GIS in Education

An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist has led efforts to develop a new method for using remote sensing to assess soil salinity. This could give land managers worldwide a regional-scale tool for measuring and inventorying soil salinity in fields where salt buildup lowers crop yields.

ARS soil scientist Dennis Corwin led a team that used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery to assess and map soil salinity across approximately 741,300 acres of North Dakota's and Minnesota's Red River Valley. Increased soil salinity levels in this region have been linked to higher water tables caused by management and precipitation changes over the past 20 years.

The team compared two vegetation indices: the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the enhanced vegetation index (EVI). Both indices were developed using seven years of vegetation reflectance data obtained with MODIS imagery. The team also collected soil samples from 60 fields across three counties in the Red River Valley to see how strongly field-scale soil saline levels correlated with the EVI and NDVI indices.

The researchers found that 21 to 37 percent of the variability in soil salinity levels could be correlated with EVI. Then they added another factor into their estimates: whether the land qualified for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a federal program that sets aside marginally productive land for conservation purposes. They found that 34 to 53 percent of the variability in soil salinity could be correlated to EVI and whether land was eligible for CRP inclusion.

For this project, Corwin partnered with Stanford University scientist David Lobell and former University of California-Riverside statistician Scott Lesch. Corwin is at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory in Riverside, Calif. Other collaborators included Michael Ulmer, Keith Anderson, Dave Potts, James Doolittle, Manuel Matos and Matthew Baltes, who are soil scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Results from this research, which were published in the Journal of Environmental Quality, provide the NRCS with an easy and reliable tool for mapping soil salinity over regions that span from hundreds of thousands to millions of acres.

ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency. The research supports the USDA priority of ensuring international food security.

Via: USDA

Germany’s new radar satellite, TanDEM-X, launched from Kazakhstan on Monday, has returned its first images of Earth, according to Red Orbit.

The spacecraft was created to make the most precise 3D map of the Earth’s surface.

The first images demonstrate that the satellite is in good working order and is ready to team up with the TerraSAR-X satellite launched three years ago. The pair of satellites will trace the variation in height across the globe with precision of better than 6 feet.

The satellite will support a number of applications, such as navigational devices for military jets to allow them to fly at very low altitudes.

Infoterra GmbH, which has exclusive rights to commercialize the TanDEM information, says the market for radar products is steadily growing.

The new images show regions of Ukraine, northern Madagascar and Moscow. The pictures illustrate neatly the unique ability of the equipment to use radar to sense the planet’s surface.

The satellite is able to detect, for example, the choppiness of the waves in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar.

TanDEM-X will be flying in a polar orbit that will take it in a similar path to that of TerraSAR-X, about 325 miles above the planet. The intention is to make the new satellite keep an extremely close path to its sibling. At times, the two satellites will be as close as 650 feet to one another.

The radar works by bouncing microwave pulses off the ground and sea surface. By timing how long it takes for the signal to return to the satellite, the instrument can determine differences in height.

Three-dimensional image acquisition is expected to start in January.

The seamless digital elevation model (DEM) of the Earth’s surface will be built up over a three year period. Ultimately, the satellites should be able to produce a vertical resolution of 3 - 6 feet and a spatial resolution of 40 feet -- far superior to any global data recorded to date.

The TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X venture is operated on the basis of a public-private partnership. The Germany's space agency (DLR) owns the hardware; satellite manufacturer EADS Astrium has developed and built the technology; and Infoterra GmbH processes and sells the data.

Vietnam expected to master the technology to manufacture small satellites by 2017, when the project to build the first national space centre is scheduled for completion, said the vice chairman of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology's Space Technology Institute, Dr Pham Anh Tuan.

The Hoa Lac national space centre project was to be built with US$400 million from Japanese official development assistance (ODA) on a 9ha site in the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park, 30km from central Ha Noi. Japanese experts would transfer technology and support to build the technical facilities and train staff.

"The centre will be one of the most modern space centres in Southeast Asia, with advanced equipment being used in Japan and European countries," said Tuan.

The project was first proposed in 2007, and the consulting group from the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) submitted a pre-feasibility report last March and would conduct a feasibility study between August and next February, he said. A lending agreement with the Japanese government was then expected to be signed next year.

The first phase construction, including infrastructure, research facilities, and the installation of satellite monitoring and operating equipment and data processing equipment, would then take place during 2011-13. A satellite assembly and testing area and training area would follow in the second phase in 2014-18, giving Viet Nam the capacity to assemble satellites of less than 500kg.

Each such satellite would cost an estimated $20-30 million and would be able to provide data to monitor and forecast natural disasters and environmental damage, as well as forecast agricultural and fisheries output.

The data could help reduce losses caused each year by natural disasters by 10 per cent and save an estimated 750 lives, saving the Government over $1 billion annually, said Tuan.

The satellite systems would also help update map systems for land use planning and management, support global positioning systems, and monitor climate change.

The institute began co-operating two years ago with Ha Noi National University's College of Technology to establish a space technology major and would offer a master's course next year.

