. GIS technology has the ability to successfully
incorporate the vast amounts of visual data and geospatial information
produced by various sensors and imaging systems currently deployed
in defense applications. However, it is not just data assimilation
practicality that has put GIS ‘on the map’ for the defense intelligence
community, but its potential for rapid data integration, analysis and
distribution of complex spatial information.
By Frank Artés
GIS provides a vital tool for both the
decision maker and the warfighter. This
article takes a look at defense-applicableGIS and its move from a three-dimen-
sional desktop tool for terrain analysis
and tactical planning, to a 4D battlespace
visualization technology.
Defense-wide Data AccessOne of the most important attributes as-
sociated with GIS implementation within
a geospatial intelligence context, is its ca-
pacity to provide a common structure that
enables data accessibility across the
board. It allows the necessary informa-tion to be available to everyone who
needs to see it, whether it is Command
and Control HQ, mobile forces in the
field or international observers a conti-
nent away. GIS technology lends itself to
a network-centric operations (NCO) en-
vironment, which has revolutionized con-ventional military data dissemination by
introducing what is now termed the
Common Operational Picture (COP).
Described as a single, identical display of
relevant information, the COP is de-
signed to be shared by more than one
command. The boundaries between indi-
vidual defense disciplines have blurred as
the military’s growing need for intelli-
gence information has broadened. COP is
a correlated, fused near real-time picture
of the complete battlespace, which inclu-des geo-locational information on friend-
ly, hostile and neutral forces together
with all available visual/non-visual intel-
ligence data. It provides a comprehensive
tactical representation of the battlespaceand is a fundamental component for stra-
tegic awareness, often presented in a
three-dimensional visual display.
A Significant TechnologyOne important indicator of just how sig-
nificant GIS technology has become in
defense circles is evidenced by the
NGA’s (National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency) decision in 2005 to take a se-
rious look at the commercial sector for
GIS technology. Rather than continue onwith its existing system, the Joint
Mapping Tool Kit, which had been cu-
stom-built for the Government and in use
for some time, NGA was considering a
system that could provide operational
consistency and a superior analytical
functionality.
The commercial market requirements for
GIS are in many ways similar to defense
agency prerequisites, which demand a
complete understanding of the relation-
ships between terrain, geography, airbor-
ne/spaceborne imagery and spatial infor-
mation. Emergency response organiza-
tions, galvanized into action in the wake
of natural disasters, are a prime example
of how important geospatial information
can be, particularly for evacuation/reco-
very planning, and damage assessment
tasks.
There are several reasons for this shift,
one of which is cost. It is less expensive
to purchase commercially available sys-
tems rather than develop them in-house.
Another is standardization. Data sharingprotocols and interoperability between
COTS software is commonplace in priva-
te industry. In addition, standardized
training ensures everyone achieves a
certain operational level and understan-
ding of the technology, and its application
potential. Also, the continued drive for
technological innovation within the
private sector ensures access to the latest
cutting-edge developments offering
additional power and flexibility, pushing
the concept of intelligent GIS.
Primary GIS for the MilitaryCurrently there are just a handful of com-
panies producing complete GIS software
April/May 2007 6
Art ic le
Common Operating Pictures (COP) of military data feeds and GIS data create a 4-D visualization of the
battlespace for decision support.
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What Smith referred to as ‘Predictive
Computation’ is an ability to establish ti-
me periods that can adversely affect va-
rious mission objectives and constraints,
and supply answers to questions, such as:
• What assets are available in my area
of interest should I need them?
• Which available assets can best
accomplish this task, UAV, manned
aircraft, or satellite?
• Where are the adversarial forces
located?
• Where is the ground-based GPS
jamming equipment located?
• What area coverage does air defense
radar have ?
• Will air support be affected by GPS
jamming?
Maintaining Spatial Context GIS provides the infrastructure for all
ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Recon-
naissance) information. Integrating a 4D
perspective to layered GIS-based vector
and raster data, on top of airborne/space-
borne imagery, topographic line maps
and other types of reconnaissance mate-
rial, produces a very comprehensive and
powerful picture. The geodatabase main-
tains its spatial context and the relations-
hips between sensors, systems and va-
rious battlespace elements remains stable
across multiple networks and internet-
based workstations. It is complete data
fusion in time and in space.
Temporal geospatial analysis and the use
of defense-specific GIS technology, isnow making a mark in the geospatial
intelligence arena. By offering enhanced
situational awareness capabilities over
and above the standard operating metho-
dologies, command and control decisions
can be made with all the information
available for extremely accurate projec-
tion analysis and forecasting.
Looking Into the FutureThis ability to generate 4D visualization
in a potentially hostile environment offersa tremendous tactical advantage for intel-
ligence analysts working with ISR data.
We are doing more than just looking
ahead, we are looking into the future.
Special thanks to Joanne Welsh, Media/Public
Relations Manager, Analytical Graphics, Inc.
Frank Artés ( [email protected] ) is a
contributing editor of GeoInformatics. For additional
information on AGI, and its approach to break-
through geospatial analysis, visit www.agi.com/stk8.
April/May 2007 8
Art ic le
AGI technology allows UAV mission analysis and optimization based on complex sensor coverage, communi-
cations link, and navigation accuracy prediction.
By fusing the available tactical information in both 2-D maps and 3-D globes, AGI software can display mul-
tiple theaters of operation and thousands of tracks and events simultaneously.
GIS provides a vital tool for both
the decision maker and the
warfighter.
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ER Mapper Image Compressor
Changing Geospatial Imagery Landscape
Released in March this year, ER Mapper Image Compressor is set to begin a new
era of low-cost geospatial image compression bringing the value of geospatial
imagery into the daily workflow of a wide geospatial user community. For this
reason, we invited this month’s interviewee Mark Sheridan, ER Mapper R & D
Manager, to reveal some of the latest information on the newest image com-
pression solution from ER Mapper.
By Joc Triglav
ER Mapper is a well known company inthe geoinformation business community
for its geospatial imagery solutions,
especially for its ER Mapper
Professional, Image Web Server, Image
Integration Framework products. How
and where does your newest product ER
Mapper Image Compressor fit into your
product line?
ER Mapper Image Compressor is at the foun-
dation of our imagery solutions. It puts
imagery into a useable format by turning 100s
or more image tiles into a single, seamless
compressed JPEG 2000 or ECW image mosa-
ic.
Image mosaics make imagery easier-
to-use. They’re fast to open in GIS or
other desktop applications and you
can see the whole area without hop-
ping through image files. They also
save management time and basic hard
disk space requirements. 1000GB of
raw imagery can be turned into 10GB
of compressed imagery.
JPEG 2000 and ECW are
also the file formats
of choice for ER Mapper Image Web Server,our high-speed, specialized server application
that efficiently distributes large volumes of
geospatial image data over an internal net-
work or the internet.
A key feature of ER Mapper Image
Compressor is its high-speed image
compression to the open standard JPEG
2000 format. Please outline from the
technological point of view the main
similarities and the main differences
between the JPEG 2000 and ECW
compression, especially regarding the
dataset size, performance, bit depth,
compatibility, lossy or loss-
less compression and
similar.
JPEG 2000 and ECW are
both wavelet compres-
sion formats. This
means that they offer a
high-level of compres-
sion without compromis-
ing visual integrity. JPEG2000 is an ISO stan-
dard format,
whereas ECW was developed by ER Mapper.
There are a number of differences between JPEG 2000 and ECW. JPEG 2000 provides a
plethora of features intended to enable the
format to be used in almost any conceivable
imagery application from digital cameras to
spatial imagery and medical. ECW was
designed specifically for large geospatial
images. ECW supports 8-bit data per band (24-
bit RGB) where as JPEG 2000 supports 28-bit
precisions per band. ECW and JPEG 2000 are
both capable of lossy compression, but JPEG
2000 can also employ lossless compression.
Lossy compression sacrifices some of the pre-cision of the original data in order to get a
high degree of compression. In other words
you ‘lose’ data as part of the compression
process. However this ‘lost’ data usually isn’t
visually noticeable up to a compression ratio
of about 15:1 (though this can vary with the
image and the level of detail that will typical-
ly be examined). Lossless compression does-
n’t sacrifice any image data, but you don’t get
as much compression (typically up to 4:1).
90% of geospatial imagery applications are
suitable for using lossy imagery. Anything that
requires a human, visual analysis is appropri-
ate for lossy-based compression. For exam-
ple, integrations of aerial or satellite photo-
graphy with a GIS should use a lossy
compression method. Lossless based imagery
is necessary for scientific based image pro-
cessing where pixel-for-pixel fidelity is
required. Many of the processes undertaken
by geologists require lossless imagery.
ECW tends to be faster than JPEG 2000. ECW
has a single purpose, whereas the scope for
JPEG 2000 is very broad.
Interv iew
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com April/May 2007
Mark Sheridan,
ER Mapper
R & D Manager.
Image mosaics make imagery
easier-to-use. They’re fast to open
in GIS or other desktop
applications and you can see the
whole area without hopping
through image files.
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Again, you can create larger image mosaics
with ECW than JPEG 2000, mainly due to the
maturity of the format. Having said this, we
are spending a lot of time on our own JPEG2000 libraries – using what we have learned
with ECW – to create what we believe is the
best performing JPEG 2000 implementation
available. We are the only geospatial compa-
ny out there that has developed our own JPEG
2000 library specifically for geospatial data
use. The needs for spatial imagery are signifi-
cantly more demanding than most applica-
tions of JPEG 2000, yet unfortunately, many
of the implementations available are shoe-
horned into spatial software with little regard
for addressing their many shortcomings. Most
have problems dealing with the image sizes
we typically deal with on a daily basis. We
actually do a fair bit of business selling our
JPEG 2000 SDK to other spatial software ven-
dors to replace their existing solution because
a lot of them benchmark well on a 50MB file
but are completely useless with 2TB files,
despite everyone claiming compliance with
the specifications.
Whom do you see as the potential users
ER Mapper Image Compressor and which
main new image compression and usagebenefits are available to these users? In
this regard, please explain also the flexi-
ble multi-tiered licensing model based
on input-file sizes.
At one end of the spectrum, we are sure that
the Image Compressor will appeal to the many
established imagery users, but we are also
hopeful that Image Compressor will usher in
a user where imagery use is relatively new.
These users are now seeing how imagery can
benefit them. The more people can do with
imagery, the more they use it the better out-
comes will be generated for their organization.
These novice users and organizations may still
be using single image tiles. The adoption of
Image Compressor is going to make a big dif-
ference to these organizations. Simply con-
verting these files to a seamless mosaic is
going to benefit the organization greatly withbetter management, the ability to share data
easily, etc.
The other features, such as the clip regions
and reprojection are also going to add a lot
of value to an organization.
ER Mapper Image compressor's flexible ‘pay-
once’ licensing model is multi-tiered to fit an
organizations budget and imagery assets. The
tiered licensing levels are based on uncom-
pressed input-file sizes – not per megabyte
compression charging.
You can create as many 100GB compressed
images as you want with a 100GB license.
The licensing tiers we have are: 1GB, 10GB,
100GB and Unlimited.
Which raster image file format does ER
Mapper Image Compressor support as
input and output files?
We have endeavored to make ER Mapper
Image Compressor as versatile as possible for
our customers.
One thing we are particularly proud of is our
new ‘Smart open’ feature. When you open an
image file, ER Mapper Image Compressor
detects the format and various configurations
are automatically adjusted so the image looks
‘right’ straight away. Smart open works wellfor RGB, satellite imagery, height data and
most imagery data in general.
Please explain shortly the ER Mapper
wizard-driven operations, like mosaic,
balance, reprojection and clip regions
wizards that are available in ER Mapper
Image Compressor.
Image Compressor’s wizards are simple to use,
whilst ‘under the hood’ some very intensive and
complicated computing is going on. The wizard’slet any user get up and running in no time at all.
The mosaicking and balancing function takes
100s or 1000s of image tiles and stiches them
together into a single mosaic. The color balanc-
ing feature removes the ‘black-edges’ from the
original images so that you have a ‘seamless’
image mosaic. It is near impossible to detect
where the joins of the tiles are.
The amazing thing about this feature is that it
only takes about 5 mouse clicks and you are
done. You don’t have to be an expert or guru –
although if you are experienced you can make
additional adjustments. Clip regions wizard
allows you to cut out an area of interest from
an image. It can import a shape file to create
the regions dimensions for this operation.
Datums and projections are a central compo-
nent for imagery use. Image compressor can
reproject your datasets or via batch reprojection
– if you need to convert a number of images.
April/May 2007 10
Interv iew
Enterprise diagram.
Input and output files.
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How can a user choose, edit and define
his coordinate system, datum and pro-
jection inside the ER Mapper Image
Compressor? Is the compatibility with all
major GIS and industry standard organi-zations like OGC supported in this
regard?
ER Mapper Image Compressor supports both
the older ER Mapper GDT (datum/projection)
system, as well as a brand new system based
tem based on the EPSG system. This should
make interoperability with the Image
Compressor relatively painless. The Image
Compressor will write out JPEG 2000 files
using new OGC standard 'GML in JP2' (as well
as the older 'GeoJP2') which is being adopt-
ed by most major product vendors.
Where is a free or trial version of ERMapper Image Compressor available and
which are its file size limits?
We provide a free trial with some sample data
along with some simple evaluation instruc-
tions on our website at www.ermapper.com.
The file size limit of the free version is 50 Mb.
If you want at tour of the software, we also
host the web seminar that was presented by
our US Technical manager that is available on
the site as well.
Joc Triglav ( [email protected] ) is a
contributing editor and columnist of GeoInformatics.
More information on www.ermapper.com.
Interviewee Mark Sheridan
( [email protected] ) R & D Manager,
ER Mapper.
on standard EPSG codes (www.epsg.org) and
descriptions. The program allows the user to
customize the projection mapping between
the two to support older image formats.
When the projection of an image is not rec-ognized by the Image Compressor, the user
can open the projection chooser, which allows
them to select a coordinate system, based on
familiar text descriptions or EPSG codes (e.g.
‘NAD83/California zone1’ or code 2225).
Most major applications use a projection sys-
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 11
Interv iew
Image tiles to seamless compressed image mosaic.
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Making Information Available to a Wide Array of Users
Automated Processing Chains for Sa
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Satellite ApplicationsCentre (SAC), along with PCI Geomatics, has implemented an open integrated
system for processing high volumes of satellite images in South Africa. It
archives earth observation data and makes it available to the public.
By Wolfgang Lück, Iain MacInnes and Alysia Vetter
Recognizing the need for efficient and cost-
effective automation and production systems
within the geospatial industry, PCI Geomatics
has introduced a series of solutions to address
these requirements. These tools were selected
by CSIR SAC for inclusion in fully automated
preprocessing chains and enterprise-scaled
automation for producing up to 100 satellite
images a day.
CSIR SACCSIR SAC is the regional ground receiving sta-
tion for Southern Africa. It provides world-class
telemetry, tracking and command services, dis-semination of low to high resolution satellite
data, and the ability to archive earth observa-
tion data and make it available to the public.
CSIR SAC acquires and receives satellite
imagery such as Spot 2, 4 & 5, MODIS, ERS,
Landsat 5 & NOAA, creating imagery products
such as mosaics, orthophotos and land cover
maps. CSIR SAC also supports and distributes
Quickbird, EROS, Radarsat, ASTER, Formosat,
and Ikonos. Support will also be offered for
TerraSar X data after the launch this year.
The Earth Observation Service Centre (EOSC)
at CSIR SAC handles the tasking, acquisition,
processing, storage, application development
and customer support for South Africa and
abroad. Clients are able to access the EOSC
service online catalogue providing them with
the ability to perform constraint queries on
data, upload areas of interest to refine queries,
and visualize future acquisition opportunities
where no data is currently available.
Situated in Hartebeeshoek along the
Magaliesberg mountain range, CSIR SAC is an
ideal location for satellite operation and satel-
lite data acquisition. CSIR SAC also develops
applications to address environmental issues
such as land use management, fire forecasting
and prediction, urban and rural planning and
food security. CSIR SAC chose the PCI
Geomatics solution brand, Geomatica X, whichcontains the company’s software components
used for building production workflows.
Process chains have been created to automate
steps such as DEM extraction, orthorectifica-
tion, atmospheric correction and mosaicking to
streamline their internal data process flows for
the processing and classification of satellite
imagery.
The Project VisionCSIR SAC was approached by the government
to assist with an implementation plan for the
South African Earth Observation Strategy
(SAEOS). The program would be in conjunction
with a larger government initiative relating to
information exchange amongst government
departments. The project vision was to have a
warehouse promoting accessibility of spatial
information by all tiers of government and to
avoid duplication of material.
The SAEOS is coordinating the collection, assim-
ilation and dissemination of Earth Observationproducts. By making this information available
to a wide array of users in an integrated and
accessible form, this project is helping econom-
ic growth and sustainable development in
South Africa.
Data Incompatibility Spatial information for key decision makers is
of crucial importance. Collecting, archiving and
value-adding activities from source spatial data
are disjointed, in different standards and lack-
ing the correct metadata describing the prod-
uct. Information provided to the end user is
restricted due to the transfer of raster data over
existing bandwidth without intelligent compres-
sion techniques. The outcome of the program
was to establish a highly operational spatial
gateway for government to address the data
frustrations and to find a solution which would
provide spatial information at a superior level.
The ArchitectureSince the 1970s, CSIR SAC has been receiving
telemetry from Earth Observation satellites. It
thus has the unique operational experience tomanage the remote sensing supply chain to a
geo-processed product for analysis by the end-
user community. With an archive of remote
sensing data going back over 30 years, the cen-
tre has a valuable temporal dataset for analy-
sis and change-detection applications. Created
within CSIR SAC and disseminated to the gov-
ernment is the automation of national informa-
April/May 2007 12
Specia l
Union Buildings, Pretoria, South Africa. Image courtesy of DigitalGlobe
Workflow proces
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tion layers derived out of remote sensing
imagery. Such layers include land cover and
classifications, road layers, field delineation and
more. Being a large data-serving entity, CSIRSAC has a standardized and efficient process-
ing chain to generate and manipulate data into
products. Oracle 10g as a geospatial database
is being implemented to complement standard-
ization. Satellite telemetry is received at CSIR
SAC through direct broadcast using the X band
antennas. Satellite imagery is converted from
telemetry, with the imagery stored in various
raw computer-compatible formats on DLT tapes
and archived in the SAC. The catalogue at SAC
will soon transfer to GLOVIS, an open source
Google-Earth-type applet used and developed
by the U.S. Geological Survey.
High-level Software Functionality Geomatica X consists of the PCI Geomatics
Professional Software Development Kit
(ProSDK) and groups of high-level functions that
extend the ProSDK. Each group of functions, or
ProPack, addresses a particular applications
area. The functions themselves can be dynami-
cally loaded by programs written in C++, Java,
or Python on Windows or Linux platforms.
Custom platform support is also offered.
These functions do not require operator inter-action. Geomatica X users can incorporate PCI
Geomatics’ image processing, photogrammetry,
and data-management software into their own
interactive or fully automated applications. The
data-management capabilities include writing
and reading image and vector data to and from
an Oracle 10g database. Geomatica X extends
the PCI Geomatics image-centric desktop tech-
nology into custom geospatial solutions.
A Fully Automated ProcessCSIR SAC used the Geomatica X product to
develop a fully automated processing chain
called SARMES to process Level 1 satellite image
data into Level 3 and 4 data products. These
data products are radiometrically and geometri-
cally corrected and directly sup-port advanced mapping and infor-
mation gathering for applications
such as agricultural change moni-
toring, emergency response, and
disaster management.
An example of a SARMES work-
flow using Geomatica X for a Spot
5 level 1 dataset provides the fol-
lowing processing metrics, based upon a
Windows XP Single CPU 3.4GHz Pentium pro-
cessor with 2GB RAM.
The processing chain imports satellite imagery
from raw format, extracts ephemeris data and
calibration parameters, and computes ground
control points from reference data. Ortho-
rectification can be performed using the Toutin
Orbital model or the Rational Functions Math
Model or via digital/analog aerial camera models.
This workflow can also be configured to auto-
matically atmospherically correct, pansharpen,
mosaic and archive imagery and metadata to
the Oracle 10g database using the Georaster
loader and metadata mapper functions. The
general accuracy of the automatic process chain
is between 1 and 2 pixels.
Result… a Push-Button WorkflowThe automated processing of geospatial data
can be run around the clock, and data no longer
needs to be manually transferred between the
database and the production system: the end
result is a push-button workflow. With PCI
Geomatics’ automation technology for enterprise
solutions, CSIR SAC can produce quality and
accurate geospatial products including DEMs,
orthorectified imagery, and mosaics. CSIR SAC’sautomated SARMES workflow permits timelier
spatial data information and greater accessibili-
ty by the end-user community. The rapid deliv-
ery of geospatial information is able to assist key
decision makers at various levels of government
and stimulate the African renaissance.
Wolfgang Lück ( [email protected] ) is Technology
Manager at the CSIR Satellite Applications Centre.
Iain MacInnes ( [email protected] ) is
Channel Manager at PCI Geomatics for Africa/Middle
East. Alysia Vetter ( [email protected] ) is
Marketing Communications Specialist at PCI
Geomatics. For more information go to www.csir.co.za
or visit www.pcigeomatics.com.
Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com
tellite Imagery
rocedure rocessing TimeCDSPOT import) 0:01:33
DEM Preparation Pre-prepared) 0:00:00
Auto GCP Collection 0:02:15
GCP Refine 0:00:33
Panchromatic Orthorectified Image 0:09:35
Multi-spectral Orthorectified Image 0:11:25
Total Processing Time 0:24:41
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A Map A Day, For Every Day of the Year
A New View of the World
Have you ever found the way the world looks on your computer screen a littleboring? Ever wondered what the point was of drawing that extra map; doing
that additional overlay; buffer – or whatever is ‘in’ in geoinformatics at the
moment? Fancy having a look at something a bit different – maps that have
even featured in Esquire magazine?!
By Anna Barford and Danny Dorling
Worldmapper Don’t worry – we’re not going to get you
sacked – but type this into your web
browser: www.worldmapper.org.
Now, before you get carried away let us
explain a little about this project and what is
available, especially what a more technically
minded audience might appreciate about thiswork. What the website does, which might
not be apparent at first glance, is provide you
with 366 different ‘free’ views of the world (or
more, depending on when you are reading
this). Each view highlights one aspect of life
that someone thought was important enough
to collect data for most territories in the world
on it.
The website:
• Shows you the distribution of that data in a
cartogram – a map-like pie chart.
• Provides you with access to the raw data from
which the maps are drawn.
• Explains in laborious detail exactly what we
did to get these numbers.
• Gives top and bottom ten rankings for all 366
variables that are mapped, which are not use-
ful only in winning pub quiz games etc., but
also often quite enlightening.
• Provides regional graphing and a unique
world distribution graph for each variable.
• Presents a colourful and detailed PDF format
poster for every map, designed to be printed
and pinned to a wall. The maps need not beconfined to the Internet.
• Gives a succinct example of the importance
of what is being showing using a quote and
further information on where it was sourced.
The quote shows an individual’s understand-
ing whilst the map shows the worldwide dis-
tribution.
• Provides a reference land area map that is
labelled. Cross-reference between this map
and others can help identification of particu-
larly distorted territories.
• Series of articles giving more information
about elements of the worldmapper project.
So far articles have been written in Italian,
Spanish, Finnish, Japanese, English, Dutch,
German and Swedish.
• Provides all data cleaned and in identical for-mat for comparisons.
