The government of Australia has launched the first $50 million Defence Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), announced July 6 by the minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP.
The Defence CRC is a collaborative program that brings together academia, publicly funded research agencies and industry (particularly small to medium enterprises) to create an interlocking research and innovation capability focused on driving a Defence outcome.
The first Defence CRC will focus on Trusted Autonomous Systems to deliver game-changing unmanned platforms that ensure reliable and effective cooperation between people and machines during dynamic military operations.
“Existing autonomous and robotic systems that operate in the manufacturing and mining sector are effective in controlled environments, but not suitable for the uncertain situations in which Defence operates,” Pyne said.
“To be effective, Defence needs autonomous systems to be highly trusted, robust and resilient and this initiative will bring together the best researchers from industry and universities to develop the intelligent military platforms of the future.”
The CRC for Trusted Autonomous Systems will receive annual funding of $8 million with a maximum of $50 million over a seven-year period.
The CRC will be chaired by Jim McDowell, a businessman who has had an extensive career in the defence industry, and most recently at the University of South Australia.
“As Chair, Mr. McDowell will be responsible for leading the development of the research program and business plan and work with industry on transitioning the research results into capability outcomes,” Pyne said.
This is the first of several CRCs that the Australian government is announcing. Further CRCs will be established on projects also aligned with priorities in the country’s Next Generation Technologies Fund.
Defence will be a member of each CRC along with universities, research agencies and industry. Participating members will be selected on the basis of their research excellence and technology expertise.
“The CRC environment offers excellent synergies for Defence, industry and universities to collaborate closely on Defence innovation,” Pyne said.
The CRC is an initiative of the Next Generation Technologies Fund which complements the Defence Innovation Hub as the two core initiatives of the new Defence Innovation System outlined in the Government’s Defence Industry Policy Statement. These two signature innovation research and development programs, together with the Centre for Defence Industry Capability, deliver on the Government‘s $1.6 billion commitment to grow Australia’s defence industry and innovation sector.
NovAtel’s OEM7 v7.03.00 firmware is now available on all OEM7 receivers. The OEM7700, OEM719 and OEM729 can be updated to the 7.03.00 firmware, which supports new features like the SPAN Land Vehicle technology, direct inertial measurement unit (IMU) connections and tracking of the NavIC Indian regional satellite system on the L5 frequency.
The SPAN Land Vehicle feature provides performance benefits specifically for extended loss of GPS signals, robust alignment routines and improved attitude performance for fixed-wheel land vehicle applications. During extended periods of GNSS outage, typically in low-dynamic operating environments or in dense urban canyons, the SPAN Land Vehicle feature optimizes integrated GNSS+INS performance to maintain accurate position, velocity and attitude.
To achieve this, NovAtel uses intelligent vehicle dynamics modeling and its patented Antenna Phase Windup Technology. Intelligent vehicle modeling identifies IMU errors in the integrated GNSS+INS system that accumulate after extended GNSS outages and reduces the impact of those errors within the SPAN solution.
NovAtel’s Antenna Phase Windup technology is used to sense changes in direction and, when combined with intelligent vehicle modeling, corrects for IMU errors in attitude (roll, pitch, yaw).
Users can now connect SPAN enabled OEM7 receivers directly to the ADIS-16488 and Epson G320N IMUs using an SPI interface, and to the STIM300 IMU using RS422, without the need for an interface card.
OEM7 receivers with NavIC L5 frequency tracking enabled will be able to access the test signals of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) before it becomes operational (targeted for early 2018).
Example of unusual detected signal type likely to have an impact on GNSS performance. (Figures courtesy of Nottingham Scientific Ltd.)
Presented at the European Navigation Conference, Switzerland, May 2017
This paper summarizes major findings from the first year of monitoring by the International Knowledge Exchange, Experimentation and Exploitation (STRIKE3), a new European initiative to support the increasing use of GNSS within safety, security, governmental and regulated applications and addressing concerns about GNSS denial of service attacks. STRIKE3 monitors the international GNSS threat scene to capture the scale and dynamics of the problem and works with international GNSS partners to develop, negotiate, promote and implement standards for threat reporting and receiver testing through an international GNSS interference monitoring network.