"The move is expected to provide qualified staff for the centre," said Tuan. "Over 300 Vietnamese will be trained in space technology thanks to the project." — VNS

As the 18th Commonwealth Forestry Conference is about to begin in Edinburgh, DMCii has launched a new service specifically tailored to help in the fight to conserve global forests, according to ballard.co.uk. DMCii’s Global Forest Monitoring service uses satellite imagery to produce easily-understood maps of forest cover change. Uniquely, the service’s wide-area forest surveys can be updated annually, monthly - or more often still for areas judged most at risk – delivering the timely data necessary for operational management.

This week’s Commonwealth Forestry Conference has the theme of restoring the Commonwealth’s forests. Together the 54 states of the Commonwealth are home to 800 million hectares of forest, representing 20% of the world’s remaining trees. The Conference is discussing conserving current forested areas and restoring lost forests as a means of benefiting regional habitats and communities - as well as tackling global climate change.

The world’s forests form a significant stock of carbon, which is being released as CO2 as forests are impacted by human intervention. The tropical rainforests hold 80% of forest carbon and the destruction of these is responsible for around 20% of anthropogenic carbon emissions. Among the subjects under discussion during the Conference is an UN-led initiative called REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), which aims to place a value on intact forests by paying governments to prevent their destruction.

However REDD+ requires reliable and timely information on the state of the forests. Satellite imagery is the only effective way of mapping such vast areas on a regular basis, but it can still take a long while for individual satellites to build up a complete regional picture, especially as tropical rainforests are often covered by clouds. In the past, forest maps could only be updated every five to 10 years, leaving them of limited practical use.

DMCii’s Global Forest Monitoring service is based around a constellation of six satellites known as the Disaster Monitoring Constellation which work together to provide rapid mapping services. Independently owned but collectively coordinated, the satellites have a joint daily repeat imaging capability for anywhere in the world, meaning that even cloudy areas can be imaged frequently enough to achieve full coverage.

The first generation Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellites offer optical imaging at 32m ground sample distance (GSD) with a very wide 650 km swath capable for example of covering the entire UK in a single pass. Last year two new satellites were launched, UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1, with 22m GSD, effectively doubling the number of pixels per hectare and greatly boosting the constellation’s overall imaging capacity. Each Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellite observes in three spectral bands compatible with Landsat - the world’s longest running Earth-observing satellite series – so long term forest changes and many types of degradation can be identified.

Information derived from the satellites is used to provide maps of forest/non-forest regions, clear cut areas, logging roads and forest degradation. The service is also intended as a means of training and building capacity in the use and processing of satellite data, deriving information maps from data and interpretation of forest maps.

“Our new Global Forest Monitoring service is derived from our work partnering with governments and institutions on a number of existing forest initiatives,” said Paul Stephens, DMCii Director Sales and Marketing. “This experience has taught us that high-frequency satellite surveys for operational forest monitoring are required for adequate forest management. With survey gaps of more than six months, forest degradation becomes difficult to detect, and authorities need up-to-date information to target ground surveys. The need for regular information is clearly there – countries without operational forest monitoring programmes will be refused entry to the REDD+ process.”

Since 2005 DMCii has been providing regular multi-temporal coverage of the Amazon basin, focusing on areas most at risk. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) uses the results to identify changes in forest cover, both to calculate the rate of deforestation and also to provide early warnings of illegal clearances which Brazil’s forest agency, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), can then investigate on the ground.

DMCii is also supporting the European Commission’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Africa initiative to map all of sub-Saharan Africa during 2010, including the dense, rarely-charted forests of the Congo Basin, the world’s second largest rainforest ecosystem after the Amazon basin.

Finally DMCii is leading a team including the University of Leicester and the World Resources Institute to combine satellite imagery with other data sources to produce reliable maps and statistics of forest cover changes across Indonesia. The archipelago nation’s forests represent a particularly challenging subject for mapping because they are distributed across many islands, and plagued by peat fires whose smoke can obscure wide areas of territory in the same manner as clouds.

The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat 2) is the 2nd-generation of the orbiting laser altimeter ICESat scheduled for launch in late 2015.

ICESat-2 Science Objectives

* Quantifying polar ice-sheet contributions to current and recent sea-level change and the linkages to climate conditions.
* Quantifying regional signatures of ice-sheet changes to assess mechanisms driving those changes and improve predictive ice sheet models.
* Estimating sea-ice thickness to examine ice/ocean/atmosphere exchanges of energy, mass and moisture.
* Measuring vegetation canopy height as a basis for estimating large-scale biomass and biomass change.
* Enhancing the utility of other Earth observation systems through supporting measurements.

ICESat-2 Design

In contrast to the ICESat design, ICESat-2 will use a micro-pulse multi-beam approach. This provides dense cross-track sampling to resolve surface slope on an orbit basis.

The sensor will have a high pulse repetition rate of 10 kHz (exact number still TBD) which generates dense along-track sampling of about 70 cm.

This concept has advantages over ICESat of improved elevation estimates over high slope areas and very rough (e.g. crevassed) areas and improved lead detection for sea ice freeboard estimates.

Young engineers and scientists from all over the world will gather this summer in Denmark to study navigation by satellite, devising new scientific and technical improvements, products and services, according to ESA. A jury of experts from several European universities and Stanford University will select the best proposals.