At first glance, it is not that obvious that all of
this is available, so we thought we’d point it out.
Now for a little more about the project and who
has been involved, then some example maps
to try to further encourage you to visit our web-
site www.worldmapper.org. We are over two
thirds of the way to 1 million unique viewers,
so please tell your friends too…
How The Algorithm Works?Mark Newman explains: “If we want to make a
map in which the sizes of countries vary with, say,
population, then we want to make countries larg-
er – spread them out more – if they have larger
populations. We do this by making use of an
analogy to the physical process of diffusion. This
is where the physics comes in.
Imagine dumping a bottle of ink into a swim-
ming pool. Initially, the ink will be concentrated
in a small area while the rest of the water will
be clear. As time goes by, however, the ink will
spread out, and if we wait long enough it will
end up uniformly distributed throughout the
pool, with all the water being just slightly inky.
This is the diffusion process. In our work we
mimic the same process on a computer using
the population density. We let population spread
out away from the places where it is highest – the
cities and greater metropolitan areas – until it is
uniform everywhere. And as it spreads we allow
it to carry the features of the map along with it,
such as country borders and coastlines, so that
the countries with big populations expand while
those with small populations remain small.”
Some ExamplesWhat does the world look like if every territory
is equal? The map (see Figure 1) shows just how
distorted the world can look if territories are all
drawn with equal area and are not drawn in pro-
portion to their land area (see paragraph above
for an explanation of map making). The term
‘territories’ rather than ‘countries’ allows for the
inclusion of areas that are not recognised states
in and of themselves. The term ‘territory’ also
allows some political neutrality when mapping
disputed areas such as the Western Sahara (see
Table 1). This map, is effectively how power in
the world would be distributed were the United
Nations to operate a ‘one country, one vote’ sys-
tem if all territories were United Nations mem-
April/May 2007 14
Art ic le
Figure 1. This map shows every territory with an equal area. Russia has the same space on the map as Nepal,
as Canada, as Gambia.
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ber states and if the United Nations had that
much power. It doesn’t and it doesn’t. The equal
area map (see Figure 1) highlights physically
smaller territories which have expanded to the
same area that physically larger have shrunk to
become. This shows no single territory as dom-
inant, this map is the only map in the worldmap-
per series that shows such internationally equal
distributions. Obviously, this map is not drawn
using collected data, it remains hypothetical.
What if every person was equal? The population
IMFThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) has
184 member countries (our maps show 200
territories). The organisation was “estab-
lished to promote international monetary
cooperation … to foster economic growth
and high levels of employment; and to pro-
vide temporary financial assistance to coun-
tries to help ease balance of payments
adjustments” (See IMF website
www.imf.org/external/ about.htm). Figure 3shows how votes within this organisation are
distributed – the territory with the most area
and therefore the most votes is the United
States, followed by Western European terri-
tories, Japan and Saudi Arabia. IMF vote dis-
tribution is closer to the distribution of
wealth than of people. Malawi’s finance min-
ister in 2004, Goodall Gindwe, argues that a
“good deal of the operations of the fund and
the bank are in Africa … If the fund and bank
are going to be effective, they need to hear
an African point of view.” (See BBC News
Africa fails in IMF vote demand, 4th Oct
2004- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/
3712718.stm) Malawi is barely visible on this
votes map.
map below (see Figure 2) would be the result.
Here each person alive in 2002 is given an equal
amount of space on this map. Territorial bound-
aries shrink and expand to incorporate the pro-
portion of the world population that lives there.
This provides an ideal base for looking at other
things such as clustering – or whether Ikea
stores are equally spread across the world’s pop-
ulation. Population is often a far more meaning-
ful variable to study than land area, so why does
our preoccupation with land area maps persist?
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 15
Art ic le
Danny Dorling, University of Sheffield
Danny has done much work in the development of car-
tograms and human cartography, and was responsible
for devising this project, and the huge task of gather-
ing all of the required data together. The idea came tohim whilst relaxing on the beach in New Zealand. He is
vaguely responsible for the Social and Spatial Inequalities research
group, in the Geography Department at the University of Sheffield.
Mark Newman, University of Michigan
Mark is Associate Professor of Physics and Complex
Systems at the University of Michigan, and a member
of the University of Michigan Center for the Study of
Complex Systems. Together with his PhD student
Michael Gastner, Mark developed the algorithm that is
used in transforming the normal world map into this series of
cartograms. Mark also wrote the computer software for making thecartograms (see paragraph ‘How the algorithm works?’) and produces
the figures themselves using the data gathered by Danny. More infor-
mation on Mark's research can be found on his website ( www-per-
sonal.umich.edu/~mejn/ ).
Graham llsopp, University of Sheffield
Graham is Chief Cartographer in Cartographic Services,
a support unit of the Geography Department at the
University of Sheffield. His expertise in all things
relating to maps and design have been utilised in many
aspects of this project, particularly in the design of
the posters.
Ben Wheeler, University of Sheffield
Ben is a research fellow working with the Social and
Spatial Inequalities Research Group. Ben has been
invaluable in his role in this project, giving advice and
checking for accuracy and quality of the informationpresented here.
John Pritchard, University of Sheffield
John provides technical and research support for the
Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group. He works
on many aspects of the project, particularly the devel-
opment of the website. John adds quality to the data
files and has a higher standard of what is acceptable
than Danny – if ever you think we are being extremely pedantic that
is probably John’s fault!
nna Barford, University of Sheffield Anna writes the informative text that accompanies each
map, sources the quotes used, and produces the
posters. She also helps to oversee the project. It’s Anna
who is likely to answer your emails if you have any
queries. She deals with anyone ranging from school chil-
dren to journalists, scientists to politicians. Anna is more responsible
for the spin put on the text of the maps than any of the rest of us.
The Worldmapper Team (the brains and soul of the project)The worldmapper project is a collaborative work between the following people:
Figure 2. Population in 2002 - each person alive in 2002 is given an equal amount of space on this map.
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Wrapping upAbove are just three of the 366 maps that we
have made during 2006. Most of these are
already available, with accompanying notes,
data and posters at www.worldmapper.org. We
have briefly considered the significance of these
maps and how they are related. Other topics
mapped include more on population, some
about movement, transport, food, goods, man-
ufacturers, services, resources, fuel, production,
work, income, wealth, poverty, housing, educa-
tion, health, disease, death, destruction, vio-
lence, pollution, depletion, communication,
exploitation and action (for a detailed list see
A-Z Index at www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/ worldmapper/atozindex.html).With such a range
of maps there’s bound to be something of inter-
est to you! And something of relevance to you,
because it is often you and the other 6 billion
people in the world that are represented by the
tiny specks of colour that fill territories, push
boundaries and thus change the shape of these
world maps.
Anna Barford ( [email protected] ) and
Danny Dorling ( [email protected] ) are
members of the Worldmapper team
www.worldmapper.org.
April/May 2007 16
Art ic le
Regions rritori s
Central frica Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Sao
Tome & Principe, and Zambia
South Eastern frica Botswana, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia,
Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zimbabwe
Northern frica Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia, and
Western Sahara
South sia Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka
sia Pacific Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Indonesia, Kiribati, Lao People's
Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea,
Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Viet Nam
Middle East Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Gaza Strip & West Bank, Georgia, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel, Jordan,
Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen
East sia China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Hong Kong (China), Mongolia, Republic of Korea, and Taiwan
South merica Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, and
Venezuela
North merica Bahamas, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and United States
Eastern Europe Albania, Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, TFYR Macedonia, Turkey, and Ukraine
Western Europe Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom
Japan Japan
Figure 3. Votes in the International Monetary Fund, in 2006 prior to voting reforms.
Table 1. The following territories are shown in Worldmapper maps (Why we don’t call them countries? Because they aren’t all - although most are):
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Advanced Concept Technology for Economic, Persistent Earth
Lighter-Than-Air Surveillance Plat
In today’s world of geospatial intelligence data-gathering, unmanned
surveillance platforms are currently a hot topic. Satellite-based systems and
Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAVs) are the more familiar technologies
associated with remotely-operated airborne/spaceborne imaging sensors used
to generate Earth observation data. However, there is an alternative to this
current trend, one that is gaining a lot of attention as an effective
technology with wide-ranging operational potential.
By Frank Artés
It is not a completely radical concept that has
yet to be proven, but a sound alternative that
is efficient and economical by comparison;
advanced lighter-than-air (LTA) vehicle
technology.
Proven Technology Lockheed Martin is spearheading the design
and development of advanced LTA systems to
be used primarily for persistent surveillance
operations at both high and low altitudes. The
April/May 2007 18
Specia l
technology has the potential to dramaticallyalter the current approach the U.S. government
has towards its national defense
program and also augment its military deploy-
ments overseas. The use of ground-tethered
aerostats operating at low altitude, and
airships operating in the stratosphere, will
increase homeland security options and other
mission-specifics in the United States, by
providing overlapping radar surveillance of the
nation’s entire coastal areas.
Airship design, construction and operational
functionality are well-defined criteria within theLockheed Martin organization. Over an eighty-
year period the company has been responsible
for more than 300 airships and many more
aerostats, LTA vehicles that are attached to a
re-locatable mooring system by a high-strength
cable that provides power and controllability. A
number of Lockheed Martin 420K Tethered
Aerostat Radar System or TARS aerostats, which
use an L-88(V)3 radar system, are currently
operating along the southern U.S. border. With a
volume of 1,200 cubic meter (420,000 cubic
feet), these aerostats can be deployed up to
4,600 meter (15,000 feet), where they support
air sovereignty and counter-drug operations
conducted by North American Aerospace
Defense Command, the U.S. Coast Guard and
U.S. Customs Air and Marine Interdiction
Coordination Center.
Since 2004, aerostats have also been used to
reinforce military operations in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation
Iraqi Freedom. The 64K is a surveillance system
equipped with various optical and infrared
imaging sensors which gives the warfighter an
additional intelligence collection capability byproviding continual ‘close-watch’ observation in
support of ground forces.
Historical PerspectiveThe majority of the ongoing research and devel-
opment into LTA technology is being led by the
company’s business in Akron, Ohio, a city very
familiar with airship manufacture. During the
1930s, Akron was the centre for the develop-
ment and construction of military airships for
the United States Navy. The primary construction
facility, the Airdock, was purpose-built in 1929
and at that time was the world’s largest build-
ing designed without a need for interior struc-
tural support. The airship USS Akron, was built
there in 1931, and was the first of two exam-
Air vehicle size comparison chart. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin HA A operational mission. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin
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ples of massive rigid-airship design, capable of operating with 185.000 cubic meter (6,500,000
cubic feet) of Helium. It was used as a test bed
to evaluate the practicality of employing the air-
ship as a weapons platform for the Navy. The
hangar, which still stands today, is 64 meter
high (211 feet, approximately the height of a
22-storey building), 100 meter wide (325 feet)
and 360 meter long (1175 feet),
and serves as Lockheed Martin’s
assembly, integration facility and
operations base.
Global Interest The US is not alone in its inter-
est in LTA technology, particular-
ly stratospheric platform systems
designed to operate at altitudes
around 20.000 meter (65,000
feet). A number of programs have
been proposed by various
nations, including France, India,
UK, Russia, Germany and The
Netherlands, all of which have
recognized the advantages of a
cost-effective technology that can
be used in place of, or in con-
junction with, conventional satel-
lite systems. The Japan Aero-
space Exploration Agency (JAXA)
for example, is developing a
stratospheric airship for environ-
mental monitoring and advanced communica-
tions relay. South Korea has initiated a three-
phase high-altitude airship program with a
ten-year research and development timeline.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI)
currently has a technology demonstrator flyingwhich is expected to lead to a full-size version
designed for wide-area surveillance, mapping
and wireless communications.
Why the Interest Now?Ron Browning, Lockheed Martin Director of
Surveillance Systems Business Development,
explained some of the reasons behind the
increased interest in LTA platforms. “There are
a number of particular attributes, specific to the
technology, which cannot be replicated at the
moment with other types of airborne systems,
the most important of which is a high-altitude,
long-loiter capability. This one feature has
tremendous potential for both civil and military
applications. An ability to deliver real-time infor-
taken LTA engineering and design to new lev-els of innovation with the introduction of
advanced propulsion systems, construction
materials and state-modern energy storage
technologies. The differences between the con-
temporary airship of today and those that were
flying during their heyday in the 1920s and 30s,
is striking, not the least of which is a paramount
requirement for an autonomous oper-
ational capability.
The Integrated Sensor Is Structure
program (ISIS) is just one of several
initiatives with which Lockheed Martinis involved, using its expertise to
develop next-generation advanced
material technologies. A Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
program (DARPA) to develop the core
technologies necessary to integrate
an extremely capable sensor package
directly into the structure of strato-
spheric airships, ISIS will be a high-
altitude surveillance system operat-
ing autonomously just above the jet
stream.
DARPA solicited ideas in critical tech-
nology areas including low areal den-
sity, advanced airship hull material,
low-power density radar apertures,
low power and cost transmit-receive
modules, and fully regenerative
power systems. The Akron team will develop
advanced material technology and next-genera-
tion hull material for this stratospheric airship.
Propulsion Systems
The propulsion systems designed for the newwave of autonomous LTA vehicles are also a
cutting-edge technology, producing the highest
torque-to-weight ratio currently available in
motors of this type. Gimbaled, electric-powered
and with a twin-bladed propeller assembly, they
are designed to produce vectored-thrust for
directional flight and controlled positioning.
During station-keeping, precise maneuvering
can be effectively achieved through the prudent
use of the individual motors positioned on each
side of the airship, two fore and two aft.
With a self-launch capability, it is expected an
LTA vehicle operating autonomously would take
approximately two hours to reach its operating
altitude, almost 21 kilometers above the Earth.
In this environment the air pressure is less than
mation on changing weather patterns andstorm-tracking, or the location of wildfires and
environmental hazards are all examples where
the technology has real commercial value. De-
regulation of the telecommunications industry in
the United States during the 1990s has driven
commercial interest in the program, particularly
as a telecomm-relay vehicle.”
“But it is the defense applications that have
drawn the most attention and it is in this role
that we see advanced LTA technology as being
the most effective. The military demand for per-
sistent surveillance is growing all the time and
lighter-than-air vehicles such as today’saerostats and high-altitude airships can satisfy
this demand by enhancing network-centric func-
tionality and battlespace awareness.”
Advanced Component TechnologiesAlthough research into using airships as strato-
spheric geostationary platforms began decades
ago, the concept was not feasible given the size
and weight of the aerospace materials and
instrumentation available at the time. Today’s
lightweight modular components and propul-
sion systems, combined with advanced solar-
powered technology, has allowed engineers to
design and build technically mature prototype
concepts and develop a technically mature plan
for an operational vehicle. Lockheed Martin has
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 19
Specia l
Observation
forms
Lockheed Martin HA A. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin
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ten per cent of that found at sea level and thewinds can vary from sixty to a hundred knots,
so the effectiveness of the propulsion systems
and the aerodynamic design of the vehicle’s
envelope are crucial.
Envelope DesignUnlike NASA’s high-altitude scientific research
balloon, the Ultra Long Duration Balloon
(ULDB), which is semi-inflated at launch and
gradually reaches its full-inflation shape with the
changing atmospheric pressure at altitude,
Lockheed’s advanced stratospheric airship
envelope design maintains its profile through a
non-rigid construction technique. It consists of
a large outer envelope which encloses a small-
er inner envelope, both of which are made of
a high-strength, film-fabric laminate material
that is flexible and very durable. The compos-
ite sandwich structure is rugged and
lightweight, and able to withstand the high
exposure to ultraviolet solar radiation and
changes in temperature during diurnal
(day/night) cycles. Helium is distributed between
the two cavities using internally-mounted tran-
sonic fans rotating at speeds in excess of 333m/s (1100 ft/s). These control the vehicle’s inter-
nal pressure and allow for expansion of the
Helium at various altitudes. This technique
enables the airship to ascend and descend very
effectively without changing its external shape.
Power on DemandTo meet the fully autonomous requirement of
those LTA vehicles designed to operate above
20,000 meter (65,000 feet), a self-sufficient
power capability is key to their successful
deployment. For long-endurance missions the
option of carrying solid fuel is impractical and
an onboard self-generating power technology
is needed. Engineered for all-electric opera-
tion, it is expected they will use a combination
of photovoltaic (PV) cells and regenerativefuel cell technology integrated with the enve-
lope fabric. This is based on the development
work carried out at the NASA-Dryden research
facilities at Edwards Air Force Base and at
NASA-Glenn in Cleveland, which specializes in
power, propulsion, communications and
microgravity science.
Operational Capability Full-spectrum Intelligence, Surveillance,
Reconnaissance (ISR) tasks are seen as the
primary function, using high-bandwidth com-
munications systems and imaging sensors to
fulfill an over-the-horizon (OTH) relay and con-
nectivity purpose. Anti-terrorism surveillance,
high-value target-tracking, and missile warn-
ing and defense operations are high on the
list of mission applications.
To a certain extent these tasks can be under-
taken using satellite systems but at much
greater cost and with out the constant obser-
vation dynamic a long-loiter capability offers.
Coverage at most latitudes depends on satel-
lites orbiting with known revisit times and
thus affords only cyclical coverage with resul-tant ‘temporal gaps’. LTA vehicles operate at
lower altitudes than satellites, and therefore
visual-sensor resolution is improved together
with a shortened data transmission time-lag.
Onboard SensorsThe operational versatility of LTA vehicles with
an OTH surveillance capability means the array
of sensors taken aloft would be extensive and
offers a network-centric protocol. The station-
keeping potential enables continuous data cap-
ture, comparison and analysis using a broad
range of imaging technologies, such as
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), hyperspectral
scanners, and various electro-optic/infrared sen-
sors. Together with military intelligence commu-
nication systems, it offers an ‘eyes and ears’collection capability for the interception and
decoding of communications traffic in the new
battlespace of the 21st century.
Rapid Mission TurnaroundOne of the major factors that make LTA systems
an attractive alternative to other airborne tech-
nologies is mission flexibility and the compara-
tively low deployment costs. Considerations
such as designing satellite-deployable sensors
that need to be configured to withstand the rig-
ors of a rocket launch and associated shock
and high G-forces, are prime factors that weigh
heavily in the favor of LTA technology. This,
when compared with the short mission capa-
bility of many UAV systems that require high
launch/land cycles and associated manpower,
puts the airship in a very favorable light.
Technology for the Information AgeAs a technology with the potential to comple-
ment the latest Multi-Sensor Command and
Control Constellation (MC2C) proposed by the
United States, Lockheed Martin’s advanced
lighter-than-air systems are designed to meetthe demands of tomorrow’s information-age
warfare, comprised of space-based systems,
UAVs and ISR-capable aircraft, for air and
space, command and control intelligence
gathering.
Frank Artés ( [email protected] ) is a
contributing editor of GeoInformatics. For additional
information on this topic visit:
www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2005/
RAND_TR234.sum.pdf
www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/mc2c.htm
www.smdc.army.mil/pubsearch/SearchResults.asp
www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/haa.htm.
April/May 2007 20
Specia l
The Airdock facility. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin
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Art ic le
GIOVE-B Bom Bursts
GNSS: Update
The ESA is fed up with the delays surrounding the Galileo program in general
and GIOVE-B in particular and has commissioned Surrey Technologies to build
GIOVE-A2. Without an active satellite, Galileo stands the risk of losing its
frequency licenses. Moreover, it is still unclear whether the last Beidou launch
was successful or not. Glonass, however, is investigating the use of
GPS / Galileo-like transmission techniques.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
GPSAircraft Landing Using GPS
In December 2006 the first successful landing
using GPS was performed in Australia. The GPS
receiver was augmented with a ground-based
augmentation system. At the moment GPS may
only be used, in combination with WAAS, for the
approach phase and not in the final landing.
Qantas, the national Australian airline, has so far
equipped nine Boeing 737s with a prototypesystem. The system will be further developed
based on the test results. It is expected that
the system will be fully operational and certi-
fied within two years.
GPS and WiFi
SiRF (America), one of the main GPS chipset
suppliers, has developed a hybrid GPS – WiFi
chip with Skyhook (America). Using the algo-
rithms developed by Skyhook, the chipsets can
be used for both indoor and outdoor position-
ing.
The basis of the technique is a database con-
taining over 50% of the known WiFi hotspots
in America. Using triangulation, the distances
between the chip and the transmitter, and
hence the position, can be calculated.
Together with cellular positioning, this is a
promising development in solving one of the
greatest problems in satellite navigation –
indoor positioning.
GalileoGIOVE-A Signal
In March the ESA released the so-called Interface
Control Document listing the signal details of GIOVE-A. Earlier there was controversy around
this signal since in differed from
the specifications detailed in the
general Galileo Interface Control
Document. With the release of the
GIOVE-A document, it is now pos-
sible for suppliers to develop their
own test receivers.
GIOVE-B
During a speech on January 17
Jean-Jacques Dordain, general
manager of the ESA, issued a
warning to Galileo industries. The
latter, consisting of four major
European companies, is responsi-
ble for the building of the GIOVE-B satellite aswell as the first four production satellites. In
order to keep the radio frequencies for Galileo,
at least one Galileo satellite needs to be oper-
ational and transmitting on these frequencies.
GIOVE-B, whose launch was planned for spring
2006, has still not been launched. It is rumored
that it shorted out during a test last summer
and has still not been completely repaired. The
main issues seem, however, to lie within the
organization of the consortium. There is much
distrust between the consortium partners.
Dordain has stated that the satellite should befinished before the end of March 2007. If not,
measures would be taken. At the time you read
this, it should be clear whether measures have
been taken or not.
In the meantime a contract was awarded to
Surrey Technologies to build the GIOVE-A2 satel-
lite, a satellite that was not planned for origi-
nally. Surrey, a small English firm, was respon-
sible for building GIOVE-A which has been
functioning without problems since its launch
in December 2005. GIOVE-A2 should safeguard
the Galileo frequencies should it be impossible
to launch GIOVE-B on time.
EU Ultimatum
In March, the European Commissioner for
Transportation, Jacques Barrot, issued an ulti-
matum to the eight companies that will exploit
Galileo once it is built. He stated that the quar-
relling companies should create a single
exploitation company before May 11, 2007. If
they do not, they are not guaranteed to keep
the exploitation contract.
If these problems continue, there is not just the
risk of gross budget and planning overruns, butalso the possibility that Galileo will never be
Artist’s impression of GIOVE-A2 (source: www.esa.int).
Original Galileo architecture (source: www.esa.net)
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built. Some of the proposed exploitation com-
panies already have their doubts about the
profitability of Galileo.
Galileo Services
The Galileo Services organization, a non-profit
organization developing new applications for
Galileo, has been expanded to include non-European companies. Amongst the first new
members from outside Europe are Novatel and
Javad.
Glonass
GPS – Glonass Conference
A joint conference between America and Russia
on interoperability between Glonass and GPS
was held in December 2006. One of the items
under discussion was the technique used with-
in Glonass for coding the satellites.
GPS (and Galileo) use a limited number of fre-quencies for all satellites and a unique code
for each satellite. Glonass however uses a
unique frequency for each satellite.
If, and to what extent, changes will be made
to the Glonass structure is not yet known. If
Glonass decides to use the GPS/Galileo tech-
nique, this will have such a huge impact on
the price of combined receivers that they may
become available to the consumer market.
Satellite Status
The Glonass constellation is relatively con-
stant. There are now 19 Glonass satellites. Of
these 19 only 9 are active, however. Threesatellites are currently being maneuvered into
position and will probably become active after
that. The other seven satellites are not expect-
ed to become active again.