European economies are now dependent on uninterrupted access to GNSS services. At the same time, GNSS vulnerabilities are being exposed, and threats to denial of GNSS service are increasing. We must ensure that there is a common standard for GNSS threat monitoring and reporting, and a global standard for assessing the performance of GNSS receivers and applications under threat. This will ensure the dominance of GNSS as the backbone to our positioning, navigation and timing needs.
STRIKE3 has built a network of more than 20 interference monitoring sites in 14 countries. This enables STRIKE3 to assess the incidence of deliberate jamming versus unintentional interference to be estimated, as well as comparisons of the most common types of interference at different types of location. Detailed data about the interference signals is collected and used in the creation of test standards. Common signal types as well as unusual ones that are likely to have a major impact on GNSS performance are extracted from the database and added to a test methodology. These will be used to test different types of receivers to better understand impact and help improve mitigation, finally leading to an international test specification.
LizardTech and Extensis have launched Portfolio 2017, a digital asset management (DAM) solution now optimized for geospatial data. Portfolio 2017 enables users to organize, access and share geospatial datasets – including compressed MrSID files – along with associated graphics and documents.
Divisions of Celartem Inc., LizardTech and Extensis collaborated in adding geospatial data management capabilities to the new version. The DAM solution indexes and catalogs photographs, videos, maps, audio files, Adobe Creative Cloud applications and Microsoft Office documents.
“In laying out the vision for Portfolio 2017, we saw a unique opportunity to marry the value of LizardTech and Extensis products and extend the value of DAM to new industries, particularly geospatial,” said Toby Martin, vice president of development and strategy at Extensis and LizardTech. “For geospatial users, having a centralized repository for managing digital files will significantly reduce the time spent looking for datasets and essentially eliminate costly replacement of files that have been misplaced.”
Portfolio 2017 gives users instant access to imagery, lidar and video data captured by satellite, aircraft and unamanned aerial vehile (UAV) platforms. Geospatial files that have been compressed and saved in MrSID formats with the LizardTech GeoExpress solution can be loaded and viewed into Portfolio without any further data conversion, the companies said.
The new version extracts embedded metadata from compressed imagery and lidar files saved in MrSID formats – as well as GeoTIFF, JPEG 2000, NITF and LAS. Geospatial data can be indexed and stored alongside associated non-geospatial photographs and documents.
“Portfolio multiplies the value of geospatial assets by making them easier to share with many end users throughout the organization as well as external partners,” Martin said in a news release.
Data can be retrieved by geographic coordinates or the metadata tag, such as a name, acquisition date or sensor platform. Users can also search by defining an area of interest on a map interface.
Contributing Editor Tony Murfin is on vacation this month. In place of his column, we bring you an advance look at an important UAV show as applied to surveying and mapping, and a story about drone use in surveillance.
In the zone
Legal issues, international market analyses and best practices will take center stage at the Interaerial Solutions Expo (IASEXPO), which will take place Sept. 26–28 in conjunction with Intergeo 2017 in Berlin, Germany.
At IASEXPO, the international UAV sector will be demonstrating the potential for civil and commercial UAV applications. IASEXPO will consist of an exhibition, forum and the FlightZone for UAV demonstrations. About 150 providers from 25 countries are expected to represent the young drone market at the IASEXPO.
IASEXPO’s practical forum will cover the latest topics with renowned experts. Visitors don’t have to walk far to switch between market overviews and expert presentations. The aim is to efficiently combine the trade fair and talks.
IASEXPO Forum 2016.
Regulations. As Germany’s drone regulations come into force this year, the legal aspects of using and operating UAVs is a key focus of the practical forum. Multicopters and drones weighing more than two kilograms can now only be flown in Germany by someone who holds a “drone driving license.” Pilots will be able to take the drone license test at the trade fair.
