JULY 2007 VOL 11 ISSUE 7 The Global Geospatial Magazine
HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGING FROM SPACE A.S. Kiran Kumar
Remote Sensing Satellites: Present and Future
Dr. Vincent Tao Marc Tremblay Director, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Vice President, Commercial Business Unit, Business Unit DigitalGlobe, USA
AFRICA I AMERICAS I ASIA I AUSTRALIA I EUROPE www.GISdevelopment.net 15.25inch(W)
Leveraging our Technological Competence... for your Business Excellence Rolta provides a full complement of services in GIS, Utilities & Communication, and Photogrammetry worldwide. Rolta's state-of-the-art Global Delivery & Development Center at Mumbai is one of the largest commercial Photogrammetry and GIS facilities of its kind in this part of the world, with latest cutting edge tools, systems & communication network, and a skilled & dedicated team of 1500 domain experts. These Delivery Centers enables Rolta to accomplish high quality, mission critical GIS and Digital Photogrammetry services to customers across the globe.
Over two decades, Rolta has executed a wide array of multi-million dollar projects globally, covering wide spectrum of users.
Technology Rolta Services Market Segment
Consulting Electricity
Telecom Mapping Services Environment
Remote Sensing Public Safety
Land Records Data Modeling Hydrology
Data Services Agriculture
Forestry 10.25 inch (H) Customization Transportation GeoSpatial/GIS Database
Infrastructure Integration with MIS
Urban GIS
C4ISTAR Information System Defence Rolta is an Indian multinational organisation and a leading provider and developer of Information Technology Homeland security based GeoSpatial Information Systems (GIS), Engineering Design Services, Software Development, Advanced Security & Network Management and ERP Consulting & Deployment Services. Rolta operates worldwide and has executed projects in over 35 countries. Rolta, through its joint venture Stone & Webster Rolta Ltd., provides Rolta’s Domain Expertise comprehensive Engineering services to meet turnkey project requirements of power, oil, gas and petrochemical sectors. Rolta's joint venture with Thales, France, develops state-of-the-art C4ISTAR information systems, for the defence and homeland security segments in domestic and international markets. Forbes ranked Rolta as one Rolta's expertise in managing and executing large projects from its offshore facilities in India provides, the benefits of of "Asia's Best 200 under a Billion for the fourth time in the last six years. The company is listed on the NSE and high-quality, cost-effectiveness and reliable delivery to customers world-wide. BSE in India, with its GDRs listed on the London Stock Exchange. Rolta is a part of BSE and NSE IT index. World-Class Mapping & GeoSpatial Services Rolta is a Principal Member of the Open GeoSpatial Consortium (OGC® ). Rolta employs an innovative GeoSpatial Rolta is headquartered in Mumbai and employs over 4000 professionals with countrywide infrastructure and business model that fully exploits the internet and OGC Web Service standards, bringing in valuable technology to international subsidiaries. customers world-wide helping them derive maximum benefit from their investments.
Rolta India Limited USA: 1-678-942 5000 UK: 44-1189-45 0011 Saudi Arabia: 966-1-242 1212 Shaping Future Through Innovation Rolta Tower A, Rolta Technology Park, MIDC Canada: 1-905-361 2878 Germany: 49-6102-299 985 Dubai: 971-4-391 5212
Certification Andheri (East), Mumbai 400 093, India. Benelux: 31-23-557 1916 Q M S Tel. : +91(22) 2832 6666 / 2826 2222 CMMI ISO 9001 : 2000 LEVEL 5 www.rolta.com ROLTA Fax +91(22) 2836 5992 www.rolta.com CERTIFIED ISO/IEC 20000 -1 BS ISO/IEC 27001
COLUMNS In this issue...
Editorial 05 News 08
ARTICLES 24 Musings on High Resolution Remote Sensing Prof. A. R. Dasgupta 26 High Resolution Imaging from Space A.S. Kiran Kumar 30 Transforming data into information: An enterprise Saurabh Mishra
Sensing Sensors GIS DEVELOPMENT WEEKLY 34 48 Mohamed Elias Remote Sensing Satellites: Orthorectification for Multi Present and Future Sensor Imagery Data Fusion INTERVIEW Log on to Mudit Mathur www.GISdevelopment.net Dr. Satyaprakash 60 to subscribe to weekly ezine 54 “Map is being Read 40 evolved as social complete articles at, www.GISdevelopment.net Hyperspectral Remote Remote Sensing Data Policies media” Sensing - An Overview Ananya Ghosh OFFICES Dr. Vincent Tao India Anshu Miglani Director, Microsoft Virtual GIS Development Pvt. Ltd. Earth, Business Unit A-145, Sector - 63, Noida (U.P.), INDIA Tel: +91-120-4260800 to 808 58 Fax: +91-120-4260823-24 GeoEye-1 64 Email: [email protected] 44 UAE The Next-Generation Imagery “Aerial and GIS Development Branch TerraSAR-X Dubai Airport Free Zone Area Mark Brender satellite imaging P.O. Box No: 546, Dubai, UAE Tel: 71-4+9 -2045350, 2045351 are complimentary” Fax: 71-4+9 -2045352 Email: [email protected] 46 Marc Tremblay Vice President, Malaysia 62 Commercial Business Unit, Suite - 22.6, Level - 22 Resurs-DK1 The Russian DigitalGlobe, USA Menara Genesis, 33 Jalan Sultan Ismail High Resolution Remote Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 50250 Remote Sensing Satellite Tel: +601-72929756 Fax: +603-21476436 Email: [email protected]
GIS Development is intended for those President M P Narayanan Editor in Chief Ravi Gupta Managing Editor Maneesh Prasad Publisher Sanjay Kumar interested and involved in GIS related activities. It is hoped that it will serve to foster a growing net- Editorial Team: Honorary Advisor Prof. Arup Dasgupta Sr. Associate Editor (Honorary) Dr. Hrishikesh Samant Associate work by keeping the community up-to-date on Editor Dr. Satyaprakash Assistant Editor Saurabh Mishra Sr. Sub Editor Harsha Vardhan Sub Editor Ananya Ghosh, Neha Arora many activities in this wide and varied field. Your Sales and Marketing: Regional Managers Middle East Swati Grover North America Annu Negi South East Asia Pacific involvement in providing relevant information is Sunil Ahuja Regional Sales Managers Europe Niraj South Asia Prashant Joshi South East Asia Pacific Shivani Lal essential to the success of this endeavour. Dy. Managers Sales Middle East Sharmishtha Seth South Asia Anupam Sah, Vivek Rawat South East Asia Pacific Kavitha Seras GIS Development does not necessarily sub- Marketing Co-ordinator Megha Datta Sales Co-ordinator Uma Shankar Pandey scribe to the views expressed in the publication. Design Team: Sr. Creative Designer Deepak Kumar, Prashant K Sarkar Assistant Graphic Designer Manoj Kumar Singh All views expressed in this issue are those of the contributors. It is not responsible for any loss to Circulation Team: Bhopal Singh, Vijay Kumar Singh anyone due to the information provided.
Software Development Group: Team Leader Kumar Vikram Team Member Viral Pandey GIS Development Pvt. Ltd. Printed and Published by Sanjay Kumar. Press Rajhans Enterprises No: 134, th4 Main Road, Industrial Town, Portal Team: Manager Karunesh Kumar Maurya Dy. Manager Anshu Garg Team Member Anjali Srivastava Rajajinagar, Bangalore - 560044, India Publication Address P-82, Sector-11, Gautambudh Nagar, Noida, India Editor Ravi Gupta
GIS DEVELOPMENT | JULY 2007 Vol. 11 Issue 7 3 ArcGIS® Image Server Increase the Value of Your Imagery
A New Paradigm for Management, Processing, and Distribution of Imagery
Imagery’s value is often time sensitive. Do you need to distribute imagery immediately to people who rely on current data to make decisions? “When we tested ArcGIS Image Server, we found designers, ® ArcGIS Image Server software reduces the latency that results from the technicians, and digitizers were all lengthy and costly image processing required by conventional systems. It very pleased with the processing processes imagery on-the-fly and serves it on-demand to GIS/CAD/imaging time—it was twice as fast, in and Web clients. ArcGIS Image Server also performs advanced image some cases even faster, than processing such as image enhancement, orthorectification, pan sharpening, previously—and they were and complex image mosaicking. impressed with the resolution.” Cindi Salas Get the most out of your significant investment in imagery by quickly GIS Manager making it available to the people who rely on it. CenterPoint Energy
&OR MORE INFORMATION VISIT www.esri.com/is. s INFO@ESRICOM
Copyright © 2007 ESRI. All rights reserved. The ESRI globe logo, ESRI, ArcGIS, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
G26532_GIS-Develop_Jul07.indd 1 7/2/07 1:18:21 PM Sixth Annual International Conference and Exhibition on Geographical Information Technology and Applications MapMap AsiaAsia 20072007 14 – 16 August, 2007, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Maponomics Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Economic Growth Through Geo-Information Technology
Keynote Speakers Keynote Speakers Map Asia is an international initiative providing an apt platform for the convergence, sharing and use of Geospatial Technologies. Founded in the year 2002, Map Asia is the largest Annual Conference and Exhibition in the field of GIS, GPS, Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing in the Prof. Michael Blakemore David Maguire Prof. V. S Ramamurthy Michael Jones Vincent Dessard Bhupinder Singh Aki Yamaura Mark Tremblay Director Director Technology & DAE Homi Bhabha CTO Asia Pacific region. Chief Executive Officer Senior Vice President General Manager General Manager IDRA Product Strategy Chair Professor Google Earth IONIC Software SA Bentley Mitsubishi Corporation DigitalGlobe United Kingdom ESRI Inter-University Accelerator USA Belgium USA Japan USA Centre. India USA The theme of this year's conference - Maponomics - Economic Growth Through Geoinformation Technology - brings forth the utilization of mapping technology in policy making and good governance thus ensuring a boost to economic development. The economic Robert Samborski Maneesh Prasad Vincent Tao Ybhg. Dato Dr.Ahmad Sabrin Arshad Dato' Dr. Abdul Kadir Bin Taib Brad Skelton Chairperson and Chief Operating Officer Director growth, backed by application and usage of geospatial technologies enables the expansion of Managing Director/CEO Deputy Director General Chief Technology Officer Executive Director GIS Development Microsoft – Virtual Earth Astronautics Technology JUPEM Leica Geosystems Malaysia GITA India USA Malaysia Geospatial Imaging USA economic activities in a given community, which in turn raises the living standards of individuals USA and aids private industry to reap more benefits, adding to the countries’ national income.
