Newsletters

The Cloud Holds Promise for Efficient Geographic Data Storage

There's a growing interest in using shared server resources for the storage of geospatial data. In the United States, federal agencies have banded together to explore shared server resources through a GeoCloud Initiative, and western states are also looking to move to a commercial cloud provider for the storage of their GIS data in an effort to control costs and increase efficiency.
More on United States GeoCloud

Asia Takes a Serious Look at Mitigating Risk from Climate Change

Asia and the Pacific are at the epicenter of severe weather disasters and with the highly concentrated population, countries in the region are vulnerable to climate-induced migration. With this pending threat, an ongoing effort is underway to craft public policy to mitigate the risk and plan for orderly migration scenarios.
More on mitigating risk

Need for a Global Geospatial Information Management System

The need for a mechanism that would integrate the various geospatial organisations and agencies together with their valuable geospatial data around the globe remains high on the agenda. The United Nations has been working on this initiaitive and is about to hold the third meeting that would begin to organise the establishment of such a needed effort.
More on global geospatial systems

GNSS and Maritime Navigation Technology

Few people would argue about the importance of navigation communication systems and the contribution they have made to ocean going vessels worldwide. From dead-reckoning to the present day GNSS enabled navigation, modern day ocean-going vessels are reaping the benefits of improved satellite-driven technology.
More on maritime navigation 

Satellites Could Keep an Eye Out for Floods

Another week, another serious flood – monsoonal rains in Sri Lanka have displaced around 320,000 people in recent days. The deluge comes in the wake of other floods in Brazil, the Philippines and Australia, all since the turn of the year. And as La Niña settles in for the decade, floods are expected more frequently.
More on satellites for flooding

DMCii Signs Exclusive NigeriaSat-2 Satellite Imaging Deal with NASRDA

Remote sensing solutions provider DMCii has signed an exclusive agreement with the Nigerian Space Agency (NASRDA) to distribute imagery from the two new earth observation satellites NigeriaSat-2 & NigeriaSat-X that are awaiting launch. The two satellites introduce high quality 2.5m Pan and 5m multispectral (4 band) imagery to DMCii’s product range with strip, wide area and stereo pair options available.
More on the satellite deal 

Korea's Cartographic Legacy

About two months ago, renowned Korean scholar Choi Suh-myun received an unexpected package from Atsushi Hirata, director of the Ryukoku University Library in Japan. Choi was taken aback by its content: a masterful digitally enhanced recreation of a 15th century world map - the oldest world map in existence.
More on historical cartography

Brunei - Geospatial Technology Seminar

In his speech, the President of the Brunei Institution of Geomatics, BIG, Haji Ali Bakar bin Haji Kasim said maximising the use of Geospatial technology will be extremely advantageous to the development of Brunei Darussalam. In order to achieve this, a high level of cooperation is required between the end users and the Survey department as implementer and custodian of Brunei's GIS system.
More on geospatial development 

On Top of the World: You Could be a Globetrotter with Geomatics

 The subject is concerned with gathering and interpreting spatial information, and with the geographic makeup of the natural and built environments; more informally, it's "an unholy alliance of maths and geography", as James Kavanagh, director of land at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), puts it.
More on geospatial career 

Iran Opens Centre for Satellite Images

Iran on Sunday opened its first centre to receive satellite images, a new stage in its space programme that coincides with celebrations marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said the equipment used in the centre located in the desert was "manufactured by Iranian engineers."