Frank Wichert from project management company procow will detail the requirements and reveal the precise procedure that pilots must follow. Speaker Ulrich Dieckert is a lawyer and expert on the approval process; he specializes in exceptions to operating bans that hinder drone work.
Market prospects. Kay Wackwitz, CEO of Drone Industry Insights, will present economic analyses of application opportunities and limits for UAVs, and discuss market developments and collaborations.
UAV Issue Manager Ralf Heidger from German traffic control (DFS) will discuss how DFS tackles the challenge of drones in the air space and tracking them within the air-traffic-management system.
Best practices. First-hand reports will provid examples of best practices in using drones for surveying and inspecting buildings and industrial complexes. Friedrich Wilhelm Bauer from Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts will highlight use of thermal-imaging technology for inspections. Benjamin Federmann from Aibotix-Leica will discuss the economic benefits of using drones in surveying and construction.
The German Association of Copter Pilots will weigh the question of whether to “make or buy” needed drones and services. Answers come from success stories in niche segments such as 3D modeling and smart framing. Maik Neuser from Westnetz and Carlo Zgraggen from Aeroscout will discuss inspections in the energy sector.
Other topics will be the use of drones in agriculture, forestry and disaster relief. Antoine Cottin from Carbomap and Bobby Vick from Precisionmapper will speak to the practical forum on drones used for surveying forests.
Drones on patrol
UAVs will soon be a common sight over border zones, crime hotspots and city streets in South Africa, as public safety and security officials and police departments discover the cost saving and efficiencies offered by drone patrol “armies,” according to Airborne Drones, a South African-based manufacturer of enterprise-grade drones.
Airborne Drones Vanguard 35-km long range surveillance drone ready to take flight. (PRNewsfoto/Airborne Drones)
Drones provide a solution to the limitations of other surveillance methods such as GPS tracking, CCTV camera observation, biometric surveillance and ground patrols. Aerial surveillance is increasingly being harnessed for security monitoring — traditionally, with costly helicopters. Drone surveillance present an faster and cheaper method of data collection.
Specialized security drones can enter narrow and confined spaces, produce minimal noise, and can be equipped with night-vision cameras and thermal sensors, allowing them to provide imagery that the human eye is unable to detect. In addition, UAVs can quickly cover large and difficult-to-reach areas, reducing staff numbers and costs, and don’t require much space for operators.
Autonomous, long-range security drones are at the vanguard of new policing methods, accoring to Airborne Drones. “Offering live video feeds to ground control stations, these drones can range autonomously over pre-programmed flight paths for extended periods of time, allowing for ongoing routine patrols across wide areas such as borders, maritime regions and high security installations.
Should an incident be detected, ground crews can then follow objects or intruders from a safe distance, providing visual support to safety and security teams. UAVs can provide detailed visual documentation of sites, enabling effective analysis, risk management and security planning.”
Around the world. Numerous countries are rolling out security drones to support public safety and defense initiatives”, says Airborne Drones. Israel has long harnessed advanced drones for military surveillance, and recently sold a fleet of “spy drones” to the Irish army.
The U.S. FBI has used drones for surveillance and tracking for several years. In Australia, the new $50 million Defence Cooperative Research Centre will develop long-range drones, automated vehicles and robots to help Australian soldiers fight the wars of the future. India is looking to military-grade UAVs for maritime and other surveillance and intelligence gathering.
In June, Brazil’s São Paulo became the first Latin American city to use drones for public security surveillance, and in July, Hamburg, Germany, deployed surveillance drones for the estimated 100,000 demonstrators at the G20 summit. In Australia’s New South Wales, the authorities are using helicopter and drone surveillance along the coast to protect holiday-goers from rip currents and sharks.
UAVs are also instrumental in managing transport infrastructure safety and security and event security, from event security infrastructure to spectator and crowd control and safety, to overall health and safety planning.
Working well after midnight on July 19, 1977, a Rockwell Collins engineer named David Van Dusseldorp sat on the rooftop of a company building in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, adjusting an antenna every five minutes to receive a signal from the world’s first Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite, known as NTS-2.