Listen to the Industry leaders sharing their views on MAPONOMICS.
Highlights of Map Asia 2007
Keynote Sessions Asian Economies: The Spatial Perspective Seminars Technology Tracks Workshop Industry Round Exhibition Energy ROI in Geo-spatial Technology Applications ESRI LiDAR (Organised by AAM HATCH) Table Meet Infrastructure Development and Engineering Spatial Data Infrastructure (Organised by MaCGDI) DigitalGlobe Technology Trends Demographic Studies EarthData International (Partner Organisation-Dept of Statistics, Malaysia)
Platinum Sponsors Gold Sponsor Silver Sponsor Co-sponsors Knowledge Partners Organiser Host Organisation Co-organisers Supporting Organisations
® Survey Department, Brunei Department of Statistics, Malaysia GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION & TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION R BAKOSURTANAL, Indonesia Economic Planning Unit, Prime Ministers Department, Malaysia GISTDA, Thailand
FO C R IFI ASIA PAC Tourism Malaysia & THE
Map Asia 2007 Secretariat GIS Development Sdn. Bhd. Suit 22.6, Level 22 Menara Genesis, 33 Jalan Sultan Ismail Kuala Lumpur 50250, Malaysia Tel: +603-21447635 H/P: +60172929756 Fax: +603-21447636 Email: [email protected] The ideal location for the Largest Geospatial Conference in Asia Pacific. DiscoverMalaysia
Many different cultures have had a lasting impression on making the Malaysian cultural mosaic. Chief among these is the ancient Malay culture, and the cultures of An estimated over 15,000 Malaysia's two most prominent flowering plant species and trading partners throughout 185,000 animal species are history--the Chinese, and the found in Malaysia. Indians.
The harmonious mingle of the different cultures in Malaysia can be witnessed during the Malaysia's flowering plants many religious festivals, include some 2,000 types of which are marked by trees, including 200 different inclusiveness and a spirit of palms and 3,000 species of freedom and joy orchids.
The wildlife of Malaysia includes Known to be the Diner's Paradise, elephants, rhinos, tigers, leopards, Malaysian culinary diversity tapirs, sun bears, orang-utans and a originates from it's multi-ethnic cornucopia of birds. population of Malay, Indian, Eurasian, Chinese, Nyonya and the Lush Tropical Greens. Rich Cultural Milieu. Dazzling Skyscrapers. Indigenous peoples of Borneo. Public-Private-Partnership: From Editor’s Desk Thought Leadership & Precedents
ublic-Private-Partnership is about bringing the elements of government service and private industry profit making needs. An example could be our toll road, where the government has Pgiven a private operator permission to build the road, operate it and later on transfer it back to the state once the operator has made sufficient return on it's investment. For the remote sensing industry, Maneesh Prasad it could be that the government agency builds upon a technology, demonstrates it and later on brings in Managing Editor & COO private players to run it profitably. Well, within the two decades of the emergence of satellite remote sens- [email protected] ing, US Congress realised it's importance for the civilian purpose and came up with a policy in 1979, which was an effort to transfer the responsibility to develop the remote sensing satellites to the private sector. In 1984, the Land Remote-Sensing Commercialization Act, initiated the process of transferring the govern- Advisory Board ment owned Landsat satellite programme to private sector. The above policy was not a kind of 'Shoot and Dato’ Dr. Abdul Kadir bin Taib, Deputy Direc- forget', realising that the market was yet make the private sector venture into the remote sensing pro- tor General of Survey and Mapping, Malaysia | Aki A. Yamaura, General Manager, Space & gramme a viable option, it came up with Land Remote Sensing Policy Act 1992, which clearly states that Spatial Business Ship, Mitsubishi Corporation, commercialisation of remote sensing would be a long term goal of the US government. Although, this act, Japan | Amitabha Pande, Secretary, Inter- also marked the return of Landsat back into the public sector. But this did not lead to clipping of private State Council, Government of India | Bhupin- sector remote sensing initiatives. As per the Commercial Remote Sensing Report for Congress 2002, the der Singh, Sr. Vice President, Bentley Systems Inc., USA | Bob Morris, President, Leica Geosys- industry was yet to turn profitable and it depended largely on purchases by the federal government to tems Geospatial Imaging,USA | BVR Mohan remain in operation. The large purchase orders from federal agencies are not just project based, but as a Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, part of long term strategy to create a healthy and competitive commercial remote sensing industry in US. Infotech Enterprises Ltd., India | David Maguire, Director, Products, Solutions and But, the model is not bleeding US government. The cost which is far less than what they otherwise would International, ESRI, USA | Frank Warmerdam, have incurred, if they would have been handing design to launch of remote sensing satellites. President, OSGeo, USA | Prof. Ian Dowman, In Europe, formation of Infoterra in 2001, which last month sent it's first radar imaging satellite, Ter- President, ISPRS, UK | Prof. Josef Strobl, Direc- raSAR-X, marked the age of public-private partnership in Germany. The foundation of Infoterra is the need tor, Centre for Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, Austria | Kamal K Singh, Chairman to capitalise on the potential offered through the growing commercial need of satellite images in civil and CEO, Rolta Group of Companies, India domain. The multi-nation partnership model through SPOT between France, Belgium and Sweden, has not | Prof. Karl Harmsen, Director, UNU-INRA only seen launch of it's own remote sensing satellites, but has even build remote sensing satellite for oth- | Marc Tremblay, Vice President, Commercial | er countries like Korea. In UK, we have Surrey Satellite Technology [SSTL] which was formed in 1985, to Business Unit, DigitialGlobe, USA Mark Reichardt, President and Chief Operating Offi- commercialise the research done on small satellite engineering at University of Surrey. Today we have cer, OGC, USA | Prof. Martien Molenaar, Rec- SSTL, which has build the first of the Galileo satellite, GIOVE-A, in addition to have designed and build tor, ITC, The Netherlands | Matthew O’Connell, remote sensing satellites for Algeria, Nigeria, Turkey, China and UK. CEO, GeoEye, USA | Prof. Michael Blakemore, In Africa, we see Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, who are in the process or have their own earth Emeritus Professor of Geography, University of Durham, UK | Dr. Milan Konecny, President, observation satellites. Factors leading to more and more nations joining the league of satellites remote International Cartographic Association, Czech sensing could range from technical expertise to nations' pride to commercialization of remote sensing Republic | Er. Mohammed Abdulla Al-Zaffin, satellite fabrication. Head of Survey Section, Dubai Municipality, UAE | Dr. Prithvish Nag, Director, NATMO, In Asia, we have nations leading the remote sensing satellite design and launch. But almost all of these India | Rajesh C. Mathur, President, ESRI India programmes are managed by the state, from design to fabrication to imagery data sales. There is a grow- | Dr. Stewart Walker, Director of Marketing, ing requirements of satellite imagery for the civil purpose. Along with this there is also realisation that BAE Systems, USA | Prof. Stig Enemark, Presi- services should best be left to be managed by private companies. But not in satellite remote sensing seg- dent, FIG, Denmark | Prof. V. S Ramamurthy, Chairman, IIT, Delhi, India ment, which is yet to overcome the initial awe, which we have on seeing a high resolution image! We do look at other people for precedents, so does the nations. If not the thought leadership, we can always adopt good public-private models.. “”
GIS DEVELOPMENT | JULY 2007 Vol. 11 Issue 7 5
News: APPLICATIONS 1 2 3 4 5
reliable data sets available sons (IDPs) and the this development a number to monitor both legal and involved camps and vil- of other departments such illegal logging. The study lages. Web GIS contain sec- as Planning and Valuations provides a synoptic view of toral information in a uni- have also started imple- Satellite imagery industrial logging in Cen- fied geodatabase and can menting GIS. used to track tral Africa, enabling conser- be consulted on-line. The industrial logging vation agencies, govern- goal of presenting the data Nigerian online Congo: Scientists at Woods ment agencies, scientists, online is to strengthen the mapping portal Hole Research Center (USA) industry officials, and oth- capacity to share informa- launched have used satellite imagery ers to better gauge how the tion with UNHCR (United Nigeria: Third Dimension acuired between 1976 and expansion of logging is Nations High Commission- Technologies has launched 2003 to study the develop- impacting the forest and its er for Refugees) as well as an online mapping service ment of industrial logging inhabitants, and how bet- with other UN agencies and for Nigerians. and road density in Central ter planning might miti- NGOs integrating all the This website is an online Africa. They have analysed gate damage. agencies in a wide-spread resource for finding and four million square kilome- collaborative information sharing geographic content tres of the region, using WebGIS platform to sharing system. including maps and data. support refugee The online mapping appli- monitoring in Darfur Enterprise GIS cation could be found at Sudan: INTERSOS, an inde- for city of Cape http://www. ceaserweb. pendent non-profit human- Town com/cm/maps/default.asp itarian organization, has South Africa: The local gov- The website provide tools developed an Open-Source ernment of the city of Cape such as: search for address- WebGIS platform to sup- Town has launched Enter- es, find information and port refugee monitoring in prise Resource Planning location of services; My West Darfur (Sudan). The (ERP) system based on nearest search tool (This WebGIS application was ESRI's ArcGIS platform, will allow user to search for over 300 Landsat satellite after the amalgamation of closer street addresses); images. Researchers seven local authorities in nationwide route planning mapped nearly 52,000 km the city. The application is module (Here one can plan of logging roads within the offering functionality with- route nationwide); and forested region, which in a multi-user environ- search for maps of any includes Cameroon, Central ment and an effective spa- palce nationwide. African Republic, Equatorial tial data management plat- Guinea, Gabon, Republic of form for its users. Initially, Satellite imagery to Congo, and Democratic the city developed the data- help African water Republic of Congo. developed with technical base for electricity and project The report highlights the support from research cen- property and subsequently Tunisia: Algeria, Libya and rapid expansion of the log- ter ITC-irst and its MPA added the Water Services Tunisia have kicked off an ging frontier in the Congo Solutions. geo-database to the GIS. ambitious water project Basin. In Central Africa The information system One of the applications alone, 600,000 square kilo- developed by INTERSOS developed by City council is meters of forest -- 30 per will monitor the humani- a custom-designed billing cent -- has been conceded tarian situation and pro- system to help streamline for logging, whereas only 12 vide timely data regarding the accounting process. per cent is protected. Prior displacements of refugees, Then, the city integrated a to this work, there were few internally displaced per- GIS infrastructure. After
8 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 1 2 3 4 5 Google Transit