Beidou
On February 2 the fourth Beidou satellite was
launched. It seems that the satellite has not left
the parking orbit to go into the designed
geo-synchronous orbit. It is possible that the
launch was unsuccessful, but it is also possible
that the satellite is ‘parked’ in order to directly
replace a failing satellite when necessary. There
is no Chinese comment to either confirm or
deny this.
LoranAlthough Loran (Long Range Navigation
system) is not a satellite navigation system, it
is considered by more and more specialists to
be a necessary backup to systems such as GPS,
Glonass and Galileo.
At the moment a lot of (American) effort is going
into the modernization of the current Loran-
C system. The modernized version, eLoran, is
expected to become operational over the next
few years. In Europe the awareness that
additional navigation systems are necessary
alongside satellite navigation systems isgrowing. Loran seems a logical choice since
there are already some Loran chains active.
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
( [email protected] ) is a freelance
writer and trainer in the f ields of positioning and
hydrography.
Launch of Chinese long march rocket used to
launch the Beidou satellites.
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OS Net underpins a range of publicly avail-
able GNSS correction services designed for
surveyors, highway engineers, utility compa-
nies and others in need of pinpoint position-
ing information. For that reason Ordnance
Survey’s latest investment will have a particu-
lar strategic impact as the Thames Gateway
becomes Europe’s largest development site
over the coming decade.
Every Square MetreOrdnance Survey invests substantially in the
latest satellite-positioning technology and uses
a combination of aerial photography and
ground-based surveying techniques to cap-
ture and record every square metre of Great
Britain. It runs and maintains one of the
largest geographic databases in the world
recording an average of 5000 real world
changes every day, so falling behind in the
latest technology isn’t an option. Thisdatabase provides customers with a wide
range of accurate, up-to-date and highly
detailed mapping products, and in order to
continue to fully support this, OS Net has
had to embrace the future. This latest devel-
opment in London represents the test bed
for the next stage in OS Net’s evolution.
OS Net has always been about providing
unparalleled accuracy.
On its introduction within Ordnance Survey
in 2003, OS Net was immediately able to
improve on the typical 10m standard accu-
racy of GPS devices. Initially, this pinpoint
data was used by Ordnance Survey’s own
field surveyors to provide accuracy up to
2cm. It soon became clear however that the
But why has OS Net been so successful? OS
Net has already helped surveyors to achieve
substantial efficiency gains in their workflow
through greater flexibility and productivity and
OS Net partner provided services support
more than 200 commercial customers who are
able to benefit too. The network is renowned
for its accuracy and reliability, with the core
base stations being adopted as part of the
European Terrestrial Reference System
(ETRS89). All services are co-ordinated in this
coordinate reference system enabling interop-
erability and the precise exchange of geospa-
tial data. By providing the national, real-time
positioning element in this framework, OS
Net also follows the principles of the Digital
National Framework (DNF) in helping to pro-
mote the integration of geographic and
other information from multiple sources.
Constantly Moving However, all that counts for nothing if a net-
work doesn’t offer the highest level of accu-
racy. OS Net is able to so precise because
it delivers networked Real Time Kinematic
(RTK) correction data which, when combined
with a receiver’s raw position, increases the
accuracy. By using the network of base sta-
tions (as opposed to receivers in isolation),
the distance dependency of more tradition-
al RTK techniques is negated. But technolo-
gy is constantly moving and it’s essential to
keep up.
Ordnance Survey recognises that with the
development of Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS) constellations beyond the
United State’s GPS network and the bene-
commercial sector could benefit hugely too. In
late 2005 the network was opened up to the
wider world. OS Net currently consists of 93
GPS base stations which transmit the raw GPS
data that they collect in real time down to a
bank of servers sitting in Ordnance Survey
headquarters in Southampton. Software run-
ning on these servers generates a GPS correc-
tion model which can then be accessed by
Ordnance Surveyors. The raw GPS is also
transmitted to partners who generate their
own positioning services. 12 extra stations are
currently being installed in northern Scotland
with a further two in south-west England.
Ordnance Survey Improves Positioning Capabilities across London
In Need of Pinpoint Positioning
Ordnance Survey data underpins 100 billion pound worth of
business in Great Britain
With a view to the future, Ordnance Survey has added new state-of-the-art satellite navigation stations to the Thames Gateway region to improve
its national infrastructure for receiving satellite-based positioning signals.
The new receivers are the first within OS Net to be compatible with the
Global Positioning System (GPS), Glonass as well as being upgradeable to
Galileo as Ordnance Survey looks to secure the provision of a
full range of satellite positioning services for the next 10 years.
By Paul Beauchamp
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Art ic le
and all the related infrastructure that goes
with it.
Geographic Context By making the receivers compatible with all
available GNSS constellations, and improving
the density of the network around London,
Ordnance Survey is offering partners greater
service choice for the next 5–10 years. Adding
in further GNSS signals and frequencies, over
and above GPS, OS Net can provide greater
flexibility and faster signal acquisition – ideal
for projects demanding high-precision survey-
ing and mapping.
Neil Ackroyd, adds: “All our activities are
focused on providing the definitive geograph-
ic context for the places we all live and work
in. Businesses, organisations and individuals
depend on our authoritative and reliable loca-
tion data every day. That’s why from the start
of the Thames Gateway project our data iscrucial to the delivery of a sustainable living
environment through to 2012 and beyond”.
Paul Beauchamp
( [email protected] ) is Press
Officer at Ordnance Survey in the UK.
For more information look at
www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk.
ic site like the Thames Gateway. This
is an exciting chance to be a part of
the UK’s largest building initiative for
over 50 years”.
Ordnance Survey’s ongoing invest-
ment in OS Net reflects a growing
demand from its technology partners
for a network that supports a wider
choice of positioning applications.
Since the network was made avail-
able commercially, surveyors, con-
struction engineers and the utilities
industry have been among the core
users. Increasingly however there has
been interest in using OS Net in a
variety of other applications in fields
as diverse as flood control, emergen-
cy services tracking, insurance risk
assessment and shipping port opera-
tions.
Olympic GamesThe investment in OS Net for London
reinforces Ordnance Survey’s com-
mitment, as Great Britain’s mapping
agency, to support flagship construc-
tion projects as the city builds towards the
2012 Olympic Games. The new OS Net con-
stellation receivers, as well as a general base
station reorganisation of OS Net across the
south-east of England, will create the best
possible positioning framework for the
region. Fully GNSS compatible receivers will
help with the construction of the Olympic
park and the wider gateway region. The ben-
efits of having access to highly accurate and
up-to-date geographic information within the
construction industry are plain to see.
Ordnance Survey data has a rich pedigree of
adding value to a number of high-profile pro-
jects such as the Channel Tunnel High Speed
Rail Link, and with the Thames Gateway to
undergo massive redevelopment over the
next 5–10 years, there is definitely scope for
Ordnance Survey data to play a key role. The
construction and engineering works associ-ated with the
regional develop-
ment will be sub-
stantial and a key
market area for OS
Net partners. The
40-mile stretch
along the Thames
estuary is going to
become one enor-
mous building site,
including not only
the Olympic park
and 200 000 new
homes but also a
new shipping port
fits this will bring to satellite navigation, OS
Net needs to grow. The new base stations
incorporate Russia’s Glonass signals and will
be upgradeable to the Galileo constellation in
due course. Ordnance Survey hopes to offer
its partners not only greater choice but also
the ability to provide dramatically improved
positioning information in built-up regions.
For this reason London couldn’t be a better
place to deploy this initial upgrade of the net-
work.
Neil Ackroyd, Ordnance Survey’s Director of
Data Collection and Management, strongly
believes that OS Net has a fundamental role
to play in the future of the capital: “Our infor-
mation is ideal for the kind of planning and
development decisions behind successful
regeneration projects. Our extensive portfolio
can be electronically integrated with many dif-
ferent sets of information relating to a specif-
OS Net allows surveyors to receive RTK correction data accurate to two centimetres.
Stratford map.
Stratford aerial photo.
25
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A Closer Look at Autodesk’s Geospatial Solutions
Lines Between CAD and GIS are Blur
Autodesk is growing, and that’s exciting. Let’s
face it, a boost of mere percents can have huge
impact in short time on the relatively specialis-
tic GIS departments within organisations.
Traditionally, CAD departments have always
been bigger than their GIS counterparts. Maybe
high-end GIS users won’t feel a need to buy
any AutoCAD extensions, but growth happens
bottom-up, from the CAD rooms. Thanks to
Autodesk’s recent efforts, GIS will lesser and
lesser be a specialism for the happy few.
CAD-GIS IntegrationBart De Lathouwer is Business Development
Manager EMEA with Autodesk: “The lines
between CAD and GIS are blurring. Of course
our concurrents would like to keep the divid-
ing lines as clearly visible as possible, but in
reality it’s all converging. We are right on top
of that: we can see GIS people who wish to
change the original data, and there’s CAD peo-
ple who wish to work with attributes. The feed-
back that we got lately has pointed us to work
with GIS using our platform.”
This development is not only seen within the
Autodesk organization, observes De Lathouwer:
“I think ESRI and the others see the exact same
things coming from the GIS-corner, the only dif-
ference is that it stays a bit more in their own
little world. In America ArcSDE users came up
to us to work with our tools, and we see that
coming up in Europe. Still, there will always be
a need to go to ESRI. Knowing that, Autodesk
chooses a ‘flanking strategy’: we are going to
be living together with the existing solutions.
The essence lies in the fact that users work in
heterogeneous surroundings, where you have
to be able to freely exchange data. If that means
that a fire brigade’s commander can save lives
doing so, who cares if you call that CAD or GIS?”
AutoCAD MapDuring an Autodesk-conference in London in
February 2007, the word AutoCAD was re-intro-
duced: Autodesk Map is now called AutoCAD
Map 3D. That’s a remarkable move, given the
fact that the geo-market would be understand-
ably eager to forget about the classic, non-struc-
turised AutoCAD. De Lathouwer says: “there’s a
little bit of history in that emotion. At this point,
we’re just lesser known in the geospatial mar-
ket. But we can be proud of our AutoCAD his-
tory, which is going to be part of the geospa-
tial world now. Our main focus is in bringing
data together.” Another unexpected announce-
ment concerned Autodesk’s organisational
structure. From now on, the design solution
software Civil 3D is kept within the division
April/May 2007 26
Interv iew
Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC).It’s a move away from the geospatial division
and CAD-GIS integration. Still, Civil 3D has this
implicit link to the digital map and moreover, a
big impact on traditional surveying and GPS-
steered machines. In short: it’s the connected
site, even in 3D. De Lathouwer explains that it
is not about a new frontier, but instead, about
working interdisciplinary. “In the end it was bet-
ter to put Civil 3D in that other division.
Geospatial is underlying in our view, we’re not
really talking about a different ‘vertical’.
Remember that Civil 3D is built on top of AutoCAD Map 3D. This means that there’s even
more integration between geospatial and AEC.
Surely, a building is built on a Digital Terrain
model, at least theoretically. It has been a
strategic decision to let cross-divisional teams
work in groups.”
Open Source
Also in London, Autodesk announced the fact
that the Open Source-version of MapGuide has
been downloaded a stunning 23,000 times in
2006. That is a big group of potential clients,
people who might consider buying the com-
mercial version. Still, Autodesk is not trying to
get in touch with those MapGuide users. De
Lathouwer: “We actually donated the source
code of MapGuide, we gave it away.
Downloading goes through OSGeo
(www.osgeo.org). Autodesk didn’t give anything
to do with it. And even if we did have all those
e-mail addresses of everyone, it would be
unethical to contact the people who download-
ed the code. We behave like we should within
the Open Source community. For a commercial
party like Autodesk that means that those whoare interested should come to us. Often, our
new clients are from departments who have
been toying around with the free software for
quite some time. At Autodesk, you can hear the
ironic remark that these clients apparently want-
ed someone they could sue after a while…”
TopobaseRecently, Autodesk acquired Topobase, by buy-
ing a partner, the Swiss-based C-Plan. Topobase
is an interesting high-end GIS-solution, but it is
not a new product. With approximately 500
existing users in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland, Autodesk is keeping the Topobase
campaign on a remarkably silent level. In
London Autodesk’s vice-president Mark
These are interesting times for Autodesk-watchers in the geospatial market.
According to research center Cambashi,
Autodesk is lined up third in EMEA.
Not quite near market leader ESRI, but
still. Something’s going on.
Autodesk’s Bart De Lathouwer lets us
know what’s up these days.
By Remco Takken
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Pareskeva explained that nowadays Autodeskkeeps up a careful marketing strategy. Only when
all helpdesks and sales-managers are really up
to the task, a product is being launched. The
phased introduction of Topobase is an illustra-
tion of this.
De Lathouwer: “Topobase itself is at this very
moment still being ‘Autodesked’, and that takes
a bit more than print the company logo on the
box. We are running QA-procedures, the look &
feel is being adjusted. For instance, before there
was no entry to all our libraries, that sort of thing
just takes time. The biggest issues have beentackled, but mind you, we aren’t really silent about
Topobase. In Italy and the Czech Republic we’re
going at full speed, we even had our first award
for Topobase. But you have to do it one step at
a time, so that you can take what you learn to a
new region, in order to not make the same mis-
takes you made earlier on. We are planning to
launch Topobase EMEA-wide eventually.”
Convergence of Data“We are on the eve of a convergence of data,”
De Lathouwer enthuses. “Many things will come
together. RFID is being developed, which is
going to give us a mass of data that brings us
knowledge. And think about the moment when
Business Objects, tools that bring together
financial data, are going to be ‘locally enabled’.
You don’t have to be some sort of visionary to
see where we are all going. That said: Autodesk
is indeed in a unique position. 80 percent of
the gaming industry is using our stuff. We have
fused the visualisation tool 3DS Studio and GIS.My vision is that one day you will be able to
open the doors in the cubes that you can see
in Google Earth today. An architect can go in
and ‘drag & drop’ the wall that he envisioned
elsewhere in the building. But what is really
stopping the contemporary architect? It’s his
author’s rights, or more precisely: digital rights
management. Because what he or she made
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Interv iew
ring
might be copied by a third party. But one day,they will say: ‘I like the fact that the municipal-
ities can work with my design. They can have
all that’s on the outside, plus the floors and
stuff, but not the structural analysis’. The next
generation will not put up with a simple 3D
map. When I look at my boys back home: they
are already living the 3D virtual life in reality on
their Playstation. The eldest of the two is
twelve, he is already fooling around with
Inventor! Undoubtedly, they will be very disap-
pointed if we showed them the static nature of
our work with GIS today.”
Remco Takken ( [email protected] ) is
contributing editor of GeoInformatics. For more infor-
mation on this subject www.autodesk.com.
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How User-Driven Lidar Innovations Benefit Both Commercial an
From Practical to Tactical
A Border Patrol or a platoon leader they both need to know the terrain to perform their duties. An interactive 3D visualization interface to rapidly
scan the terrain. That is the near future for tactical military
operators especially in the new urban conflict settings.
By Bill Gutelius
Imminent BattleA platoon leader is tasked with traversing a
dense area of a rough and obstacle-ridden
city. He turns to the local terrain team sup-
porting his unit in-theater and requests infor-
mation to help guide his platoon safely to
their objective. He quickly downloads a high-resolution 3D image of the next several blocks
to cross and displays it in an immersive envi-
ronment. Collected only hours before from an
orbiting Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
equipped with laser and imaging sensors, the
3D image clearly depicts obstacles and struc-
tures along the route. Power lines and poles,
vehicles and barriers are all clearly classified
and visible in the image. Dimensions of the
buildings and obstacles are available in a pull-
down menu. Details of doorways and window
ledges provide knowledge of threat areas.
In a very different application, a Border Patrol
agent stares at a screen showing an uniden-
tified, low-flying small aircraft headed towards
the border. The agent quickly pops up an
interactive 3D visualization interface and
rapidly scans the terrain ahead of the aircraft
in a geospatial display, filtering for pre-classi-
fied zones identified as suitable for landing.
Instantly, a small flat strip on a shallow moun-
tain slope appears and the agent pinpoints a
destination for the aircraft. The display indi-cates the length of the area and precise loca-
tion. No other terrain surrounding the region
is classified as capable of landing an aircraft,
unobstructed. An intercept team is dis-
patched, and border agents are there to
‘greet’ the plane when it touches down.
Near FutureThis is the near future for tactical military
operators in the new urban conflict settings.
Known as the “three block war”, the battle-
field is vastly different from those historically
faced by the infantry solider. Feature-rich
geospatial information is critical to the oper-
ators not only for achieving objectives, but
simply to survive in these high-threat environ-
ments. This is also the future for security offi-cials in services such as the Border Patrol and
Homeland Security.
For these security agencies, having quick
access to enhanced geospatial knowledge is
becoming increasingly critical. Since the lidar
sensor has evolved so much in the last
decade, lidar-acquired geospatial data is
becoming more tactically relevant than ever.
As a consequence, the lidar sensor is playing
an ever-greater role in supplying such high-
resolution spatial information.
New Capabilities = New ApplicationsAirborne lidar remote sensing has experienced
two major application developments within
the last two to three years. First, there has
been a transition from ‘mapping’ to ‘imaging’.
Second, the military, security and intelligence
communities have shown an increasing accep-
tance of the lidar sensor as an important tool
for collecting tactically relevant data. This is
because lidar-derived topographic data has
proven its ability to quickly deliver a product
that enables the extraction of ‘actionable
information’.
In addition to mapping capacity, newer lidar
sensors are capable of imaging as well. This
is due, in large part, to recent significant
increases in Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF).
The U.S. military’s need for high-resolution ter-
rain imagery has been a significant driver in
the development of technologies such as
Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
(IFSAR) and lidar. While IFSAR is capable of
all-weather operation, it still has not
approached the extreme level of detail reso-
lution achieved by the latest airborne lidar systems. Airborne lidar is now capable of
being flown at altitudes in the region of 3000
to 6000 meters, and still able to collect sub-
meter Ground Sample Distance (GSD) or ‘post-
ings’.
Tactical OperationsIn Operation Iraqi Freedom, the U.S. military
deployed at least one airborne lidar system
and is investigating the addition of several
more. The success of the Buckeye program,
run by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and
Development Center’s Topographic Engi-
neering Center (TEC), has demonstrated the
utility of high-resolution terrain imaging at the
HRTI-5 level. Buckeye began in 2004 as a dig-
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Optech’s ALTM lidar sensor mounted in a light aircraft.
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ital camera-only program, but added lidar
capability in 2006. The U.S. Department of
Defense envisions a standardized imaging
tool to emerge from the Buckeye program and
become an Army ‘program of record’, where a
highly-integrated camera complements the
lidar solution and provides high-resolution/
high-texture information.
One of the more interesting aspects of deploy-
ing a lidar sensor in the Buckeye program is
that the lidar has been coupled with a high-
resolution electro-optical imaging system. This
is new for the military. The resulting data
products provide rich texture as well as high-
resolution geometry. These data outputs are
fused to render an extremely useful three-
dimensional image of an area of interest,while also allowing tactically relevant infor-
mation to be extracted.
UAV/UASThe next logical step in the tactical applica-
tion of lidar is toward the deployment of sen-
sors in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Unmanned
Aircraft Systems (UAV/UAS). The small pay-
load space, low available power and dimin-
ished weight-loading ability of most UAS
means that lidar manufacturers must be
extremely innovative in developing useful
sensors for these vehicles. Several programs
are underway in the U.S. military to deploy
lidar aboard Medium Altitude Long Endurance
(MALE) class air vehicles. One such program,
Practical Proving GroundWithout the evolution of COTS lidar technolo-
gy, military and government agencies would
not have been in a position to leverage the
significant benefits of airborne laser scanning.
While there have been numerous programs
that helped kick-start airborne lidar–NASA’s
Airborne Oceanographic Lidar (AOL) and
Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM), as well
as many other government development pro-
jects (known as ‘laser altimetry’ in the early
1980s), none have advanced the technology
as rapidly as the demands of the commercialsurveying and mapping sector. Over the last
decade, lidar has become a reliable and eco-
nomic tool for airborne mapping initiatives.
Benefiting from a ‘spiral development’ pro-
cess, usually administered through Advanced
Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTD),
the U.S. Department of Defense has been able
to leverage COTS lidar technology. Using the
latest commercial sensors and the spiral
development process, lidar sensors are modi-
fied for specific needs and field tested; test
results are fed back to the manufacturers, who
then modify the equipment accordingly. This
process and the benefits accrued in the
design phase have proved that lidar sensors
offer high value to military applications. The
military benefits from the fact that investment
in sensor development is a fraction of what
it could be because manufacturers are
responding to their commercial customers
who demand leading-edge technology to
prosper in a highly competitive business sec-
tor. Eventually the feedback loop driving lidar
development benefits both commercial and
military end-users. Many advances in lidar technology have been driven by military
requirements; these, in turn, are fed back into
the commercial stream. These advances are
then assimilated by the much larger fleet of
commercial lidar operators where they evolve
the Urban Recon ACTD (Advanced Concept
Technology Demonstration), has focused on
deploying modified Commercial Off-The-Shelf
(COTS) sensors on small-to-medium-scale
UAVs.
Beyond altering and downsizing the form-
factor of the lidar sensor there is a drive to
increase the overall performance when
mounted in the UAV. Some programs require
that the lidar use a high-power laser, capa-
ble of ranging to the terrain from beyond
20,000 feet. Systems with this capability
could remain 100 per cent stealthy, unde-
tectable to ground observers and capable of
off-nadir assessments of targets from miles
away. Other programs are calling for data
collection systems with scanners capable of pulsing and logging at frequencies far beyond
200 kHz, the specification required in order
to generate GSD values of 10 centimeters or
better. Such a system would truly approach
imaging capability comparable to traditional
Electro-Optical (EO) applications, yet would
simultaneously provide inherent three-dimen-
sional data instead of merely two.
These unmanned systems will be capable of
down-linking both EO imagery and lidar range
data to a ground station, in real time. This
will ensure that the military operators have
immediate access to data that can be visual-
ized, classified and rendered into tactically
relevant and actionable information on a con-
tinual basis as needed.
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Art ic le
Military End-Users
Urban infrastructure image compiled from lidar and ortho-draped digital camera data.
For these security agencies,
having quick access to enhanced
geospatial knowledge is
becoming increasingly
critical.
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further, thus supporting the feedback loop
again.
A good example of such development spinoff
is the very high-end waveform digitizer man-
ufactured by Optech Incorporated for use with
its Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper (ALTM). In2002, the University of Texas, with funds sup-
plied through the Defense University Research
Investment Program, committed to procure
the first Optech Waveform Digitizer. Since
then, many additional digitizers have been
manufactured and sold to both military and
commercial customers. With each successive
generation the digitizers advance and improve
through user feedback. The ultimate cost of
the Waveform Digitizer R&D is very significant,
but thanks to a dual-use approach and cost
sharing, the military was able to achieve their
technical objectives through a far less costly
investment.
Detect and Classify In 2005, NASA, in partnership with several
universities and the U.S. Border Patrol (now
U.S. Customs and Border Protection [CBP] ),
conducted a series of airborne remote sens-
ing exercises in the southwestern U.S. as part
of Project REASoN. The goal of the project is
to extract information and knowledge from
remotely-sensed imagery and geospatial data
as an input to an spatial decision support sys-
tem (SDSS) for use by the border security
agencies.
