SimActive Inc., a developer of photogrammetry software, has launched an automated solution for direct georeferencing from real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning.
Within the new workflow feature, users can achieve get high accuracy in projects without the use of ground control points (GCP), saving time in collecting and processing data.
Martin Instrument, a reseller of SimActive and surveying equipment, is benefitting from the automation. “Direct georeferencing greatly helps reducing cost for applications like corridor mapping,” said Mike Minick, vice president of sales at Martin Instrument. “The new automated option within SimActive software for direct georeferencing greatly facilitates the user workflow.”
“With RTK GPS available on drones, the use of direct georeferencing is growing within the industry,” said Louis Simard, CTO of SimActive. “Correlator3D allows users to maximize their hardware and software investment.”
For a live demonstration at the Commercial UAV Show (Nov. 15-16, London, United Kingdom), visit SimActive’s booth or send an email to [email protected].
A new book from Esri, “Tribal GIS: Supporting Native American Decision-Making,” tells the stories of how Native American tribes use geographic information system (GIS) technology to help manage and govern their sovereign nations.
According to Esri, the book, in its second edition, details how dozens of tribal governments have used GIS for a number of projects, including conserving and protecting the environment, monitoring and managing infrastructure and natural resources, preserving history and culture, studying health issues and planning how to use ancestral lands. Tribes have also used GIS to conduct road inventories, manage and protect archaeological sites, plan economic development projects, and analyze and visualize health data.
“GIS has become a common platform for problem solving by helping tribes organize and analyze data, as well as collaborate and communicate on countless issues,” said Esri President Jack Dangermond in the book’s foreword.
The book also contains a chapter on new applications of GIS, which describes how tribal governments are taking advantage of the latest geospatial technology, including Web GIS, 3D GIS, Esri Story Maps apps and ready-to-use field data collection apps.
Most of the stories are told by the Chickasaw Nation, the Navajo Nation, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
A new tool that gives users a detailed view of the world’s mountains is now available from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The Global Mountain Explorer can help users ranging from hikers to scientists, resource managers and policy makers seeking information on these prominent yet often understudied landscapes.
Mountains occupy from 12 to 31 percent of the land surface of the Earth, but despite their importance, few attempts have been made to scientifically define and map these regions worldwide with detail, the USGS said.
The Global Mountain Explorer “allows anyone with access to the Internet to explore where mountains are, whether they are low or high, scattered or continuous, snowy or snow-free,” said USGS ecosystems geographer Roger Sayre, who led the project.
Mountain Explorer provides information from global scales down to specific mountains, such as Borah Peak, Idaho, pictured here. (Public domain)
“Mountain Explorer users can visualize and compare in one place and for the first time the three major global mountain maps that have been produced,” he said.
Mountains provide significant water, timber and mineral resources, and food, fiber and fuel products. They are home to diverse ecosystems and wildlife and are valued for their esthetic beauty and recreational offerings.
Mountain areas are also prone to natural hazards. But despite their importance, surprisingly few attempts have been made to scientifically define and map these regions worldwide with detail.
The USGS developed the Global Mountain Explorer, in partnership with Esri, and three organizations at the University of Bern in Switzerland — the Center for Development and Environment, the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment and the Mountain Research Initiative.
Twilight image of snow-covered Mount Shasta with city lights visible at its base. The Global Mountain Explorer allows users to view mountains and surrounding terrain. (Public domain)
The tool was developed as part of a Group on Earth Observations initiative to accurately delineate mountain regions using best available data. It is intended to provide information on the global distribution and a variety of mountain data with a resolution 16 times more detailed than previous mapping efforts.
Users can select an area by zooming in or by typing a place name like Mt. Kilimanjaro to view its elevation and type. They can also select from a number of backdrops — satellite images, topographic maps or political boundary maps— on which to display the different types of mountain classes. A tutorial showing the full features for the Global Map Explorer is shown below.