ing the start & end mation are cities like San Diego, times of each trip, the Pittsburgh, Burbank, Honolulu and cost involved and the Seattle in USA and Japan supports detail on the mode of all regional and national rail net- transport. The trips are works, domestic airlines and ferries. arranged in order of And if you have a question "What the time taken with city’s will be covered and when will Google transit planner is a unique the least time at top to most time they be added?" even Google is not application currently under research taken at bottom. sure of it [Google Transit FAQ's]. But at Google. This web application After you are able to decide which don’t be discouraged by this reply, enables users to enter the specifics trip to choose, you can get the because Google is ready to accept of their trip-where one is starting, details on the mode of transport and Transit data from Public transporta- where one is ending, what time of the place and time you need to start, tion agencies. So if your day he or she would like to leave along with the details on the cities agency is ready and/or arrive. walking time it to share data with All one has to do is to give the Start takes from Google, you would and End address and the date and your current be lucky enough to exact time the user needs to plan his location to the get the benefits trip. Then Transit planner uses all nearest Public out of this tool. available public transportation Transit place. This all is possi- schedules and information to plot And combine it ble through Google out the most efficient possible step- with the power of Transit Feed Specification by-step itinerary. With the planner Traffic Information (GTFS). With GTFS, the transporta- one can even compare the cost of overlay, you can even change your tion agencies can share the data in the trip with the cost of driving the plans or re-plan your schedule the form of a feed, so that Google same route. according to the traffic conditions. can automatically fetch At one Click, the planner will come May be in future we will be seeing the feeds and get them integrated up with a list of suggested trips. The the Live Transit planner with traffic with the transit planner. So, how driving directions are suggested information also taken into consid- updated is the data depends on the based on your mode of travel i.e. eration. And before you jump from understanding between the agency Your own vehicle or by Public Tran- your chair, take a pause. This is still and Google. sit. In the Public transit case, the under testing phase and only sup- Visit Google Labs, to know about detailed trip information has the porting few places. The places under "Transit Planner" at: details on individual trips, indicat- support or having the transit infor- http://www.google.com/transit
called GEO-AQUIFER that Recognising the overex- together with the Sahara mation. GEO-AQUIFER will will use satellite imagery to ploitation of the shared and Sahel Observatory use products and services support the monitoring and resource called the North- (OSS) a consultation mecha- based on satellite data, such sustainable management Western Sahara Aquifer nism at ministerial level. as land-use and land-cover of their common, trans- System (SASS, after its This consultation depends maps, change maps, sur- boundary groundwater French acronym), these on objective, timely, area- face water extent and resources. three countries initiated wide and consistent infor- dynamics, digital terrain
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 9 News: APPLICATIONS 1 2 3 4 5 ESRI - Siemens team to develop defence application for NATO
USA: North Atlantic Treaty which provides services to and other NATO network Organisation (NATO) has NATO staff through a Web users will fuse geospatial awarded its geographic viewer and to other NATO content from Core Geo- services contract to the systems through standard graphic Services with oth- ESRI-Siemens Enterprise OGC interfaces. er forms of information for Communications (SEN) NATO's GIS staff will use command and control, team, which will spear- ESRI's ArcGIS to conduct intelligence, and logistics head a project to develop complex GIS analysis and applications. an application of geospa- data integration. ESRI's The Core Geographic tial technology for Job Tracking for ArcGIS Services form a key archi- defence. Under Siemens (JTX) extension manages tectural building block SEN integration and man- and tracks all these in support of NATO's agement, this project uti- GIS workflows and tasks. service oriented architec- lizes ESRI's ArcGIS Server, Commanders, analysts, ture (SOA).
models, and derive infor- progress in its developmen- Coding System and Google Flight Facility has devel- mation on water consump- tal projects those were initi- Driving Directions through oped the Geographic Infor- tion for irrigation. ated in the name of Millen- Google APIs. The NAC mation System for Manag- The project is co-funded nium Development Goals Enhanced Google Driving ing Operations (GISMO). by OSS and the African in 2015 (MDG). MDG Map- Directions allows users to NASA has directed all its Water Facility (AWF), which per is providing functional- use a Natural Area Code facilities to use ArcGIS as is managed by the African ities to thematically map (NAC) in addition to lati- their standard GIS software Development Bank (AfDB). MDG project progress, view tude/longitude coordi- package. OSS is the executive agency raw and derived data, chart nates, street addresses, POIs Applying industry data- for the project, key partners the indicator and producing and ZIP/postcodes to speci- base design standards are the national water min- a set of summary statistic- fy start, stop and end loca- and implementing a Web istries. ESA is involved as sand metrics of spatial tions. If a user doesn't have mapping interface avail- member of the steering association. Universal Address of a giv- able via the Wallops committee. It has a lifetime en location, then he can intranet, GISMO would pro- of 18 months, with final obtain it on Universal vide managers with the results being planned for Address Lookup Service and ability to create maps, pub- late 2008. NAC Enhanced Google lish them as map services, Maps. and quickly make them MDG Mapper tool to Google Driving available to authorized monitor developmental Directions GSFC's Wallops users through its secure projects enhanced with Flight Facility Web application. South Africa: Economic NAC System develops GISMO Maps can be exported Commission for Africa has Canada: NAC Geographic USA: Recognizing the need from GISMO to PDF in a developed a tool named announced the release of to standardize mapping variety of page sizes using MDG Mapper for one of the the NAC Enhanced Google data at the facility and pro- the layout properties in the African states for visualiz- Driving Directions - an inte- vide tools for distributing original GIS document. ing and exploring Africa's gration of Natural Area maps to its users, Wallops GISMO uses ArcGIS Server
10 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 1 2 3 4 5
that measure the position GPS, scientists can measure reduce the impact of the of Earth with respect to the green leaf area of soy- devastating disease. quasars at the edge of beans to detect and identify In response to the recent the universe, known as diseases down to the area introduction of soybean very long baseline interfer- of a square meter, about 1.2 rust into the US, United ometry; and a French net- square yards. States Department of work of precise satellite "Plant pathogens and Agriculture (USDA) facili- tracking instruments called pests impact the green leaf tated the development of a Doppler Orbit and Radiopo- area index of crop canopies federal, state, university sitioning Integrated by in different ways and those and industry-coordinated Satellite, or DORIS. changes can be detected framework for surveillance, Knowing the location of and quantified using reporting, prediction, and the center of mass, deter- remote sensing," said For- management of soybean mined using measure- rest Nutter, professor of rust. ments from sites on Earth's plant pathology. surface, is important The footprints of early because it provides the ref- soybean rust infection are erence frame through oval-shaped. The way it which scientists determine the relative motions of Public Security to 9.2 Standard Workgroup to positions on Earth's surface, develop crime manage the storage and in its atmosphere and in monitoring system distribution of its GIS data- space. China: China Public Securi- base and application. This This information is vital ty Technology contracting allows both the data and to the study of global sea partner iASPEC has been application to be stored and level change, earthquakes, awarded a phase I contract maintained with one soft- volcanoes and Earth's by Zhuhai Special Economic ware license. response to the retreat Zone for installing its of ice sheets after the last Police-Use GIS that will Scientists find a ice age. Scientists can enable police forces to new way to the also use the new informa- mange their resources and center of earth tion to more accurately spreads over time in a field to guide them properly dur- USA: A new NASA study determine plate motions helps identify it from other ing emergency situations proposes a novel technique along fault zones, improv- diseases. and crime monitoring to pinpoint more precisely ing our understanding of Tests conducted last year through an emergency the location of Earth's cen- earthquake and volcanic in South Africa demonstrat- response system. ter of mass and how it processes. ed the importance of tech- Under the contract China moves through space. nology. Public Security provides The new technique com- Satellite helps Nutter said the USDA and Zhuhai Special Economic bines data from a high-pre- detect Asian Department of Homeland Zone with system opera- cision network of GPS soyabean rust Security are interested in tions and supporting serv- receivers; a network of laser USA: Researchers in Iowa using the technology to ices in connection with its stations that track high- State University, have alert officials to a soybean PGIS Platform. On PGIS plat- orbiting geodetic satellites developed a way to use rust infection during the form CPST will develop the called Laser Geodynamics satellite images to find crop season. Being able to application. Satellites, or Lageos; a net- Asian soybean rust. Using monitor the movement of The PGIS platform will work of radio telescopes remote sensing, GIS and soybean rust could help help Zhuhai professionals
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 11 News: APPLICATIONS 1 2 3 4 5
with mapping services, provide Records of Rights pleted by BlueSky. The sur- dation against EA data. geographic positioning (RoRs) with maps to scale. It vey was carried using an After the evaluation, a services for automated would also provide other airborne thermal infrared process was defined where- police patrol area monitor- land-based certificates such sensor which had the capa- by the functionality and ing, patrol history tracking, as caste certificates, income bility to measure up to 256 software were used outside and Crime monitoring and certificates, domicile certifi- individual variations in the NFCDD system. other services. cates, information for eligi- temperature and was sensi- The data were extracted, bility for development pro- tive to °C. validated then reloaded Indian land record grammes, land passbooks The raw survey data was back into the database so management to etc. then processed by BlueSky that users could benefit integrate data on GIS to match Haringey Coun- from the results. This India: Land records man- GIS to aid cil's Ordnance Survey Mas- process has now been built agement in the country is rehabilitation terMap giving an average into a workflow that auto- set to witness a major India: The Delhi govern- heatloss value for each matically cleans and sim- change with the Centre ment is planning to carry building polygon. plifies geometries as data considering the National out a survey and prepare a By matching this informa- updates are received. Land Resource Manage- project report based on GIS tion to Haringey's residen- database which will help in tial address database SeeIT LiDAR system the rehabilitation of slums. has created a web page that improves onshore The surveyed data will be enables visitors to search geo-modelling incorporated into a geo- by street name or postcode UK: 3D Laser Mapping has database and then settle- and view a thermal image supplied ARKeX with a sec- ments located along river- of their property. ond LiDAR system to banks, drains, railway improve the accuracy of tracks and low-lying areas UK's flood, their airborne geological will be classified. Within coastal defence mapping. that the slums will be database goes The Riegl LMS Q240i unit marked by their precise live from 3D Laser Mapping tool boundaries on maps. After UK: The UK Environment is used for both surface and complete analysis the GIS Agency (EA) has launched sub-surface measurements database along with satel- National Flood and Coastal and is also used to create 3D ment Programme (NLRMP), lite imageries will be uti- Defence Database that was models for additional an e- governance and sys- lized for rehabilitation developed with the help of ground exploration proj- tem-reform initiative of the processes. 1Spatial and its system inte- ects. government, aimed at inte- gration partner Scisys. The By using airborne LiDAR, grating the data on a GIS application was aimed at ARKeX are mapping the ter- platform. data re-engineering for the rain when they fly over and The programme aims National Flood and Coastal use this data to remove ter- at integrating satellite Defence Database (NFCDD) rain correction. imagery, Survey of India Aerial thermal system. LiDAR data is therefore maps and the land records survey of North In January this year the found as an essential com- on a GIS system. London latest release of the NFCDD ponent in processing air- Although, construction completed application provided by borne gravity gradiometer and building activities will UK: An aerial thermal sur- Scisys to the EA contained data to develop 3D models not be covered under the vey of North London to new functionality to per- for clients to plan subse- programme, once imple- highlight heat loss from form simplification, geo- quent ground based sur- mented, it would be able to properties has been com- metric and topological vali- veys.
