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PCI Geomatics Opens Beijing Office
Tuesday, 28 Oct 2008 06:13 AM
PCI Geomatics will open its new international office in Beijing with a ribbon cutting ceremony on 2 November 2008. The ceremony marks the initiation of the company’s China-based operations. The Beijing office will support the existing reseller channel in China and sell products to the private and public sectors.
PCI GeomaticsESRI User Conference Deadline Extended
Tuesday, 28 Oct 2008 06:10 AM
The deadline for submitting abstracts of papers for presentation at the 2009 ESRI International User Conference has been extended to 14 November. ESRI is encouraging professionals using ESRI's GIS technology to present their work at its conference. The conference will be held on 13-17 July 2009 in San Diego, California.
ESRIFirst CO2 Maps Produced
Tuesday, 28 Oct 2008 06:07 AM
Moustafa Chahine has published the first map on the distribution of atmospheric carbon in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The map shows that most atmospheric CO2 is concentrated in belts 30-40 degrees from the equator. However, the northern belt contains much more CO2 than the southern one. The map is expected to be important to CO2 cycle research.
More...Azerbijan Global Map
Monday, 27 Oct 2008 06:17 AM
The Global Map of the Republic of Azerbijan has been released. This brings to 25 the number of countries that have released maps to the Global Map standard this year. Global Map is a project to map the entire world at 1:1 million scale It will be distributed worldwide at marginal cost.
More...UK's Seety Rivals Google
Monday, 27 Oct 2008 06:11 AM
The people behind Seety have created a site that works the same way as Google's Street View. However, they have beaten the search engine giant in their coverage of London. While Google is still promising to realise the data at some time in the future, Seety has gone ahead and done it.
More...Creative Commons Gets $100,000 Boost in Asia
Thursday, 23 Oct 2008 04:31 AM
The DotAsia Organisation, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to promote internet development and uptake in Asia, is giving US $100,000 to Creative Commons, also a not-for-profit organisation. The DotAsia press statement said the money was donated to support of Creative Commons in its ‘cause, outreach and community efforts in Asia.’
More...ISPRS Hannover Workshop 2009
Thursday, 23 Oct 2008 04:19 AM
The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing is calling for papers for presentation at next year’s conference, the ISPRS Hannover Workshop 2009. Themed ‘High-Resolution Earth Imaging or Geospatial Information’, the event will be held in Hannover, Germany on 2-5 June 2009.
ISPRS Hannover WorkshopCBERS-2 Celebrates 5th Anniversary
Thursday, 23 Oct 2008 04:14 AM
The second China Brazil Earth Resource Satellite, CBERS-2, celebrated its fifth year in orbit last week. The satellite has now exceeded its design life, with all systems operating normally. The satellite was built by the National Institute of Space Investigations of Brazil and the Chinese Academy of Space Technology.
More...Land Reform in China
Wednesday, 22 Oct 2008 06:27 AM
The Communist Party of China issued a new land policy document on 20 October, which allows farmers to lease their contracted farmland. It also allows them to transfer their land-use right to boost the scale of operation for farm production or to provide funds so they can start new businesses.
More...First Light for RapidEye
Wednesday, 22 Oct 2008 06:22 AM
The first image from the RapidEye constellation has been unveiled on the company website. The image shows the area of El Bolsón in Argentina near the border with Chile. It was downloaded to KSAT (Kongsberg Satellite Services) in Svalbard, Norway, and electronically transmitted to the RapidEye headquarters in Brandenburg, Germany.
More...Microsoft to Attack Piracy in China
Friday, 17 Oct 2008 05:28 AM
Microsoft Corp, which underpins most GIS installations in Asia, is planning a new anti-piracy campaign in China. Microsoft China will launch two updates, one for Office and the other for Windows XP. After the update, computers with unauthorized Windows XP Professional will show a black screen when starting the computer.
More...US May Pull India Into Recession
Friday, 17 Oct 2008 05:24 AM
Indian IT companies, especially those with big exposure to US markets, may be in trouble next year as the US slides into a steep recession. However, there could be some hope that exporters of geo-services will fare better than most.
More...Handset Navigation Market Growth
Friday, 17 Oct 2008 05:15 AM
New research from Berg Insight in Sweden states that the number of mobile subscribers downloading navigation routes using their mobile handsets is expected to grow from 16 million users in 2008 to 70 million users in 2014. This growth will be driven by the introduction of GPS-technology in handsets and the bundling of navigation applications with service plans.