The NMAS will be the next-generation version of the IAFC’s Mutual Aid Net tool built in 2008. The NMAS will use Esri ArcGIS and Intermedix’s WebEOC, a crisis information management software, to manage and track emergency services resources during mutual-aid responses.
During large-scale emergencies and disasters, it is critical for response personnel to have easy access to a mutual-aid system for managing their resources. WebEOC will allow IAFC to manage information sharing, event reporting and task management in a central, web-based environment that allows IAFC to connect to partner agencies and organizations during response efforts.
The use of spatial data to identify and respond quickly and effectively is also paramount. Esri’s ArcGIS platform brings mutual aid management data into a location context, integrating that information into spatial analysis technology that emergency responders around the world use every day.
The IAFC has long been the leader in supporting state and local fire and emergency management communities in disaster management. The current Mutual Aid Net is used to identify, request and deploy resources for mutual aid support.
The NMAS will use the latest technology to help decision makers accomplish these tasks faster, easier and more accurately.
The use of Intermedix’s WebEOC and Esri’s ArcGIS platforms provides information sharing, decision support and situational awareness capabilities to jurisdictions, regions and countries around the globe.
The foundation of NMAS will be on the WebEOC platform which through the ArcGIS Extension for WebEOC will provide access and integration to Esri online tools and dashboards.
The result of this integration is the near real-time data availability of WebEOC information within ArcGIS Online applications, without the need for any development, middleware or technical expertise.
“The IAFC is extremely pleased to partner with Intermedix and Esri to build the next generation of the National Mutual Aid System,” said Tommy Hicks, IAFC’s Chief Programs & Technology Officer and Assistant Executive Director. “Ensuring that emergency managers and responders have real-time information and resources at their fingertips is an essential to protecting their communities from harm.”
“Identifying the status and availability of resources for mutual aid support has always been challenging,” said Russ Johnson, Esri global director, emergency response. “In today’s environment with increasingly complex multi-jurisdictional incidents, this need is greater than ever. Through the leadership of IAFC and the partnership between Esri and Intermedix, the ability to know the availability of required mutual aid resources and immediately request them will be realized. This will be a major step forward in supporting public safety agencies throughout the country.”
“Intermedix looks forward to our partnership with IAFC and an expansion of our partnership with Esri,” said Bob Watson, Intermedix president of preparedness solutions. “Our mission is to serve those who save lives, and the National Mutual Aid Net project is perfectly aligned with that mission. The only effective way to respond to emergencies is through collaborations and partnerships between public and private organizations. The National Mutual Aid Net takes that principle and puts it into practice. We are honored to be a part of this undertaking.”
Orbital Witness will receive a voucher worth €50,000 for the acquisition of satellite data and will benefit from both technical and business coaching.
The competition encourages startups to innovate and develop new applications primarily based on Airbus’ satellite data. The winning British startup Orbital Witness proposes to use satellite imagery to provide a new perspective for legal due diligence in real estate.
Launched on May 30, the goal of the four-month challenge was to create added value for new businesses focusing on themes identified as important topics for the global population, ranging from forestry and agriculture to smart cities and maritime.
More than 130 projects from five continents were entered for the competition, among which 23 startups were pre-selected based on their originality and relevance as well as their technical and commercial feasibility.
These “semi-finalists” entered a subsequent round to further develop the proposals — this ended with a second selection phase in which the six finalists were chosen.
During the final, held Oct. 20 at the Airbus PlayLab in Toulouse, the six finalists presented their projects in front of representatives of different Airbus departments, including strategy, innovation, and marketing and sales.
The other finalists were:
23insights (the Netherlands), which tracks and predicts the human footprint in forests.
Ozius (Australia), which creates new landscape intelligence by fusing a variety of remote-sensing data to identify where the environmental risks and opportunities occurred in the past, where they are today, and project where they will occur in the future.