12 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007
News: PRODUCT 1 2 3 4 5
DVP-GS Version 6.3 ble of providing scene spe- photogrammetry cific spot imageries for car- Technology gets a feel of software released tographic applications. The Canada: DVP-GS has satellite will have high announced the release of agility with capability to Recently tech sites have face, instantly digital pic- Version 6.3 of its profes- steer along and across the been showing up a new tures will be spilled out on sional photogrammetry track up to +45 degrees. It product called Microsoft the tabletop. software. Major enhance- will be placed in a sun-syn- Surface,which has Another important fea- chronous polar orbit at an evolved out of the concept ture of surface computing altitude of 630 km. It will called "Surface Computing is the Multi-touch feature. have a revisit period of 4 an idea floating in the Imagine that after Surface days, which can be minds of researchers since displays the digital content improved to one day with the 80's". The Surface com- on screen, and if you want suitable orbit manoeuvres. puting is a new way of to resize the image -hold on The panchromatic camera working with computers to the four corners of the is designed to provide bet- that works without the image with fingers and ter than 1 m spatial resolu- traditional mouse-and- stretch it, then image gets ments in DVP-GS version tion imageries with a keyboard. zoomed. And place a 6.3 include: One-step batch swath of 10 km. The device turns an ordi- mobile on the surface, the import of stereomodels in O nary tabletop into a photos are instantaneously PKXYZ form; Optimization Spy satellite vibrant, dynamic surface dragged and uploaded into of mosaic polygon collec- Ofek7 launched that provides effortless the phone. tion/edition; Ability to Israel: The country's interaction with all forms And this device has been view stereo in the zone defence establishment of digital content through built out of the hardware between flight lines (inter- has launched the Ofek-7 natural gestures,touch that already exists in the line); Optimized Planimet- intelligence satellite on and physical objects. If market: a screen, a CPU ric Dodging and Color Bal- June 11. Professor Haim you are not able to infer made of a core 2 Duo ancing for images; and New Eshed, Head of the Defense any thing out of this, take processor, 2GB of RAM and filters for imagery enhance- Ministry's Space Program, a look at this. Imagine a a 256MB graphics card. ment such as Auto contrast. personally supervised the computer embedded in a Wireless communication launch. Ofek-7 is currently table top on which you between various devices is India to launch in orbit. generally put your things. through WiFi and Blue- military satellite The successful launch of If you take a digital cam- tooth. And the underlying CARTOSAT 2A Ofek-7 is particularly signif- era and place it on the Sur- Operating System is a India: India will launch its icant for Israel in providing first dedicated military better intelligence, particu- reconnaissance satellite larly with regards to Iran., satellite Israel has launched should remain in orbit for a CARTOSAT-2A on a Polar following the failed into space. Officials said minimum of four years, Satellite Launch Vehicle attempt at launching its that it was superior to the and a maximum of six. rocket by the Indian Space predecessor, Ofek-6 in Octo- Eros B satellite - launched in Research Organisation ber 2004, which plummet- April 2006 - which has the HP introduces (ISRO) in the first week of ed to the sea. ability to spot images on new large August. While refusing to divulge the ground as small as 70 format printers CARTOSAT-2A will be an the performance levels of centimeters. UAE: HP Middle East has advanced remote sensing the new satellite, defense The new satellite is launched three new large satellite with a single officials said that it was by expected to circle the earth format printers including panchromatic camera capa- far the most advanced every 90 minutes, and the HP Designjet T Printer
14 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 1 2 3 4 5 l of human touch through Microsoft Surface
slightly modified version of Windows Vista. The surface machines will cost $5000 to $10,000 at launch by Fall 2007, but as prices fall,similar devices may fin their way in to the home. Surface will be shipped with a portfolio of basic applications, including photos, music and virtual concierge applications that can be customized to pro- vide their customers with unique experiences. Similar research is being done by a company called Perceptive Pixel, which builds six- figure-plus cus- tom multi touch drafting tables and enormous interactive wall displays for large corporations and military situation rooms. [email protected]
series for CAD and GIS pro- for print service providers door large-format applica- Three-black ink set, includ- fessionals and the HP (PSPs), and technical print- tions. The HP Designjet ing grey ink, and HP Vivera Designjet Z6100 Printer ing markets. Z6100 features HP Dream- inks. The series includes series The eight-ink HP Design- Color Technologies, a certi- HP-GL/2 and in-printer pro- jet Z6100 Printer series is fied system of colour tech- cessing architecture. available in 1067 and 1524 nologies, such as an embed- mm models. The HP ded spectrophotometer. USGS Landsat Designjet Z6100 Printer The HP Designjet T Printer data available on series with HP Vivera pig- series include the HP web ment inks can be used for Designjet T610 and T1100 USA: The USGS has made indoor and short term out- Printer series, with its available selected Landsat 7
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 15 News: PRODUCT 1 2 3 4 5
image data of the United tor of USGS 'The ERTS space- Developer website that pro- States through the Web craft represents the first vides both free and licensed (glovis.usgs.gov or earthex- step in merging space and Garmin resources and a plorer.usgs.gov). The data is remote-sensing technolo- library of Application Pro- said to have limited cloud gies into a system for gramming Interfaces (APIs), cover. inventorying and manag- toolkits and web services The Web enabled distribu- ing the Earth's resources'. offering six products: tion of recently acquired The Landsat program is Garmin Communicator Plu- data is taken as a pilot proj- thirty five years old and has with Street View and Map- gin, MotionBased Web Ser- ect for the Landsat Data survived the ravages of plets. Street View is a fea- vices, Content Toolkit, Continuity Mission (LDCM), time and political ideolo- ture of Google Maps that Garmin PeerPoint Messag- currently projected for gies. The global Landsat enables users to view and ing System, Garmin LBS navigate within 360 degree Toolkit and Fleet Manage- street level imagery of vari- ment Interface. ous cities in the US. Street The Garmin Communica- View imagery will initially tor Plugin API: It is a brows- be available for maps of the er plugin and JavaScript San Francisco Bay Area, support code that allows New York, Las Vegas, Den- transfer of location data to ver and Miami, and will and from a website and soon expand to other met- Garmin device. ropolitan areas. MotionBased Web Ser- Mapplets is a new tool for vices API: This will enable developers and consumers. developers to access the Mapplets enables third par- same GPS content that ty developers to create mini MotionBased.com cus- applications that can be tomers use. Garmin Con- launch in 2011. The project data users community had displayed on Google Maps, tent Toolkit: This lets devel- will allow the Landsat data its say in convincing the much like Google Gadgets opers compile secure POIs user community to help decision makers about the are displayed on iGoogle. for GPS devices. refine the distribution sys- need for this 'mission' to These Mapplets contain PeerPoint Messaging Sys- tem planned for the upcom- continue. information, from housing tem: With this developers ing LDCM. Each image pre- Veteran users of Landsat listings to crime data, and can look into Garmin's loca- sented will be ortho-recti- data will still have in their tools like distance measure- tion message format and fied, prior to being placed collection the 9" diazo posi- ment. send coordinates informa- on the Web. tives and memories of Users can select from a tion to phones running the Landsat 7 has a panchro- backbreaking hours spend wide range of Google and Garmin Mobile XT applica- matic camera which is pro- on mechanically register- third party Mapplets to dis- tion. viding data at 15m spatial ing the 70mm positives on play on the Map with new Garmin LBS Toolkit: This resolution and a thermal the Addcol viewer - the functionality such as local will help developers to add infrared channel with 60 m then coveted instrument search and driving direc- location-based services spatial resolution. for generating FCC's. tions. to any Java-based mobile 23rd July 1972 - ERTS-1 or phone application. Garmin what was later re-chris- Google announces new Garmin’s API Fleet Management Inter- tened as Landsat 1 was mapping solutions library published face: This will enable launched, and in the words USA: Google has made new USA: Garmin International fleet tracking, messaging, of Dr. McKelvey, then direc- additions for Google Maps has introduced the Garmin dispatch and navigation
16 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 1 2 3 4 5
directly on Garmin's view, access, communicate application allows local Leica Geosystems portable navigation devices. and ultimately share users to publish and share launches geospatial data with users. geospatial data with a glob- IMAGINE InSAR Leica TITAN Members can access the al network of users. Leica USA: Leica Geosystems has Network community and participate TITAN allows for the cre- released IMAGINE InSAR USA: Leica Geosystems ation of the geospatial (previously known as Geospatial Imaging has equivalent to 'MySpace'. IMAGINE IFSAR DEM), announced the Beta release Similar to online social which enhances the ERDAS of Leica TITAN and launch network concepts, users IMAGINE Radar Mapping of the Leica TITAN Network. will be able to create, Suite 9.1. For this, Leica With 3D virtual globe, this publish and share a geospa- Geosystems has developed online solution allows to tial 'MyWorld' which con- a strategic relationship share geospatial and loca- tains geospatial content with the Remote Sensing tion based content in a sin- authored by a user. Technology Institute of the gle, secure environment. in the TITAN network Leica TITAN is an interac- through a free 3D rich client tive 3D gateway that pro- application. vides a content forum to The Leica TITAN client
API for Free?
