GPS World

Author: Tracy Cozzens

  • Harvard’s U.S. Cluster Mapping Project Offers Online Course

    USCluster-Mapping-W

    A free online course, “Using the U.S. Cluster Mapping Tool,” will be held Feb. 11 from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET.

    The U.S. Cluster Mapping website provides research in clusters combined with 52+ economic indicators, forming an online, open-data, open-source platform that allows users to make more informed decisions about economic development, both in the United States and abroad.

    The website is evolving to serve as the national portal to track cluster-led economic development efforts, identify best practices, and spread new data and insights. The interactive webinar will walk participants through use the tool and show how best to use it.

    The U.S. Cluster Mapping Project is a national economic initiative that is led by Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Economic Development Administration. Directed by Michael Porter, the ISC studies competition and its implications for company strategy; the competitiveness of nations, states, and regions; and solutions to social needs such as health care, innovation, and corporate responsibility.

    Speakers include Sarah Jane Maxted, the U.S. Cluster Mapping Project manager at ISC focusing on clusters and regional economic growth, and Christian Ketels, ISC principal associate and research team leader.

  • Planet Labs Raises $95M for Tiny Earth-Observation Satellites

    A Planet Labs Dove.
    A Planet Labs Dove.

    San Francisco-based startup Planet Labs has raised $95 million from investors in its latest round of financing. The company’s goal is to provide frequent, inexpensive, high-quality Earth imagery to a variety of customers.

    “I’m pleased to announce a first closing of a planned $70 million Series C round led by Data Collective. This financing includes a debt facility of $25 million from Western Technology Investment, bringing the total financing to $95 million,” said co-founder and CEO Will Marshall.

    Planet Labs builds Earth-observation satellites that are a mere 12 x 4 x 4 inches. Each of the miniature satellites, which the company calls “Doves,” can capture imagery with a resolution of 10 to 16.5 feet (3 to 5 meters).

    Planet Labs, founded in 2010 by three former NASA scientists, has launched 73 Doves into orbit. The first prototypes blasted off in April 2013. In January 2014, Planet Labs delivered Flock 1, a constellation of Earth-imaging satellites made up of 28 Doves. Subsequent launches have increased the current constellation to 71 Doves. The goal is to be able to image the entire Earth every day.

    Doves being deployed from the International Space Station. Photo: NASA
    Doves being deployed from the International Space Station. Photo: NASA

    Once the satellites are operational in orbit, they each complete a full circuit of the planet in about 90 minutes, capturing images as they travel. When a satellite makes contact with a ground station in the company’s network, Planet Labs receives images and migrates them to the cloud, as well as transmitting additional instructions to the satellites.

    According to the company website, Planet Labs provides commercial and humanitarian value with its global imaging network. Industries supported include geospatial, agriculture, civil government, and natural resources. “Fresh data from any place on Earth is foundational to solving commercial, environmental, and humanitarian challenges,” the website said. “Our global sensing and analytics platform unlocks the ability to understand and respond to change at a local and global scale.”

    Planet Labs says it provides the industry’s most frequently updated imagery of any place in the world at 3-5 meter resolution. The data supports customers who need easily accessed, fresh imagery to inform their day-to-day operations, data analysis, and products. Each image is processed through the company’s automated data pipeline and delivered to customers via API and web tools.

    “This financing comes in the wake of our successful launch of 73 satellites, customers actively using our data, and the recent hiring of Tom Barton as our chief operating officer. Tom was formerly CEO of Rackable Systems (now SGI) and boasts over 25 years of experience managing and advising hardware and software companies,” Marshall posted on the Planet Labs website. “With strong support from new and returning investors, Tom on board the management team, and a brand new headquarters in the heart of San Francisco, we’re primed to deliver more insights about our changing planet in 2015.”