Within a small window of time, the satellite was turned on and the message was successfully received and decoded by the team working the GPS receiver below.
The receiver station used by Rockwell Collins in 1977 was about six feet tall and had two seats, becoming a part of history for receiving and decoding the world’s first GPS signal. (Photo: Rockwell Collins)
Since then, the technology has grown to be the standard of navigation around the world and touches nearly every part of our daily lives. To commemorate the 40-year anniversary, Rockwell Collins invited retirees involved in the project to share their firsthand stories at an event held in Cedar Rapids today.
“We had leaders and team members working together and I knew we could meet the challenge put before us,” said Van Dusseldorp. “The future of GPS was uncertain at the time, but I really felt like we had just accomplished something important.”
Soon after successfully receiving the signal, the U.S. Air Force awarded Rockwell Collins the NAVSTAR GPS user equipment contract. This was the first of many wins that would position the company as a market leader in GPS products for aerospace and defense.
Since that time, Rockwell Collins has continued to pioneer advancements in GPS such as being the first to complete a transatlantic flight using GPS navigation in 1983. In 1994, a secure, military-grade Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver (PLGR) was first fielded that provided warfighters a tactical navigational advantage on the battlefield.
In 2014, Rockwell Collins achieved another milestone in navigation technology by successfully developing a prototype to track a satellite in the Galileo navigation system being created by the European Union to provide global coverage for its nations.
The Rockwell Collins GPS-4000S.
A modern version of the GPS receiver used in 1977 is the Rockwell Collins GPS-4000S, which has the ability to process the transmissions of up to 10 GPS satellites and two Space-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) geostationary satellites simultaneously. Compared to the first GPS receiver station that was six feet tall, the GPS-4000S receiver is only 7.87 inches tall.
Size and power of receivers have evolved for different applications, like the Micro GPS Receiver Application Module (MicroGRAM). The receiver is only one inch tall, can use data from up to 12 GPS satellites and consumes the least power of any receiver in its class. Other advancements in receivers include anti-jamming and anti-spoofing technologies crucial to security and efficiency when used within critical military and aircraft operations.
Since that historic day 40 years ago, Rockwell Collins has introduced more than 50 GPS products including GPS anti-jam and precision landing systems, and has delivered more than one million GPS receivers for commercial avionics and government applications, helping shape how the world navigates both on the ground and in the air.
After four years of work, the European Space Agency (ESA) team tasked with keeping the world informed on the status of the Galileo satellite navigation system has formally passed on its responsibility to a European Union agency.
This shift is part of a wider transfer of responsibilities, as this month see the official handover of the running of the Galileo system from ESA to the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency (GSA).
“Our job — working with the European Commission and GSA — has been to inform Galileo users in an official, transparent way of any system changes that could affect Galileo satellites,” explains Rafael Lucas Rodriguez, ESA’s Galileo services engineering manager.
“Keeping our users in the picture on planned activities that might lead to satellite unavailability, or any unplanned outages, has helped them to plan their own test activities around Galileo signals and to prepare future products.”
The very first Notice Advisory to Galileo Users (NAGU) was issued in June 2013, just three months after the first Galileo positioning fix was achieved, to a then small community of researchers and industrial users, interested in making tests with the newborn four-satellite constellation.
A total of 189 NAGUs were issued under ESA oversight in the last four years, as the constellation grew to its current 18 satellites. The user base increased dramatically from 86 to 774 registered users on the European GNSS Service Centre website as companies worked to prepare Galileo-ready products and then, on 15 December 2016, Galileo’s Initial Services began operating.
GSC web portal 2013.
Throughout this period, the NAGUs, published on the website of the European GNSS Service Centre and sent to subscribers via email, gave the user community a reliable overview of Galileo’s overall status and that of individual satellites.
NAGUs are issued as new satellites are launched and when satellites become ready for service provision, or to give advance warning of signal unavailability owing to planned maintenance or testing activities, or to notify users of unplanned outages and then to inform them when satellites become active again.