In geospatial domain, it most probably started with GoogleEarth. And today, it's every now and then with companies releasing their APIs in public, and some even for free. The last few months too saw some similar devel- opments - 'ESRI's BusinessMAP 4.5 includes new data and If you build your own business on top of an API, you need a API'; 'ESRI announces updates to the ArcWeb Services REST contractual relationship to ensure the service doesn't get taken away from you. These generally cost money. API'; 'Garmin publishes API Library' and 'MapQuest intro- duces ActionScript API'. Why all the companies have strat- If you get advertisemnts on your website, made using 'free' ed doing this? Is it a gratis service to allow the users to GoogleEarth API, you have to subscribe to the paid version. develop applications around the respective core technolo- If you find a way to get something from a site that isn't explic- gy which can further be included in the main software, is it itly offered as something for you to build on, your use of it will a pure business strategy or something else? While looking probably be fought unless you're delivering value. at the answers to the above, we stumbled upon Nat Tork- The provider of your API will find it easier to implement ington's post (http://radar.oreilly.com/ archives/2007 services on top of their API than you. Therefore you have to /04/six_rules_for_a.html) which offers an insight to trend add something difficult to replicate, something beyond a simple UI tweak or a feature like "search", so that business that stating "Six Basic Truths of Free APIs". According to him, provides the API doesn't compete when you look like you're Free APIs are not a god-given right. Businesses offer them for succeeding. their own self-interested reasons. If you build on top of the API For these reasons, free APIs are a very poor substitute for hav- but aren't delivering the value for the business that provides ing the source and the data and thus owning and controlling the API, your use of the API will probably go away. every piece of your application. And for these reasons, there's In case of GoogleEarth API you end up subscribing to the no such thing as a free API if you're looking to build a business. paid version of the API, if users/ hits to your site increases So, be careful when you start developing application by a certain limit!! using any of the free APIs.
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 17 News: PRODUCT 1 2 3 4 5
German Aerospace Center trator or editable PDF for- and shapes such as poly- 6 distributes imagery (DLR) to create the new mats. Since both of which gons, rectangles and stored in Oracle databases capabilities for its radar use a vector based approach ellipses. These overlays can running Spatial Express, mapping software suite. to display images, one can then be used to create cus- LizardTech's database plug- IMAGINE InSAR is specifi- easily zoom into any por- tom search areas and in. In addition, Express cally beneficial while map- tion of maps without any allows the user to define Server preserves the securi- ping in perennially cloud- degradation in the quality the geographic search area ty by using Oracle's security covered areas such as equa- of the text, lines and sym- right on the map. infrastructure. torial, coastal and temper- bols of the map regardless Icon Declutter: For times GMLJP2 has been adopted ate mountainous regions. of the magnification factor. when a map view contains as a standard for adding Radar has the ability to see Using Adobe Illustrator, one map icons overlapping GML metadata to JPEG through clouds, allowing can then easily select area each other, decluttering 2000 images. Express Serv- the surface of the earth to of interest in the maps and moves those icons away er 6 recognizes GML meta- be mapped while being then add custom symbols from each other and allows data stored in JPEG 2000 obscured with clouds. and other changes to the distribution in a selected imagery and renders the map. style. image in the correct Editable maps of geospatial location and pro- US cities MapQuest LizardTech jection system. It also rec- USA: Digital Vector Maps introduces releases Express ognizes requests for has published more than ActionScript API Server 6 imagery using the WMS 300 new vector maps of US USA: MapQuest had USA: LizardTech has interface where imagery is cities. The new vector maps announced the beta launch released the Express Server requested in coordinates cover greater metropolitan of a new API for Adobe 6 for distribu- areas for over 300 major US ActionScript. tion of massive cities. The release offers Action- geospatial Script 3.0 API option within image datasets MapQuest's Advantage API. via the Inter- MapQuest said that the net. Express developers can now devel- Server 6 op applications with Adobe advances GIS Flex or Adobe Flash soft- interoperabili- ware using native API for ty with new ActionScript. features such MapQuest's Advantage as Oracle inte- API offers location-based gration, Geog- platform with the flexibili- raphy Markup ty and efficiency of a web Language The maps comprises of service. The Advantage API (GML), meta- multiple layers which can 5.1version offers 16+ million data for JPEG be individually edited. Lay- POIs, premium listings that 2000 (JP2) and ers available in each of the can be licensed to enrich added sample maps include features such any application, as well as Web applications. from the GML metadata. By as: city borders, rail lines, following JavaScript With the Oracle integra- supporting GML for JP2 highways, roads, county enhancements: tion, Express Server 6 acts imagery, Express Server 6 borders etc. Advanced Overlays: Gives as an intermediary ensures that your JPEG The digital vector maps capability to create and between Oracle and other 2000 imagery is interopera- are available in Adobe Illus- interact with custom lines applications. Express Server ble and geospatially correct.
18 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007
News: Business 1 2 3
Singapore Land GIS Development Autodesk. Mr. Mandeep at least 20-25 per cent of the Authority and announces Saha, Head - Infrastructure defence market's IT solu- NTU sign MoU DigitalGlobe as its solutions (India & SAARC tion requirements in India. Singapore: The Singapore Corporate Sponsor region), said that the areas The venture will focus on Land Authority (SLA) and India: GIS Development has of Infrastructure like Trans- the Indian defence market Nanyang Technological announced its second Cor- portation,Land Develop- with its offering of C4ISTAR University's (NTU) School of porate Sponsor for 2007 - ment etc. in India needs a technology (command, con- Civil and Environmental DigitalGlobe Incorporated. leverage between the Civ- trol, computers and com- Engineering have signed an Earlier this year, Leica il/Construction and munications systems, intel- MoU to conduct coopera- Geosystems Geospatial Geospatial domain. For this ligence, surveillance, target, tive research, development, Imaging also joined GIS he has outlined the Map3D acquisition and reconnais- Development as Corporate product and the Mapguide sance) in India. Sponsor. Enterprise/Studio versions. Hiranya Ashar, Director- The tie up between Digi- Mr.Mandeep added, "We Finance and Chief Financial talGlobe and GIS Develop- are working closely with Officer, Rolta India, said the ment will result in sharing Universities,Colleges to joint venture would cater to of knowledge and expertise bring together GIS and the $1 billion (Rs 4,100 crore) by the global Earth imagery Infrastructure to create domestic market in the and geospatial information awareness at base level". next 3-5 years. "Even if the expert to educate and He also said that Autodesk venture is successful in tap- update readers of GIS has now 22 partners across ping 20-25 per cent of the Development's print and e- India which work closely market, it is reasonably a and education in the area of publications. with Autodesk on provid- big share," he added. The spatial information science ing training on the latest or Indian defence spending and technology. Autodesk outlines already available soft- has been growing by Under the agreement vision for Indian wares. around 15-18 per cent, but SLA will use NTU's GIS market its IT spend rate is much technology, array of equip- India: Autodesk outlined its Rolta, Thales higher. ment, software, training, vision for the Indian Manu- joint venture to resources and capabilities facturing/ Civil/ Infrastruc- enter Indian Dutch Ministry of in the development of its ture industries through its defence market Agriculture signs own capabilities, whereas range of products at its India: The 51:49 joint ven- agreement for GIS NTU's researchers and 'India Press Day.07' on June ture between Rolta India The Netherlands: The students will work with 1st. Autodesk announced and Thales will start opera- Netherlands Ministry of SLA in areas like structure updates to its software tions in July this year. Agriculture has signed an monitoring, vehicle track- portfolio, releasing enterprise license agree- ing and navigation, spatial advanced versions for ment with ESRI Nederland data infrastructure and industry segments that B.V. map data maintained by include manufacturing, The new agreement gives SLA. infrastructure and the the ministry unlimited SLA and NTU are planning building industry. Accord- access to the complete plat- to introduce spatial data ing to the officials from form of ESRI technology. infrastructure named Autodesk, there is a grow- ArcGIS Server will be used SiReNT which with GIS will ing need and demand for to exchange spatial data assist in various applica- 3D products. As a part of Thales complements Rolta between regional offices tions related to location- this they have outlined a with its expertise in elec- and with people working in based services. range of products from tronics. The venture targets the field.