    The Dawesville Channel in Western Australia as seen by a Planet Labs satellite. Photo: Planet Labs
    The Dawesville Channel in Western Australia as seen by a Planet Labs satellite. Photo: Planet Labs
    The Kashima Industrial Zone is one of the Japan’s largest industrial parks, home to an estimated 1,500 factories. The plant at the image’s center manufactures steel sheets found in home appliances and auto parts. A low-density residential area (upper left) lies just west of the industrial zone. Photo: Planet Labs
    The Kashima Industrial Zone is one of the Japan’s largest industrial parks, home to an estimated 1,500 factories. The plant at the image’s center manufactures steel sheets found in home appliances and auto parts. A low-density residential area (upper left) lies just west of the industrial zone. Photo: Planet Labs

  • Ardent Awarded USGS Contract for GeoPlatform Support

    Ardent Management Consulting (ArdentMC) has been awarded a five-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) from U.S. Geological Survey in support of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC).

    The task orders on the IDIQ are to provide a full range of application and service design, development, and maintenance support for the FGDC as the coordinating interagency body for the Geospatial Platform (GeoPlatform). Among awards to other companies, ArdentMC was awarded a one-year, $1 million task order on the IDIQ to provide FGDC with GeoPlatform programmatic support.

    The GeoPlatform is an Internet-based capability providing shared and trusted geospatial data, services, and applications for use by the public, government agencies and partners to meet their mission-critical needs. According to Ardent, it embodies the principles and spirit of Open Government, emphasizing government-to-citizen communication, accountability and transparency.

    “ArdentMC is very excited about partnering with FGDC, its member agencies and the geospatial community to support the management and collaboration of geospatial data sharing and provide a mission tool that is accessible and easy to use by stakeholders at the federal, state, local and private sector levels,” said Brandon LaBonte, ArdentMC president and CEO.

  • DHI Uses Airbus Satellite Images to Map Denmark Flooding

    Water management company DHI used satellites to map Jan. 11-13 floods in Denmark.

    On the weekend of Jan. 9-11, two storms passed over Denmark. During and after the storm flood warnings were issued in different areas of the country. To monitor and map the spatial extent of the flooding DHI GRAS asked Airbus Defence and Space to acquire TerraSAR-X satellite images over the areas. DHI then analyzed and mapped the flooded area.

    The main advantage of using radar satellites like TerraSAR-X is the ability to acquire images independent of weather and light conditions, DHI said. It is possible to get an image of the actual conditions on the ground even during harsh winds (up to 35 to 40 meters per second in this case), massive clouds and rain, and during the night.

    The illustration below shows parts of the flooded area around Limfjorden in Northern Jutland, Denmark. On the background radar satellite image the water is black while land area appears in white and grey tones. The light blue overlay indicates flooded areas.

    The images were acquired over various parts of Denmark. By preparing and reacting to future and similar early warnings of flooding and storm events, it is possible to plan for new images to be acquired during the maximum extent of the water level.

    Egon-Oversvommelse-Limfjorden-Resized

  • W3C, OGC to Integrate Spatial Data on the Web

    The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) are collaborating to improve interoperability and integration of spatial data on the Web. Spatial data — describing geographic locations on the Earth and natural and constructed features — enriches location-based consumer services, online maps, journalism, scientific research, government administration, the Internet of Things, and many other applications. In the United States alone, geospatial data and services are estimated to generate $1.6 trillion annually.

    “Location, as well as providing context to much of today’s online information, is vital to the emerging field of connected devices,” said Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist at Google. “Through this collaboration we hope to make the understanding of geospatial knowledge a fundamental component of the Web.”

    Spatial data is integral to many of our human endeavors and so there is a high value in making it easier to integrate that data into Web based datasets and services. For example, one can use a GIS system to find the nearest restaurant, but today it is difficult to associate that restaurant with reviewer comments available on the Web in a scalable way. Likewise, concepts used widely on the Web such as “the United Kingdom” do not match the geographic concepts defined in a GIS system, meaning Web developers are missing out on valuable information available in GIS systems. Bridging GIS systems and the Web will create a network effect that enriches both worlds.