ESA is the organiser of an international summer school on global navigation satellite systems such as GPS, GLONASS, COMPASS and Galileo. This year’s school is being held 1–10 September at Slettestrand near Aalborg, Denmark.

Satellite navigation has become an important tool for Europe. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) are a crucial component of the global information infrastructure, useful not only for navigation but also for a wide range of other applications, including accurate timekeeping, surveying, specialised Earth observation and fundamental scientific research.

The summer school provides a comprehensive overview of the design and development of satellite navigation systems and their applications. It is attended by graduate students, PhD candidates and young researchers and professionals from industry and national agencies.

In addition to lectures on fundamental topics, courses cover GPS, Russia’s Glonass, Europe’s Galileo, China’s Beidou/Compass, Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System and India’s Regional Navigation Satellite System.

Augmentation systems such as Europe’s Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) and the US Wide-Area Augmentation System (WAAS) are also be addressed.

The summer school includes a competition challenging students to propose a new satnav application, including a complete description of the product/service, the technical approach for its implementation, a market analysis and a business plan. Each team presents their application to a jury of experts from several European universities and Stanford University.

Guest lectures by internationally renowned scientists supplement those given by the school’s directors. Lecturers include René Oosterlinck, Director of ESA Galileo Programme and Navigation Related Activities, who also opens the Summer School together with Kai Borre, of the Danish GPS Center of the Aalborg University, who hosts the School. Guenter Hein, Head of ESA’s Galileo Operations and Evolution Department and the former Director of the Institute of Geodesy and Navigation of the University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich is one of the lecturers again this year.

Other organisations include the Institute Superieur de l`Aeronautique et de l`Espace, Toulouse, Graz University of Technology, University FAF Munich and the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The school is part of ESA’s Education in Navigation (EDUNAV) programme, which aims to foster GNSS training. The programme, a joint venture between ESA’s Education Office and Navigation Directorate, includes the creation of dedicated PhD opportunities, provision of training tools for universities and a book on GNSS processing algorithms.

Satellite navigation has been identified by ESA's Education Office as one of the key areas in which specific efforts should be made to transfer knowledge to the next generation of engineers and scientists.

The number of participants is limited to 50, allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. In fact, the Summer School was booked out within two weeks of the first announcement. Participants this year come from 24 countries across the world, encompassing four continents.

TanDEM-X Launched Successfully: TerraSAR-X twin brought into orbit from Baikonur // Satellite formation will collect data for global DEM.

The German radar satellite TanDEM-X was successfully launched from Baikonur, Kazachstan, at 04.14 hrs CET on Monday, June 21, 2010. A first contact with a ground station in Troll was established at 04.45 hrs.

TanDEM-X joins its "twin" TerraSAR-X, which has been in operation since mid 2007, in its 514 km orbit. Together, the two satellites will spend three years collecting stereo radar data for a global digital elevation model of the Earth's entire landmass. This DEM will feature a relative accuracy of better than 2 meters (10 meter absolute) for a 12 meter grid.

"This successful launch is an important step forward for our company," stated Dr. Vark Helfritz, Managing Director of Infoterra GmbH, following the successful launch: "Infoterra will be conducting the commercial marketing of this unique global DEM, which will of course be an attractive enhancement of our companies' portfolio."

TanDEM-X is being implemented in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and Astrium GmbH with, funds from the German Ministry of Industry and Technology (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie).

Infoterra GmbH will be responsible for the commercial marketing of the elevation model, which will involve customising the DEM to the needs of commercial users: Infoterra will process the raw data supplied by the satellite system in accordance with specific customer requirements. This involves removing any remaining spikes (peaks or outliers caused by noise) and offsets (can occur due to radar shadow particularly in mountainous terrain) in the data, and editing the representation of expanses of water (ensuring a uniform water level and the right gradient of river courses).

CLASS HOURS: 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM

Scientific Programming with IDL - IDL has long been used by scientists as an interactive tool for tackling research problems. Although it's easy to learn the basics of IDL, most scientists do so by trial and error under the pressure of completing a deliverable. Because of this, even long-time IDL users aren't always familiar with many of the programming tips and techniques built into IDL. Scientific Programming with IDL is a three-day course on programming with IDL.

In the course, we focus on programming methods and best practices in IDL. We also explore techniques for data access, analysis, visualization and output that make IDL useful for scientists in research settings.

Prerequisites: This course is directed at IDL users who want a refresher, or who want to see the “right way” to program in IDL.

Topics Include:

* The IDL Workbench
* Language
* Programming Techniques
* Code Performance
* Data Access
* Data Visualization
* Map Projections
* Vector and Raster Outputs
* Linking
* Resources

Cost: $ 1,500

When: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 - Friday, October 1, 2010

Where:
ITT Visual Information Solutions
12930 Worldgate Drive
Herndon, Virginia 20170
303-786-9900

Register here.