20 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 1 2 3
Comments Mark Herbold, Leica Geosystems try's imaging technology to Michael Hickey President at ESRI Neder- acquires IONIC take digital aerial oblique named President land, "Because the Nether- USA: Leica Geosystems imagery of Australia and of PB MapInfo lands is one of the smaller Geospatial Imaging, LLC New Zealand and to market USA: Pitney Bowes MapInfo yet more densely populated has acquired all outstand- these along with Pictome- announced that Michael countries in the world, we ing shares of IONIC Soft- try's images in its library Hickey has been named as have unique challenges in ware, a geospatial software and softwares. our land use. For example, company headquartered in For acquiring the images there is considerable pres- Liege, Belgium, as well as over the two countries sure on balancing develop- all the shares of the related AAMHatch will operate ment and agriculture in our American company IONIC through an aircraft fitted rural areas...." Enterprise. The acquisition with equipments including was made for an undis- digital aerial cameras, Ordnance Survey to closed amount, with date of LiDAR, video and thermal shift to OS Master closing to be determined. sensors. AAMHatch will Map Vincent Dessard, CEO, carry out ground survey of UK: Ordnance Survey IONIC Software said, "The the same region for declared 30th September RedSpider product line will orthorectification and other its President with effect 2008 to be the withdrawal enhance Leica Geosystems' purposes. from May 29, 2007. Hickey, date for its Land-Line fami- expertise in developing has served as Chief Operat- ly of products. Ordnance photogrammetry, remote GeoEye partners with ing Officer at MapInfo for Survey is planning to move sensing, and visualization SPADAC five years prior to the acqui- exclusively to OSMas- solutions to much larger USA: GeoEye announced a sition by Pitney Bowes. terMap database product enterprise-wide markets." strategic partnership and from Land-Line products. IONIC's RedSpider product investment with SPADAC, a DigitalGlobe promotes The decision follows a pub- line has a comprehensive, provider of geointelligence three VPs to lic consultation meant to SOA, with a highly devel- and predictive analysis Leadership positions oped open standards-based solutions. USA: DigitalGlobe has JAVA/J2EE platform and GeoEye's partnership is announced the promotion development framework. aimed at providing its cus- of its three vice presidents: Moving forward, the tomers with predictive Dawn Sienicki, Govern- IONIC and Leica Geosys- analysis and geointelli- ment relations; Mike tems products will be main- gence solutions of SPADAC McGill, U.S. sales, Commer- tained and new solutions in combination with M.J. cial Business Unit; and, Bar- will be developed using Harden's aerial imagery ry Clapp, International existing technologies of capabilities after the launch Sales, Commercial Business explore the impact of prod- both companies. of their GeoEye 1 satellite Unit. uct migration in market which will provide images With promotion and sectors such as local gov- AAMHatch to use up to a spatial resolution of changes in the work profile, ernment, utilities and land Pictometry's imaging 0.45m. The combination of Sienicki will lead Digital- and property. technology high resolution image by Globe's Washington D.C. Land-Line will continue to USA: Pictometry has signed GeoEye 1, tools provided by Operations, McGill will lead be supported and licensed a business agreement with SPADAC and M J Hardene is DigitalGlobe's Commercial until 30 Sept. 2008 and later AAMHatch of Australia. expected to form a suite for Sales activities in the U.S. Ordnance will help its cus- Under the terms of agree- value-added offerings to and Clapp leads Digital- tomers to adopt OS Mas- ment, AAMHatch will get commercial and govern- Globe's Commercial Sales terMap Topography layer. the right to use Pictome- ment sectors. activities Internationally.
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 21 News: Business 1 2 3
of the court) brief was submit- MAPPS loses court battle, ted by the AAG, the GIS Certi- fication Institute, GITA, the University Consortium for will go in for appeal GISc and the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. They disputed USA: In a long drawn legal to 1972 and puts forward a excemption to mapping serv- the MAPPS claim and said that battle, which Management framework for contracting ices that are not connected to there is an attempt to prevent Association for Private Pho- architecture and engineering traditionally understood or the government from award- togrammetric Surveys (A&E) related work for the accepted A&E activities. The ing contract for "mapping" to (MAPPS) undertook for re- federal government. It says exception is the bone of con- anyone but a licensed archi- defining “surveying and map- that instead of selecting con- tention since its excludes tect, engineer or surveyor. ping” in order to bring it tractors on price, these should many GIS activities not falling This will affect not only those under the purview of Federal be based on QBS. Amend- under the QBS part of the Act individuals and companies Acquisitions Regulations' ments to the Brooks Act have and allows contracts to unli- involved in GIS but also those (FAR) Qualifications Based added surveying and map- censed individuals/GIS profes- involved in many other types Selection (QBS), the associa- ping to the list, so that now, sionals too. of mapping activities, with tion failed to get the desired architecture, engineering, sur- MAPPS wanted the excep- further implications on indus- result. Court for the Eastern veying and mapping activities tion to be struck off and the tries and applications ranging District of Virginia has ruled are contracted using this QBS new definition of surveying from electric utilities to city against the petition filed by process from licensed individ- and mapping to include con- planning, from agriculture to MAPPS against the US govern- uals in accordance with the tracts and sub-contracts for homeland security. ment that sought to strictly adopted state law in which services for federal agencies The issue doesn't seem to limit government contracting the project is located, if appli- for collecting, storing, retriev- douse down here with the for mapping and GIS activi- cable, in those professions. ing, or disseminating graphi- MAPPS stating that the court ties. The Court issued the The documentation of how to cal or digital data depicting did not address the legal mer- judgment in favour of the implement the Brooks Act, natural or man-made physical its and policies and the ques- government stating MAPPS currently details which map- features, phenomena and tion of QBS applicability to failed to "establish that an ping related projects fall boundaries of the earth and mapping is unresolved and injury in fact was suffered by inside and outside the scope any information relating leaves the door open to fur- the individual surveyors or of the Brooks Act and QBS. It there to, including but not ther litigation. The issue may their firms". The litigation was says that mapping associated limited to surveys, maps, be seen as an attempt to keep an attempt of MAPPS and its with research, planning, charts, remote sensing; data off the budding GIS to enter allies to redefine the scope of development, design, con- and images and aerial photo- the traditional surveying definition of “sur- struction, or alteration of real graphic services". Removal of domain. The GIS has grown to veying and property should be considered the exception would mean an extent that it is now gradu- mapping”. an A&E activity that all federal contract map- ally being recognised as IT The battle and is to be ping would fall under the QBS service domain with innova- began with procured provision and need to be pro- tions and value additions as the Brooks following cured through licensed archi- new building blocks of the Act that the OBS tects, engineers, surveyors industry. It seems tough to dates route. and mappers, pursuant to have such legistations in back However, applicable state law. place that restrict the growth document On the other side, scenario all over the world. grants an Amicus MAPPS still looks hopeful... (friend Lets see!