    “Location plays a vital role for BBC Online, not least in our remit to provide timely information for Weather, Travel and Local News,” said Chris Henden, service owner for location services at BBC Future Media. “It matters across the service, from maps showing places of note in World War One, to detailed context for breaking news. We source data from various third parties, then transform, curate, and make it available to our front-end services. There is a perceptible gap between the specialised world of geographic data, and that of the Web. Bridging that gap can take significant, repeated effort, and is not always successful or possible. Therefore this collaboration between the OGC and W3C is more than welcome.”

    More than 100 participants discussed these challenges at the March 2014 Workshop on Linking Geospatial Data, co-organized by OGC and W3C in partnership with the UK Government Linked Data Working Group, Google, and Ordnance Survey (the UK mapping agency). Stories ranging from management of data in response to the Fukushima nuclear plant accident to the use of spatial data to create new services from spatial and historical data in the Netherlands illustrated a diverse set of integration benefits and challenges.

    Informed by the conclusions from that workshop, the collaboration announced today will enable publishers of spatial data, providers of services that consume the data, and application developers to establish common practices and reduce the cost of integrating spatial data on the Web. Through the collaboration, the geospatial and Web communities will document use cases and requirements, develop best practices for publishing spatial data on the Web, and advance some existing technologies to W3C Recommendations and OGC standards.

    “Through this collaboration we will ensure that governments and research labs will have a way to open up their spatial data to be used transparently by scientists, industry, and citizens alike,” said Kerry Taylor, principal research scientist at Australia’s CSIRO.

    “With growing demand for weather data services delivered via the Web, this joint effort will ensure the progress of practical and usable standards for the integration and communication of location related data,” added Richard Carne, chief digital officer at the MetOffice.

    Participants will evaluate the use of Linked Data for managing the complex evolution and integration of spatial data. The Linked Data approach enables people to produce data independently, and to then easily integrate heterogeneous data from diverse sources.

    “We have used Linked Data — including early work on W3C’s Semantic Sensor Network ontology and OGC’s GeoSPARQL — to monitor and manage ground water levels affecting vulnerable underground archaeological sites,” said Linda van den Brink of Geonovum, the Dutch government geospatial standards body. “We demonstrated that when you have a way to easily express location in Linked Data, you can combine geo-information with other data and discover new information without much effort.”

    For this collaboration, W3C and OGC have each launched a Spatial Data on the Web Working Group (W3C home, OGC home). The groups, both chaired by Ed Parsons and Kerry Taylor, will coordinate closely and publish deliverables jointly.

    For W3C, this work is supported in part by the SmartOpenData project.

  • Esri Releases Demographic Data for 137 Countries

    Esri has added geodemographic informationfor 57 additional countries to its ready-to-use ArcGIS apps, including Esri Business Analyst Online (BAO) and Esri Community Analyst. Up-to-date population, income, employment, and consumer spending information helps businesses — including retailers, real estate brokers, merchandisers, supply chain managers, and marketers — better understand local markets all around the world, the company said.
    “In today’s global economy, organizations are interested in providing the best services and goods to customers in more than one area,” said Simon Thompson, director of commercial business at Esri. “Esri’s comprehensive data provides the insight organizations need to do business at a hyperlocal level and really meet the needs and demands of local consumers.”

    The newly added countries include those in Latin America and Africa, bringing the total number of countries to 137. In addition, Canadian data has been updated to include 2014 updates, and Australia, France, Germany, and India now have advanced datasets and new reports including household, population, and summary data.

    See a comprehensive list of global Esri Demographic data, and visit Esri booth 3171 at the National Retail Federation show in New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, January 11–13.

  • Golden Software Releases MapViewer 8

    Users can create and customize maps with a new ribbon bar interface and redesigned managers.
    Users can create and customize maps with a new ribbon bar interface and redesigned managers.

    Golden Software has released MapViewer 8, which is says has numerous enhancements over its predecessor program. Enhancements inlcude new map types, increased file compatibility, the ability to download base maps from online servers, enhanced querying functionality, and a new user interface.