Ursa Space Systems Inc. (U.S.), which utilizes radar satellite data to deliver global and unbiased economic intelligence to energy and financial enterprises, providing reliable information about areas of the world that are traditionally opaque.
Qirate (Italy), which enhances position appeal for boosting business locations and helps people find their ideal place to live by rating the quality of life.
Kermap (France), which uses satellite imagery to support the ecological transition of cities.
The runner-up projects also received satellite data vouchers: €20,000 for 23insights, €15,000 for Ozius, €10, 000 for Ursa and €5,000 for Qirate and Kermap.
Commercial drone-maker Delair has introduced a professional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for survey-grade photogrammetric mapping.
The UX11 is a small fixed-wing UAV that combines a powerful integrated onboard system, industry-grade sensors, limitless communication range and PPK centimeter-level positioning. It carries enough onboard computing power to access and process the pictures, then sends them to the operator in real-time.
According to the company, it will run automated quality checks on the images (such as blur detection or overlap checks) to help ensure the operator is acquiring quality data.
The UX11’s redundant communications system includes a proprietary line of sight radio and 3G/4G connectivity between the ground control station and the UAV using a worldwide machine-to-machine pre-paid plan.
Building on Delair’s experience with beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations since 2012, the UX11 is ready for BVLOS flights with unlimited range and adds a new level of safety with this communication link.
The UX11 is lightweight, ultra-stable, simple to hand-launch at takeoff and it lands precisely where planned using distance measuring technology. New user-friendly Android mission planning software boasts innovative features such as support for in-flight camera feedback and live data review, the company said.
Made to help professionals in GIS, survey, and construction optimize area coverage per flight, the UX11 flies for 59 minutes with the best coverage and resolution specifications in its class for flights at 122 m (400 ft) altitude above ground level. The UX11 will be available for purchase via DELAIR’s global network of distributors by January, 2018.
The UX11 is a product offer for data acquisition which can be complemented by data processing and analytics software programs to address a range of commercial applications. Geospatial users can create 2D and 3D models and then generate elevation profiles, contour lines, slope qualifications and volumetric estimates with high accuracy and resolution using post-processed kinematic data and ground-control points.
Using live data from USGS and Waze, a new Esri interactive map visualizes active wildfire locations and traffic alerts for Northern California.
The map incorporates a new mapping technique to group traffic alerts at locations where there is a high density of alerts. This method enables faster and more effective visual analysis in areas where there are many alerts that would normally overlap. Zoom in on the map to reveal the latest individual traffic alerts.
Active fire data displays the locations of large fire incidents in Northern California. Data is provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and The Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination Group, and is intended to give near real-time understanding of the situation on the ground.
Location and status of active fires is updated throughout the day as new information is gathered by first responders.
Data from Waze is reported by users of Waze and updated every 2 minutes. This data, provided by Waze through the Connected Citizens Program, contains filtered data for affected area including system-generated traffic jams and user-reported traffic incidents (including jams, accidents, hazards, construction, potholes, roadkill, stopped vehicles, objects on road, and missing signs).
DigitalGlobe has released high-resolution satellite images of the wildfires burning in Northern California. These wildfires have killed at least 21 people, destroyed at least 3,500 structures, and burned more than 115,000 acres.
The Oct. 10 images were collected using the Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) sensor on DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 satellite, which is uniquely able to pierce through the wildfire smoke to see where the fires are burning on the ground. For comparison, the ground and the fire line are completely obstructed by smoke in the natural color image of the same area (see the larger overview image on the first slide).
The Oct. 11 images were taken by DigitalGlobe’s GeoEye-1 satellite. Some of these are natural color, while others are shown in the Very Near Infrared (VNIR), where burned areas appear gray and black and healthy vegetation is red.
Additionally, DigitalGlobe has activated its Open Data Program, which provides imagery to support recovery efforts in the wake of large-scale natural disasters. Pre- and post-wildfire imagery of the affected areas are available to emergency responders on the Santa Rosa wildfires page.