CLASS HOURS: 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
September 14, 2010 – Herndon, VA

Spectral Analysis with ENVI - Discover the power of the spectral analysis tools that make ENVI the industry leader in imagery exploitation. This four-day course focuses on understanding the theory behind spectral imaging, and then how to use ENVI’s analysis and mapping algorithms for today’s image analysis applications. Topics covered include multispectral image classification, principle components analysis, spectral libraries, spectral signatures, whole-pixel and sub-pixel mapping, and ENVI’s powerful endmember extraction algorithms. We will use data from several of the most widely used sensors, including AVIRIS, AISA and HYMAP.

Prerequisites: Working knowledge of ENVI and a good understanding of multispectral imaging and remote sensing knowledge is necessary to take advantage of what this course has to offer.

Topics Include:

* Multispectral Concepts and Analysis
* Multispectral Image Classification
* Evaluating Classification Results
* Georeferencing and Mosaicking
* Data Preprocessing - Converting from Radiance to Reflectance
* Principle Components Analysis
* Spectral Libraries
* Whole and Sub Pixel Analysis
* Identifying Image Derived Endmembers
* Identifiying Image Endmembers with the Spectral Analyst


Cost: $ 2,000

Register here.

Satellite imagery captured hundreds of miles from the Earth’s surface is being used to analyze the flood risks of some of the world’s largest regions, using data that researchers hope could become freely available in efforts to provide a more immediate response to natural disasters.

Using river flow and rain forecasts from global monitoring stations and space imagery that takes in vast areas of 400 by 400 km, geographical scientists from the University of Bristol are developing sophisticated flood forecasting models that map past and present global water levels and could predict future flow patterns to a new degree of accuracy.

The effective management of natural resources and natural disasters requires the use of near-real time data. However, existing technologies used to track changing water levels are spatially limited owing to the declining number of global monitoring stations and the heavy cost implications of collecting more frequent, timely satellite data.

A much cheaper alternative, as is now being applied by Bristol experts, is to use low spatial resolution data, which captures water level data more frequently and across larger expanses. The algorithm in development, a computerised problem-solving program, will allow for the automated retrieval of information relating to fluctuating water levels. When combined with a global flood forecasting model, this should provide improved estimates of future changes in river flows.

“The outcomes of undertaking this work would be better flood forecasts at large scales. And if this proves the utility of high temporal wide swath imagery for smaller scales, it will mean a quantum leap in the volume and resolution of data that can support flood modelling,” says Bristol’s Dr Guy Schumann, from the School for Geographical Sciences. “This is undoubtedly needed and will support planned satellite missions targeted at monitoring hydrological change.”

Conceptual analysis of the Tewkesbury floods of 2007 have already confirmed the feasibility of the models being proposed, by accurately mapping the predictive algorithms on to spatial imagery of the water levels at different times during the floods.

The next step of the project will be to apply the same methodology combining space-borne radar imagery and large scale flood forecasting to areas surrounding the rivers of the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Nile, the Danube, the Po and the river system of Bangladesh.

The results will provide a benchmark data set of global floodplain water levels, which combined with satellite date, could ultimately be made freely available via a search engine facility such as Google Earth, and provide a new resource in efforts to combat climate change.

The project, which will span over 18 months, is funded by the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), which supports schemes that exploit the full potential of earth observation. It also involves the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

[via]

LaserTech Webinar: "Survival Guide To Field Work" on July 14th!

Introducing LaserGIS for ArcPad - A true integration between your LTI laser and your GIS

Quicker Connection - Fewer Steps – More Flexibility
Using LTI lasers for GIS data collection will certainly increase your productivity because you don't need to physically occupy the locations you have to record. That's great, but you still need your laser to work seamlessly within your GIS software. That is where LTI's LaserGIS for ArcPad comes into play. It's the first robust software extension that significantly enhances ArcPad’s current laser offset functionality.

Key Features:

- Connect your TruPulse 360 and configure your options within seconds

- Easily record laser offset data with or without GPS using an existing ArcPad map or from a template

- Use "Quick Traverse" to map and calculate an area as well as determine your % error of closure

- Automatically import your height measurements, as well as distance, azimuth, slope, and reference coordinates, within your GIS attributes

- Refer to the trace file that logs all your raw data for every laser shot you take

- Toggle on "Rapid Fire" to map multiple targets without ever touching your data collector

- Automatically apply declination settings based on your map or GPS location

LaserGIS is the missing link of truly maximizing your field work productivity. It works seamlessly with ArcPad's current platform and compliments your workflow by making laser integration faster and easier for you. Mapping with your laser and adding attribute data within your GIS has never been this accessible.

All LTI laser products and the Criterion RD 1000 are fully compatible as well as any GPS receiver that works with ArcPad.

Click here to register for the webinar.

At the ongoing Eurosatory International Defense Week in Paris, Carmenta announces the release of Carmenta Engine 5.0 - a new generation of the company’s GIS toolkit for mission critical applications. The new version takes advantage of the latest developments in hardware, OS and platform technologies by extensive support for hardware accelerated graphics, multi-core CPUs and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

On top of the highly optimized native C++ kernel, users can either use the native C++ API or the WPF compatible .NET API.

The new .NET API is designed to conform with .NET conventions to make it intuitive and straight forward for developers to use. The API calls are 2-3 times faster since the API now directly accesses the C++ kernel.