    MapViewer is a mapping and spatial analysis tool that allows users to produce publication-quality thematic maps. Users can precisely display their data distribution with intuitive functions and features.

    Golden Software is offering a free demo download so customers can try out the new features with their own data.

    The new bivariate option for the symbol map can create visually dynamic maps that display variables in an easy-to-understand way. This map, from beta tester Thierry Hatt, displays house surface area as symbol size and percentage of house surface area divided by property surface area as symbol color for Strasbourg, Alsace, France (1765 land survey information).
    The new bivariate option for the symbol map can create visually dynamic maps that display variables in an easy-to-understand way. This map, from beta tester Thierry Hatt, displays house surface area as symbol size and percentage of house surface area divided by property surface area as symbol color for Strasbourg, Alsace, France (1765 land survey information).

  • Getmapping Provides Enhancements to Its Online GIS

    Getmapping has released version 6 of its multi-featured Online GIS program. The new version has been enhanced with support for worldwide projections, a module for publishing Inspire-compliant WMS/WFS and a new module for Getmapping’s panoramic imagery product, Street Layer. Getmapping’s Online GIS, together with its associated cloud storage and built-in national mapping layers, allows organizations to share information across their users and clients anywhere in the world.

    Support within the Online GIS for worldwide projections now opens up the solution to users around the world, and the software has already been deployed in a number of countries including Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. This, together with the fact that the product can be white-labeled, also opens up significant partnering opportunities, the company said.

    Getmapping Online GIS can be used as an organization’s primary web mapping tool to share a range of map layers including aerial imagery, local mapping, environmental data, and the customer’s own data, taking advantage of Getmapping’s high speed data center. It can also perform key GIS tasks such as address searching, measuring, spatial analysis and printing to scale. It can provide everyone within an organization with access to the company’s map information, helping them to do their job more efficiently.This removes the burden of installing traditional GIS software, which is often expensive and difficult to learn, the company said.

    To assist local government with meeting and exceeding their Inspire obligations, a new Inspire cloud service has been built based on the Getmapping Online GIS technology. Several key features are included to simplify the process of becoming Inspire compliant including a geodata layer uploader, built-in data editing (which is instantly visible), a metadata importer and editor as well as Data.gov.uk harvesting to enable “discovery, view and download” services within a few minutes. Competitively priced and easy to deploy, Inspire Cloud will have customers publishing map layers within a short amount of time, the company said.

    Street Layer is another Getmapping product now fully integrated into the Online GIS platform. It allows accurately positioned panoramic images to be viewed alongside high quality mapping.With the added benefits of 3D measurement tools and GIS overlay capabilities, Street Layer has proven itself in a variety of applications including local government; policing, fire and rescue; insurance risk and claim validation; and local community work. Key uses have included measuring the distance from a street to a door, the height of a building or asset, the differences between different years of imagery, as well as improving the quality of asset databases. Trial accounts, including sample data of your area of interest, are now available.

    “The enhancements that we have introduced to our Online GIS platform are really significant,” said Dave Horner, managing director of Getmapping. “Customers not only benefit from a simple to use application with access to cloud-hosted aerial photography, integration with address gazetteers and national mapping but also now the Street Layer panoramic imagery which in many cases eliminates the need for a site visit. Worldwide projections are now also supported meaning we have a product that can be used anywhere in the world, and we are already seeing the benefits for some of our African customers. Finally, the Inspire Cloud module helps organizations that need to publish data become Inspire compliant.”

  • Leica Offers DISTO E7500 for Simpler Outdoor Distance Measurement

    The Leica DISTO E7500 laser distance meter.
    The Leica DISTO E7500 laser distance meter.

    Leica Geosystems has released the Leica DISTO E7500 laser distance meter, a tool for anyone who needs easy, precise measurements outdoors. An advanced digital Pointfinder and 4x zoom enables users to take measurements with high accuracy up to a 500-foot range in all light conditions. This capability is a distinct advantage when working outside in sunny weather; even if the red laser point is no longer visible, the target can easily be seen on the tool’s full-color display, Leica said.