Old Faithful is Yellowstone National Park’s most famous landmark. Millions of visitors come to the park every year to see the geyser erupt every 44 to 125 minutes. But despite Old Faithful’s fame, relatively little was known about the geologic anatomy of the structure and the fluid pathways that fuel the geyser below the surface. Until now.
University of Utah scientists have mapped the near-surface geology around Old Faithful, revealing the reservoir of heated water that feeds the geyser’s surface vent and how the ground shaking behaves in between eruptions. The map was made possible by a dense network of portable seismographs and by new seismic analysis techniques. The results are published in Geophysical Research Letters. Doctoral student Sin-Mei Wu is the first author.
For Robert Smith, a long-time Yellowstone researcher and distinguished research professor of geology and geophysics, the study is the culmination of more than a decade of planning and comes as he celebrates his 60th year working in America’s first national park.
“Here’s the iconic geyser of Yellowstone,” Smith says. “It’s known around the world, but the complete geologic plumbing of Yellowstone’s Upper Geyser Basin has not been mapped nor have we studied how the timing of eruptions is related to precursor ground tremors before eruptions.”
A portable seismometer used to map the geology beneath Old Faithful. (Photo: Paul Gabrielsen)
Small seismometers
Old Faithful is an iconic example of a hydrothermal feature, and particularly of the features in Yellowstone National Park, which is underlain by two active magma reservoirs at depths of 5 to 40 km depth that provide heat to the overlying near-surface groundwater. In some places within Yellowstone, the hot water manifests itself in pools and springs. In others, it takes the form of explosive geysers.
Dozens of structures surround Old Faithful, including hotels, a gift shop and a visitor’s center. Some of these buildings, the Park Service has found, are built over thermal features that result in excessive heat beneath the built environment. As part of their plan to manage the Old Faithful area, the Park Service asked University of Utah scientists to conduct a geologic survey of the area around the geyser.
For years, study co-authors Jamie Farrell and Fan-Chi Lin, along with Smith, have worked to characterize the magma reservoirs deep beneath Yellowstone. Although geologists can use seismic data from large earthquakes to see features deep in the earth, the shallow subsurface geology of the park has remained a mystery, because mapping it out would require capturing everyday miniature ground movement and seismic energy on a much smaller scale. “We try to use continuous ground shaking produced by humans, cars, wind, water and Yellowstone’s hydrothermal boilings and convert it into our signal,” Lin says. “We can extract a useful signal from the ambient background ground vibration.”
To date, the University of Utah has placed 30 permanent seismometers around the park to record ground shaking and monitor for earthquakes and volcanic events. The cost of these seismometers, however, can easily exceed $10,000. Small seismometers, developed by FairfieldNodal for the oil and gas industry, reduce the cost to less than $2,000 per unit. They’re small white canisters about six inches high and are totally autonomous and self-contained. “You just take it out and stick it in the ground,” Smith says.
In 2015, with the new instruments, the Utah team deployed 133 seismometers in the Old Faithful and Geyser Hill areas for a two-week campaign.
The sensors picked up bursts of intense seismic tremors around Old Faithful, about 60 minutes long, separated by about 30 minutes of quiet. When Farrell presents these patterns, he often asks audiences at what point they think the eruption of Old Faithful takes place. Surprisingly, it’s not at the peak of shaking. It’s at the end, just before everything goes quiet again.
After an eruption, the geyser’s reservoir fills again with hot water, Farrell explains. “As that cavity fills up, you have a lot of hot pressurized bubbles,” he says. “When they come up, they cool off really rapidly and they collapse and implode.” The energy released by those implosions causes the tremors leading up to an eruption.
One scientist’s noise is another scientist’s signal
Typically, researchers create a seismic signal using an active source, such as swinging a hammer onto a metal plate on the ground or setting off an explosion. Lin and Wu developed the data analysis method that would help find useful signals among the seismic noise without disturbing the sensitive environment in the Upper Geyser Basin. Wu says she was able to use the hydrothermal features themselves as a seismic source, to study how seismic energy propagates by correlating signals recorded at the sensor close to a persistent source to other sensors. “It’s amazing that you can use the hydrothermal source to image the structure here,” she says.