“We have improved our core strengths and made the product work seamlessly with the latest software technologies and development tools. Being designed, implemented and tuned for performance and flexibility, Carmenta Engine 5.0 provides a competitive environment for creating mission critical GIS applications. Our technology offers significant cost reductions and time-to-market benefits to our customers” says Jörgen Simonsson, director of Product Management & Marketing at Carmenta.

Carmenta Engine 5.0 will be released in the third quarter of 2010, and is now available in a limited customer release program. For more information, please contact Carmenta or visit www.carmenta.com.

Business week reports that India plans to put five remote- sensing satellites into orbit in the first half of next month after fixing a rocket “anomaly” that forced it to delay launches in May.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will carry India’s Cartosat-2B, Algeria’s ALSAT-2A and two small satellites from the University of Toronto, P.S. Veeraraghavan, director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, said by phone today from the southern city of Thiruvananthapuram. The fifth unit will be a one-kilogram satellite built by Indian students, he said.

The agency, based in Thiruvananthapuram, has corrected the anomaly, which was in the second stage of the rocket, Veeraraghavan said. The delay had disrupted India’s challenge to China, Japan, and South Korea as it competes for commercial- satellite launches.

In April, India also failed in its bid to join a group of five nations using their own rocket technology to launch large satellites into higher orbits when scientists lost control of the 50-meter (164 feet) GSLV-D3 spacecraft minutes after blastoff.

“The reasons for the failure are still being analyzed and we expect a report in a month’s time,” Veeraraghavan said.

India is planning a $2.5 billion unmanned mission to space by 2015 and is slated to launch a second unmanned moon craft Chandrayaan II at a cost of $87.5 million before March 2013.

The Asian nation launched its first space rocket in 1963 and its first satellite in 1975. The country’s satellite program consists of 21 orbiters, of which 11 are currently in service.

ThinkGeo has released version 4.0 of Map Suite, its full line of GIS software components for .NET developers. This is a major update bringing support for some of the latest technologies from Microsoft, support for Google Static Maps API version 2, and many more of the most often-requested features from ThinkGeo's customer base.

The 4.0 update includes new builds of all of Map Suite's major editions, including Desktop, Web, Silverlight, Services and Geocoder Editions, as well as the Routing Extension that generates turn-by-turn directions. It's also the beginning of a new six-month release cycle for Map Suite, which ThinkGeo says will bring its users more rapid improvements, a faster turnaround time on bug fixes and quicker addition of user-requested features.

Other additions in version 4.0 of Map Suite include the new GraticuleLineLayer, support for a 100% managed projection library, improved drawing performance in Desktop Edition, new animated panning and measurement tools in Web Edition, a new IPMatchingPlugin for Geocoder, new sample applications across the board and plenty of bug fixes in every product edition.

Also introduced today is Map Suite WPF Desktop Edition, a brand new GIS software control for .NET that is specifically focused on development using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology. The new WPF Desktop Edition allows for better rendering speed, panning and zooming transition effects, and supports multi-threaded drawing for increased performance versus the standard Map Suite Desktop Edition GIS control.

For more information about Map Suite, or to download a free 60-day evaluation of any Map Suite 4.0 product, visit ThinkGeo's website. New users and existing users alike can discuss and get help with their Map Suite applications at ThinkGeo's official Discussion Forums.

The European Parliament's final draft report on the Commission proposal for a regulation on GMES programme and its initial operations 2011–2013 was unanimously approved by the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on 11 May 2010. In this approved report, representing the achievement of extensive discussions between the Parliament and the Council of Ministers, MEPs included a provision of open access to all satellite data, except security sensitive data. As a next step in the co-decision procedure, the vote by the whole Parliament on the final draft report is scheduled for 16 June 2010.

The Commission proposal of 20 May 2009 for a regulation on GMES programme and its initial operations 2011–2013 (COM(2009)0223) provides a legal basis for the governance of the programme and an additional EU funding of €107 million for the 3-year initial operations phase of GMES, supplemented with €209 million from the space theme of the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) for accompanying research actions. The GMES programme should be fully operational by 2014. The European Space Agency (ESA) will be responsible for technical co-ordination and implementation.

In the Council of Ministers, the draft regulation was negotiated within the Research Working Party, which on 19 April 2010 achieved a large measure of agreement on the text, in order to enable a first reading agreement in the co-decision procedure. A few days later, on 28 April, an informal consultation was organised between representatives of the Presidency of the Council, the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee and the Commission. This led to the production of a compromise text, which was endorsed by the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) on 5 May. At the occasion of the Competitiveness Council meeting that took place on 25 and 26 May 2010 in Brussels, Ministers took note of a presidency progress report on the draft regulation.

In the European Parliament the draft report on the proposed GMES regulation and initial operations 2011–2013 was unanimously approved on 11 May 2010 by the responsible ITRE committee, with MEP rapporteur Norbert Glante (S&D, Germany). The committees on Budgets (BUDG) and Environment (ENVI) gave opinion on this draft report, with MEPs in charge respectively Damien Abad (PPE, France) and Vittorio Prodi (S&D, Italy). The adopted final draft contains the compromise text as agreed by the COREPER of 5 May.