High-resolution lidar data combined with
color-infrared (CIR) imagery was collected and
employed in the analysis of such spatially rel-
evant items as clandestine airfields. Thisincluded the use of 3D modeling to detect and
classify secluded fields, remote roads, isolated
hillside meadows and other areas used as fre-
quent landing sites. The researchers used
ArcGIS 9.0 and lidar elevation data in the
development of geospatial models to assist
in generating actionable intelligence for
distribution and integration into the CBP
SDSS. Besides imagery and elevation data
from the lidar instrument, reflectance data,
also provided by the lidar sensor, was used
to enhance location predictions for the clan-
destine airfields.
Homeland Security In 1996, the National Imagery and Mapping
Agency, since renamed the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), was
mandated to create detailed maps of 120
cities. This mandate was expanded to 133
cities, then accelerated after September 11.
Along with high-resolution imagery collected
from film and digital cameras, lidar was
deployed to provide highly accurate elevation
data of the urban structures. This data was
used for modelling and also for orthorectifi-
cation of the camera imagery.
Recently, oblique photo capture has become
a highly-sought-after form of imagery, espe-
cially for urban areas. Companies like
Pictometry and Woolpert provide detailed
imagery from the sides of buildings in large
urban centers. Lidar elevation data can be
employed to streamline the more difficult taskof rectifying oblique imagery, which is a more
costly and time-consuming process than
standard nadir-oriented imagery.
The output products from the data were prin-
cipally aimed at decision support such as line-
of-sight analysis, dispersion modelling of bio-
chemical and radiological weapons,
vulnerability analysis, road network and bomb
blast analysis, and evacuation route planning.
Tactical Knowledge Enhanced
The lidar sensor is becoming an essentialremote sensing tool in the suite of sensors
available to military, intelligence and security
operators. Building on the practical innova-
tions driven by an ever-growing commercial
user base, the specialized agency operators
can count on mitigating development costs
as they realize enhanced performance.
Fidelity of geospatial information will contin-
ue to increase, providing a greater level of
confidence and support to decision makers
who are required to take rapid action on the
information. As a result, the tactical knowl-
edge of the decision makers is enhanced.
Bill Gutelius ( [email protected] ) is Government
Relations Manager, Optech Incorporated.
For more information on lidar technology please visit
www.optech.ca.
April/May 2007 30
Art ic le
Sources:• ‘New Eye in the Sky’, Military Geospatial
Technology• Commitment for the Future’, Military
GEospatial Technology, Darryl Garrett
• ‘Laser Altimetry: From Science to
Commercial Lidar Mapping’, Martin Flood,
PE&RS November 2001
• ‘Border Security Decision Support System
Driven by Remotely Sensed Data Inputs’,
Fourth Semi Annual Progress Report for
the REASoN Project, April-September,
2005
• Ibid
• ‘133 Cities Update’, Jim Engelhardt,
Geospatial Solutions, July 25, 2003
• ‘Elevation Mapping in National Security
and Homeland Defense’, Martin Flood,
Geospatial Solutions, May 1, 2003
Lidar-derived image of urban core.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Image courtesy of Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems.
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Review
Photo resolution (max) 8 MegaPixel (3264 x 2448)
Video resolution (max) 0.8 MegaPixel (320 x 240)
Display 2.5 inch
Zoom range (optical) 25 – 85 mm (35 mm equivalent)
ISO settings 64 – 1600
Shutter speeds 8s – 1/2000 s
Focussing distance (minimum) 0.005 (macro) or 0.3 m
High Resolution Geo-referenced Photographing
Ricoh Caplio 500SERecently Ricoh unveiled their latest digital camera; the Ricoh Caplio 500SE.
Since it is not the custom of this magazine to review photographic products,there must be something ‘geo’ about it. And there is; the camera can connect to
a GPS receiver, store position information with the photograph and then export
it to Google Earth or GIS package.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
The camera is built around an eight megapix-
el camera, capable of recording photographs at
a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. It can also
shoot videos and record audio files. The photo
resolution is enough to reproduce A4 pho-
tographs at the print quality of this magazine
(300 dpi).
Review Set-upSince I’m an amateur photographer as well as
a writer on positioning, reviewing this camera
was something I truly enjoyed. The price of the
camera is steep, with the European distributor,
Alta4, quoting a price of EUR 696 excluding VAT.
A ‘mouse’ type GPS receiver (Fortuna SlimBluetooth GPS) was delivered with the camera.
This receiver has the latest SirfStar III GPS
chipset, creating a very sensitive GPS receiver
with Bluetooth communication and 20 parallel
GPS channels. The camera was tested on two
separate occasions; one during a walk in a
nature reserve and the other during a boat-
cruise on the New Waterway in Rotterdam, the
Netherlands.
Watertight Ricoh states that the camera is watertight to
IP67 specifications (up to 1 m water depth), that
it is dustproof to JIS grade 6 and that it can be
dropped from a height of one meter without
sustaining damage. Due to the water tightness
Ricoh Caplio 500SE and Fortuna Slim Bluetooth GPS.
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the camera looks a bit cheap with its rubber
body and soft plastic keys. Having said that, it
feels quite sturdy and seems to be more than
up to the tough life of everyday surveying.
The supplied GPS receiver however was neither
watertight nor dustproof. But the camera can
be coupled to any GPS receiver capable of out-
putting NMEA type GPS messages, so just hook
it up to your trusted GPS solution. There seemsto be a design flaw with the see-through seek-
er. And although most people will probably pre-
fer the LCD display on the back of the camera
for composing the picture it can become
unreadable in bright sunlight. The built-in see-
trough seeker is however obstructed by the
camera housing at wide zoom angles.
Image Sensor Contrary to what most camera manufacturers
want you to believe, there is more to image
quality than just the resolution. The quality of the image chip and the lens in front of it play
a large role as well. As stated, the resolution of
the camera is high enough. The chip itself is
however a bit noisy. This manifests itself under
darker conditions or when photographing dark
objects. The effect becomes more pronounced
with the camera in ‘anti-blur’ mode where it
increases the sensitivity of the sensor. This is
however not particular to this camera alone.
Taking PhotographsTaking photographs is as simple as with any
other camera; just point and shoot. Most set-
tings in the camera are made automatically; it
is not possible to manually set either shutter
speed or diaphragm. There are however a few
specialized programs that manipulate the way
the camera operates. One does need to con-
sider the so-called shutter delay when pho-
tographing. When pressing the shutter release
button fully down there is approximately a one
second delay before the photo is taken.
Pressing the shutter release button halfway
down and letting the camera focus before tak-
ing the photography makes the delay negligible.Some peculiar setting called CALS can be found
on the main mode selector. If set to this mode,
the camera reverts to 1.3 Mega Pixel resolution,
which seems to be a Japanese requirement for
pictures taken of civil constructions.
GPS ConnectionThe GPS receiver and its connection to the cam-
era work perfectly. The camera can be set to
automatically look for the GPS receiver on the
Bluetooth connection during start-up.
One minor problem I encountered was where
to mount the GPS receiver. This was quickly
solved using some tie wraps to strap it to my
photo bag. When using a survey grade GPS
receiver this will be a lesser problem since the
intact. The photographs were then transformed
to a KML file, which was subsequently displayed
in Google Earth. One disadvantage is though
that no heading information other than the GPS
heading is available. Since this is only accurate
when moving in the same direction as shoot-
ing the photograph, most photos contained a
heading that was not representative of the
direction onto which the photo was taken.
Google Earth uses this heading however in it’s
display, especially when multiple photos are
taken at the same location. With GPS
Photomapper the user supposedly can adjust
the heading manually, but the best would be
to include a small digital compass with either
the GPS unit or with the camera.
Pro in Day-to-day Surveying Due to its robustness and Bluetooth communi-
cation ability, which is a pro in day-to-day sur-
veying, the price of the Ricoh is steep when
compared to other, equivalent, digital cameras.
Some aspects of the camera were slightly dis-appointing but overall the camera can be a
good addition to a GIS surveyor’s equipment.
What would truly improve the usability of the
camera is the inclusion of a small digital com-
pass for heading reference. Alta4 has promised
that a clip-on GPS unit with compass will
become available in the second quarter of 2007
for a price of around EUR 200.
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
( [email protected] ) is freelance
writer and trainer in the field of positioning and
hydrography. For more information go to:
www.ricoh.com (camera) and www.fortuna.com.tw
(gps). To find out more about the Alta4 products:
www.alta4.com.
GPS can be mounted on a pole. The number
of GPS satellites and the position can be dis-
played on the LCD screen in a few different
coordinate systems. Available is of course lati-
tude and longitude as well as Universal
Transverse Mercator and it’s militarised version,
MGRS. The number of available geodetic
datums is however disappointing with only
WGS84 and Tokyo datum as options. The coor-
dinates systems are only applicable to the dis-
play since all positions are stored in WGS84 lat-
itude and longitude in the metadata (EXIF) of
the JPEG image.
Exchanging PhotographsBundled with the camera were two software
packages. One is the basic software suite com-
mon to all digital camera’s, containing a photo
management solution, an editor and a tool to
burn disks and create all sorts of photo-related
printings. The second package, Fodysseus, is
of more interest to this review. It is a simple
tool that reads the position information fromthe EXIF and transforms it into a KML file that
can in turn be read by Google Earth or a GIS
package. Another option is of course to use a
GIS package that can extract the position from
the EXIF information. Alta4 provides the GPS
Photomapper software, which integrates into
ArcMap for that purpose. The latter was how-
ever not tested in this review.
Displaying PhotographsFor the test I shot a number of photographs.
At home I processed the photographs using my
own favourite photo editor (Adobe Photoshop).
This is no problem since the more advanced
photo editing packages leave all the EXIF infor-
mation, including the position information,
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 33
Review
Geo-referenced photograph of the Shipping and Transport College (Rotterdam, Netherlands) in Google Earth.
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Assessing the Requirements and Usability of Geo-information P
Beyond Spatial Data Quality
As part of a collaborative research project in which Wageningen University, the
University of Melbourne and spatial data users participate, studies are
underway to develop methods for assessing geo-information requirements
and acquire a greater understanding of how the usability of spatial
information products can be improved. The project is co-financed by
the Dutch program ‘Space for Geo-Information’.
By Sytze de Bruin and Gary J. Hunter
Users’ PerspectivesThe quality of a product or service is defined
as ‘the totality of characteristics of an entity that
bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied
needs’ (ISO 8402). Quality is thus not a valuein itself but always related to the degree of user
satisfaction, a result only to be observed when
a product is used. Even so, work in the area of
spatial data quality has typically started from
the geographical entities being described in a
database (data-driven approach).
In contrast, in our research we start from the
perspectives of actors who make decisions on
the basis of geo-information (user-driven
approach). The objective of our research is to
develop methods for determining the spatial
information requirement in the area of tension
between decision makers with dissimilar per-
spectives. In the Netherlands, the context of the
work is mainly agricultural and environmental,
but the resulting methods are foreseen to have
broader applicability. Parallel research conduct-
ed in a non-agricultural domain in Australia aims
to broaden the applicability of our results to
other domains and to establish links with inter-
national scientific work in the field of spatialdata usability.
Agri-environment Availability of and access to spatial information
are crucial for addressing agri-environmental
issues such as economically sound production,
pollution, conservation of biodiversity and food
safety. Because of scarcity of space, the
Netherlands, like many other countries, requires
integral solutions to the agri-environmental
problems which need to be considered within
international (European) perspectives. The
design, implementation and evaluation of agri-
environmental policy call for appropriate spa-tial information. Indeed, the Dutch agricultural
sector is a major user of core datasets of the
National Geo-Information Infrastructure.
The question is then: what geo-information
linked to environmental processes is needed,
both to facilitate local decision-making by farm-
ers, and to provide indicators for agri-environ-
mental policy aimed at environmental and bio-
diversity goals at the regional level? Following
reports on the administrative burden for farm-
ers, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food
Quality reconsidered the level of detail andduplication in similar data requests for differ-
ent agri-environmental regulations. At the same
time, the agricultural sector itself is more and
more information dependent. The linking of
farm management systems and government
systems shows potential for streamlining infor-
mation exchange and information usage in the
agricultural sector. Geo-information is particu-
larly important in this respect, because field
maps can have multiple applications in farm
management and in the regulatory framework.
The optimal set of geo-information products
and services would support sound farm man-
agement on the one hand, and achievement of
environmental goals on the other.
According to a recent baseline survey among
arable farmers and dairy farmers in the
Netherlands, there is ample room for optimiza-
tion. In spite of a reduction in the number of
regulations, more than 85% of the respondents
claimed that they experienced increasing infor-
mation demands by the ministry over the past
three years. Over 70% of information exchange
April/May 2007 34
Art ic le
Potential users experiment with digital geo-information on a MapTable.
Mobile application for registering the nests of meadow birds
(Source: ARIS b.v., www.aris.nl).
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with governmental bodies is in paper. Just 19% of the respondents used aFarm Management System (FMS) with a geographical component; accord-
ing to FMS vendors even this number is overly optimistic and should not
be translated to the Netherlands as a whole. Note that today, automated
information exchange between farm management systems and govern-
ment is still in its infancy. Interestingly, most respondents took the view that
agricultural associations can play an important advisory role in applica-
tions for subsidies (60%) and in farm management (65%).
Living LabsLiving labs are networks in which stakeholders from the private sector,
the public sector and science cooperate to encourage innovation and eco-
nomic development on a regional basis in the field of new technologies.A living lab thus creates a work and research space that enhances the
development of prototypes for new applications. Our project takes part in
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 35
Art ic le
oducts
LORIS map of relative biomass of early potato development, derived from
airborne imagery. After consultation between the farmer and a fertilization
expert, the map is used as a basis for variable rate fertilization. Note the
clear representation of spraying paths. (Source: Kemira GrowHow,
www.kemira-growhow.com.)
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two initiatives that can be characterized as living
labs: Noardlike Fryske Wâlden (Northern FrisianWoods) in the province of Friesland, which is
mainly a dairy farming area with low urban pres-
sure; and Hoeksche Waard in the province of
Zuid-Holland, where arable farming predomi-
nates, with high urban pressure. Both areas
have been designated as ‘national landscapes’
where unique natural, cultural and historical val-
ues are to be protected. This enhances the need
for geo-information and makes the study areas
particularly interesting for our purpose. In our
research we selected case studies that closely
match local interests and initiatives in the two
study areas.
NFW FrieslandThe Noardlike Fryske Wâlden (NFW) consists of
six associations for agricultural, nature and land-
scape management. Our current involvement in
NFW mainly concerns the spearheads of the
organization’s work program, ‘management of
meadow birds’ and ‘maintenance planning’. The
first item is related to a management agreement
scheme which requires participating farmers to
follow a set of management prescriptions, such
as postponed mowing, aimed at protectingmeadow birds. In return farmers are compensat-
ed financially for any loss of income resulting
from the required adaptations in farming opera-
tions. In Friesland, the nests of meadow birds
are mapped for monitoring and research pur-
poses and for the implementation of subsidy
schemes. Recently, ARIS developed a mobile GIS
application for this purpose. We study the effec-
tiveness and efficiency of geo-information flow
between the parties involved in the manage-
ment of meadow birds, and aim to develop a
method for determining optimal geo-information
products for this and similar cases. In the case
of maintenance planning, we aim to optimize
geo-information products and services for a
rather complex problem of local landscape man-
agement. Farmers use
large-scale paper maps
for the operational
management of mead-
ows, tree belts and
hedgerows. These
maps are based on dig-
ital plans maintained
by NFW. Currently, thereis no feedback mecha-
nism for updating the
digital data with real-
ized or postponed
maintenance opera-
tions.
Future plans, however,
involve using the digital
maps for granting tree
removal permits, for
scheduling harvest operations and, possibly, for
planning the fuel supply of a biomass genera-tor, while preserving the landscape.
Hoeksche WaardIn the Hoeksche Waard, farmers are looking for
innovative technology to improve the vitality of
arable farming while supporting the preserva-
tion or enhancement of landscape values. GIS,
GPS and remote sensing are being recognized
as important tools for targeted management of
(intentional) spatial variability, since they can
support optimal allocation of field margins,
vehicle path planning, variable rate application
and other agricultural operations.
However, there are still doubts as to which geo-
information products and services are needed in
the area. Our current cooperation with the
Hoeksche Waard mainly concerns the required
level of geometrical accuracy of spatial data.
Specifically, we are investigating the propaga-
tion of positional errors in field boundaries into
errors in planned vehicle paths. The latter may
result in losses such as wasted inputs, unhar-
vested crops and inefficient use of the area.
Usability Long-standing experience gained from the
design and development of software and hard-
ware tells us that a useful concept to apply in
judging whether a product will satisfy consumer
needs is the concept of ‘usability’. The concept
is currently being applied in an Australian case
study on a spatial information product, an online
property report provided by the Victoria govern-
ment. Although popular, being downloaded
almost one million times per year, there are still
a large number of complaints from consumers.
It is interesting to contrast this product with
Google Earth, which was developed outside our
industry and to date is one of the most suc-
cessful geo-information products in terms of its
global uptake and the commercial interest being
shown in it. Google Earth, from a technical per-
spective, could be described as a patchwork of
mismatched colour imagery with variable reso-
lution and currency. In addition, its overlaid data
themes such as roads and borders are often
clearly out of position and their shape may bear
little resemblance to the real world they are
intended to portray.
Clearly, the success of Google Earth is based onfeatures other than those used in conventional
spatial data quality assessment. Yet, several ele-
ments which in usability studies can be listed
under the headings effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction do seem to impact its popularity.
Firstly, in terms of efficiency its free cost, speed
of access and convenience (via the web, any
time, anywhere, by anyone) obviously figure
highly in its popularity. So too does its ability
to cater for data integration, and this is clearly
one of its key features given the ease with which
it provides a digital mapping platform for theinclusion of additional image layers and vector
data. With respect to effectiveness, the key
usability elements for Google Earth would be its
popularity, ease of use, content (providing
access to images of parts of the world that most
consumers would never have seen before), the
adding of value (through mashups) and above
all else—its novelty, which clearly sets this prod-
uct apart.
Finally, to the satisfaction elements: Google Earth
makes no claim to legal defensibility, integrity,
reliability, certification, quality or authoritative-
ness, but its visual appearance is clearly a key
to its success together with the functions that
are offered to consumers (zoom, terrain mod-
elling, tilting of the terrain for flyovers, and
selectable mapping layers).
Beyond the ConventionalImprovement of the usefulness of geo-infor-
mation requires exploration beyond the con-
ventional data-driven views on spatial data
quality. In our project, this is achieved by
adopting user-centric approaches: studying
methods for assessing the geo-informationrequirement given the specific problem set-
ting; and application of the concept of geo-
information ‘usability’ which we are adapting
from long-standing practices in the area of
software and hardware usability testing.
Sytze de Bruin ( [email protected] ) is Assistant
Professor at the Centre for Geo-information,
Wageningen University ( www.geo-informatie.nl ).
Gary J. Hunter ( [email protected] ) is Associate
Professor and Reader at the Department of Geomatics,
The University of Melbourne, Australia
( www.geom.unimelb.edu.au ). For more information
on this topic: www.rgi.nl.
April/May 2007 36
Art ic le
In spite of obvious quality problems when its road and (river) border layers are
activated over its imagery, Google Earth is perhaps the most usable spatial
information product in the world today (Source: Google Earth, accessed on
November 10, 2006).
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By far the biggest source of the data needed for geospatial intelligence purposes comes from the high resolution imagery acquired from spaceborne and airborne platforms. In the specific context of South and East Asia, where there are
numerous concerns about national security and threats from neighbours, the primary source for this type of intelligence is
spaceborne imagery. Indeed the defence and security agencies in the larger countries in this part of Asia have all been
large consumers of the high-resolution space imagery provided. by commercial suppliers such as GeoEye, DigitalGlobe,
SPOT Image and ImageSat International. However, recently, nearly all of these Asian countries have either acquired or they
are creating their own national capabilities to acquire this type of imagery to overcome the actual or potential restrictions
and the delays that occur with the supply of space imagery from sources outwith their control. The situation has already
been discussed in a preliminary manner in an article published in GeoInformatics by the present writer three years ago
(in the March 2004 issue) as part of his world wide survey of high-resolution imaging from space. This new article will
concentrate on the many new developments that have taken place in the region since then.
By Gordon Petrie
IndiaTwenty years ago, India set out to be a
major player in space remote sensing. As part
of this endeavour, it developed its own po-
werful PSLV launch vehicles and a range of
imaging satellites. During the latter half of
the 1990s, the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) operated its IRS 1C and
IRS 1D satellites very successfully. These two
satellites generated pan imagery with a
ground pixel or ground sampled distance
(GSD) of 6 m and multi-spectral imagery with
23 m GSD. The follow-on satellite in this se-
ries is the IRS P6 Resourcesat, launched in
2003, which also produces imagery with 6 m
and 23 m GSD. However at the higher resolu-
tion (6 m GSD), it can produce either pan or
multi-spectral imagery, the former having a
much greater swath width.
While these IRS images have proven to be
useful for earth resources applications, their
ground resolution was not adequate for na-
tional security and geospatial intelligence
purposes. This became very evident during
the surprise large-scale attack by insurgents
across the Indian/Pakistan border in Kargil,
Kashmir in 1999. As a result, the Indian
government implemented a crash programme
which resulted in the construction and launch
of the TES reconnaissance satellite. By all ac-
counts, this produces pan imagery with a l m
GSD. In implementing this programme, it was
greatly helped by Israel through the supply of
a high-performance optical telescope (from
ElOp) and various sophisticated electronics
components. Since my previous account in
2004, ISRO has placed two more high-resolu-
tion satellites into orbit. The first of these is
Cartosat 1 (IRS-P5), launched in May 2005
[Fig. 1 (a)]. This carries twin pushbroom scan-
ners equipped with 12k CCD linear arrays ha-
ving 7 µm detectors. These two scanners are
tilted along track at angles of +26˚ (forward)
and -5˚ (backward) to generate pan stereo-
April/May 2007 38
Art ic le
Fig. 1 a) - A rectified backward-pointing pan image
(with 2.5 m GSD) of part of the city of Amritsar in the
state of Punjab, India that has been acquired by the
Cartosat-1 (IRS-P5) satellite. The pan image has been
colourized using multi-spectral image data (with 6m
GSD) from the Resourcesat (IRS-P6) satellite. The
Golden Temple and its surrounding lake - which is at
the centre of the Sikh religion - appears in the lower
right part of the image. (Source: NRSA, India)
b) - An artist's impression of the Cartosat-2 high-reso-
lution satellite. (Source: ISRO)
[a] [b]
Developments in South & East Asia
Space Image Acquisition for Geosp
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images simultaneously having a 30 km swath
width and a 2.5 m GSD. The satellite can also
be tilted in the cross-track direction to cover
terrain located to the side of the satellite's
ground track. The second satellite is Cartosat
2 [Fig. 1 (b)], which has just been launched
successfully on 12th January 2007. This is
equipped with a single nadir pointing push-
broom scanner producing pan imagery with a
GSD of 0.8 m and a swath width of 9.6 km -
which may not be too different a specification
from that of the TES satellite.
Besides the high-resolution space imagerybeing generated by its own satellites, India is
also a major customer for the imagery acqui-
red by other countries. As part of an official
agreement with Israel for cooperation on
space imaging projects, the Indian ground re-
ceiving station at Shadnagar has been acqui-
ring high-resolution imagery from the com-
mercial EROS satellites. Suggestions have
also been made both in the Israeli and Indian
press that further imagery has been downlo-
aded from Israel's Ofeq-5 military reconnais-
sance satellite. Besides which, the Indian na-
tional newspaper, ‘The Hindu’, reported that
Indian organisations, mainly defence agen-
cies, have been buying 20 million rupees
($450,000) of IKONOS imagery per year from
the Resourcesat (IRS-P6) imagery. However
Antrix decided not to renew the agreement in
respect of the high-resolution Cartosat image-
ry. Since the agreement gave Antrix access to
Space Imaging's world-wide network of
ground stations and sales outlets, it would
be interesting to know the real motives -
commercial, security or whatever - behind
this decision not to re-negotiate the agree-
ment in respect of the Cartosat imagery.