The model of Old Faithful’s hydrogeological system suggested by the study’s results. (Image: Sin-Mei Wu)
When analyzing data from the seismic sensors, the researchers noticed that tremor signals from Old Faithful were not reaching the western boardwalk. Seismic waves extracted from another hydrothermal feature in the north slowed down and scattered significantly in nearly the same area suggesting somewhere west of Old Faithful was an underground feature that affects the seismic waves in an anomalous way. With a dense network of seismometers, the team could determine the shape, size, and location of the feature, which they believe is Old Faithful’s hydrothermal reservoir.
Wu estimates that the reservoir, a network of cracks and fractures through which water flows, has a diameter of around 200 meters, a little larger than the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium, and can hold approximately 300,000 cubic meters of water, or more than 79 million gallons. By comparison, each eruption of Old Faithful releases around 30 m3 of water, or nearly 8,000 gallons. “Although it’s a rough estimation, we were surprised that it was so large,” Wu says.
Further work
The team is far from done answering questions about Yellowstone. They returned for another seismic survey in November 2016 and are planning their 2017 deployment, to begin after the park roads close for the winter. Wu is looking at how subsurface structure and hence the propagation of seismic waves can change with time. Farrell is using the team’s seismic data to produce even higher resolution subsurface images and predict how earthquake waves might reverberate through the region.
Smith is looking forward to conducting similar analysis in Norris Geyser Basin, the hottest geothermal area of the park. Lin says that the University of Utah’s research program in Yellowstone owes much to Smith’s decades-long relationship with the park, enabling new discoveries. “You need new techniques,” Lin says, “but also those long-term relationships.”
The full study can be found here. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, the Brinson Foundation and the Carrico Fund. Fan-Chi Lin is the Principal Investigator.
Paul Gabrielsen is a science writer at University of Utah Communications.
Topcon Positioning Group announces advances in its direct communication between the Bentley Systems design applications and the Topcon suite of software solutions with the release of MAGNET 4.3.1.
The MAGNET Enterprise Data Manager is designed to allow operators to directly access Bentley ProjectWise data with MAGNET Field, MAGNET Office or MAGNET Enterprise applications.
“The updates are part of our commitment to working with third-party software applications, such as the Bentley offering, to provide efficient data exchange and a seamless workflow environment,” said Jason Hallett, Topcon vice president of global product management. “When connected to MAGNET Enterprise from MAGNET Field, you can directly upload and download data from ProjectWise, allowing surveyors or machine control model-builders upload or download iModels or other project file types.”
The integration is designed to simplify data transfer from design to field, with the unique ability to read and import only the data users need for their projects.
“It builds upon our industry-first ability to offer ‘round trip’ iModels — sending them directly to field operators who can use and update them directly on the jobs site, and then send the updated iModels from the field back to Bentley ProjectWise,” Hallett said.
Solution doubles DigitalGlobe’s capacity to collect 30-centimeter commercial satellite imagery.
Raytheon Company has been selected by DigitalGlobe as the next-generation WorldView Legion satellite imaging constellation payload provider.
Under the contract, Raytheon will deliver the telescopes, detectors and combined electronics to Space Systems Loral, the WorldView Legion space vehicle integrator.
Raytheon’s new payload doubles DigitalGlobe’s capacity to capture multispectral and 30 cm imagery, while tripling to quadrupling the company’s capacity to image high-demand areas.
Once the WorldView Legion constellation is on orbit, DigitalGlobe’s combined constellation will be able to image the most rapidly changing areas on Earth every 20 to 30 minutes, from sunup to sundown. WorldView Legion will begin launching in 2020.