Berg InsightChina Chooses Erdas Apollo 2009
Thursday, 16 Oct 2008 06:35 AM
China’s National Environmental Protection Ministry is implementing Erdas Apollo 2009 to build an environmental and disaster monitoring system. It will be used to store and share the Ministry’s gridded data throughout the enterprise. It will also be used to catalogue and deliver the Ministry’s geospatial data over the web.
ErdasInfotech Wins GITA Award
Thursday, 16 Oct 2008 06:29 AM
The EGIS implementation at North Delhi Power Limited has won Infotech Enterprises the GITA Excellence Award. EGIS is fully integrated into NDPL's business and distribution management systems. It has thus become a source of information to provide data for operations, commercial, planning and asset management.
More...Global Map of Vegetation
Wednesday, 15 Oct 2008 06:40 AM
The International Steering Committee for Global Mapping has released maps of the world's land cover and its tree cover as part of Global Map Version 1. The image data was produced in TIFF format from Land Cover data and Percent Tree Cover data. ISCGM was established in 1996 in Tsukuba Japan as part of the Japanese government's response to the UN environment summit held in 1992.
More...Mozilla Adds Location to Firefox
Wednesday, 15 Oct 2008 06:28 AM
The Mozilla Corporation in the US, best known as the producers of the popular Firefox open source browser, has released a product called Geode as an experimental add-on to explore geolocation in Firefox 3.0. Geoode will be included in the forthcoming beta release of Firefox 3.1, scheduled for early next year.
More...Samsung Sponsors Navteq LBS Challenge
Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008 03:36 AM
Samsung, a mobile phone and telecommunications equipment provider, has signed up to be a global sponsor of the 2009 Navteq Global LBS Challenge. This is the first time the company has sponsored the Challenge. Samsung will provide participants with handsets, tools and technical assistance through their developer support portal. It will also participate in the judging process.
NavteqIT Education in India
Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008 02:54 AM
Andhra Pradesh has become the first state in India to offer computer education to all its school students. This is an achievement for the Indian government's ICT in Schools Scheme to provide access to computer education to secondary school students across the country. The scheme aims to provide computers in all government schools by the end of 2012.
More...Thailand and Cambodia in Temple War
Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008 02:46 AM
Tensions are rising over ownership of a 4.6 sq km area between Kantharalak district in Thailand's Si Sa Ket province, and the Preah Vihear province in Cambodia. Minor skirmishes in the region have alreafy left one Cambodian solder injured. The normally peaceful border between Cambodia and north-eastern Thailand became a hot spot on 15 July.
More...Earth Atlas Thematic Maps
Tuesday, 14 Oct 2008 02:30 AM
A new site has been established to use Google Earth to publish thematic maps. The Earth Atlas was created by Bjorn Sandvik in Norway. It uses the Google Earth API and ExtJS Library to create thematic maps using different colours or icons.
More...East View Cartographic Sells ALOS
Monday, 13 Oct 2008 05:56 AM
East View Cartographic has entered into a long-term partnership with the Remote Sensing Technology Centre of Japan which will allow it to sell imagery obtained from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Adanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS). ALOS was launched in 2006 and the imagery is obtained at a resolution of 2.5 metres.
East View CartographicGeoEye’s First Image
Monday, 13 Oct 2008 05:43 AM
The first image from GeoEye-1, of a university campus in the US, has been released to the media. The satellite is still being commissioned. Production imagery is not expected to begin to flow until November at the earliest and even then, the satellite will be consumed by military orders from the Pentagon.
More...DigitalGlobe/Microsoft Content Partnership
Friday, 10 Oct 2008 06:32 AM
DigitalGlobe has signed a multi-year contract with Microsoft, under which DigitalGlobe will provide Microsoft’s Virtual Earth with high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery. The agreement grants Microsoft access to DigitalGlobe’s library of more than 460 million square kilometers of earth imagery, as well as new images.
More...Google Distributes GeoEye-1 Imagery
Friday, 10 Oct 2008 05:12 AM
GeoEye has released the first images from its Geoeye-1 satellite. The resolution is claimed to be better than 500 mm at nadir. This makes it the best currently available on a commercial basis from any space-based source. Google has already taken worldwide rights to distribute its imagery online.
More...The Future of Road Mapping
Friday, 10 Oct 2008 03:55 AM
Navteq's recent announcement of its Map and Positioning Engine strategy may turn out to be one of the most important announcements by a map maker during 2008. If Navteq gets its way, one day you may trust your life to its data every time you get into a car.
More...Lidar 2009
Wednesday, 08 Oct 2008 02:21 AM
The first international conference on Lidar technology and remote sensing applications, Lidar 2009, will be held in Harbin, China 5-8 January 2009. It will gather both practitioners of the technology and researchers from technical areas. Final paper submissions are due 1 December. Early bird registration also closes 1 December.