Which then brings up next the matter as to
what use India is making of this large volume
of high-resolution space imagery that it isacquiring. As frequent papers given at inter-
national conferences and numerous articles
published in the trade press make clear, India
is highly restrictive about supplying any kind
of high-resolution geospatial data - whether
maps or imagery - of its own territory to any
foreign customers and even to its own natio-
nals. Indeed such is the level of security that
the matter of how the imagery is being used
for geospatial intelligence purposes by Indian
agencies can only be a speculation. In the
case of the Cartosat-1 stereo-data, the DEMs
that can be extracted will be of great utility
both to military planners and for use in ope-
rational aircraft, cruise missiles (developed in
cooperation with Russia) and UAVs (bought fr-
the Space Imaging company. Still more ima-
gery from QuickBird has been purchased from
Digital Globe. As an aside, it is interesting to
note that, in May 2005, Space Imaging -
which had been selling India's IRS-1C, IRS-1D
and IRS-P6 imagery world-wide (outside
India) since 1995 - announced that it had ac-
quired similar rights from the Antrix
Corporation (the commercial division of ISRO)
to sell Cartosat-1 imagery. However, with the
take-over of Space Imaging and its merger
with ORBIMAGE to form GeoEye, the agree-
ment lapsed. Antrix then re-negotiated the
previous agreement with GeoEye in respect of
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 39
Art ic le
Fig. 2 a) - ROCSAT-2 (now re-named Formosat-2) being lowered on to its base prior to tests being carried out on it by engineers from Taiwan's National Space Program
Organisation (NSPO). The optical telescope of its pushbroom scanner is mounted on top of the main body of the satellite. (Source: NSPO)
b) - The ROCSAT-2 satellite, enclosed in its fairing, is being transported to be mated with the Taurus rocket used to launch it at Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB) in California.
(Source: National Cheng Kung University)
c) - A Formosat-2 pan image (with 2m GSD) of Gibraltar showing the air field, the harbour and the famous fortified rock. (Source: SPOT Image)
Fig. 3 - An artist's impression of the THEOS satellite
being operated in space. (Source: EADS Astrium)
[a] [b] [c]
atial Intelligence
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om Israel!). Besides which, they will have a di-
rect application to topographic mapping by
the Survey of India, which, although it forms
part of the Ministry of Science & Technology,
is still controlled by military officers. Almost
certainly, the coverage will include parts of the
adjacent countries with whom India is in dis-
pute as well as its own territory. As for the
high-resolution (l m or better GSD) image
data from IKONOS, QuickBird, EROS, TES and
Cartosat-2, it is likely that one of the principal
users is the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA)
which was set up by the Indian government in
2002 after the intelligence debacle of 1999 in
Kashmir, combining the previously separate
intelligence organisations of the Indian Army,
Navy and Air Force. In August 2005, the Indian
government informed its Parliament about thesetting up of a satellite based Military
Surveillance & Reconnais-sance System -
which is a joint operation between the count-
ry's Defence Research & Development
Organisation (DRDO) and ISRO. This is due to
become operational later this year (2007).
TaiwanIn May 2004, after a long and tangled story -
including a great deal of political interference
from abroad concerning both the launcher
and the satellite - Taiwan was able to realize
its ambition to have an independent and na-
tionally controlled high resolution satellite.
This finally came about with the launch of the
largely French-built ROCSAT 2 satellite from
the Vandenberg site in the U.S.A. using an
American Taurus launcher [Fig. 2 (a), (b)]. The
resulting imagery has a 24 km swath width
with GSD values of 2 m (pan) and 8 m (multi
-spectral) respectively. Like most modem
high-resolution satellites, ROCSAT-2 can be
body pointed at angles up to 45˚ from the
nadir both in pitch (forward and backward)
and in roll (sideways). During the long-run-
ning disputes about its construction and
launch, ROCSAT-2 was said by the Taiwanese
government to have been designed “to ob-
serve and monitor the terrestrial and marine
environment of Taiwan and its surrounding
waters”. However once it had been brought
into operation, there has been a fairly general
(and public) agreement that its principal role
has been to produce high-resolution imagery
of the Chinese mainland, especially the coas-
tal area facing Taiwan from which an attack
on the island nation could be made.
However ROCSAT-2 is not the only source of high-resolution space imagery available to
Taiwan. The country has been a long time
client of the Israeli ImageSat International
company. Indeed it is a Satellite Operating
Partner (SOP) which gives it the exclusive
right to task the EROS satellites as they pass
within the footprint (2,000 km radius) of the
ground receiving station based in Taiwan.
This station is located in the Center for Space
& Remote Sensing Research (CSRSR) of the
National Central University located in Chang-
Li - which can also receive imagery from theSPOT satellites. For the reception of ROCSAT-
2 imagery, reportedly the Taiwanese military
authorities have also built a dedicated
ground station at Linkou. Besides the near
real time availability of the ROCSAT-2, EROS
and SPOT imagery, Taiwan also purchases
IKONOS and QuickBird imagery, though, of
course, this is only available after some
delay.
Taiwan's interest is heavily focused on the
geospatial intelligence that can be extracted
from these various types of high-resolution
space imagery that it acquires. According
to the survey carried out by Global-
Security.org, the agency that is most likely
to be making use of the data for geospatial
intelligence purposes is Taiwan's National
Security Bureau. In particular, the Coor-
dination Meeting for National Security
Intelligence (CMNSI) - which it runs in colla-
boration with other law enforcement and
national defence agencies - is thought to be
the main conduit through which the resulting
intelligence is passed on. However, it shouldbe noted that ROCSAT-2 has been placed in a
Sun-synchronous polar orbit which can provi-
de world wide coverage. This capability is be-
ing exploited by SPOT Image which negotia-
ted an agreement with the Taiwanese authori-
ties to act as the exclusive world wide recei-
ver and distributor of the imagery from ROC-
SAT-2 - now called Formosat 2 - except for
the area of Taiwan and continental China [Fig.
2 (c)]. All of which appears to be a very smart
piece of business by the French organization.
Not only has Taiwan paid for the construction
of ROCSAT-2 with the work being carried out
by EADS Astrium in France, but SPOT Image
has, in this way, gained access to the ROC-
SAT-2 high resolution imagery to supplement
April/May 2007 40
Art ic le
Fig. 4 a) - The KOMPSAT-2 satellite operating
in space - as depicted by an artist. (Source:
KARI)
b) - A KOMPSAT-2 pan image (with 1m GSD)
of part of the San Francisco International
Airport with several wide-bodied aircraft
attached to the terminal building by tele-
scopic bridges. (Source: SPOT Image)
c) - A coloured multi-spectral image of part
of Olympic Park in Sydney, Australia
showing the stadiums and other facilities
built for the 2000 Olympic Games.
(Source: SPOT Image)
Fig. 5 - The RazakSAT satellite being built for Malaysia
by the SaTReC Initiative company in South Korea.
(Source: SaTReC Initiative)
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the coverage given by its own SPOT satellites
without having to pay for a new satellite!
ThailandIn the case of Thailand, a similar situation
exists to that of Taiwan in that the gover-
nment wishes to have a national capability of
acquiring high resolution space imagery -
with the same motivation of not being com-
pletely dependent on images from foreign
countries with the delays and restrictions that
this entails. Thus, in July 2004, Thailand con-
tracted with the EADS Astrium company in
France for the supply of a suitable satellite to
be called THEOS (Thailand Earth Observation
Satellite) [Fig. 3]. Astrium will also supply a
suitable ground segment that will allow the
control and operation of the satellite to be
carried out directly from a Thai ground sta-
tion. Currently the THEOS satellite is schedu-
led to be launched this coming October
(2007). The specification is almost exactly the
same as that of the Taiwanese ROCSAT-2 sa-
tellite. As is usual when this type of contract
was announced, the main applications for the
satellite and its imagery were said to be land
use, agriculture, forestry, coastal zone moni-
toring and flood risk management. However,
shortly afterwards, in a revealing interview,the general in charge of the Royal Thai Army
Military Technology Center announced that
“the THEOS satellite will he used for defensi-
ve purposes and intelligence gathering”. In
particular, it will be used to monitor the
separatist insurgency in the south of the
country and the drug trafficking routes
crossing the country's northern and western
borders. Once again, specific reference was
made to the cost and delays involved in
obtaining IKONOS high resolution imagery. In
this context, it should also be mentioned
that, in April 2005, Thailand started to opera-
te a direct receiving station to download
SPOT imagery. This is located in Bangkok.
South KoreaLike Taiwan and Thailand, South Korea has
had to seek help from foreign countries to
achieve its long standing wish to acquire an
independent high resolution space imaging
capability, especially given the continuous
threats to the country from North Korea. Initially
the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) -
which has led this effort - sought help from va-
rious American companies to build and launch
its KOMPSAT 1 satellite in 1999. Like India with
its similar IRS-1C and IRS-1D satellites, the
KOMPSAT-1 images with their 7 m GSD were
found to he inadequate for intelligence gather-
ing purposes. Thus the new KOMPSAT 2 satelli-
te, launched into a Sun-synchronous orbit in July 2006, has an image specification - l m pan
and 4 m multispectral imagery with a 15 km
swath width - similar to that of IKONOS [Fig. 4
(a)]. The satellite itself has been constructed in
close collaboration with EADS Astrium in France,
while the pushbroom scanner has been built by
ElOp in Israel. The actual launch was carried out
from the Plesetsk site in Northern Russia by
Eurockot, the joint venture of EADS Astrium of
Germany and the Russian Khrunichev organisa-
tion. This used the Rockot launch vehicle which
is based on the Russian SS-19 ballistic missile.The main ground receiving station for the
KOMPSAT-2 images is located at the KARI
facility in Daejeon. Regarding the actual use of
the KOMPSAT-2 imagery, military spokesmen
have made clear that its main use is to moni-
tor military installations and nuclear plants in
North Korea. The analysis of the images is car-
ried out both by the National Intelligence
Service (NIS), a civilian agency equivalent to
the American CIA, and the Korean Defense
Intelligence Agency (KDIA), the central agency
for military intelligence. Close cooperation with
the United States in the area of geospatial in-
telligence is carried out by the Combined
Intelligence Operation Center (CIOC) which also
analyzes the imagery collected in overflights
by U-2 aircraft - a matter of constant complaint
by the North Korean government, which clai-
med recently that over 300 overflights had
been made by U-2 aircraft during 2006.
Obviously with the advent of the KOMPSAT-2
satellite, South Korea is no longer quite so de-
pendent on U.S. supplied imagery and intel-
April/May 2007 42
Art ic le
Fig. 7 a) - An artist's impression of the PRISM three- line pushbroom scanner being operated from the
ALOS satellite. (Source: JAXA)
b) - A perspective view of Mount Kujyu, Japan produced
from pan stereo-imagery and DEM data derived from
the PRISM three-line scanner and image data from the
AVNIR-2 multi-spectral scanner, both mounted together
on the ALOS satellite. (Source: JAXA)
Fig. 6 a) - Diagram showing the arrangement of the
IGS optical (IGS-1a) and radar (IGS-1b) satellites
stacked together for their tandem launch on a
Japanese-built HIIA rocket.
b) - An artist's conceptual drawing of the IGS radar
(upper) and optical (lower) satellites being operated
together in space. (Source: JAXA)
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ligence as it has been in the past. This inclu-
ded the IKONOS imagery supplied through
Space Imaging's partner company in South
Korea, Space Imaging Asia, a subsidiary of the
Hyundai automobile, aircraft and ship con-
struction company. Originally this company
had its own ground receiving station and pro-
cessing facility in South Korea. However thisnow appears to have closed and has disappe-
ared from the new GeoEye company's list of
regional partners. While the distribution of
KOMPSAT-2 imagery over Korea, the United
States and the Middle East will remain under
Korean control, the distribution for the rest of
the world is being undertaken by SPOT Image
[Fig. 4 (b), (c)]. This parallels the arrangement
that the French company has negotiated for
the Formosat-2 and THEOS satellites discussed
above. It is also worth noting that, since
September 2003, a ground station located in
Taejon operated by the ‘Agency for Defense
Development’ has been able to receive image-
ry from the SPOT satellites directly, giving
South Korean intelligence agencies yet another
source of high-resolution imagery.
MalaysiaThis is yet another country in the region that
has decided to enter the field of high resolu-
tion imaging from space for intelligence gat-
hering for ‘national security purposes’. In
2005, the Malaysian Center for Remote
Sensing (MACRES) opened a new ground re-ceiving station at Temerloh in Pahang which
receives data directly from the SPOT satelli-
tes. However Malaysia intends to supplement
this source of imagery by launching its own
national satellite called RazakSAT. This is be-
ing built for Astronautic Technology (an agen-
cy of the Malaysian government) by the
SaTReC Initiative company in South Korea
[Fig. 5]. The satellite will carry a pushbroom
scanner equipped with five linear arrays. One
of these will produce pan imagery with a 2.5
m GSD over a 20 km swath width; the remai-
ning four will generate multi-spectral (RGB +
NIR) images with the same swath width. The
unique aspect of RazakSAT is that it will be
placed in a near equatorial orbit inclined at
ensued before replacement satellites could
be built. Furthermore the Japanese authorities
also decided that the two replacement satelli-
tes should be launched separately so that
both would not be lost if the launcher
malfunctioned. After considerable delay, the
replacement optical satellite, IGS 3a, was
launched successfully in September 2006.
The replacement SAR satellite, IGS 3b, hasjust been placed successfully into orbit on
24th February 2007. It was launched in
tandem with an experimental optical satellite,
thought to be carrying an imager with an
improved ground resolution for test purposes
before being incorporated into the next
generation of IGS satellites.
The more civilian oriented ALOS (Advanced
Land Observing Satellite) was launched suc-
cessfully by the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency (JAXA) in January 2006. The payload of this heavy (4 ton) satellite includes the PRISM
high-resolution imager [Fig. 7 (a)]. This is a
three-line pushbroom scanner with the forward
and backward pointing telescopes producing
their pan images with 2.5 m GSD and a 35 km
swath at ±24˚ to the nadir. In many ways, it
is quite similar to the HRS stereo-scanner
mounted on SPOT-5 with an emphasis on the
production of DEMs - though the PRISM and
the Indian Cartosat-1 imager both have a smal-
ler GSD than the HRS. Only a relatively small
number of sample images from the PRISM
imager have appeared so far, but they include
several striking examples [Fig. 7 (b)].
Returning to the IGS high resolution imagery,
according to reports in the Japanese press,
the IGS optical satellites produce images with
a GSD of l m, while the IGS radar satellites
produce SAR images with 3 m GSD. Besides
the IGS images, Japanese intelligence
agencies are reported to be heavy buyers of
IKONOS and QuickBird images ever since the-
se two satellites came into service in 1999
and 2001 respectively. While the QuickBirdimagery comes from the U.S.A., the IKONOS
imagery is acquired locally by the ground
station of Japan Space Imaging (JSI), owned
by the Mitsubishi Corporation - which was
a partner in the original Space Imaging
company. In its drive to acquire high resolu-
tion imagery for geospatial intelligence pur-
poses, Japan also became a Satellite
Operating Partner (SOP) of ImageSat
International, tasking and receiving high-
resolution imagery from the EROS satellites
from a ground station located at the
Hiroshima Institute of Technology. Finally the
ImageONE company has a direct receiving
ground station at Yoni that receives images
from the SPOT satellites.
9˚ to the Equator, instead of the near polar
orbit that is standard for most remote sen-
sing satellites. This means that Malaysia -
which is located between 1˚ and 9˚ latitude
north - will be overflown on several occasions
each day. This will give more opportunitiesfor the satellite to acquire imagery of the ter-
rain in what is a very cloudy area with few
gaps in the cloud cover. The launch of
RazakSAT is scheduled for the fourth
quarter of 2007 using the American Space X
company's new low-cost Falcon launcher from
its launch site in the Marshall Islands in the
Western Pacific. The satellite will be control-
led from a new ground station located at
Banting in Selangor within Malaysia.
JapanIn many ways, Japan has pursued a similar
path to that of India. Initially, on the one
hand, it developed its powerful H-IIA laun-
cher; on the other hand, it developed and
operated medium-resolution satellites that
were used for earth resources and oceano-
graphic applications. Then, in 1998, rather
like India with its Kashmir incursion, it
received a huge shock with the launch of bal-
listic missiles by North Korea that overflew
Japan and landed in the North Pacific.
Following the outcry about the lack of war-
ning of this event, the Japanese governmentdecided to build a constellation of
‘Information Gathering Satellites’ (IGS). Yet
again, for political reasons, these satellites
were said to be for ‘scientific research’ and
‘disaster monitoring’ - yet not a single image
has ever been shown publicly. There is no
doubt that, from the outset, they were de-
signed to be reconnaissance satellites. The
first two satellites in the constellation - IGS
1a (with an optical imager) and IGS 1b (with a
SAR imager) - were launched together in
March 2003 [Fig. 6]. The attempt, in
November 2003, to place the next two satel-
lites in the constellation - IGS 2a (optical)
and IGS 2b (SAR) - into orbit failed due to a
fault in the launcher. Quite a time gap then
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 43
Art ic le
Fig. 8 a) - An FSW-2 reconnaissance satellite under construction in a Chinese facility.
b) - A recovered capsule containing the film from an
FSW-2 reconnaissance satellite.
(Source: GlobalSecurity.com)
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Regarding the actual use of the large
variety and volume of space imagery that is
being acquired for geospatial intelligence
purposes, it is important to note that the
Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) come
under the control of the civilian Japan
Defense Agency, which is part of the Office of
the Prime Minister. This arrangement is part
of a deliberate policy under the JapaneseConstitution to ensure civilian control of the
armed forces. In line with this policy, Japan's
central intelligence agency is the Cabinet
Intelligence & Research Office, the so-called
Naicho, which again is a part of the Office of
the Prime Minister. According to various
reports, the actual interpretation and analysis
of the space imagery is carried out by
the Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center
(CSIC). Again this reports directly to the
Prime Minister's Office. Within the actual
military Self Defense Forces (SDF), the maincoordinating body for military intelligence
is the Defense Intelligence Headquarters
(DIH). This has an Imagery Division that
carries out the interpretation of space
imagery for purely military intelligence
purposes.
ChinaIn recent years, a quite considerable amount
of information on China's reconnaissance
satellite programme has become available via
a number of Chinese publications. These have
been summarized by GlobalSecurity.org under
the title ‘China & Imagery Intelligence’.
See the following Web pages - www.globalse-
curity.org/space/world/chinalimint.htm From
this surprisingly detailed account, it appears
that China has been conducting reconnaissan-
ce satellite flights since 1975. The first series
of FSW (Fanhui Shi Weixing) ‘recoverable sa-
tellites’ have been labelled the FSW-0 series.
This undertook nine missions during the pe-
riod 1975-87. The follow-on FSW-1 series con-
sisted of five satellites launched between
1987 and 1993; while the FSW-2 series comp-rised three satellites orbited between 1992
and 1995 [Fig. 8 (a)]. After which, a substantial
time gap occurred before the latest FSW-3
missions began, five of these having taken
place between 2003 and 2005. The FSW-2
flights have typically lasted between 15 and
18 days, while the time between launch and
recovery of the FSW-3 flights has been
between 18 and 27 days. The usual orbital
inclination of the flights (which defines their
latitudinal coverage) is 63˚. All of these char-
acteristics point to the satellites being of the
recoverable film type [Fig. 8 (b)], very similar
to those operated by Russia till very recently.
The summary articles on the Global-
Security.org Web site also contain references
Ltd. (SSTL) in the U.K. with regard to micro-
satellites for remote sensing. This resulted
first in the construction and launch of the
Tsinghua satellite in 2000 which produced
medium resolution images with a 32 m GSD.
However the second satellite, Beijing 1, laun-
ched in October 2005, has a pushbroom scan-
ner producing pan images with a 4 m GSD as
well as the 32 m GSD multi-spectral imager.This of course places it in the category of a
high-resolution satellite - those producing
images with a GSD of better than 5 m.
Besides the imagery from these satellites, it
should be noted that the China Remote
Sensing Ground Station (China RSGS) of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences located at
Miyun receives image data directly from the
French SPOT satellites.
Whatever the actual or potential uses of these
various types of imagery by China for geospa-tial intelligence, even more attention is being
paid by intelligence gathering agencies world
wide to the test of an ASAT (Anti-SATellite)
weapon conducted by China on 11th January
2007. This resulted in the destruction of a
disused Chinese meteorological satellite
producing a huge field of debris that is
causing great concern to all operators of
satellites in low orbits. However the implica-
tions of this action in relation to the many
satellites that are currently being used to col-
lect high-resolution imagery for geospatial
intelligence purposes is causing a great deal
of thought and debate world-wide.
ConclusionFinally it is worth mentioning that two
other countries in South East Asia -
Singapore and Indonesia - have not yet ente-
red the business of operating satellites for
high-resolution imaging purposes, though
both countries have launched micro-satellites.
However they both also operate ground
stations that can receive images from foreign
high-resolution satellites. In particular, theCentre for Remote Sensing & Processing
(CRISP) of the National University of
Singapore acquires imagery from the IKONOS,
EROS and SPOT satellites [Fig. 9]. All of which
it sells to its neighbours. There really does
seem to be an insatiable appetite for high-
resolution space imagery to be used for
geospatial intelligence gathering purposes in
this part of the world.
Gordon Petrie is Emeritus Professor in the Dept.
of Geographical & Earth Sciences of the University
of Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. E-mail:
to metric frame cameras and panoramic came-
ras. Although understandably no details about
the ground resolution of the resulting imagery
are given, if indeed they follow the Russian
pattern, then one might surmise that these
high-resolution film cameras will deliver
images that have ground resolution values of
between one and three metres.
In recent years, Chinese agencies have enga-
ged in cooperative ventures with foreign
countries to gain experience in building and
operating long-lived non-recoverable satellites
equipped with pushbroom scanner imagers.
These have included the CBERS (China-Brazil
Earth Resources Satellites) with China and
Brazil contributing finance and resources in a
70:30 ratio. The resulting CBERS-1 and -2
satellites were launched in 1999 and 2003
respectively using Chinese launchers. The
resulting images were of medium- and low-resolution as required for earth resource
monitoring over large areas. An agreement to
construct and operate CBERS-3 and -4 has
been reached between the two countries.
However more relevant to the collection of
imagery for geospatial intelligence purposes
has been the collaboration between Chinese
organisations and Surrey Satellite Technology
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 45
Art ic le
Fig. 9 a) - The large 13 m diameter X-band antenna
of the CRISP ground receiving station located in
Singapore. (Source: CRISP)
b) - The coverage diagram for CRISP's ground receiv-
ing station for radii of 3,000 km (for satellites orbit-
ing at 800km) and 2,300 km (for satellites operating
at an altitude of 700 km), showing how it covers all
the countries of South East Asia. (Source: CRISP)
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Small Satellite Constellations
Opening a New Era in Sustainable E
Welcome to the 21st Century! Google and Microsoft now give a detailed
birds-eye view of our planet to everyone who has Internet access. But,
whilst this makes visual imagery easily available, it does not solve the
problem of achieving an operational and sustainable data supply for
those who need to monitor fast-changing crops, environments,
habitats and coastal phenomena.