“Broadcom is a regular consumer of the NAGUs released by the Galileo Service Centre,” says Javier de Salas, R&D Director at GNSS receiver chipset manufacturer Broadcom.
“Not only do they help us to organise our engineering activities and tests but, more importantly, they are used as input into our orbit prediction engine for our Long Term Orbits products, which in turn are used by hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide.”
Rafael Lucas of the ESA team adds, “Around a dozen people at ESA worked to begin defining, setting up and operationalising the NAGU process, modelled after the well-established Notice Advisory to Navstar Users of GPS.
Geneq has introduced the SXblue Platinum, the latest model in the SXblue series. This high-accuracy GNSS receiver is compatible with iOS, Windows and Android Bluetooth, and provides real-time professional-grade positioning information.
Powered by 394 channels, the SXblue Platinum uses all constellations (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS) with triple frequency, and provides the ability to use global or local coverage for corrections (SBAS, L-band and RTK).
With the scalable SXblue Platinum Basic, users can activate any frequency or constellation at anytime following initial purchase. The receiver is also field-upgradable, which means that these options can be remotely activated when convenient.
The Platinum was developed on the success of the proven SXblue receivers that were designed to optimize SBAS performances under tree canopy and in rugged terrain. In addition to location performances when working in a restricted environment, the SXblue Platinum is introducing an L-band signal correction via the Atlas service. This worldwide satellite-based correction system can deliver up to sub-decimeter accuracy. Thanks to its new Tracer technology, the receiver can sustain its level of accuracy when the Atlas signal is interrupted. The Atlas service can also stream data over the internet (NTRIP) while ensuring the best available vertical and horizontal accuracy.
Another innovative feature integrated on the Platinum model is the aRTK technology. This feature will allow RTK corrections to be received via the Atlas service, when RTK corrections have not been received for a period of time. For an Atlas-subscribed user device, a high accuracy will still be available at the subscribed service level until RTK is restored.
The new receiver is the same compact, lightweight, palm-sized unit as the SXblue series, which is completely dustproof and ruggedized. The internal, rechargeable, field-replaceable Li-Ion battery has on-board LEDs for easy access to battery life information.
The SXblue Platinum is targeted at GPS/GIS mapping and survey professionals in industries such as forestry, utilities, agriculture, environmental and other natural resource industries in addition to local, state and federal government users.
With a wide variety of compatible software and mobile devices, the support team can help users choose the perfect solution for their applications. A free iOS application for NTRIP/DIP configuration, named iSXblue RTN, is available from the App Store.
GPS expert Scott Pace has been chosen by the White House to serve as executive secretary of the National Space Council. Pace is currently director of the Space Policy Institute and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at George Washington University (GWU).
He also serves as a special counselor to the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board.
Pace has a long career in space policy and is well known and highly respected in the community. Ever since the Trump Administration indicated that it would reestablish the Space Council, his is virtually the only name rumored to be in the running to serve as the head of its staff, according to the announcement on Space Policy Online.
The council was officially reestablished on June 30, and is chaired by Vice President Mike Pence. Pace was spotted at Kennedy Space Center last week where Pence addressed the KSC workforce, further fueling speculation that he would be appointed as head of the Space Council.
In its announcement, the White House said Pace has “honed his expertise in the areas of science, space, and technology” citing his career at GWU, NASA, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and the RAND Corporation’s Science and Technology Policy Institute.
Pace received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College, a master’s in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Technology and Policy from MIT, and a Ph.D. in policy analysis from the RAND Graduate School.
During the George W. Bush Administration’s second term, Pace was NASA’s Associate Administrator for Program Analysis and Evaluation under then-NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. He was closely involved in formulating the Constellation program to return humans to the surface of the Moon and then going on to Mars.
His expertise is much broader, however. He was deputy director and acting director of the Office of Space Commerce at the Department of Commerce from 1990 to 1993, when that office reported to the Deputy Secretary of Commerce (instead of being part of NOAA as it is today).