22 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 News: Miscellaneous
ITC offers PG course airport, used the site to plan navigational abilities of save exploration time. Fur- in Applications of their attack. Google takes mobile robots in new envi- ther this research will be Earth Observation, GIS security concerns very seri- ronments. They are trying extended to four robots in IWRM ously, and is always willing to make robots visualise working as a team,to Kenya: The International to discuss them with public "what lies a head" in explore an unknown envi- Institute for Geo-Informa- agencies and officials." advance as they move in ronment by sharing the tion Science and Earth unfamiliar surroundings. mapped information Observation (ITC) is offer- USGS to celebrate Consequently this will help through a wireless network. ing a postgraduate course 25 years of Landsat5 robots in reducing the in Applications of Earth mission amount of time they take in Donald Cooke from Observation and GIS in USA: USGS has obtained a navigating new territories. Tele Atlas receives Integrated Water Resources waiver that will allow them Navigation is one of the ESRI Lifetime Management (IWRM) in to maintain the orbits of main challenges faced by Achievement Award Nairobi for a period of 16 both Landsat-5 and Land- mobile robots. USA: Donald Cooke, Tele weeks from 7 January to 25 sat-7 until 2012. This was The new methods devel- Atlas' Chief Scientist and April 2008. announced in Landsat oped by Prof. C.S. George founder of Geographic Data The ITC officials have Technical Working Group Lee and his student H.Jacky Technology, Inc. (GDT), has informed that postgraduate meeting held recently. The Chang use new software been awarded the ESRI Life- course will provide profes- USGS is planning a celebra- algorithms that enable a time Achievement Award. sionals in the field of IWRM tion to mark Landsat-5, robot to create partial maps The award was bestowed with practical tools and which is entering 25th year as they traverse through an by ESRI president Jack Dan- methods which are in-line of its operation next year. environment for the first germond at the ESRI Inter- with the recent advances in Also, USGS is optimistic time. The algorithms devel- national User Conference. research and development that the satellite will con- oped is a modification to "It is with great pleasure and are directly applicable. tinue to provide high-quali- the already existing con- that we recognize Don with ty data past its 25th cept called SLAM or Simul- this award, as he is an Google Earth urged to anniversary. The Landsat taneous Localization And industry leader and pioneer blur images of Data Continuity Mission Mapping. The new method- potential terror targets (LDCM) is issuing tenders ology named as P-SLAM or UK: New York state law- for most of the major sys- prediction based SLAM's maker Michael Gianaris has tems. The expected launch prediction process is based urged Google Earth to blur date for next generation on the observation of sur- views of potential terror Landsat series satellite roundings of an unexplored targets on its maps. At a Landsat - 8 is July 2011 region and comparing it press conference on June 10, which will enable on-orbit with the built map of the Queens assemblyman cross calibration with Land- explored regions. If a simi- said that the federal sat-5 and 7. Landsat -8 is lar environment or struc- authorities need to work designed for a five year life, ture is matched in the map with Google to blur maps but will carry ten years of of explored regions, a who remains dedicated to that detail sensitive areas consumables. hypothesis is generated to exploring the future of digi- such as airports, chemical indicate that as similar tal mapping and continues storage plants and military Researchers to structure has been explored to demonstrate a commit- bases. improve robots' before. If the environment ment to GIS education with The call comes after navigation & mapping has repeated structures, the incredible passion," said reports that the terrorists USA: A research group at mobile robot can decide Dangermond. who were plotting to blow Purdue University, USA is whether or not to explore News Compiled by: Neha Arora up a pipeline feeding JFK working on improving the the unexplored region to [email protected]
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 23 Perspective Musings on High Resolution Remote Sensing
Prof. A R Dasgupta it is going beyond seeing the Bhakra Honorary Advisor, GIS Development Nangal reservoir at one kilometre or [email protected] the roof of my house at 0.6 metre the heavailability of sub-metre problem of value derivation remains platform which can image on demand. resolution colour imagery the same. Orbital mechanics dictate that a plat- from satellites coupled To be able to add or derive value from form will be stationary above the earth withT Internet based services like Google a remotely sensed image we need to only when its angular velocity matches Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth have consider several factors such as resolu- that of the earth and this happens at an resulted in an enormous interest in tion, swath, signal to noise ratio, etc. orbital height of 36,000 Km. At this remote sensing among the general public. Resolution itself has three components: height we need a very powerful tele- spectral, spatial and temporal. We also scope to provide the desired spatial res- This interest is more in the nature of a need to consider the coverage or swath olution, very sensitive detectors and 'wow' factor. The ability to see one's and the signal to noise ratio of the data excellent attitude control and station home or familiar landmarks in an which indicates its ability to detect keeping of the platform. The state of image taken from hundreds of kilome- minor variations in the image intensi- the art is imagery at one Km spatial res- tres above the earth elicits wonder and ty. The accuracy of orbit and attitude olution every half an hour from a geo- awe. I remember exactly the same reac- determination impacts the absolute stationary satellite. This may be tion when ISRO sent up its first remote and relative positional accuracies of the improved to hundreds of metres but sensing satellite, Bhaskara way back in image. These characteristics of a ultimately the scintillation due to 1980s. We could see the Bhakra Nangal remotely sensed image are a result of atmospheric turbulence, orbital reservoir and the vast expanse of the several compromises dictated by tech- and attitude perturbations Indus even at the low resolution of one nological factors. As technology will limit the achiev- kilometre. Soon, however, wonder gave improves these compromises are able spatial resolution way to the question 'so what?' Clearly, reduced. However, at some point natu- to several tens of there had to be a more productive use ral factors will put a cap on the techno- metres at best. Today, of the satellite images. As we set to logical capabilities. metre and sub metre reso- work interpreting the imagery we soon Ideally, a remote sensor should be lution imagery realised that we were only confirming able to deliver images of chosen areas is avail- our knowledge of geography captured at chosen times with the desired spatial able only by the images. Finding something new and spectral resolutions and quality from low was proving to be difficult. So whether and accuracy. This requires a stationary earth orbiting satel-
24 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 lites which are highly agile and use rather than statistical pattern recogni- clones have opened up a new approach techniques like 'step and stare' to image tion. A human interpreter who can, by where the end user accesses imagery designated targets. In the process they looking at an image, differentiate freely or at a very nominal cost without compromise on the time of imaging between a canal and a river is actually having to own the imagery. Most users and the total coverage area. using shape and context information. overlook the fact that the volume of Do we always need high resolution Image understanding software may be data increases as the square of the reso- imagery? In the early days of satellite based on neural networks and on artifi- lution. Data storage and preservation remote sensing geologists using low cial intelligence techniques which can problems will become significant as resolution imagery could trace long also take into account such features. data assets increase. By trading assets faults and fractures which they missed The 'step and stare' for access users can in smaller high resolution photographs technique of imag- be freed of this bur- from aerial surveys. This property of ing results in den. This is what To be able to add imaging large areas at a time, called a imagery with Spatial Data Infra- or derive value 'synoptic' view was extolled as one of oblique viewing “ structure is all the advantages of remote sensing from angles. In urban from a remotely about. SDI can be space. Applications scientists appreci- environments tall sensed image we expanded to include ated the synoptic view from satellite structures appear need to consider imagery access in borne sensors and found that applica- with their apexes several factors the same manner as tions like flood mapping, crop invento- displaced away such as resolution, map and other data ry, drought monitoring could be imple- from the viewing swath, signal to access. mented much better with imagery at direction and fea- noise ratio, etc. High resolution resolutions of 70 to 20 metre. tures on the side satellite imagery is One of the interesting observations opposite the view- one of five major relates to the use of statistical spectral ing side are occlud- technologies which classifiers. Low resolution imagery ed. Any mapping in such situations will will significantly” contribute to SDI. The averages out local variations hence require stereo pairs to be able to gener- others are Web 2.0, Photogrammetry, spectral based statistical segmentation ate urban Digital Elevation Models and GIS and GPS. However, low and medi- techniques like Maximum Likelihood fill in the occluded areas. These will um resolution satellite imagery will Classifier can be used with a limited double the cost but the urban DEM is a continue to play a significant role in number of training sets. At medium product very much in demand by the applications like weather forecasting, resolutions the variability in the data communications industry among oth- crop estimation, disaster management increases requiring more and more ers and will offset the increased cost of and environmental monitoring where number of training sets. At sub metre mapping. a synoptic view is necessary. resolution where individual objects High resolution imagery has brought Two other imaging technologies are become detectable such classifiers in a number of new applications in the also capable of high resolution imag- will be difficult to use. Such high area of Location Based Services. Such ing. SAR is able to give metre level spa- resolution imagery interpreta- imagery used as a map on a GPS tial resolution but the imagery inter- tion requires the application enabled 3G mobile phone can become a pretation requires special expertise. of techniques of image significant LBS application. To be able The other is Hyper-spectral imaging understand- to exploit these features the way which provides very high spectral reso- ing imagery is delivered to the end user lution. Both these technologies have will also need to change. Google been overshadowed by the explosion of Maps and its sub metre optical imaging. Will there be an application like Google Earth which uses these technologies and make them accessible to an average, non-technical user?
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 25 Spectrum
Observing and understanding the Earth system more completely and comprehensively will expand world- HIGH wide capacity and means to achieve sustainable development and will yield advances in many specific areas of socio-economic benefit, including: RESOLUTION • Reducing loss of life and property from natural and human-induced disasters; • Understanding environmental factors affecting human health and well being; IMAGING FROM • Improving management of energy resources; • Understanding, assessing, predicting, A.S. Kiran Kumar mitigating, and adapting to climate vari- Deputy Director, Sensors Development Area SAC, Indian Space Research Organisation ability and change; SPACE [email protected] • Improving water resource manage- ment through better understanding of the water cycle; • Improving weather information, fore- casting, and warning; • Improving the management and pro- tection of terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems; • Supporting sustainable agriculture and combating desertification; • Understanding, monitoring, and con- serving biodiversity he potential of satellite remote With the availability of a variety of sensing for the benefit of launch vehicles suitable for lifting humanity resulted in early micro to macro satellites into LEO or adoptionT of space technology for earth obser- GEO orbits, satellite sensors were vation activities. Prior to space age (conven- designed to perform various kinds of tionally dated from 1957) humankind did not earth observations. have a global view of the world in which it Depending on the application lived. requirements, sensors with grater spa- tial, spectral, radiometric and temporal The satellite observations have provided us resolutions were developed. Also differ- with a more complete, global and some- ent kinds of non-conventional imaging times near-instantaneous (most recent) techniques like synthetic aperture view of Earth system1. It has enabled the radar (SAR), synthetic aperture imaging rediscovery of our planet through the sys- lidar (SAIL), Interferometric Imaging tematic collection and analysis of enor- Systems, etc were also developed. The mous amount of data received over the last optical and infrared sensors currently five decades. Currently, the observation used for earth remote sensing applica- data provided by satellite sensors are regu- tions include sub-meter resolution larly used in many fields of application viz. imagers, hyper-spectral sensors, wide- environmental monitoring, navigation, swath sensors with high temporal reso- weather forecasting, communication, etc. lution.
