geoinformatics 2007 vol03

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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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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



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



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.



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?


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.



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):



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



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


Specia l

Observation

forms

Lockheed Martin HA A. Courtesy of Lockheed Martin



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


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/geoinformatics-2007-vol03 15/51 April/May 2007 22

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)



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.

Art ic le



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

Art ic le


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/geoinformatics-2007-vol03 18/51 April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com

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



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



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


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.



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-

April/May 2007 28

Art ic le

Optech’s ALTM lidar sensor mounted in a light aircraft.



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.


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.



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.



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.


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.



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.


( [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,


Review

Geo-referenced photograph of the Shipping and Transport College (Rotterdam, Netherlands) in Google Earth.



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).



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


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.)



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).



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



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


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



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)

[a] [b]

[c]



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)

[a] [b]

[a]

[b]



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


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)

[a] [b]



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:

[email protected].

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


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)

[a]

[b]



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.



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


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.



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.



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.



“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;


Specia l

Extended surveillance capabilities. Image credit: Thales UK.

“We understand that this is

a key issue for civilian and

homeland security

applications”



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.



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”.


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.



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.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/geoinformatics-2007-vol03 43/51 April/May 2007 Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 55

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.



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.



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;

[email protected],

Mohamed Habbane;

[email protected];

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-


Interv iew

Aboriginal re-forestation project in Northern Canada.

Image credit: Courtesy of Natural Resources Canada.



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.


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)



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.


( [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.


Art ic le

The continental plates are slowly drifting apart

(source: denali.gsfc.nasa.gov).


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/geoinformatics-2007-vol03 48/51Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 61

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


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/geoinformatics-2007-vol03 49/51Latest News? Visit www.geoinformatics.com 63

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



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



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

geoinformatics 2007 vol03

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