Academic Alliance InternationalChina Launches Two EO Satellites
Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008 10:48 PM
China launched two environmental monitoring satellites on 20 September. The satellites were launched on a single Long March 2C rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi Province. They have state-of-the-art imaging systems and infrared cameras. They will be capable of revisits every two days.
More...MapInfo Training in Indonesia
Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008 10:38 PM
PT McElhanney Indonesia will be offering two courses – one introductory and one intermediate – on MapInfo Professional in January. Both courses will run over two days. Introduction to MapInfo Professional will teach participants how to navigate, label and query maps, create thematic maps, use images, geocode addresses and use basic GIS analysis techniques.
More...UN Land Administration Forum for Asia Pacific
Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008 10:24 PM
Working Group 3 of the UN Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure in the Asia Pacific has decided to create an annual land administration forum for the region. The decision was a response to a growing feeling that concentrating on SDIs by themselves leaves important issues on the sidelines, such as land administration.
More...Infoterra Acquires Imass
Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008 06:08 AM
Infoterra Ltd, a provider of geospatial products and services, has acquired Newcastle-based Imass Ltd, a provider of integrated information solutions for the UK public safety, manufacturing design and utility markets. Infoterra and Imass will work together as part of the Infoterra Group, within the Earth Observation Division of Astrium Services.
InfoterraNavteq Map and Positioning Engine Strategy
Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008 06:07 AM
Navteq has developed a new reference solution that provides a recommended Map and Positioning Engine specification. The specification outlines optimal deployment of the GPS, microprocessor, memory and all required software. Navteq says the lower cost and smaller file size of its MPE map encourages broader vehicle adoption of map-enhanced driver assistance applications.
NavteqIntergeo 2008
Friday, 03 Oct 2008 08:04 AM
The world's biggest geo-exhibition, Intergeo, has been held once again in Germany. The meeting attracted 475 exhibitors and close to 20,000 visitors. It was an opportunity to look for trends that will determine the shape of the geo-informatics marketplace over the next few years.
More...Iran’s Satellite Plans
Friday, 03 Oct 2008 05:28 AM
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran says his country will soon send up a rocket that will put the country's first domestically launched satellite into orbit. The exact status of the Iranian space program has been shrouded in mystery. The Iranian Space Agency has said it plans to launch several domestic satellites by 2010 and send its first astronaut into space within the next decade.
More...Three Glonass Satellites Launched
Thursday, 02 Oct 2008 11:41 PM
Three Glonass satellites were launched into orbit on 25 September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Khazakstan. The satellites are part of a constellation currently designed to operate with 16 satellites. However, only 13 are currently operating at capacity. The Russian government allocated 9.9 billion rubles to the system last year.
More...Trimble Acquires TopoSys
Thursday, 02 Oct 2008 11:38 PM
Trimble has agreed to acquire German company TopoSys in an all-cash transaction. The total sum for which the company was bought has not been disclosed to the public. TopoSys designs aerial data collection systems based on laser scanners and metric cameras. Trimble says the will provide a European footprint to support Trimble's aerial mapping customers.
TrimbleThailand Launches Theos
Thursday, 02 Oct 2008 07:23 AM
After nearly two years of delays, Thailand has become the newest country to achieve space observation capability, with the successful launch of Theos (Thai Earth Observation System) on 1 October 2008. The 750 kg satellite was designed and manufactured by French company EADS Astrium.
More...Potential Earthquake Warning System
Thursday, 02 Oct 2008 06:14 AM
The Japanese have dreamed of the possibility of a warning system for earthquakes for centuries. Shunji Murai from the University of Tokyo has been working on a system that uses GPS towers to monitor land movement. He says the technology is now good enough to predict the location of an earthquake to within one hundred kilometres.
More...ISRO Confirms Risat Progress
Thursday, 02 Oct 2008 06:03 AM
Risat (Radar Imaging Satellite) is 70 per cent complete and on course for a launch at the end of 2009, says Ranganath Navalgund, the director of the Space Applications Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Risat will carry a C band (5.35 GHz) synthetic aperture radar and have a spatial resolution of 1.5 metres.
More...Red Edge for Monitoring Vegetation
Thursday, 02 Oct 2008 05:58 AM
Many people regard the red edge band as a simple, workable substitute for hyperspectral imagery in investigating the health of vegetation. It is - or will be - a feature of the a number of satellites includeing the German RapidEye constellation, the South African satellite, Sumbandilasat, and DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2.
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