By Paul Stephens
Earth Observation (EO) with satellites has
become well established in the last 30 years.
Precision instruments have been blasted into
space aboard large complex satellites, each withyears of research and effort invested in the mis-
sion, and each carrying as many instruments as
possible to take advantage of the expensive
launch into orbit. Amongst others this has given
us the US Landsat series, each evolving new
capabilities, and in Europe ERS-1, ERS-2 and
ENVISAT. These have provided a wealth of data
for development of techniques for monitoring
the Earth.
Inadequate Observation Frequency However, Earth Observation applications have
been slow to develop and become commercial-
ly viable. Given the government subsidy for
Landsat data, making it available at the cost of
fulfilment, cost has not necessarily been the
main issue. Rather it has been the inadequate
frequency of observation that has made it diffi-
cult for service providers to deliver a reliable
service to the end-user. With a revisit of sixteendays, Landsat can take years to acquire cloud-
free coverage of a country (approximately five
years for the small island of Britain). For time-
critical applications such as precision farming,
the long revisit period has made it impossible to
use satellite data on anything other than an
occasional basis, or as a statistical indicator. To
achieve an effective operational revisit frequen-
cy it is necessary to have several satellites coor-
dinated in a constellation. Historically, this desir-
able capability has been too expensive to
implement because of the cost of the satellites.
Small Low-cost SatellitesBig military budgets have continued to fund
very high-resolution satellites, with the
NextView and ClearView contracts in the USA.But the cost of VHR imagery is still extremely
high, and it is not clear that the commercial
market alone could sustain these satellites.
However, small low-cost satellites are changing
the equation. With a cost one-tenth of the orig-
inal satellites, and a much more rapid build-
launch cycle, these are bringing Earth
Observation into a fully operational phase.
The small satellites cannot carry as many instru-
ments as the giant research satellites, but they
can put multiples of the same instrument into
a coordinated orbit at an affordable cost. Thisenables the provision of a daily revisit service
that reduces the impact of cloud and enables
business to build new services using EO data.
One small satellite constellation has been in
operation since 2002 and another will launch
in 2007. Both are based on the innovative small
satellites built by Surrey Satellite Technology
Ltd. (SSTL) using commercial off-the-shelf tech-
nology systems (COTS).
Disaster MonitoringThe first of these is the Disaster Monitoring
Constellation (DMC), built to meet the need for
daily imaging capability to improve the
response to disasters. The small satellites,
weighing just 90 kilograms, punch well above
their weight, delivering images ten times larger
than Landsat, at a similar resolution and with
the same well-characterized R, G and NIR spec-
tral bands. The constellation is funded by a
group of nations which each purchased a DMC
satellite and ground station. Each DMC
Consortium member operates their own satel-
lite, but all coordinate in a sun-synchronous
constellation so that by working together they
April/May 2007 46
Specia l
Figure 1. - Selected DMC 32-metre images covering the Amazon basin 2005.
Figure 2. - DMC satellite, Beijing-1, with 32-metre
multispectral and 4-metre pan imagers.
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achieve daily revisit capability.
The coordination of this international group is
carried out by DMC International Imaging Ltd.
(DMCii) which negotiated DMC membership of
the International Charter: Space and Major
Disasters and provides the Emergency On Call
Officers to handle disaster response. In addi-
tion to disaster response, DMCii developed thedata quality and processing methods needed
to deliver a high quality commercial data ser-
vice on behalf of the DMC Consortium.
In Europe, the massive Global Monitoring for
Environment and Security (GMES) program is
steadily working towards defining and imple-
menting services, based upon EO data, to meet
the policy directives of the EU. To do this
requires a full definition of the spatial, spectral
and temporal requirements for a myriad of end-
users, and a series of Sentinel satellites is
planned to meet these needs. In the meantime,
data requirements will be met from a number
of existing satellite providers.
In 2007 the first Fast Track service is being
launched, providing land cover monitoring of
coverage of Australia (Figure 3.) for example.The data can be stored on the satellite and
down-linked at the satellite owner’s facility or
can be downloaded direct to a suitable local
ground station.
Beijing-1 also carries a 4 meter panchromatic
imager, which has a 24 kilometer swath and
can use on-board storage to acquire up to 4100
kilometers along track (Figure 4.).
The panchromatic data is useful for infrastruc-
ture mapping, change detection, field bound-
ary delineation and many other tasks for which
very high resolution data is required, but whichdo not justify the expense and detail of sub-1-
meter data.
Enhanced Sensor The next improvement in the DMC is the
increase in sensor resolution from 32 meter
GSD to 2 meter GSD. This more closely match-
es the requirements for forestry, agriculture
and land-cover monitoring. Two satellites will
be launched in 2008 carrying the enhanced
sensor. This maintains the 660 kilometer
swath of the 32 meter sensor, but delivers
double the data density.
The UKDMC-2 satellite will launch with
Deimos-1 built for a Spanish company, Deimos
Imaging SL.
Data ContinuityFrom 2008 UKDMC-2 will provide continuous
broadcast data to licensed customers’ ground
stations, with the ability to image continuously
for several thousand kilometers while down-
loading the data in real time. These satellites
not only provide data continuity, but also a
greatly enhanced imaging capability to cover large areas of territory at enhanced resolution.
The map (Figure 5.) shows the coverage
achieved in a sixteen-day period over the USA
37 states in and around theEC.
Expanding Capability The DMC meanwhile is grow-
ing steadily in capability and
capacity with two nations
soon to launch their second
satellites, the UK in 2008 and
Nigeria in 2009, and with
Spain launching a satellite in
2008 to become a new mem-
ber.The capability of the constel-
lation is also expanding rapid-
ly as advances in terrestrial
technology are rapidly incor-
porated into new spacecraft.
The first DMC satellites were
60 centimeter (2 feet) cubes
carrying three pairs of imagers
to provide the 660 kilometer
swath in three spectral bands.
These all carry their own
propulsion to maintain the
relative phase in constella-
tion, and use S band for
Telemetry, Tracking, and
Control (TT&C) and data
downlink. These satellites
working together can image large areas or pro-
vide daily repeat over a single site. For exam-
ple, in both 2005 and 2006 DMCii coordinated
the acquisition of 22 million square kilometers
of imagery in just 60 days to provide multiple
coverages of the Amazon Basin. However, each
660 kilometer wide image is limited to 250 kilo-
meters along track to match storage and down-link constraints, as shown in figure 1.
Next Generation ConstellationThe first of the next generation of DMC satel-
lites was launched in November 2005 for China.
Beijing-1 (Figure 2.) carries the same 32 meter
GSD multispectral sensor, but the addition of
high-capacity hard drives and X band data link
enable the satellite to acquire, store and trans-
mit up to 4100 kilometers along track, a 16-fold
increase on the first generation DMC satellites.
This enables DMCii to provide a much more
rapid continent-wide coverage and to offer a
direct downlink package to organizations set
up to receive broadcast data such as Landsat.
Thus it is possible to provide full monthly repeat
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 47
Specia l
arth Observation
Figure 3. - 400 kilometer DMC 32 meter image of Australia, Jan 07, Beijing-1.
Figure 4. - Washington DC; detail from DMC 4 meter
pan image Beijing-1BLMIT 2007.
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with one DMC satellite, providing between three
and seven repeat coverages during that period,
depending on latitude. The combination of mul-
tiple spacecraft in constellation provides for
daily coverage at a resolution that enables
effective monitoring of the rapidly changing
environment.
Data continuity will be further maintained bythe 2009 launch of Nigeriasat-2 satellite, which
will carry the high-resolution DMC sensor and
additional very high-resolution capability.
The continuous development program for the
radiometry and geometry has yielded excellent
results. This gives confidence to end-users that
the DMC data is GIS-ready, and has a good
equivalence to more familiar Landsat bands 2,
3 and 4. The latest data review analyzed large
numbers of DMC images from annual vicarious
calibration campaigns over instrumented test
sites in RailRoad Valley and IvanPah Playa,
Arizona, and monthly relative calibration cam-
paigns over the Antarctic DOME C site. The con-
clusions include:• Radiometric procedure achieves less than
5% error in precision
• Relative band-to-band ratios are very sta-
ble over three years (less than 0.34% rms
error)
• Noise Equivalent Radiance (NER)
approaches Landsat
• Orthorectified 32 meter data achieves
10- 25 meters rms error.
Dr. Steve Mackin, DMCii Chief Scientist, reports:
“The DMC sensor is very stable - differences2004-2005 were 1% to 4% excluding data from
extremes of view”.
Extraordinary PaceDMCii is rapidly expanding its services to cus-
tomers, who need a reliable and responsive
source of imagery. The service has matured con-
siderably since its inception as a result of the
hard work and experience gained coordinating
large numbers of satellites for challenging rapid-
response services, both commercial and disas-
ter-response. The next development, providing
direct broadcast services, promises to provide
a valuable data stream for end-users who are
concerned about the Landsat data gap. Lookingahead, DMCii recognizes the need to add Short
Wave Infrared (SWIR) instruments to the con-
stellation, and as a future enhancement to fly
SAR. There is an extraordinary pace of change
in terrestrial technology, and SSTL has the
proven ability to insert it successfully into oper-
ational spacecraft at a low cost. DMCii has
ambitious plans to exploit this and bring the
benefits of daily revisit to the Earth Observation
users through multi-sensor constellations.
Paul Stephens ( [email protected] ) is Director,Sales and Marketing at DMC International Imaging
Ltd. For more information on this topic please visit
www.dmcii.com.
April/May 2007 48
Specia l
Figure 5. - Coverage map of the USA showing the
number of repeat images achievable by DMC Beijing-1
at 32 meters GSD and from 2008 by UKDMC-2 at 22
metes GSD in a sixteen-day Landsat repeat period.
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Watchkeeper
Providing ISTAR Capability for the UK
Thales’ Watchkeeper system has been designed to provide accurate, timely and
cost-effective ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and
Reconnaissance), 24/7 and in all weather conditions. The Watchkeeper system
represents a step change in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) capability. This
article takes a look at the system’s successful development so far.
By Simon Cox
Meeting the Needs of the UK Armed Forces
Thales signed a Demonstration, Manufacture
and Initial Support contract for Watchkeeper,
worth £700M, in July 2005, but had previous-
ly been working hand-in-hand with the MoD’s
Tactical UAV Integrated Project Team (IPT)
throughout the Assessment Phase. This con-
tinued joint approach should ensure that thesystem fully meets the needs of the UK Armed
Forces. Using the Hermes 450 UAV as a start-
ing point, Thales has created a unique tacti-
cal intelligence system that will form a key
part of the UK’s Network Enabled Capability:
a capable and reliable UAV in the air with
high-quality sensors, and a comprehensive
network of command, control, exploitation
and dissemination elements on the ground.
Alex Cresswell, Vice President of ISTAR
Capability Delivery, commented on
Watchkeeper. “The system is extremely versa-
tile and we see that as one of its strongest
points. It has been designed to operate day
and night in hostile environments, and its
dual payload capacity will offer enormous flex-
ibility to deliver the right intelligence to the
right users. We’re very confident in it. This sys-
tem and its variants can provide a significant
capability increase for both military and civil
operations around the world.”
First Flight in UK Airspace
Thales and Elbit(Watchkeeper pro-
ject team partner)
flew the Hermes 450
at ParcAberporth,
Wales, in September
2005 – this was the
first time that a tac-
tical-size UAV had
ever taken off and
landed at a UK civil
airport. This repre-
sented a significant
forward step for
both the Watch-
keeper project and
the wider UK UAV
industry, as until UAVs can be operated rou-tinely in integrated airspace their uses within
the civil domain will be limited. “We under-
stand that this is a key issue for civilian and
homeland security applications,” said
Cresswell, “Which is why Thales is so heavily
involved in airspace access programmes and
global regulation activities.”
Persistent, Reliable, Cost-effectiveTo concentrate on the UAV, however, is to do
the system a disservice; the air vehicle is cer-
tainly proven, capable and reliable, but it isonly one part of the overall picture. Indeed,
the Watchkeeper programme was one of the
first truly capability-based procurements to be
undertaken by the UK MoD (Ministry of
Defense), and the system was procured not
on the basis of what it was, but on the capa-
bility that it would provide: persistent, reli-
able, cost-effective ISTAR. Cresswell hopes
that in the future customers will move away
from the traditional vehicle-centric point of
view and begin instead to look at the con-
cept of provision of a capability.
Although the Watchkeeper programme pro-
vides the UK with a far-reaching system of
network-enabled air and ground elements,
Thales recognises that not all users require
such a comprehensive system. Running par-
allel to Watchkeeper, therefore, Thales has
engineered a modular system ‘building block’
that allows for the provision of scalable UAV
system packages based on specific user
needs. This is far more appropriate for cus-
tomers within the civil domain. “Watchkeeper
is a UK-specific system,” said Cresswell.
April/May 2007 50
Specia l
The Watchkeeper UAV in f light. Image credit: Thales UK.
Simple control; no pilot skills required. Image credit: Thales UK.
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“But we want to be able to offer equivalent
capability to customers who might not want
such a comprehensive system. We also under-
stand the need to offer a product with a low
logistic footprint and low whole-life costs, as
budgets today are tighter than ever.”
Civil and Military ApplicationPotential
but they have the added benefit that they are
able to obtain imagery of much higher detail,
and are able to fly beneath weather systems
that might obscure satellites. Furthermore, the
advent of Imagery On Demand technology
allows extremely detailed snapshots to be
taken from live video images in real-time for
analysis and dissemination.
“UAVs are becoming more and more commonin the military domain,” said Cresswell. “And
we are anticipating that they are the future as
far as civil surveillance is concerned. People
will wonder how we ever did things any other
way.”
Simon Cox ( [email protected] ) is ISTAR
Marketing Support Manager for the Aerospace
Division of Thales UK. For more information on the
Watchkeeper system visit www.thalesgroup.co.uk.
The Watchkeeper programme
is currently running to schedule
with the system successfully
passing the Preliminary Design
Review in 2006 – a significant
milestone – and on course to
meet the Critical Design Review
in 2007. A number of cus-
tomers around the world arealready interested in acquiring
tailored systems and services
to carry out their own military
and civil missions.
The qualities that make the
system so desirable for the
military customer also mean
that it can be a powerful tool
for the civil market. Already,
UAVs like Watchkeeper are
being considered for applica-
tions such as mapping, fisherysurveillance, pipeline protec-
tion, and environmental and ecological moni-
toring; the benefits of long endurance and
reduced whole-life costs are as applicable to
civil markets as they are to military ones.
Imagery on DemandIndeed, UAVs are often compared to ‘low-fly-
ing satellites’ in terms of their ability to obtain
aerial imagery over extended periods of time;
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 51
Specia l
Extended surveillance capabilities. Image credit: Thales UK.
“We understand that this is
a key issue for civilian and
homeland security
applications”
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How Google & Co. Might Shake up the Geoinformation Econom
Digital Globes of Knowledge and Inf
In 2005 Google launched two new services, Google Earth and Google Maps,
that immediately became the idols of the web public. Since then the internet
has become increasingly spatially enabled. A rapidly expanding user communi-
ty has started geo-referencing virtually everything and assembling so-called
mash-ups by using Google’s free map services for geo-visualization. With the
latest entry into the market, Microsoft’s Virtual Earth platform, the geoinforma-
tion economy has become more vital than ever.
By Florian Fischer
It’s all about new ideas, new products, new
map services, new customers and new stan-
dards for a changed geoinformation market.
This article outlines what this market requires
of geoinformation products. To gain better
insight I attended a conference entitled ‘GoogleEarth & Co. – Visions and Business Models of
a Digital Earth’. It was organized by the GIS net-
working association Runder Tisch GIS e.V. at
TUM, the University of Technology in Munich,
Germany.
Neogeography and Making a Profit “More people using geoinformation, and other
people using geoinformation in different con-
texts. Geoinformation is the street that connects
the islands of knowledge in the age of the Web
2.0.” That’s how Prof. Klaus Greve from the
University of Bonn describes the phenomenon
when a large user community contributes to
spatially enabling the internet by using available
earth viewer technology. It’s already known as
‘neogeography’ when people work on Google
Earth mash-ups and try to connect knowledge
through location. What we are observing cur-
rently is probably the advent of a new paradigm
of web-based spatial knowledge management
that will change the way information is orga-
nized and retrieved on the internet.Questions arise, however. How does all this
relate to making a profit? Moreover, what roles
and what opportunities will there be for ‘tradi-
tional’ GIS companies and geo-data content
providers?
Products for a Digital EarthThese days the discussion about earth viewers,
also named digital globes or planet browsers,
is colored by its focus on Google Earth and
Google Maps. There are other earth viewers
besides these popular applications, but as yetthere is no strict definition of the term. As a
result, determining what an earth viewer
actually is sometimes dominates the discus
sion. Daniel Öfele, a researcher at TUM’s
Geoinformation Lab, proposed this definition
during his presentation on earth viewers: “The
term earth viewer describes numerous comput-
er-based systems that enable a user to visual-
ize geographical data in the broadest sense. In
the narrowest sense earth viewers and their
data support web-based access and are free of
cost, at least in a basic version with a global
coverage at a certain scale. The utilization of
these systems should not be restricted in any
way. Furthermore earth viewer means systems
that can be browser-based as well as client-
based, and the availability of 3D visualization
or any geoprocessing tool is absolutely irrele-
vant”.
Earth viewers can thus be divided into two
groups: client systems that require local instal-
lation like Google Earth and NASA World Wind,
and browser-based web-mapping systems like
Google Maps, Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Platform,
ESRI ArcWeb Explorer and Mapsolute Map 24.
Vast InvestmentProviding interesting content for their users is
important for companies like Google and
Microsoft. They consequently put a lot of effort
into easing the integration of external data
sources into their products. The popular KML
(Keyhole Markup Language) format, increasing
interoperability between web-based GIS and
Google Earth, the bird’s-eye view in Microsoft’s
Virtual Earth, and Google’s involvement in the
Open Geospatial Consortium are just some
examples.
The steady pursuit of interesting content,
increased interoperability and new gadgets
require huge investment in the geoinformation
April/May 2007 52
Art ic le
Prof. Dr. Klaus Greve, Head of the GIS Technology
Centre, University of Bonn, Germany.
Prof. Dr. Matthäus Schilcher, Head of TUM’s
Department of Geoinformation Systems and chair-
man of Runder Tisch GIS e.V.
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market. Key aspects are dataacquisition of unforeseen dimen-
sion and user-community partic-
ipation, for example using
Google Sketchup. Moreover, the
need for availability and perfor-
mance of earth viewer services
prompts investment to build up
server farms worldwide and to
constantly improve software for
the visualization of data and
images. As Prof. Matthäus
Schilcher, the chairman of Runder Tisch GIS e.V., remarked
in his opening speech, “With
these gigantic investments,
enormous market potential has been generat-
ed which is usable worldwide”.
Following on new investment in the geoinfor-
mation market, public interest in geoinformation
has increased due to the hype about Earth
Viewer. As Microsoft’s Johannes Kebeck said
recently during a workshop on Virtual Earth,
“Since 2005, aerial photographs have been get-
ting sexier and sexier!” With Web 2.0 and neo-
geography, using geoinformation via the inter-
net has become part of everyday life.
Geoinformation plays a decisive role in this con-
text. The Open Source movement in conjunc-
tion with the possibilities of web technology,
meaning the Web 2.0, leads to a democratiza-
tion of GIS. Hence new business ideas and
models emerge to utilize the potential of geoin-
formation and offer new opportunities for the
actors in the GIS-market. It’s good that actors
in a market focused on traditional technologies
are starting to think more about the benefits
and profitability of their products. Thus far, how-ever, it’s not clear who will end up on the sunny
side, because the tricky part of economic shifts
is getting the timing right. And be careful! The
GIS industry mustn’t let the public form the
impression that what GIS offers is just marginal-
ly more than Google Earth.
Opening the Door to Executive SuitesDuring the Runder Tisch GIS e.V. conference, a
panel debated the impact earth viewers might
have on the GIS industry and geo-content
providers. Attendees came from Google,
Intergraph Germany, Bentley, Autodesk, AED-
SICAD, GeoContent and Bayerische
Vermessungsverwaltung, the Bavarian state sur-
veying office that provides geo-data for public
Low-End GIS vs.High-End GISOne can thus try to draw a dis-
tinction between earth viewers
and traditional GIS. Earth view-
ers are for the people and GIS, a
demanding and powerful spatial
processing tool, dedicated to the
exclusive domain of specialists.
Generally speaking, the GIS mar-
ket is on one side of the bar and
the market for earth viewers is
on the other side. This view, how-ever, is an oversimplification. On
the one hand, actors in the GIS
sector are trying to reach the
other side of the bar with SDI technology and
by coupling established GIS with earth viewers.
On the other hand, Google and Microsoft are
offering their services for exclusive and special-
ized use: for example, the enterprise licence for
Google Earth. There is no distinct boundary but
rather a smooth transition between the two
markets.
As masses of geo-data are required by big play-
ers like Microsoft and Google, the market
attracts more competitors. As a result, more pri-
vate companies will become involved. They will
compete with public sector administrations who
have contracts for data acquisition and, gener-
ally speaking, prices are expected to fall. But the
quality requirements for geo-data acquisition
differ by type of area: for example, urban and
rural areas. Private companies will try to get the
best return on investment, which is usually to
be obtained on urban area data. Hans Schellein
from the Bavarian state administration for sur-
veying says “public administrations all over thecountry are working with the same data quality
for rural areas as for urban areas. When private
companies pull back from an area, it is usually
from quality concerns.” He reports that this phe-
nomenon could be observed in recent years at
Teleatlas and Navteq.
Finally, there are a number of different markets,
including ones which are profitable with com-
petition between private sector and public sec-
tor actors, and ones which are not profitable,
served by public sector actors only. There are
also direct markets with traditional GIS compa-
nies and geo-data providers and indirect mar-
kets. In the former, the user or customer pays
for the product directly. In the latter, the user
pays nothing but payment is made by some-
purposes. A representative from MunichRe
Group was also present. MunichRe, one of the
world's largest reinsurers, is very active on a
global scale in areas like geoinformatics and
geo-risks research.
Right at the start Jörg Winzenhöller of Autodesk
hit the bull’s eye: “Explaining simply to cus-
tomers that GIS is like Google Earth opens
doors to executive suites that GIS could not
reach before.” This statement, which found
broad acceptance, illustrates the problem the
GIS industry has had in recent years. It couldn’t
manage the development of a mass market to
deliver geoinformation to the broad public. “The
GIS industry is somewhat self-absorbed. Mass
markets are going to be developed and served
by others!” points out Dr. Matthias Bachmann
of GeoContent, a content provider signed by
Google.
Great efforts have been made, however, to build
up SDIs (spatial data infrastructures) at all scales
to bring GIS to the people and push geoinfor-mation marketing. So far SDIs are rather like a
patchwork quilt in nature and do not offer
national or even global coverage. Markus Müller
of AED-SICAD remarked that they can build glob-
al applications better and faster with Google
Earth than with SDI. With KML, Google has cre-
ated an accepted standard that is already more
popular than GML. If this trend continues, the
SDI paradigm is expected to be revised. On the
other hand, the GIS industry lacks the impetus
big players like Microsoft and Google have to
bring GIS to the people. Dr. Matthias Alisch of
Intergraph Germany notes that “maybe the
desire was there, but with demanding instru-
ments, and GIS is a demanding instrument, one
never can inspire a broad mass”.