In the adopted text MEPs of the ITRE committee included the provision of open access to data gathered by satellite. According to this provision all information, except for security sensitive data, will be fully and openly accessible through a free-of-charge licensing and online access scheme. The open access should thus maximise benefits for the widest possible range of applications and foster a "downstream market" for which small and medium-sized software companies can develop new applications.

As a next step of the co-decision procedure, the vote by the whole Parliament on the draft report is scheduled for 16 June 2010 with the view to approving the proposed regulation at first reading.

A new way to make topographic maps with radar can help farmers divert more of their resources to the highest-yielding parts of their fields, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist.

James McKinion, an electronics engineer at the ARS Genetics and Precision Agriculture Research Unit at Mississippi State, Miss., did the study with entomologist Jeff Willers and geneticist Johnie Jenkins at the ARS unit in Mississippi.

With the maps fed into computerized, variable-rate fertilizer applicators, precision farmers can divert more of their costly fertilizer to the highest-yielding zones and the least to the lowest-yielding zones. They can also use the zone maps to make other decisions, such as planting more drought-tolerant varieties in low-yield zones, or sowing less seed.

Five years of comparisons between these maps and actual "on-the-go" yield monitoring for cotton and corn on a farm in Mississippi showed that accurate yield predictions can be made based on topography.

The researchers contracted to have a plane with LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors fly over the 1,000 rolling acres of the farm. LIDAR is a form of radar that can map elevations digitally, showing slopes and sun exposures, by bouncing laser light off the landscape.

By blending yield results with the maps, the scientists divided fields into high-, medium-, and low-yield zones.

One advantage of LIDAR landscape mapping is that it only has to be done once.

LIDAR topographic mapping is spreading from state to state. Louisiana, for example, has financed LIDAR mapping of the entire state.

Otherwise, it is expensive for an individual farmer to pay for LIDAR mapping. So, McKinion is also looking for alternative topographic mapping techniques.

This research was published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.

ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.

Fugro EarthData announced today that it has developed accurate, landscape-level estimates of carbon content in lowland tropical forests in South America using data collected by its airborne radar mapping platform, GeoSAR. The work is funded through a grant extended by the Blue Moon Fund, and executed through the fund’s partnerships with Wake Forest University (WFU) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Originally developed by NASA JPL and currently owned and operated by Fugro, GeoSAR is a one-of-a-kind mapping system that collects dual-band radar data through clouds and dense foliage over large project areas. "GeoSAR's radar observations using two separate frequencies, one reflecting off the tree canopy and the other penetrating the foliage, is ideally-suited to recovering tropical forest biomass with a high degree of certainty over high biomass areas," said Dr. Miles Silman, associate professor of Biology, Wake Forest University.

Project deliverables include digital, high-resolution above-ground biomass estimates for the project area, and a map of total carbon storage for evaluation of REDD related baseline projects. "Until now, much of the work related to forest carbon estimations have relied on ground-based sampling methods. Using our cutting-edge remote sensing technology we are developing a viable solution for monitoring forest carbon stock that will support future climate change research and policy," said Ed Saade, president of Fugro EarthData.

University of New Hampshire tropical ecologist Michael Palace has been awarded a $364K grant from NASA’s Space Archaeology program to estimate the population of pre-Columbian indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin lowlands by means of satellite remote sensing technology.

Currently, population estimates vary widely – from 500,000 to 10 million – and are the subject of much controversy and debate. Among other things, knowing with more accuracy how many people might have impacted the rainforest through agriculture and development prior to European contact will help scientists understand how the Amazon Basin might withstand current pressures from deforestation, selective logging, and development.

Palace, a research assistant professor at the Complex Systems Research Center (CSRC) within the Institute for the Study or Earth, Oceans, and Space, is an expert in using satellite-borne imagery to study various aspects of tropical forests. In this project he will use hyperspectral imagery taken by NASA’s Hyperion sensor onboard the Terra satellite.

The Hyperion camera “sees” in 242 spectral bands of light, allowing scientists to identify the chemical makeup of tree leaves, which in turn is related to nutrients in the underlying soil. The more nutrient-rich leaves or specific groups of tree species seen by Hyperion will be the signature for what Palace is looking for – Amazonian black earths – sites containing soil rich in organic matter, charcoal, and nutrients and frequently associated with large accumulations of potsherds and other artifacts of human origin.

Also known as “terra preta” soils, they were created hundreds of years ago when indigenous populations slowly burned trees to make soil equivalent to “biochar,” which is extremely efficient at storing carbon and nutrients and provides fertile, productive farmland.

“There are terra preta sites all over the Amazonian basin, particularly near rivers, but no one really knows their whole distribution,” says Palace, who will collaborate with Mark Bush, an ecologist from the Florida Institute of Technology, and Brazilian archaeologist Eduardo Neves of the University of San Paulo. Also collaborating on the project are Stephen Hagen, a research scientist at Applied GeoSolutions of Newmarket who received his Ph.D. at UNH, and former CSRC faculty member Rob Braswell, now at Atmospheric Environmental Research, Inc. of Lexington, Mass.