More on Iran's satellite effort

Revised Digital Version of Seismotectonic Atlas of India and its Environs

The geophysical, structural and geothermal data relevant to seismotectonics were superposed over the base maps. In this paper version, the earthquake information pertained to a period upto 1993. Initial digitisation of the analog atlas was done in collaboration with NIC and later reformatted, scrutinised and validated by Geodata Division, CHQ, GSI.
More on Indian Atlas 

Geoimage Wins DigitalGlobe’s Platinum Reseller Award

The award was presented during DigitalGlobe’s South Asia Reseller 2011 Kick-Off Meeting last week in Phuket, Thailand. The award is presented to top performing resellers around the globe to honour their commitment and dedication to the promotion and utilisation of DigitalGlobe satellite imagery.
More on imagery award 

Underwater Ridges Impact Ocean's Flow of Warm Water

An underwater ridge can trap the flow of cold, dense water at the bottom of the ocean. Without the ridge, deepwater can flow freely and speed up the ocean circulation pattern, which generally increases the flow of warm surface water.
More on thermal measurement 

Asia-Pacific at Risk from Climate Migration

The bank and climate scientists said the region, home to 4 billion people, will be among the regions most affected by the impacts of climate change, leading to major migration both within and between nations, stretching resources.
More on climate impacts 

Indian Remote Sensing Agency Employees Convicted of Corruption

Six persons including two employees of National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) were sentenced to imprisonment by a special CBI court here in a fund irregularity case. After six years of trial, the special court convicted NRSA Project Director K J Hebbar, and awarded him two years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 7,000.
More on ISRO charges 

GPS Learning CD to be Officially Released

SuperGeo Technologies is pleased to announce that the whole new GPS Learning CD is going to be released soon. GPS Learning CD, especially designed for GPS beginners, illustrates the history of GPS, operation principle, signal format, methods to position and measure, etc with easy descriptions and Flash animations to lead beginners to the GPS field step by step.

Japan's NHK Brings Google Earth-like Graphics to Live TV

Engineers at Japanese public broadcaster NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) have developed a system that can overlay Google Earth-like labels over live TV images from helicopters. Called SkyMap, the system relies on an additional datastream sent from the helicopter with the live video.

Spatial Algorithm for Mapping ET (SAM-ET) for Water Productivity

The Raising National Water Standards project funded by the Australian National  Water Commission aims to develop a spatial algorithm for mapping plant water use (SAM-ET) to quantify multi-scale water productivity which is the most critical information for efficient water accounting and management i.e. the spatially distributed water balances from paddock to whole of the irrigation system levels.

NAVTEQ Reveals 2010 Research Results on the State of Navigation

In 2010, the online study was conducted in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

ITT Signs Agreement with sarmap SA to Distribute SARscape

SARscape provides ENVI users with the ability to read, process, analyze and output information from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and imagery. SAR is an increasingly popular type of geospatial data and imagery that is used in a wide range of applications because of its unique ability to provide information about an area regardless of time of day or weather conditions.

JAXA - Contributing to the GEO Global Carbon Project

Until recently, JAXA’s contritbution to GEO had focused on disaster management, through the Sentinel Asia Project, and using mainly the Advanced Land Observing Satellite DAICHI.

Emercom to Use GLONASS for Transport Monitoring

Russian EMERCOM plans to arrsange monitoring of the transport vehicles, including those used to transport hazardous cargo, with the help of GLONASS/GPS navigation system, EMERCOM PAO reports.

Ag Leader’s ParaDyme Automated Steering System Gains - GLONASS Signals

“The main advantage GLONASS capability will offer ParaDyme users is longer run-time without losing signal due to coverage interruptions or low GPS satellite availability,” says GPS and Guidance Product Manager, Matt Leinen

JAVAD GNSS Receivers Can Track Chinese Compass (Beidou-2)

With modified firmware, all JAVAD GNSS receivers can track Chinese Compass B1 signal now. This is 6th GNSS system supported by JAVAD GNSS (GPS, Glonass, Galileo (Giove), SBAS (Egnos), QZSS, Compass). Log file, collected on TR_G3TH board in Moscow during weekend, reported up to 26 (!) satellites locked simultaneously.

Next-generation 3D Accelerates Geographic IT App Market

Agency9 provides leading web based 3D visualisation solutions for Geographic IT and on-line visualisation. The company aims at an aggressive acceleration of the market for 3D geographic information.

QGIS and GRASS in Local Government Bushfire Hazard Mapping

The Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) is a small-to-medium sized local government in south east Queensland, Australia. The council region, mainly the southern part, suffers from major bushfires.