    The housing and keypad are sealed against water and dust, and certification to the rigorous IP65 rating allows use in adverse weather conditions. It can also be cleaned under running water.

    A Smart Horizontal Mode enables the DISTO E7500 to provide an accurate result even when encountering obstructions such as walls, hedges or people. One measurement to the target is enough for the required horizontal distance to appear on the display, Leica said.

    Other capabilities include automatic calculation of volumes or areas, two programmable favorites keys, timer delay, a 30-position memory, an offset function, and 15 options for units of measure.

    The Leica DISTO E7500 is certified to ISO Standard 16331-1 for precision and performance in everyday use on the jobsite.

  • LiDAR Mapping Forum Considers Geospatial Trends, UAVs

    ILMF 194-W2

    The International LiDAR Mapping Forum, set for February 23-25 in Denver, is a technical conference and exhibition focused on data acquisition, fusion, processing and point clouds for aerial surveying and mapping used to support transport, urban modeling, coastal zone mapping, utility asset management, and more.

    Geospatial Technology Trends. ILMF is considered by many the premier conference for the latest geospatial technological developments, from innovations in photogrammetry to advances in aerial LiDAR systems. Attendees can explore an international exhibition of leading hardware and software suppliers showing their newest releases, and attend sessions where more than 60 experts will present best practices and case studies for cutting-edge technologies such as:

    • Geiger-Mode LiDAR
    • Focal Plane Array (FPA) LiDAR
    • Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS)
    • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

    ILMF-288-WFocus on UAVs. This year, ILMF features a UAV workshop and pavilion, where industry leaders discuss the current regulatory landscape and legal guidelines, UAVs versus aerial LiDAR, training and insurance considerations and more.  Additional program content will cover topics like “Does Camera Quality Matter in sUAS Photography?” and “LiDAR Scanning with Supplementary UAV Captured Images for Structural Inspections.”

    Other topics covered at the conference include:

    • Data fusion
    • Extracting from point clouds
    • Managing large data sets/point clouds
    • Airborne, terrestrial and bathymetric LiDAR
    • Coastal zone, defense and flood plain LiDAR
    • Corridor and utilities mapping
    • Data classification, GIS

    Organizers say participants can gain much from networking with and gaining valuable information from other precision-measurement and imaging professionals across disciplinary lines. Attendance at ILMF 2015 is expected to exceed 800, and will include professionals from these organizations who have already registered:

    • ILMF-WAECOM
    • American Transmission Co
    • BAE Systems
    • Ball Aerospace
    • BNSF Railway
    • Bonneville Power Administration
    • Devon Energy Corporation
    • Dewberry
    • NASA
    • National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
    • NAVAIR
    • U.S. Department of Agriculture
    • U.S. Department of Transportation
    • U.S. Forest Service
    • U.S. Geological Survey
    • Woolpert

    Registration is open.

    Photos: Tracy Cozzens

  • Proteus Launches Daily Satellite-Based Water Quality Monitoring Service

    Proteus FZC, a provider of satellite-derived mapping and classification services, is now offering a daily water quality monitoring service for the Arabian Gulf. Derived from NASA satellite data, the new service provides daily online access to reports on six water quality parameters at 250-meter to 1-kilometer spatial resolution.

    “We can further improve the accuracy of the standard NASA data by calibrating each data set to local water conditions,” said Proteus CEO David Critchley. “The easy-to-read reports are available online or can be delivered in PDF formats via email.”

    Proteus now offers the daily service for organizations responsible for monitoring and maintaining the condition of coastal and offshore waters — environmental agencies, energy producers, desalination operators, marine engineering firms, and dredging companies.

    “If an offshore infrastructure construction project is responsible for excessive water turbidity, the engineering company has to remediate the problem quickly,” Critchley said. “Likewise, desalination and power plants need to take precautionary actions if too much suspended sediment or sudden algal blooms are spotted near their operations.”