Having identified terra preta sites in the Hyperion imagery, the researchers will then build a model to “scale up” the data and identify the location of other sites across the entire Amazon landscape. Says Palace, “This will allow archaeologists to go to these sites and determine if they are indeed terra preta. We should then be able to accurately estimate the indigenous population prior to colonial contact.”

At six million square kilometers, the Amazon basin contains the largest continuous rainforest in the world and constitutes 40 percent of what remains of this ecotype. Current scientific knowledge of the forest views its past as pristine with little human influence. If Palace’s research indicates there was a large population of indigenous peoples using the forest to maintain a highly productive agricultural system, it is likely that Amazonian forest vegetation was significantly altered and may be thought of as a cultural artifact, resilient to human disturbance and not an undisturbed forest.

NASA’s little-known space archaeology program is getting its share of headlines primarily through research being conducted in South and Central America, including recent work that uncovered one of the largest Mayan cities in Belize.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

In order to build better understanding about South America and to support development planning activities that require the use of geographic information, GeoSUR Program launched for South American countries. It is a regional geographic website, developed by the Andean Development Bank (CAF) and the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History (PAIGH), with technical support from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Center (Earth Resources Observation and Science Center).

GeoSUR offers access to national maps posted on the Internet by more than thirty institutions in South America. Each of these institutions has implemented an interactive mapping service, a mechanism to provide access to their maps and other geographic data on the Internet. This is the first geographic portal that offers access to geographical data from institutions throughout South America, according to GSDI newsletter.

The second service, a Topographic Processing Service (TPS), helps create supranational seamless maps on slope, aspect, shaded relief and drainage basins, among others; and provide altitude profiles and visibility analysis for any selected point or area of South America. Data derived from the analysis are automatically generated on the Internet and are freely accessible. This is the first regional service that provides data derived from the 30 meter SRTM elevation model which is implemented in the world.

The third application developed by GeoSUR is an interactive map of South America that offers access to a wide range of spatial information, such as regional road maps, relief, settlements, hydrography, protected areas and ecosystems, as well as satellite imagery and infrastructure project information. The three above applications have been developed with technical support from the EROS Center.

Antonio Juan Sosa, Vice President of Infrastructure of the CAF, said, "Geographic information is a key to development planning and may improve investment decision-making processes in the region.”

The White House has contracted with ESRI to merge Data.gov, the government's depot for downloadable data sets with Geodata.gov, the federal website that publishes geospatial information. ESRI began last summer tying the two, according to Jack Dangermond, President, ESRI, in an interview with Nextgov.

He said that he expects Geodata.gov's map services, which enable Web-based applications from different sources to communicate with each other, to be available on Data.gov within two months. The new content on Data.gov will benefit not only Web developers who mix government data with outside data sources to find trends, but also nontechnical individuals. Anyone will be able to create mashups on the free website ArcGIS.com.

The site already allows anyone to search for graphic layers of information from data sets ESRI retrieved from federal GIS databases. Visitors then can add the layers to a base map, or a background map, to complete the picture. ESRI is offering the site free of advertisements and does not claim ownership of any content that people and agencies contribute, Dangermond said.

Federal Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, who is responsible for Data.gov, told Dangermond "to make sure your private sector investments help us leverage private expressions of data," according to Dangermond who declined to disclose the cost to the company, but said it is in the range of tens of millions of dollars and involved three and a half years of work. He added, "we can afford to do it through our software licenses."

Users can share their work with a defined group of people, sell their creations on their own websites or share them with the public to let others enhance them. For example, individuals with little or no programming skills can use ArcGIS.com to see how the oil spill could affect livelihoods along the Gulf Coast. The site is in beta mode so some of the content does not list the source of the material.

The tool is an example of what President Obama would like to see agencies pursue under his open government initiative. A day after taking office, he issued a memo that called on federal managers to use new technologies to foster transparency, collaboration with industry and governments, and public participation. With ArcGIS.com, state and federal agencies allow ESRI to tap geographic information stored in government databases, encouraging collaboration. The site invites the public to participate in the process by allowing people to save in a gallery any map they create so others can view it, by generating links to their maps, and by adding data, or metadata, to data sets based on personal knowledge they may have about a subject. The mashups also provide transparency.

ESRI won a contract in 2004 to build and host Geodata.gov and last summer began informally helping the White House move thousands of geographic data sets from the site to Data.gov so users could extract and manipulate basic maps. Earlier this year, the government paid ESRI about USD 50,000, as an add-on to the Geodata.com contract, to accelerate integration of the two sites, including the map services.

Watch on SpaceX the launching of Falcon 9. The page will host the live webcast of first test flight of Falcon 9 today. The launch window for the first Falcon 9 test launch attempt is now scheduled for:

Friday 4 June 2010
Launch Window Opens: 11:00 AM Eastern / 8:00 AM Pacific / 1500 UTC
Launch window lasts 4 hours.

SpaceX will provide a live webcast of the launch events, presently scheduled to begin 20 minutes prior to the opening of the launch window.