“We’re leveraging 45 years of extensive global experience in space imaging to provide DigitalGlobe with an unmatched view of the world from space,” said Rick Yuse, Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems president.
Raytheon’s payload solution maximizes efficiencies while maintaining quality, extending mission life, delivering a larger field of view and increasing coverage area.
“DigitalGlobe is proud to select Raytheon to develop the imaging payloads for our next-generation WorldView Legion satellite constellation,” said Walter Scott, DigitalGlobe founder, EVP and CTO. “We have exceptional confidence in the quality, performance and value of Raytheon’s instrument design, which will give our customers even greater insights into global events of significance and allow them to make critical decisions with confidence for many years to come.”
Following successful test flights, Insitu’s ScanEagle helps combat Oregon wildfire.
UAV company Insitu and Esri have successfully completed test flights on a new way to support firefighting efforts using software for firefighters and first responders.
The flights were held at the Warm Springs Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Test Range in Oregon. The test site is a Pan Pacific FAA UAS Test Site for commercial UAS testing. The national FAA test site program facilitates the UAS industry in meeting strict customer needs and qualifications.
Insitu is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company.
A week after successfully completing customer acceptance test flights, Insitu, which has more than one million operational UAS flight hours, deployed its INEXA Solutions professional aerial remote sensing teams to aid firefighters in suppressing the Eagle Creek fire in Oregon.
Onlookers watch the fire burn in the Columbia Gorge on Sept. 4. The fire is now contained. (Photo: U.S. Forest Service)
Collaborating with customers to identify business challenges, INEXA Solutions professionals use a continually expanding suite of capabilities such as INEXA Control (ground-based command and control), INEXA Cloud, INEXA manned and unmanned air vehicles including ScanEagle, and INEXA sensors and analytics to provide custom solutions and answers to mitigate business challenges from seabed to space.
Coordinating with the Oregon Department of Forestry and other governing entities, Insitu’s ScanEagle system provided optimal, near real-time data for firefighters and first responders, resulting in heightened emergency response efforts, increased situational awareness and safety, and supported planning and resource allocation.
Equipped with electro-optical (EO) for daylight and infrared (IR) video for nighttime flights, along with mid-wave sensors, the ScanEagle surveyed fire lines at night over the Eagle Creek wildfire, which had spread to nearly 49,000 acres throughout the Columbia River Gorge region.
The ScanEagle can supplement manned firefighting fleets by operating during dense smoke and at night, when manned aircraft typically cannot fly. Infrared camera technology can penetrate smoke and gather and disseminate georeferenced still images of points of interest. These images allow geographic information system (GIS) specialists to perform analysis using Esri’s ArcGIS software.
“Throughout the difficult Eagle Creek wildfire, our thoughts have been with our friends and neighbors impacted by this unfortunate event,” said Mark Bauman, vice president and co-general manager, Insitu Commercial. “We stand prepared to assist local authorities with ongoing operations in any way we can, and we extend our gratitude to all of those working hard to contain the fire.”
ScanEagle poised for launch at Eagle Creek, Oregon, fire.
As the sole aviation overwatch within the temporary flight restriction, the ScanEagle provided persistent nighttime oversight and monitored the progression of the fire. Insitu coordinated manned and unmanned aviation assets and through data collection, analysis and integration capabilities, produced near real-time georeferenced spatial data (maps tied to specific known locations).
In this way, incident commanders, firefighters, and first responders had data that delivered updated incident perimeter maps, identified spot fires, located fire lines and hotspots, and provided near real-time video feed and still images of critical infrastructure, historical structures and more.
“Prior to pursuing any new effort, we consider the reasons we exist as a company — we call it our ‘why,’ explains Jon Damush, Insitu’s chief growth officer. “Insitu’s ‘why’ is to pioneer and innovate in all that we do to positively impact people’s lives and change the course of history,” he continues. “This statement guides our actions and investments, and is precisely why we are doing the things we are doing to help those in need with our unique technologies and professional approach to aviation.”