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 53
Art ic le
ormation
Panel discussion about the impact of earth viewers on the GIS industry. Patrick Schönemann from Google speaking about Google’s business model. Other attendee: Dr. Matthias Alisch,
Intergraph Germany.
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one who wants to be visible, through adver-
tisements, for example, while the user is work-
ing with an earth viewer.
Google’s Business ModelSo far we haven’t seen much of who is paying
for earth viewer services, but it’s clear that
Google and Microsoft intend to earn money
somehow. Patrick Schönemann of Google was
asked to say something about Google’s busi-
ness model. “We want to display information
about the world and GIS is perfectly suited to
provide a spatial search engine. It’s important
to understand how Google as a company works.
Google actually consists of many small start-
ups. We release something being developed
and push it onto the market without any clear
intent and without a road map, as an idea only.
Then we see if the idea is accepted and how it
works. Fortunately the investor is Google itself.
Of all these start-ups, only a small number sur-
vive. For the services that work, the budget is
increased. We will never take money for a ser-
vice as we finance our services by advertise-
ments. This means you will eventually see
advertisements on the maps.”
The Community is Sacred
On the face of it, this sounds like using GoogleEarth in the future will mean fighting through a
jungle of advertisements. However, it might in
fact be possible to order an enterprise licence
or, for certain models, to avoid advertisements
or to allow only certain types of advertisements.
As well, advertising seems an appropriate
instrument to use to find other sources of geo-
data. Content providers in addition might pro-
mote their products by location. As Andreas
Siebert of MunichRe laments, “it’s very difficult
for us to find appropriate data. We usually take
everything we can get, and our demand is glob-
al. It’s crucial for us to manage and filter the
best data sources. Google Earth will be a big
step in this direction.”
Regardless of the multiplicity of ways advertis-
ing will be presented in the future, one thing is
certain: the community is sacred and Google
will never contemplate annoying the communi-
ty. They will approach advertising very sensi-tively, at least as sensitively as they do now in
the Google search engine where the focus is
clearly on the search results and the advertise-
ments are very discreet.
Community support is a Google fundamental.
Every day new mash-ups are created by users
who spatially enable their own applications and
knowledge bases by mixing and connecting
them with earth viewer technology. User-gener-
ated content means a totally new dimension
for geo-referenced data. User-generated content
can provide enormous added value, for example
in reviews of hotels, shops or museums. This
form of ‘location-reviewing’ is considered fuzzy
and subjective at the moment, but it helps peo-
ple understand location. However, future solu-
tions for handling this form of information will
have to acknowledge privacy issues and follow
a more structured approach. It’s worth mention-
ing that Microsoft has a totally different strate-
gy for its Virtual Earth platform. They don’t rely
on user-generated content because they worry
about the quality of the data. It’s a more costly
approach but a more structured one as well.
Microsoft is considering banner ads that floatin the air above buildings to refinance their
efforts, an idea that has already raised legal
questions. At the moment it’s not clear if the
owner of a real building has right of use to its
virtual counterpart. Legal questions also ariseabout the interpretation of the terms of use for
Google Earth: it seems unclear in which circum-
stances a licence is necessary and who, cus-
tomer or provider, is going to purchase it. As
well, rules are very strict, for example when
printing or presenting screenshots from earth
viewers. Considering these complex issues, it
is advisable that geoinformation law be devel-
oped as an area of legal practice.
The Future is Unclear Finally, there is still the question of the comple-
mentary nature of earth viewers and GIS. On
the one hand, there is a learning process for
each with benefits for the other. On the other
hand, both are pursuing converging markets
and therefore the pressure of competition is
strong. But where the pressure is strong, cre-
ativity with regard to business models and
product marketing may possibly be stimulated.
The end user will definitely benefit. The GIS
industry should be careful not to trivialize its
products as demand from non-specialist users
rises. This is an opportunity, of course, for both
sides of the market. But relying on Google Earthcould mean winding up in a global and creative
marketing machine without a goal and without
direction. Commenting on the future of Google
Earth, Patrick Schönemann said “Google Earth
and Maps have shown how to activate a com-
munity, how to inspire the masses and how to
provide an intuitive user interface. But to state
where this road leads to is probably impossi-
ble even for Google itself!” Always keep com-
mitment to the community in mind. Ultimately,
we are the community and we, therefore, deter-
mine the road map!
Florian Fischer ( [email protected] ) is a
contributing editor of GeoInformatics on GIS topics.
April/May 2007 54
Art ic le
Microsoft’s Virtual Earth-Bird’s Eye Modus Berlin’s new Central Station in 3D. The senate of Berlin provides these 3D models for
Google Earth for free.
On www.apartmentratings.com one can use a Google
Maps mash-up for apartment reviews by real people.
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Attracting Non-traditional Users of Geo-information
The GeoConnections Initiative -Canada’s Online Geospatial Resource
GeoConnections is a national partnership program that was launched in 1999,
with the express purpose of making available online the vast amount of
Canadian geographic information produced by the Canadian government and
the private sector. This was accomplished by designing and building the
Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) and making the information
accessible via the internet. Now eight years later, the program has entered a
second phase of expansion. A sign of success?... most definitely.
By Frank Artés
GeoInformatics posed a number of questions
to Julie Seguin, Acting Program Director, and
Rebecca Last, Policy Adviser for the
GeoConnections Initiative. Together with mem-
bers of the GeoConnections team they elaborateon the program’s success and its expectations
for the future.
In 2005, the Government of Canada
announced funding of 60 million dollars
to extend the GeoConnections program.
What has been the focus of this second
phase, given Canada’s expanding know-
ledge-based economy?
Whereas the first phase of GeoConnections
focused on developing the policies, standards,
technologies and partnerships needed to build
the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure
(CGDI), GeoConnections II aims to ensure that
Canadians can adopt and use the CGDI as a
knowledge-based aid to decision-making. In
particular, our efforts now focus on developing
partnerships to enable access to data and appli-
cations, and engaging decision makers in four
key thematic areas: public health, public safetyand security, the environment and sustainable
development, and matters of importance to
Aboriginal people. GeoConnections will also
continue to work with existing stakeholders in
the Canadian geomatics industry to ensure that
CGDI technologies remain current.
The CGDI is governed, through GeoCon-
nections, by an inter-governmental
(federal, provincial, territorial), inter-
departmental management board.
Can you expand on this?
GeoConnections’ governance model (see dia-
gram) reflects our goal of engaging a broader
base of stakeholders, particularly those in the
four priority thematic areas. Health, safety and
environmental issues all entail provincial as well
as federal jurisdictions, and geospatial data relat-
ing to these priority areas resides with govern-
ments at all levels of Canadian society. Therefore,
it is crucial for us to engage all levels of govern-
ment. Two pre-existing geomatics coordinating
bodies help in this effort. Geomatics work within
the federal government is coordinated through
the Inter Agency Council on Geomatics (IACG),
while collaboration on geomatics questionsbetween the federal government and provin-
cial/territorial governments is coordinated
through the Canadian Council on Geomatics
(CCOG). GeoConnections also created four the-
matic advisory committees (TACs), comprised of
experts in each of the priority areas, to provide
specific advice for the components of our pro-
gram that aim to serve practitioners in public
health, public safety and security, the environ-
ment and sustainable development, and matters
of importance to Aboriginal people.
GeoConnections Management Board, our senior
advisory body, is chaired by the Assistant Deputy
Minister, Earth Sciences Sector, Natural Resources
Canada, so as to ensure fiscal and program
accountability to Canada’s Parliament. The
Management Board consists of 18 representa-
tives. Four Board members nominated by the
IACG represent partner federal government
departments. Four members nominated by the
CCOG represent our provincial government part-
ners. Four members were selected to represent
the Canadian private sector geomatics industry,
two from private companies and two employed
by associations that represent the interests of the industry. Four members are elected to repre-
sent the interests of the TACs. One member
comes from the non-governmental sector; cur-
rently that person comes from the Canadian
Federation of Municipalities, so we ensure that
we are connected to the municipal sector. Finally,
one member comes from academia.
Please note that the word ‘representative’ is
used somewhat loosely in the above description.
In fact, Terms of Reference for allGeoConnections
advisory groups emphasize that members of
these groups serve as independent experts,
although of course their connection to their
‘home’ organization is an important considera-
tion.
Interv iew
Kenemich River meandering at the foot
of the Mealy Mountains, Labrador.
Image credit: Courtesy of Canada’s
Earth Sciences Collection.
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With the introduction of the GeoConnec-
tions program, has awareness of the
availability of Canadian geospatial data
brought onboard non-traditional users of
geospatial information?
As raising awareness, along with increasing the
use of geospatial information by non-technical
people, is a major goal of our current program,it may be too early to answer this question
definitively. However, participation in webcasts
and other outreach efforts and responses to our
announcements of funding opportunities indi-
cate that we are indeed attracting non-tradi-
tional users of geo-information. We are devel-
oping metrics for performance measurement
that aim to demonstrate conclusively our
progress towards this goal.
Many universities and other academic
institutions undertake geospatial research.How much involvement has academia had
with the development of the CGDI?
As noted above, GeoConnections’ Management
Board includes a dedicated seat for someone
from the academic community. In addition,
GeoConnections has an ongoing working rela-
tionship with GEOIDE, the Canadian networks
of centres of excellence for geomatics, to ensure
that we are aware of the latest research and well
connected to academics who are working in the
geomatics field.
Geospatial data is at the core of the
CGDI. How does GeoConnections ensure
that this information remains current,
accurate and secure?
For framework data, there are processes in
place for data validation and feedback mecha-
nisms that allow users to inform the data
provider if they find an error in the data.
However, since our model is based on data
being managed, maintained and distributed by
authoritative closest-to-source data providers,responsibility for data accuracy resides with
data providers. Metadata supplied by data
providers gives an indication of the quality and
accuracy of data. Accuracy is a relative thing
depending on the use of the data. Fit for use
is determined by the user. Sometimes the meta-
data or other data documentation, such as lia-
bility statements, include recommendations
regarding what the data is best suited for and
applications for which it is not suited. Accuracy
is also related to data currency or how often it
is maintained, the source data used in the
development of the dataset, etc. Again, meta-
data may contain some of this information.
The bottom line: quality, currency and accuracy
are the responsibility of the data supplier.
CGDI does have processes in place to check the
completeness of metadata and compliance to
CGDI-endorsed standards. Information security
in the CGDI is an ongoing process of exercisingdue care and due diligence to protect informa-
tion, and information systems, from unautho-
rized access, use, disclosure, destruction, mod-
ification, or disruption. The CGDI deals with
information security in the context of geospa-
tial web services such as access control via user
identification and authentication. Efforts are
ongoing to harmonize rights management, such
as licensing, with security requirements, such
as non-repudiation, via standardization commit-
tees including the Open Geospatial Consortium.
The CGDI offers online training courses
and workshops designed to introduce
individuals to the program and help
them access the data they need. How
successful has this been?
As an example, in October 2006 CGDI online
training was accessed 280 times in English and
172 times in French. However, A Developers'
Guide to the CGDI, available on the
GeoConnections web site, was downloaded 783
times in English and 937 times in French in the
same time period. The higher number of French-language downloads is unusual and reflects the
fact that this document is part of the curricula
for a French-language geomatics training pro-
gram taught in a Québec-based college.
Typically, the ratio of English to French use of
the GeoConnections web site is about 3:1.
Furthermore, the CGDI User-Needs Assessment,
which surveyed actual and potential users of the
CGDI, found that the GeoConnections web site
was the preferred method to receive information
on the CGDI (63%).
GeoConnections introduced the GeoInno-
vations program aimed at fostering new
ideas, products and services within the
geomatics field. How has the program
been received within the industry?
The Canadian geomatics industry has reported
that GeoInnovations had a major impact on the
number, size, and timing of research and devel-
opment projects: companies were able to
undertake more and larger projects sooner than
if they had not received funding support.Successful projects helped Canadian firms cre-
ate new jobs and produce new commercial
technologies.
In the renewed GeoConnections program,
industry is a key stakeholder in implementing
technologies for users within the four
GeoConnections priority communities, as well as
in developing new technologies that are specif-
ically identified and solicited by GeoConnections
as requirements for those communities.
The Environmental Emergency Branch of Environment Canada and GeoConnections
have worked closely on developing
E2MS (Environmental Emergency
Management System). How do you see
the system being deployed?
The Environmental Emergencies Management
System, or E2MS, is currently in the final pro-
totype stage and available for use by
Environment Canada's Emergencies Officers for
real-time emergencies. Final deployment, with
use and access by our federal and provincial
emergency partners, is envisioned to take place
by fall 2008. At the same time, national data
sets are being gathered, emergency data use
agreements are being negotiated, and testing
of the system is occurring as final enhance-
ments are completed. Exercises with our
Regional Environmental Emergencies Team
(REET) members and training on the system will
commence in earnest post our final launch.
The web-based system tracks actions and activ-
ities by the various players that are involved in
responding to an emergency, provides location-
based information (e.g. water intakes, fishspawning areas), access to detailed database
information (e.g. type of fish in a fish spawn-
ing area, spawning dates) and real-time infor-
mation access (e.g. access to our weather sta-
tions: temperature, wind speed, humidity),
allows for overlaying of dispersion models, and
visually records response actions such as the
placement of booms to contain a spill of haz-
ardous materials.
Note: REET is a multi-disciplinary team of sci-
entists and other experts from federal, provincial
or municipal organizations who provide consol-
idated scientific and technical advice to the
responsible party (polluter) on preventing fur-
ther environmental impacts and applying pro-
April/May 2007 56
Interv iew
Helicopter gravity survey using GPS for positioning.
80 Km north of Baker Lake, Nunavut. Image credit:
Courtesy of Canada’s Earth Sciences Collection.
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tective actions for the environment at risk and
for residents who potentially are affected by the
hazardous or oil spill or release.
Given the global interest in Spatial Data
Infrastructure (SDI), has the Canadian
model attracted attention from the
community as an example of geospatial
data-sharing harnessing the power of the internet?
Absolutely! The Earth Sciences Sector of Natural
Resources Canada probably receives more inter-
national inquiries about the model Geo-
Connections has developed for building
the CGDI than about any other program in the
Earth Sciences Sector. Our standards-based
distributed model, based on partnerships, is
one that has attracted a lot of international
attention and praise.
The timeline for the current program
extends through to 2010. Are there plans
for a further development phase?
ing applied, customized Canadian approaches
internationally.
Frank Artés is a contributing editor of
GeoInformatics. [email protected]
Lucie Séguin; [email protected] and Rebecca
Last; [email protected]. Special thanks to:
Barbara Ballantyne;
Mohamed Habbane;
Annie Laviolette; [email protected];
Trevor Rankin; [email protected];
Paula Rojas; [email protected];
Mary-Ann Spicer, Environment Canada)
Michel St. Martin; [email protected]
Luc Thivierge; [email protected].
For more information on the GeoConnections Program
please visit: www.geoconnections.org/CGDI.cfm.
GeoConnections was originally conceived as a
three-phase program. Phase I built the CGDI.
Phase II aims to ensure the CGDI is usable by
and useful to decision makers in our four pri-
ority thematic areas. In economic terms, Phase
I helped to strengthen the Canadian geomatics
industry through a supply-push model, while
Phase II aims to build demand for geomatics
solutions that can be provided by the private
sector. Phase III, which is being planned buthas neither been fully formulated by our staff,
nor approved by Parliament, will probably aim
to entrench the CGDI as a fundamental decision-
support backbone domestically, while promot-
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 57
Interv iew
Aboriginal re-forestation project in Northern Canada.
Image credit: Courtesy of Natural Resources Canada.
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Part 2: The Ellipsoid
Practical Geodesy
In the previous article it was stated that the earth could be approximated by a sphere or ellipsoid. The sphere is often used for simple navigation calculations,
but for more accurate positioning the ellipsoidal shape of the earth has
to be taken into account.
By Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
The ellipsoidal shape of the earth is caused by
the rotation of the earth around an imaginary
axis running through both poles. Physics tells us
that an object in a circular orbit experiences so-
called centrifugal force. The equator, which fol-
lows a larger orbit than the poles, will there-
fore experience a force that is greater than that
at the poles. As a result the earth is ‘flattened’
at the poles.
The EllipsoidThe true shape of the earth is, of course, the
geoid (see previous article), but since it is hard
to calculate on this surface it is approximated bythe ellipsoid for day-to-day geodetic calcula-
tions. The actual flattening of the ellipsoid when
compared to a perfect sphere is not very large.
On average the flattening is said to be around
1/300 on a radius of approximately 6370 kilo-
meters. This results in a difference of ‘only’ 21
kilometers between both axes. Only two para-
meters are needed to describe the shape of the
ellipsoid: the semi-major axis and the flatten-
ing.
Which Ellipsoid?The ancient Greeks did some measurements
and calculations on the true shape of the earth,
but only in the 19th century were the techniques
advanced enough to attain sufficient precision.
Moreover, it became increasingly
important for countries to determine
their exact borders. As a result, vari-ous countries staged expeditions to
determine the shape of the ellipsoid.
Some geodesists took only a few
countries into account in their calcu-
lations, while others made observa-
tions over vast areas. Consequently,
quite a number of ellipsoids are
used, with every ellipsoid matched as
closely as possible with a certain
piece of the earth. Since the ellip-
soids were usually directly employed
in land survey work, each became anchored to
a certain country, making it nearly impossible
to change it at a later date. Worldwide, some
dozens of ellipsoids are in use today.
Internationally the GRS80 ellipsoid, the calcula-
tions for which were finished in 1980, is cur-
rently the most accurate.
Geodetic DatumIt is not enough to determine the size of the
ellipsoid that best matches our piece of the
earth. In the example, the semi-major axis was
approximately in the direction of the equator,
but the true orientation of the ellipsoid can vary.In geodesy the ellipsoid is therefore never used
by itself, but always as part of the so-called hor-
izontal or geodetic datum. The geodetic datum
is therefore a combination of an ellipsoid and
the coupling of that ellipsoid to the surface of
the earth. The ellipsoid is coupled at the datum
point, of which both the coordinates and the
orientation relative to the local gravity are deter-
mined. The North American Datum (NAD23), for
example, is coupled to the earth at Meade’s
Ranch (Kansas).
Which Geodetic Datum?We have already seen that there are a great
many ellipsoids in use. There are, however, even
more geodetic datums, since almost every
country has its own datum point. Furthermore,geodetic datums were developed covering areas
larger than a single country. Directly after the
Second World War, for example, the measure-
ments for a European Datum, which was pub-
lished in 1950 (ED50), were started. Shortly
thereafter oil and gas fields were found in the
North Sea. The determination of concessions
and the positioning of the various platforms
were (and still are) done on this newly-devel-
oped ED50. With the advent of spacecraft, the
need for a worldwide geodetic datum became
apparent. However, for a worldwide system itis no longer possible to couple the ellipsoid to
a terrestrial reference point since such a point
will slowly move due to the movement of the
continents. A local datum does not have this
problem since the point moves with the conti-
nent. For this reason the ITRS (International
Terrestrial Reference System) was developed,
taking into account the drifting of the conti-
nents. The ITRS is determined every year and
as such is not a practical reference frame.
One Datum for Everyone?Since GPS uses satellites, a geodetic datum, the
World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84), was
needed to cover the entire earth. In the early
years the drifting of the continents was not taken
into account, resulting in gradually increasing
differences between the local datum for a cer-
tain country and WGS84.
In 1996 it was decided to update WGS84 to the
ITRS on a yearly basis. Since then there has been
only a slight difference at any one time between
WGS84 and the ITRS. Since both the positions
of the satellites and the position of the receiver
are determined on the same datum, there areno practical problems within the system. For
geodetic work, however, the precision is not
April/May 2007 58
Art ic le
Ellipsoid parameters, a: semi-major axis; b: semi-minor axis (source:
denali.gsfc.nasa.gov - adapted).
The datum point of the North American Datum
(NAD27) is located near Meade’s Ranch (source:
www.photolib.noaa.gov & Google Earth - adapted)
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good enough. In order to obtain a more practi-
cal solution, Europe chose to ‘fix’ the 1989 ITRS
to the Eurasian continental plate. This resulted
in ETRS1989 (European Terrestrial Reference
System 1989), which is now the official geodet-ic datum for use within the European Union.
ETRS89 versus WGS84Since most data acquisition nowadays takes
place using GPS systems, it is important to
understand how the various geodetic datums
are related to one another. Usually the local
geodetic datum such as NAD23 is related to
CoordinatesA position determined relative to a geodetic
datum is always expressed as a longitude and
latitude (on that datum). When needed, it can
be augmented with the so-called ellipsoid
height. The position of a point (or GPS receiver)
is thus always related to a certain horizontal
datum. When multiple datums are used on a
certain project, deviations may occur betweenthe ‘true’ position and the calculated position.
If, for example, a GPS receiver giving coordinates
referenced to WGS84 is used to determine the
ED50 coordinates of an offshore platform in the
North Sea, an error of approximately 180 meters
may be found.
Finally The ellipsoid is the basis for all geodetic calcu-
lations. When using satellite positioning, or
when using charts of larger areas, it is relevant
to know the geodetic datum on which the posi-tions are computed.
Huibert-Jan Lekkerkerk
( [email protected] ) is a freelance
writer and trainer in the fields of positioning and
hydrography.
another datum like WGS84. In
Europe, however, the local
geodetic datums are related to
ETRS89 and not to WGS84. GPS
measurements are, however,
always related to WGS84 in the
same way that Galileo measure-
ments will be related to ETRS89.
With the continuous drift of thecontinents, the relation between
ETRS89 and WGS84 is constant-
ly changing. The differences are
small enough to be of no con-
cern when using stand-alone or
code phase dGPS. When using
more accurate carrier phase GPS
systems such as RTK dGPS, though, problems
can occur. However, since all carrier-phase sys-
tems employ relative positioning techniques, the
errors are usually relatively small, to within a
few millimeters. In practice the coordinates of the base station can be entered in ETRS89,
resulting in rover coordinates referenced to the
same system, even with its geodetic datum set
to WGS84. The resulting WGS84 coordinates can
then be transformed to a local geodetic datum
using, for example, the NADCON conversion as
stated for converting WGS84 coordinates to
NAD23.
April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 59
Art ic le
The continental plates are slowly drifting apart
(source: denali.gsfc.nasa.gov).
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Product News
Eighteen months after the launch of its innovative accident report-
ing product for Police Services STAR-APIC announces an integrated
laser measuring system. The DISTAR system comprises a laser dis-
tance meter linked via a BlueTooth connection to a PDA device
attached to the user’s wrist. This distance meter calculates the co-
ordinates of skid marks, impact points, vehicle angles and debris
on the road. The PDA instantly displays the measurements graphi-
cally. Back at the office, the police officer adds the recorded mea-
surements to the base map (PICC, URBIS, NGI maps) to display all
data relevant to the accident. If a base map is not available, DIS-
TAR is the ideal tool for data capture in the field. No topographical
knowledge is required as only distance measurements are taken.
DISTAR is equally useful for local authority technical departments
and network managers that do not have access to a theodolite.
Internet: www.star-apic.com
Enhancements for ERDAS IMAGINE 9.1
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging announced new
features and enhancements for ERDAS IMAGINE 9.1
such as IMAGINE Subpixel Classifier and IMAGINE
Deew ltaCue. The File Chooser has been enhanced to
allow for rapid selection and opening of image files.
The creation and reading of JPEG2000 format images
has been improved. In addition, users now have more
flexibility and choices with expanded support for
ArcGIS 9.2 versioned Geodatabases. The enhancement
for ERDAS IMAGINE 9.1 are now available via down-
load from the web to all software maintenance cus-
tomers (SWM).