Webcast Start: 10:40 AM Eastern / 7:40 AM Pacific / 1440 UTC

SpaceX has also reserved a second launch day on Saturday 5 June, with the same hours.

Dates and times are subject to change, so check here where we will post any updates to this schedule.

The theme of Trimble Dimensions 2010 — Converge, Connect, Collaborate—provides insight into how the convergence of technology can redefine the way surveying, engineering, construction, mapping, GIS, geospatial, infrastructure, utilities, and mobile resource management professionals connect and collaborate to achieve success.

Trimble Dimensions 2010 conference is looking for speakers who are some of the best in their industries. Consider sharing the techniques, processes, and solutions that have helped you influence your industry and make the most of your career. Become a speaker at Trimble Dimensions 2010.

Submit your Abstract by July 18th.

Set for November 8-10, 2010 in Las Vegas, the conference provides an opportunity for you to share your knowledge with an audience of hundreds of industry professionals. Join a prestigious group of presenters who provide valuable information about real-world applications of positioning technology in the Survey, Construction, Mapping & GIS, Utility, Mobile Mapping, Mobile Resource Management, GNSS Infrastructure and Construction Asset Management industry.

OnTerra Systems, a leading provider of location intelligence technology for GPS/AVL as well as geographical data visualization, today announced a major new offering: OnTerra StopOpt, a low-cost Web service for optimizing mobile employees and assets. The new OnTerra Stop Optimization Service is designed to optimize and improve the routing of anyone or anything once the upcoming stop addresses or geo-locations are entered. This Web service runs on Microsoft Azure and can be accessed by any software that supports standard Web service calls.

Specifically, OnTerra StopOpt reduces costs by using sophisticated algorithms to optimize the driving path taken by a company's mobile assets. This path then can be optionally plotted on Microsoft Bing Maps for print out or visual confirmation.

OnTerra StopOpt improves customer service and increases revenue in the following ways:

1. Reduces the distance and time traveled by an organization's fleet, thus
reducing fuel costs, labor costs, and vehicle wear-and-tear
2. Improves employee productivity by enabling more customer visits/day
3. Allows comparison between planned and actual routes for process
improvement

"StopOpt is a significant new addition to fleet management technologies," said OnTerra CEO Steve Milroy. "It is very simple to use, cost-effective to implement, and it provides a dramatic return on investment," he noted.

OnTerra currently is offering a 30-day trial of StopOpt at no charge, or users can purchase immediately through a simple web-based sign-up to take advantage of the service -- which costs $1/unit/month. This fee allows users of the service to optimize an unlimited number of routes and stops. OnTerra StopOpt can be found here.

A giant bloom photographed by satellite off the west coast of Ireland is harmless, according to the Marine Institute. Images of the phytoplankton bloom were captured last week by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.

It has caused the sea to turn a milk-white colour, due to the dense accumulation of phytoplankton known as Emiliania huxleyi in response to warm surface water and sunlight. Billions of microscopic cells have formed the bloom, which tends to occur in summer months.

Marine Institute scientist Joe Silke explained that they “form the base of the marine food chain and are important contributors of atmospheric oxygen and essential components of a healthy oceanic biodiversity”.

A satellite image from the European Space Agency showing the swirls of phytoplankton blooms south of a cloud bank off the coast of Ireland. Photograph: European Space Agency [via: Irish Times]

The Russian Space Systems corporation and the U.S. Trimble Navigation Group have signed an agreement to create a joint satellite navigation venture in Russia, the Russian company has said.

Each of the companies will hold a 50% stake in the Rusnavgeoset company, which will produce Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) geodetic network infrastructure systems, a statement posted on Russian Space Systems' website said.

"This high-technology, innovative sphere of activities directly contributes to the commercializing of GLONASS," the statement said.

GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System), the Russian equivalent of the U.S. GPS (Global Positioning System), is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.

Federal and local government agencies, as well as large companies are expected to purchase the equipment to be produced by Rusnavgeoset.

The company, to be based in Moscow, will be officially launched at the GLONASS Forum in Moscow on June 1, 2010.

[via RIA Novosti]

Airlines, private jet operators and other aircraft owners are officially on notice: Their planes must be equipped with new global-positioning technology by January 1, 2020, according to USA TODAY report.

The deadline applies to airlines and business jet operators. But many individuals who own small single-engine planes also would have to install the new equipment — at a cost of up to USD 10,000 a plane — if they expect to operate at commercial airports or close to congested airspace.

The equipment, which could cost US airlines as much as USD 6.2 billion by some estimates to install in all aircrafts' cockpits, is a key element of the NextGen Air Traffic Control system that would replace the 1950s-era ground-based radar control system now in use. The system is supposed to improve safety, reduce air traffic congestion, increase traffic capacity, lower fuel consumption and shorten commercial flight times. As a result, airlines, businesses and individuals are expected to save billions of dollars annually.

The equipment required would broadcast a plane's exact position in the sky to both ground controllers and to every other plane in the sky. Eventually, planes will be required to carry equipment that allows them to receive positioning signals from other aircraft, as well as from satellites and ground stations.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood suggested that government might be able provide some financial help to the industry for equipping its planes. But there's little support in Congress for such spending.