He has been very active on GPS issues for many years, including protecting GPS spectrum at World Radiocommunications Conferences (WRCs) organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the WRCs in 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2007.
He also has served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (2009 and 2011-2015). Today he is vice-chair of NOAA’s Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing, of which he has been a member for several years.
John Logsdon, who founded GWU’s Space Policy Institute and is Professor Emeritus there, said via email that he could think of “no one more qualified” to take on the “essential task of crafting a strategic approach to using U.S. space capabilities to advance this country’s geopolitical interests and to forge productive collaboration among all government space actors and the private sector.”
Mary Lynne Dittmar, president and CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration (CDSE), also praised the announcement.
“Dr. Pace’s unique combination of experience in government, the private sector, and academia, and his internationally-recognized expertise in space policy, make him an exemplary selection” for the position. She added that CDSE looks forward to working with “the Council, its staff, and the vice president’s office to support U.S. leadership and strategic interests in space.”
CDSE is an alliance of space industry businesses and advocacy groups that support deep space human exploration and science.
Boundless, an open source geographic information systems (GIS) company, has announced a new partnership with Mapbox, a real-time location and mapping platform for developers.
The partnership enables developers to build applications that help people move through cities and understand their world better by giving Boundless users access to premium basemap content from Mapbox using Boundless Connect subscription service.
Additionally, Boundless has released a new version of its Desktop GIS software, which — along with Boundless Connect — was first introduced in November 2016. Boundless Desktop 1.1 includes increased support for PKI authentication, new options for styling, new image discovery and terrain analysis toolbars, in addition to Mapbox basemaps. Users can quickly search through an image library and discover image scenes based on location, cloud cover, acquisition date and more.
New Partnership
“This announcement signifies the massive growth and capabilities of Boundless Connect and accelerates the movement towards open GIS software and developer tools by expanding access to important content like Mapbox’s datasets and gorgeous maps,” said Andy Dearing, CEO of Boundless. “Partnering with Mapbox has been phenomenal and will only add value to our users. Making this data and content easily accessible through the Boundless ecosystem allows for significant productivity gains and unparalleled flexibility to our customers.”
Today, Boundless Desktop users can easily access this content through the Boundless Connect plugin. Mapbox content is also accessible through Boundless Suite and Exchange subscriptions. These basemaps include:
Mapbox Streets: A comprehensive, general-purpose basemap used for styling transit networks
Mapbox Outdoors: A basemap with curated tilesets and specialized styling tailored for adventurous use cases such as hiking or biking
Mapbox Light & Dark: A subtle, full-featured basemap that provides geographic context while highlighting data
Mapbox Satellite: A full global basemap, perfect as a blank canvas or overlay
Mapbox Satellite Streets: Combines Mapbox Satellite with vector data from Mapbox Streets, providing a comprehensive set of road, label and POI information; bringing greater clarity and context to the crisp detail in high-resolution satellite imagery
Additional premium services for routing, geocoding and more will be available in the near future.
“This partnership just makes sense. Mapbox and Boundless share a mission: helping developers build amazing applications that change the way people move and understand their world,” said Matt Irwin, head of strategic partnerships at Mapbox. “Boundless’s open, flexible platform pairs perfectly with Mapbox’s live-updating, customizable maps. The Boundless community now has tools and content, all in one place. We’re excited to see what they build!”
Boundless Desktop 1.1 Release
The Boundless Desktop 1.1. update includes increased support for PKI authentication, new options for styling, new image discovery and terrain analysis toolbars, and access to Mapbox basemaps.
Boundless Desktop is a cross-platform desktop GIS built upon proven open source software. Its ecosystem consists of more than 600 plugins that make working with geospatial data simpler.
The release of Boundless Desktop 1.1 signifies the company’s ongoing commitment to creating the world’s premier open GIS ecosystem. Boundless aims to continually provide customers with improvements and updates that make open GIS a viable and preferred alternative to proprietary GIS software.