Internet: www.gi.leica-geosystems.com
Pentax Releases Compact DSMobile 600 Color Scanner
Pentax Technologies Europe introduced an updated
version of the DS Mobile 600 color scanner with
enhanced scanning capabilities. Featuring a compact
design and an attractive and functional appearance,
the DS Mobile 600 supports rapid, high resolution
scanning and improved quality. The new DS Mobile
600 enables users to immediately process a com-
plete range of data and documents, from printed
material to photos.
Internet: www.pentaxtech.com
eSpatial Announces iSMART 5.2
iSMART 5.2 provides new features including
enhancements to the iSMART GeoPortal and
increased use of Web 2.0 technologies with signifi-
cant AJAX-based user interface and interaction
improvements. The new user interface components
for web application developers include drag pan and
enhanced sample applications have been added
with full documentation making it easy to deliver
iSMART-based solutions which can work standalone
or can be integrated with existing traditional appli-
cations. iSMART 5.2 provides deeper support for
Oracle functionality, including Support for 10gGeoRaster GRID data and Integrated Support for
Oracle WorkSpace manager within iSMART Maps
enabling multiple versions of data-sets to be viewed
and/or edited by users. A key feature is the option
for iSMART Editor to directly connect to Oracle
databases (along with existing options of connect-
ing to iSMART Server, or use offline with synchroni-
sation of changes to database). Considerable per-
formance improvements have also been
incorporated into 5.2 including enhanced iSMART
Editor features (included for our clients in the utili-
ties markets, including multi-polygon editing) as well
as filtered layers/split layers, multi-line labels, lead-
er lines, ‘proxy authentication’ to database and
enhanced map styling capabilities. All geospatial
functions are implemented in a standard application
server, with support for use from standard Webbrowsers and integration with other applications via
XML Web services and Open Geospatial Consortium
standards (OGC).
Internet: www.espatial.com
Leica Ortho Accelerator DeliversEnterprise-enabled ProductionSystem
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging announced
Leica Ortho Accelerator, offering a streamlined
orthophoto production environment. Leica Ortho
Accelerator (LOA) was developed to speed up the
rate and accuracy with which digital orthophotos are
produced. It is a CuePac add-on to GeoCue, which
is a geospatial process management system. With
orthorectification and mosaicking capabilities, Leica
Ortho Accelerator takes advantage of the distribut-
ed and scheduled workflow processing capabilities
provided by GeoCue. It also contains various mod-
ules providing capabilities such as multi-user access
to the same project, distributed processing, produc-
tion step cuing and several other benefits. LeicaOrtho Accelerator is available for download from the
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Web site and
is now shipping.
Internet: www.gi.leica-geosystems.com
MAP2PDF for ArcGIS version 9.2Now Available
TerraGo Technologies, providers of GeoPDF,
announced that a new version of MAP2PDF for
ArcGIS is now available giving customers compati-
bility with all ArcGIS 9.x versions, including 9.2.
MAP2PDF version 3.x enhancements include extend-
ed support of datums and support of user-defined
datums, support for map book creation using DS
Map Book or Production Line Tool Set (PLTS) for
ArcGIS, improved raster support, automatic labeling
support and enhanced compatibility with other third-
party software. Customers can download the
upgrade from the TerraGo Technologies website.
Internet: www.terragotech.com
STAR-APIC Takes Measures for the Police
April/May 2007
Data Collection Launches Highways Condition GIS Link
Data Collection Limited has developed a system for
integrating UK highways condition survey data with
mapping and geographic information systems (GIS).
Called MARCHmap, the system allows government-
specified highways condition classifications to be pro-
vided in a universal GIS format allowing display on
any mapping system or GIS. MARCHmap is a devel-
opment of the MARCH Pavement Management System
(MARCHpms). The system is processes and manages
data for the United Kingdom Pavement Management
System (ukPMS) which is mandated by the UK gov-
ernment requiring highway authorities to survey and
report on the condition of highways. With the
MARCHmap, survey data such as colour-coded band-
ed condition data and residual life classifications can
be viewed on maps down to the nearest metre.
Internet: www.datacollection.co.uk
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Product News
April/May 2007
FARO Presents New Color Laser Scanner LS
FARO’s new Laser Scanner LS is a portable, computerized
measurement device that scans, digitally recreates and records all
of an object or area's dimensions, creating what looks like a
“photograph” on the computer screen - but in 3-D. The captured
data can be used to create a digital model for inspection,
reverse-engineering, CAD-to-part comparison, factory planning, or
investigations for industries ranging from power, process and
piping to forensics, surveying and historical preservation. When
combined with the specially calibrated Color Bracket, new Nikon
D200 and FARO Scene v4.1 software, the FARO Laser Scanner LS
provides:
• High-speed capture of 50 million color pixels in only 2.5 minutes
• Minimized parallax errors common with competing systems
• Automatic white balance
• Automatic color capture
• Automatic color overlay of 3-D pixels
• Easy color handling
• 10 mega-pixel color vs. 6 of the previous version
Internet: www.faro.com
Magellan Announces ProMark 3 RTK
Magellan announced their new ProMark3 RTK,
designed to provide surveyors with centimeter accu-
racy in a real-time solution. ProMark3 RTK includes
new real time capabilities in addition to its existing
complete post-processing and mapping features.
ProMark3 operates in two modes; base + rover and
rover only. The rover can be connected to a real-
time network through a GPRS-enabled cell phone
using NTRIP and direct IP. The second mode of RTK
operation, base + rover, employs an efficient plug-
and-play spread-spectrum radio solution that does
not require a license or separate configuration inte-
grated with ProMark3 RTK. BLADE™ Technology-
Magellan’s proprietary GNSS processing solution -
enables ProMark3 RTK to outperform single-frequen-cy RTK receivers and grants real-time performances
in a lightweight handheld system. This exclusive
technology uses dual satellite systems (GPS + SBAS)
to drive rapid initialization, reliability and real-time
centimeter level accuracy to make the ProMark3 RTK
a new reference for RTK surveying. ProMark3 RTK
also offers the option of FAST Survey™. This
advanced field software is typically associated with
more expensive RTK systems and makes it possible
for experienced professional surveyors and novice
RTK users alike to run complete survey jobs, includ-
ing stake-out, roading, combining projects done in
association with total stations, and much more.
Current ProMark3 users can upgrade their systems
with the new RTK version. ProMark3 RTK is plannedfor May release. For more information regarding
Magellan Professional survey, GIS and GNSS board
solutions, visit pro.magellangps.com .
Internet: www.magellangps.com
ESRI to Support IBM DB2 9 for z/OS on System z
Optech’s ILRIS-3DVP Value Package) is the latest
value-enhanced option complementing the ILRIS-3D
line of laser scanning products.
The ILRIS-3DVP option provides the same accuracy,
durability and expediency as its big brother the
ILRIS-3D, but in an economy package. With ILRIS-
3DVP users can still achieve many of the 3D scan-
ning capabilities that ILRIS-3D users have come to
depend upon, such as:
• Dynamic scanning at ranges from 3 m to beyond
1500 m
• Complete metrically accurate surveying solutions
• Class 1 eyesafety rating
• Rugged design and packaging
• Easily portable and deployed by a single operator
• Quick scanning and processing for maximum effi-
ciency.
Internet: www.esri.com
ER Mapper Image Compressor Released
The ER Mapper
Image Compressor
is a cost-effective
desktop applica-tion for high-speed
JPEG 2000 or ECW
image compres-
sion. A key feature
of ER Mapper
Image Compressor
is its high-speed image compression to the open
standard JPEG 2000 format. The adoption of the
JPEG 2000 format ensures maximum data interoper-
ability between software applications as well
between organizations. JPEG 2000 is particularly
attractive to government agencies wanting to hold
public imagery assets in an open and accessible for-
mat. The flexible ‘pay-once’ licensing model is multi-
tiered to fit an organization's budget and imageryassets. Trial versions of ER Mapper Image
Compressor can be downloaded from the
ermapper.com website.
Internet: www.ermapper.com
New GNSS Receiver Option for Applanix POS AV
Applanix introduced a new Global Navigation
Satellite System (GNSS) receiver option for its air-
borne vehicle position and orientation system, POS
AV, which fully supports both Global Positioning
System (GPS) and GLONASS signals. Raw data can
now be logged from the receiver along with IMU
data for GNSS-Aided Inertial post processing through
the Applanix POSPac V4.4 software. The option will
be available both in new deliveries and as an
upgrade to existing POS AV V5 systems. The new
GNSS receiver option expands the POS AV capabili-
ties so that users can take advantage of GNSS base
station networks that are being upgraded to include
GPS and GLONASS capable receivers. The overall
result is an improved operational efficiency and
robustness for the direct georeferencing of airborne
sensors employed for geospatial imaging, including
LIDAR, SAR, and digital or film cameras. Processing
of signals from both GPS and GLONASS satellites
means faster and more reliable ambiguity fixes with
cleaner trajectory processing. For airborne survey-
ing, the extra GLONASS satellites also provide a sig-
nificant advantage by decreasing periods of reduced
dilution of precision (DOP), particularly at high lati-
tudes, thereby extending the window for maximum
surveying accuracy.
Internet: www.applanix.com
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Geokosmos Completes Mapping Project for
Gazprom
Geokosmos has successfully completed a large oil
and gas project for Nadymgazprom, one of the sub-
sidiaries of Gazprom, the world’s largest gas com-
pany. Nadymgazprom is the third company in the
Gazprom system in terms of the hydrocarbon pro-
duction. This long-term project was initiated in the
framework of ‘The Yamal Peninsular and Adjoining
Offshore Areas Complex Survey Programme’ (drawn
up in 2002) and lasted nearly five years. The scope
of work covered six gas condensate fields – Med-
vezhye, Yubileynoye, Yamsoveyskoye, Bovanen-
kovskoye, Kharasaveyskoye, Novoportovskoye, and
the total surveyed area comprised 5200 sq.km.
www.geokosmos.ru
700,000 Ikonos Satellite Images Available
through EVC Store
East View Cartographic has added 700,000 Ikonos
satellite images to their online EVC Store. This is the
first time that Ikonos imagery has been available in
a fully-functioning e-commerce environment com-
plete with the support of experienced customer ser-
vice representatives. Customers can easily browse
available images geographically and place an order
directly online or get further personalized help from
a representative.
www.cartographic.com
Bentley Joins FIG as Platinum Corporate Member
Bentley Systems has joined FIG as a Platinum cor-
porate member. Bentley sees the surveyor commu-
nity as a fundamental contributor to the lifecycle of
infrastructure. Infrastructure extends and builds upon
the geometry of the Earth’s surface. Therefore, both
the positional and geometric accuracy of the under-
lying maps is critical, especially as users start tomodel cities and other types of infrastructure in 3D.
www.bentley.com
Definiens Strengthens American and Worldwide
Management Team
Definiens AG appointed Joel Campbell as Vice
President and General Manager USA and David
Fullerton as Vice President Worldwide Professional
Services. Joel Campbell, who joined Definiens in
2006, is responsible for the companies operations
in USA, focussing on the growth of the company’s
life and earth sciences business in the Americas. He
brings over 20 years of experience in the IT indus-
try with him and operated his own consulting firm
in the geospatial industry prior to his engagementwith Definiens. David Fullerton brings more than 20
years of professional services experience to
Definiens and will focus on global customer service
activities and engagements.
www.definiens.com.
Bentley Takes Principal Membership in the OGC
Bentley Systems has become a Principal Member in
the OGC. Principal Members have complete autho-
rity over the specification release and adoption pro-
cess through their voting rights in the Planning
Committee (PC). It is by PC vote that OpenGIS
Specifications are approved and released by the
Consortium. PC Members participate in planning
and management of the Consortium's technology
development process, evaluate and provide guid-
ance on market direction and Consortium focus,
possess Technical Committee voting rights, have
approval authority for OGC policies and procedures,
and vote to elect members of the OGC Board of
Directors.
www.opengeospatial.org
Educational Program from Topcon
Topcon Europe Positioning B.V. has started an
educational program offering universities, schools,
colleges and professional training centers Topcon
products at a special price. The program focuses on
schools and universities where surveying is an
important part of the education. The package
basically offers affordable surveying equipment.
It is made up of a HiPer Pro Base and Rover set
and all software and accessories needed for static
and RTK surveying. The specially priced Topcon
GPS+ package is offered exclusively to educational
establishments in Europe through TEP GPS
distributors.
www.topcon.eu
ESRI Helps Organizations Standardize Geospatial
Business Processes
ESRI‘s Job Tracking for ArcGIS Server extension helps
organizations allocate staffing resources and track
the status and progress of jobs from beginning to
end. With Job Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX), geographic
information system (GIS) users are able to monitor
projects without slowing the production process. Job
Tracking for ArcGIS (JTX) automatically records all
activities associated with a job, allowing managers
to quickly and easily check a job's progress and see
how it was completed. This extension is now avail-
able for ArcGIS Server.
www.esri.com
Geosoft and ESRI Collaborate for Mining and
Geosciences
Geosoft and ESRI will deliver integrated software and
data management solutions for the global mining
and geosciences sector. The collaboration will result
in a scalable and interoperable software platform
that improves the availability and integration of geo-scientific data for successful earth exploration and
discovery.
www.geosoft.com
www.esri.com
Infoterra Supplies Aerial Imagery for New Flight
Simulator Scenery
Infoterra Ltd has supplied GeoPerspectives aerial
imagery and terrain data to Just Flight Ltd, the
world’s leading flight simulation specialist, for use
within a series of photographic scenery packages
for flight simulation on home PCs. At a resolution
of 1m, the high quality and accurate imagery of
England and Wales will allow Just Flight to differen-
tiate themselves from their competitors and helpthem build on their market leading position. The
VFR Real Scenery series, to be used with the latest
version of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X, is now
available on the high street.
www.infoterra.co.uk
Leipzig to Host INTERGEO 2007
According to the organisers, selecting Leipzig as the
location for INTERGEO 2007 has proven to be an excel-
lent choice. Leipzig has made a name for itself as a
key trade fair location in Central Europe. Leading trade
fairs, such as the Leipzig Book Fair, Automobile
International and the Games Convention, are held at
one of the oldest trade fair centres in the world. In
fact, the Games Convention is the only trade fair of
its kind in Europe. Leipzig is easy to reach by plane
both nationally and internationally and is networked
with all important metropolitan areas. At the heart of
the Leipzig/Halle conurbation and thus part of the
Saxon Triangle, Leipzig is also a key traffic hub in its
own right. Deutsche Bahn AG will again be providing
a special service for visitors going to INTERGEO by
train. International visitors are also guaranteed excel-
lent connections with new visitor services. In the city
itself, a dense and virtually seamless network of trams,
city trains and buses will ensure optimum transfer
times and connections. Intergeo 2007 will take place
from September 25 - 27, 2007 in Leipzig. Further infor-
mation is available at www.intergeo.de.
www.intergeo.de
Lockheed Martin Completes Work on
Modernized GPS Satellites
Lockheed Martin announced the delivery of the eighth
and final satellite in the modernized Global Positioning
System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) production program to
the Air Force. There are currently three IIR-M space-
craft on-orbit, along with 12 original Block IIR satel-
lites within the overall 30-spacecraft GPS constella-
tion. Each satellite in the Block IIR-M series includes a
modernized antenna panel that provides increased sig-
nal power to receivers on the ground; two new mili-
tary signals for improved accuracy, enhanced encryp-
tion and anti-jamming capabilities for the military; and
a second civil signal that will provide users with an
open access signal on a different frequency.
www.lockheedmartin.com/GPS
Lockheed Martin Team Completes GPS III
System Design Review on Schedule
Lockheed Martin has successfully completed on-sched-
ule a system design review of the U.S. Air Force's nextgeneration Global Positioning System Space Segment
program, known as GPS Block III. The review, which
represented a significant interim milestone under a
US$ 49 million contract awarded in Nov. 2006, vali-
dated the detailed design of the GPS Block III system
to ensure it meets military and civil user requirements.
The Air Force is expected to award a multi-billion dol-
lar development contract to a single contractor team
in late 2007. GPS Block III will enhance space-based
navigation and performance and set a new world stan-
dard for positioning and timing services.
www.lockheedmartin.com
New ER Mapper Master Distributor for Japan
Sancohkougyo has been appointed ER Mapper'sMaster Distributor for Japan. ER Mapper has been
active in the Japanese market since the early 90s.
To date ER Mapper has over 1000 software installa-
tions in Japan. ER Mapper's existing resellers ITOCHU
Techno-Solutions Corp (CTC) and VisionTech Inc (VTI)
Industry News
8/12/2019 geoinformatics 2007 vol03
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/geoinformatics-2007-vol03 51/51
will continue their valued association with the ER
Mapper reseller network. They will assist Sancoh in
promoting and supporting our products.
www.ermapper.com
OGC Seeking IP Team Members from Europe
The OGC is seeking European companies, universi-
ties and individuals to pre-qualify to receive fund-
ing and work as part of the OGC Interoperability
Program (OGC IP) Team. The ‘Invitation to Qualify’
(ITQ) can be found at: [http://portal.opengeospa-
tial.org/files/?artifact_id=14559]. The companies, uni-
versities, and independent consultants who pre-
qualify to be part of future Open Geospatial
Consortium Interoperability Program Team (IP Team)
activities will become IP Team Pool members and
may be selected for future initiatives, including the
OGC's 2007 OGC Web Services test bed, OWS-5. The
IP Team is an engineering and management team
that oversees and coordinates the OGC
Interoperability Program's Interoperability Initiatives,
which include test beds, pilot projects and interop-
erability experiments. Pool members are selected in
accordance with the process defined in the OGC IP
Team Invitation to Qualify (ITQ).
www.opengeospatial.org
Poland Chooses Trimble Technology to Establish
GNSS Network
The Polish National Office of Geodesy and
Cartography, GUGiK has choosen Trimble to supply
78 Continuous Operating Reference Station (CORS)
receivers and VRS(TM) (Virtual Reference Station)
technology to establish a nationwide Global Satellite
Navigation Positioning System (GNSS) infrastructure
network for the country of Poland. The Trimble VRS
network will provide a geospatial infrastructure for
surveying, engineering and Geographic Information
System (GIS) professionals that enables high accu-
racy real-time kinematic (RTK) GNSS positioning
without the need of separate base stations or soft-
ware, significantly increasing efficiency and produc-
tivity.
www.trimble.com
Sokkia to Become Subsidiary of Topcon
Topcon will acquire the shares of Sokkia. According
to both companies the market environment for both
companies is highly competitive and Chinese manu-
facturers are penetrating the global markets with
their low cost basis. Both companies firmly believe
that the combination is with their best partner and
that this combination is the best alternative not only
for the shareholders of the two companies but for
all stakeholders including the customers andemployees.
www.topcon.com
www.sokkia.com
Strategic Partnership STAR-APIC and GEOMEN-
SURA
A strategic, technical and marketing partnership was
signed between STAR-APIC, and GEOMENSURA, edi-
tor of Road Infrastructures solutions. Road
Infrastructures design software and GIS software
have the capability of communicating by simple file
exchange But for Road Infrastructures project
Leica Geosystems Powers Spanish Orthophoto
Project
The Spanish National Geographic Institute has
embarked on its ambitious National Aerial
Orthophoto Plan. The project’s goal is to create half-
meter orthophotos covering the entire country and
update the data every two years. Next year, resolu-
tion for this project will increase to 25 centimeters
for the whole territory and 10 centimeters for urban
areas. Venturo, one of the country’s largest private
mapping companies with 125 employees, is respon-
sible for creating orthophotos of four of 17 PNOA
regions. Their portion covers some 60,000 square
kilometers, captured at 50-centimeter resolution
(50,000 square kilometers) and 25-centimeter reso-
lution (10,000 square kilometers).
www.leica-geosystems.com
Tadpole Awarded Contract to Deliver Google Earth
Based Application to BP International
Geospatial Solutions Division BP International has
contracted Tadpole Technology to develop a proof
of concept application utilising Google Earth.
The application will be delivered to BP Group Fire
Advisor to improve the management of system
integrity and regulatory compliance across all sites,
worldwide. Utilizing the Google Earth user interface,
the system will provide a digital world map display-
ing the exact location of all BP sites across the
globe. Each BP site will be represented by a point
on the map that links to a virtual filing cabinet, dis-
playing up to date site-specific data and compliance
documentation.
www.tadpoletechnology.com/gsd.
Rolta India Takes Principal Membership in OGC
Rolta India Ltd has joined the OGC as a Principal
Member. Rolta is an Indian multinational organi-
zation that has executed projects in over 35 coun-
tries. Rolta is provider and developer of Information
Technology based GeoSpatial Information
Systems (GIS), Engineering Design Automation
Solutions and eSecurity services worldwide.www.opengeospatial.org
Trimble Innovative Training for Engineering and
Construction Industry
Trimble has expanded its portfolio of training prod-
ucts with a suite of modules for the engineering and
construction industry. Facilitated through a state-of-
the-art Internet-based enterprise learning manage-
ment system, the training modules will be available
to distribution partners and customers anytime, any-
where. Utilizing the latest virtual reality technology,
the interactive training modules provide simulations
ment system, providing a way of managing and
tracking each person’s professional development. For
more information on the Trimble Knowledge
Network, visit: http://trimble.training.learn.com
www.trimble.com
Fugro Acquires EarthData
Fugro has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of
the shares of the USA based EarthData Group.
EarthData is provider of innovative airborne map-
ping, remote sensing and geographic information
services used by US government agencies as well
as commercial clients. The company is active in mar-
ket sectors such as urban planning, natural resource
management and engineering activities. In addition
to its activities in the US, EarthData provides inter-
national data acquisition services and has a data
processing center in China. EarthData/Horizons has
a fleet of twelve aircraft and a variety of sensors
which include state-of-the-art digital cameras, laser
mapping systems and a unique airborne radar map-
ping technology called GeoSAR. The EarthData group
of companies has an annual turnover of approxi-
mately EUR 40 million and about 340 employees in
the USA and China.
Fugro is establishing a global Geospatial Services
business by combining its existing ‘Onshore survey’
business line and elements of the satellite position-
ing activities. The EarthData group and MAPS
Geosolutions (for which a letter of intent was signed
on 8 March) will form part of this business line.
www.fugro.com
Pitney Bowes to Acquire MapInfo
Pitney Bowes has acquired MapInfo Corporation.
MapInfo generated US$165 million in revenue for its
fiscal year 2006. The acquisition strengthens Pitney
Bowes’ position in the growing location intelligence
market.
www.pb.com.
Neil Armstrong Keynote Speaker at INTERGRAPH
2007
Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, is
keynote speaker at INTERGRAPH 2007 which will be
held in Nashville, Tennessee, May 21-24, 2007. As
spacecraft commander for NASA's Apollo 11 mission,
Neil Armstrong enabled the world to realize its
vision, successfully landing man on the moon. His
first step onto the moon's surface and quote that
followed, “That's one small step for (a) man, one
giant leap for mankind,” would forever change his-
tory, and still serves as a symbol for those who dare
to dream of what is possible.
www.intergraph2007.com
Erratum STAR-APIC
We discovered an annoying mistake in our first issue
of 2007 (Jan/Febr issue). A wrong text under the
headline ‘STAR INFORMATIC Becomes STAR-APIC’.
Following is the correct text.
STAR INFORMATIC Becomes STAR-APIC
Just over three years ago, STAR INFORMATIC acquired
the French company Apic SA. The teams from both
companies have achieved their goal of integrating
both their knowledge and technologies The decision
Industry News