     The daily water quality reports are derived from processed data collected by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensors which fly aboard the orbiting NASA Terra and Aqua satellites.

    “The sensors typically provide water quality details to a depth of three meters, depending on water column clarity,” said Critchley

    The daily water quality reports provide the following information:

    • Total suspended sediments (mg/L) at 250-meter resolution
    • Chlorophyll-a content (mg/m3) at 1-km resolution
    • Sea surface temperature (degrees C) at 1-km resolution
    • Turbidity or fluorescence line height (mW/cm2/µm/sr) at 1-km resolution
    • Diffuse attenuation coefficient (m-1 at 490 nm) at 1-km resolution
    • True color composite (image) at 250-meter resolution

    The 250-meter resolution is suitable for marine monitoring because it enables data collection for the entire gulf region several times per day. When the regional 250-meter resolution MODIS-derived product reveals a water quality anomaly or if increased spatial detail is required, Proteus water quality customers have the option of requesting higher resolution reports processed from other satellites that can map events in more detail.

    “We will soon expand the daily water quality monitoring service to ice-free oceans, seas and large lakes worldwide,” Critchley said.

  • Trimble TerraFlex Offers Real-Time Data Updates for GIS

    Trimble has introduced TerraFlex Advanced, an enhanced edition of its TerraFlex field data capture software, which manages asset collection and update activities for everyday geospatial requirements. Organizations across a variety of industries, including environmental management, utilities and government agencies, can deploy a common workflow for field workers to collect or inspect their assets efficiently using TerraFlex Advanced.

    TerraFlex Advanced enables GIS professionals to stay productive by keeping their data and devices up-to-date and organized. It allows users to import existing assets or GIS data into their TerraFlex projects and make real-time updates to the data in the field. The information can be shared across the project organization, so all project members — from the field to office — are working with the most up-to-date data available.

    In addition, a new version of the TerraFlex Mobile apps supports Trimble RTX technology-based correction services. Trimble RTX (Real Time eXtended) is a high-accuracy GNSS correction technology that delivers repeatable centimeter-level positioning worldwide to compatible GNSS receivers. GIS professionals now have more flexibility to achieve the accuracy required by their highly mobile workflows in real-time, without being tied to a base station or local VRS network.

    With TerraFlex Advanced, users can collect, process and manage geospatial data quickly and efficiently across a fleet of mixed consumer and professional data collection mobile devices and platforms. Local governments who require regular data updates on city assets, utility workers performing frequent inspections on infrastructure, and many other mapping and GIS organizations can update new and existing data while in the field much faster.

    “In today’s environment, asset conditions are constantly changing and access to real-time information about these assets is crucial to decision-making and sustainability of those assets,” said Alain Samaha, business area director of GIS and Software for Trimble’s Geospatial Division. “TerraFlex Advanced addresses this growing requirement by ensuring GIS field crews are equipped with current information so they can make informed decisions, avoid costly rework, and plan and schedule resources efficiently for the maintenance of assets.”

    Part of the Trimble InSphere cloud-based software platform for the management of geospatial applications, data, and services, TerraFlex Advanced extends the robust project, user and form functionality in the original TerraFlex Basic edition, keeping field crews organized and productive on a variety of devices and in a wide range of environments.

    In addition to TerraFlex Advanced software, Trimble also announced new enhancement to its InSphere platform applications — Equipment Manager and Data Manager.

    • Equipment Manager — A software application that enables geospatial enterprises to unify management of all their equipment, Equipment Manager now lets users manage custom equipment types, including non-Trimble devices, accessories, and any other equipment that needs to be managed together with their Trimble mapping and surveying equipment. Additionally, users can stay on top of required updates and keep their field equipment properly maintained with service scheduling and alerts.
    • Data Manager — Data Manager allows users to securely access, search, visualize and share geospatial information. This module now expands support for more data types, including all features from TBC files, image features, and TGO files, enabling users to upload more data into the application to manage, view, search and share with other project stakeholders.