Key features include:
Access to premium basemap content from Mapbox made possible through a new partnership with Mapbox.
Improved support for terrain analysis through a new toolbar that exposes common analysis techniques in a single location.
Increased support for imagery with a new image discovery plugin. This feature enables users to conduct a quick search through image libraries and discover image scenes based on location, cloud cover, acquisition date and more.
“Boundless continues to evolve its ecosystem of open GIS software with each release,” said Anthony Calamito, VP of product at Boundless. “Boundless Desktop 1.1 includes enhancements designed to make working with Desktop GIS easier for all. Access to premium basemaps, increased image capabilities and easy access to analysis tools were added in direct response to customer feedback. We encourage customers to submit their feedback to our Ideas Portal, so that we can continue to deliver software that meets the needs of our user base.”
Boundless offers a complete open GIS solution through a unique combination of technology, products and experts, to give enterprises deeper intelligence and insights into their location-based data. The Boundless platform is built upon open-source technology and open APIs that generate actionable location intelligence across third-party apps, content services and plugins for enterprise applications.
Here there be dragons. That phrase (or a variation of it) was used by early mapmakers to designate the unknown — and alert sailors to the danger of traveling into uncharted waters.
I’ve always admired explorers who dared to push the boundaries of the known world. We’ve moved from the Age of Exploration to the Age of Information, but exploration continues on frontiers big and small.
Today, of course, most people think of the world as having been mapped. They can simply call up Google maps on their smartphone and see not only the world, but their town, their street and their house — in representational cartography (traditional map), satellite imagery, or even street-view imagery.
Professionals in geographic information systems (GIS) know better. The world is still a mystery in uncounted areas. For one thing, it’s not static: Volcanoes form new land masses, storms change coastlines, the sea-level is rising. For another, there’s more to exploration than a basic map.
That’s where the GIS professional takes center stage, assessing an area beyond what is already known, using a variety of tools to collect and analyze data. As Esri defines it, a GIS lets us “visualize, question, analyze and interpret data to understand relationships, patterns and trends. GIS benefits organizations of all sizes and in almost every industry.” A software-based profession, GIS experts use GPS, GNSS and inertial to gather data, which is where this magazine comes in.
At GPS World, we share GIS developments in our Mapping Market Watch, Mapping Launchpad and at geospatial-solutions.com.
Navigation, a journal published by The Institute of Navigation, has experienced continued growth according to the latest Journal Impact Factor (JIF) report.
The JIF of an academic journal is a measurement tool used to calculate the yearly average number of citations to recent articles published in a journal and is an indication of the relative importance of the journal within its field. It is generally recognized that journals with higher impact factors are deemed more important than those with lower ones due to its citation rate.
Navigation’s Journal Impact Factor is now 1.604, an increase from 0.979 last year and 0.562 the year before. Total citations have increased by more than 270 percent over the past two years.
“We are especially pleased with our strong performance,” said Boris Pervan, Navigation‘s editor. The increase in Navigation‘s impact factor is reflective of ION’s commitment to improve the quality and content of the papers published in the journal.
ION extends its gratitude to its esteemed editorial board, which includes: Penina Axelrad, Pau Closas, Paul Groves, Christopher Hegarty, Changdon Kee, Jiyun Lee, Gary McGraw, Michael Meurer, Thomas Pany, Boris Pervan (editor), Jason Rife, Andrey Soloviev, Maarten Uijt de Haag, Todd Walter, Lisa Beaty (managing editor) and Fiona Walter (administrative editor).
Navigation is indexed in the Thomson Reuters Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch), Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition and Thomson Reuters Current Contents/Engineering Computing and Technology.
Additionally, Navigation is abstracted in Electrical and Electronics Abstracts. Citations and abstracts of articles in Navigation can be found using the INSPEC online database. Navigation is published by ION in partnership with Wiley.
The Institute of Navigation is the world’s premier professional society dedicated to the advancement of the art and science of positioning, navigation and timing. The institute is a national organization whose membership spans worldwide.