26 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 With these sensors it is possible to April 2002 has helped in developing the lites with advanced payloads for vari- observe any given region of the earth commercial market for space imagery ety of remote sensing applications. The with greater spatial, spectral and tem- of the Earth. IRS family of ten satellites low cost of micro satellite system allows poral resolution. These observations which started with IRS-1A in 1988 with the launch of multiple satellites (either have enabled a wide range of applica- a spatial resolution of identical or different) tions covering. 72 meters, improved forming a constella- Cartography at every scales in 2D and the spatial resolution tion, which greatly 3D: The demand for good maps arises to 5 meters with IRS- enhance the capabili- from many different needs, e.g., the 1C in 1995 (Between “A number of ties of the system. Sur- regional development, the town and 1995 and 1999 till the mini satellites and rey Satellite Technolo- country planning with roads and rail launch of IKONOS this gy Ltd (SSTL) at the tracks, parks and forests, water supply was the highest spa- micro satellites University of Surrey and other installations. tial resolution data (in the 100-120 kg (UK) has developed Land cover inventories: For agricul- available in civilian range) with inter- and launched a series ture, forest management, buildings, domain) and further esting perform- of micro satellites observation via satellites offers unique improved the resolu- with advanced Earth possibilities. tions to 1 meter with ances have been observation payloads. Closed waters, open seas, humid Technology Experi- launched. The RapidEye satellite zones surveillance: This area offers cer- ments Satellite (TES) system to be launched tainly one of the biggest challenge of in 2001. This was fol- in near future will the century, as keeping the waters lowed up with first have five identical healthy could well become one of our dedicated high-resolution stereo mis- earth observation” satellites flying in a priorities. sion in Cartosat-1 with 2.5-meter resolu- formation. The orbital formation of Installation of communication equip- tion. The latest addition to this - Car- satellites ensures total coverage of the ments: For instance, the installation of tosat-2 with a spatial resolution of bet- earth in a day. new telecommunication and television ter than one meter - was launched into The observations in visible and near relays requires extensive study of orbit in January this year. infrared region of the Electromagnetic topography, terrain occupation and As can be seen, the geometrical reso- spectrum is affected by weather and it population density. lution has continuously improved, for is not possible to carry out imaging Agriculture aids and management: instance, from 100 m for the first over cloud covered regions. This limita- Images of cultures could give informa- NOAA-A satellite to 10 m for NOAA-K or tion is overcome by use of Microwave tion on expected yields (crop evalua- from 10 m for SPOT 1 launched in 1986 region of Electromagnetic spectrum tion) or for the farmer it can give infor- to 2.5 m for the recently launched SPOT and this provides all weather observa- mation on demands for fertilizers, for 5, or 72 meters from IRS 1A launched in tion capability. watering or for chemical treatments. 1988 to <1 meter of Carto-2 launched in This however requires Active Sensors, Disaster management, Analysis of January 2007. which carries its own source of EM changes, etc. Other satellites also have been energy for scene illumination. Over the launched over the past 7 or 8 years with last few decades this technology has SCENARIO TILL NOW performances down to 0.6m resolution developed to provide data with spatial NOAA-A/Landsat-1 satellite, which was but with less wide field of view than resolutions close to few meters. There launched in orbit in 1972, was the first SPOT or Landsat. have been Satellites launched with one to target systematic coverage of Some of the missions like IKONOS and Synthetic Aperture Imaging Radars earth surface from space. It has paved QuikBird with imaging resolutions of operating in X band capable of provid- the way for much better satellite sen- 1m and 0.6m respectively were entirely ing High resolution data. sors with greater spatial and spectral private funded. A significant event SeaSat mission launched in 1978 was resolution. SPOT family of five satel- happened during this period is the the fist SAR mission with a spatial reso- lites with the latest one launched in development of low cost micro satel- lution of 25m. SAR payloads of ERS mis-
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 27 Table 1: Best Satellite Country Resolution (M) sions (30m resolution), RADARSAT-1 ters on board satellites and better
O P T I C A L (25-100m), RADARSAT-2 (2-100m), JERS receivers in the ground stations. (18m) are some of the significant devel- IKONOS-2 US 1.0 opments in this field. Cosmo-Skymed TRENDS IN HIGH RESOLU- QuickBird-2 US 0.6 (Constellation of Small Satellites for TION OBSERVATIONS FROM OrbView-3 US 1.0 Mediterranean basin observation) mis- SPACE QuickBird-X US 0.25 sion which has been launched very Geometric resolution: In 1986 the reso- IKONOS-X US 0.25 recently is an Earth observation lution improved to 10 meters (SPOT-1)
OrbView-X US 0.25 program of the Italian Space Agency from 100 meters that of NOAA in 1972.
EROS-A1 Israel 1.8 (ASI) developed by Alenia Spazio, a In 1995 the resolution improved to 5.6 Finmeccanica company, as prime con- meters (IRS 1C). EROS-B1 Israel 0.5 tractor. It is a constellation of four SAR In 1999, the resolution improved to 1 EROS-B2 Israel 0.5 satellites flying in a formation provid- meter (IKONOS). It saw a further EROS-B3 Israel 0.5 ing frequent coverage with a spatial improvement to 0.61 meters through EROS-B4 Israel 0.5 resolution of 1-100m. Digital Globe's QuickBird. While a num-
IRS TES India 1.0 INDIA is developing a Radar Imaging ber of satellite missions are being
IRS Cartosat-2 India 1.0 Satellite (RISAT) capable of providing planned for resolutions between 0.2 to about 3-50 meter resolution depending 0.5 meters nobody has announced a Helios-1A France 1.0 on the mode chosen. The satellite is programme for 0.1 meter resolution Helios-1B France 1.0 designed for operation in Spotlight, electronic imaging system. Pleiades-1 France 0.7 ScanSAR & Stripmap imaging modes. Table 1.0 shows satellites with one Pleiades-2 France 0.7 Twenty years ago only three coun- meter and better resolution operated
Helios-2A France <1 tries, US, USSR and France operated a /planned by different countries.
Helios-2B France <1 small number of earth observation Data rate and compression: As the satellites and currently over twenty spatial resolution increases the data IGS-01 Japan 1.0 countries operate earth observation rate becomes very high and in view of IGS-02 Japan 1.0 sensors on 60 platforms. the limited bandwidth available in X Resurs DK-1 Russia 0.4 Together with the improvement in band, which is currently the most used Resurs DK-2 Russia 0.4 resolution and size of images, comes band, it becomes necessary to adopt Resurs DK-3 Russia 0.4 the increase in data volume to be trans- compression and other methods of data
KOMPSAT-2 Korea 1.0 mitted from satellite to the ground reduction. stations. Improvement in the data As the area of image covered at very R A D A R compression algorithm, however limits high resolutions is very small the satel- TerraSAR-X Germany 1.0 the growth in data quantity to be lite is equipped with a high degree of TerraSAR-L Germany 1.0 transmitted. maneuverability so that spot images SAR-Lupe-1 Germany 1.0 Also it is worthwhile mentioning that are taken which lie within a certain SAR-Lupe-2 Germany 1.0 the size of the on-board memory field of regard of the satellite. This also
COSMO-Skymed-1 Italy 1.0 increased over time tremendously and implies that continuous imaging is no
COSMO-Skymed-2 Italy 1.0 with the progress in memory chips, the longer adopted and the time required volume and power consumption of for maneuvering can be effectively COSMO-Skymed-3 Italy 1.0 these on-board memory have greatly used for reducing the transmitted data IGS-R1 Japan 1.0 decreased. rate by adopting compression and IGS-R2 Japan 1 to 3 The Earth stations necessary to deferred transmission. US US 1 to 3 receive the data transmitted by the In addition the deferred transmission
Resurs DK-2 Russia 1.0 satellites have also decreased a lot in could also provide opportunity to carry
Resurs DK-3 Russia 1.0 spite of data rate increase, because of out compression of data based on the better antennas and better transmit- analysis of the entire frame and enable RISAT India 3.0
28 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 significant reduction in data rate. With ence and applications. The concept of high resolution at given point of time. the increase in processing capability using micro satellites for high-resolu- In the future, any Earth observation available onboard one could consider tion imaging could see a significant satellite will have to work in close link extraction of specific information boost when the cost comes down with meteorological satellite data to instead of the entire data being trans- significantly. It would be possible optimize the image capture toreduce mitted. One could consider transmit- to put micro satellites to provide effect of the clouds in the image. ting only the processed results for near very high resolutions of the order of 0.1 Active or passive: One could see the real time transmission while sending to 0.2 meters by operating them at adoption of microwave imaging tech- the entire collected data at a later point very low altitudes of about 100 niques to optical domain for improving in time for detailed studies. kilometers. Short life of very low the resolutions to less than 0.1 meters. orbits could be more than offset by The active imaging techniques would Satellite Size lower costs. receive a big boost with the availability The first observation satellites, NOAA of low cost micro satellites. was in the 2 ton range. As the resolu- Image or Information? tions improved swaths became smaller The final user is generally not interest- CONCLUSION there was a need for agile satellite to ed in getting an image of the Earth tak- High resolution imaging from space facilitate spot image acquisitions. Such en by the satellite but in the informa- has seen a steady growth with an agility demanded that the satellite size tion it contains. The future should see improvement of one order resolution be reduced. IKONOS, QuickBird, EROS, development of more sophisticated once in 13 years over the last three Cartosat-2 are examples. However means of extraction of the information decades. Advances in electronics, and there is a conflict in this approach as from the image, taking into account the cost small satellite technology could one seeks to improve the resolution fur- needs of various users and making use result in a significant change in earth ther. Higher resolution demands larger of data banks allowing comparison observation scenario, as one would see optics diameter hence the size and between two images for instance to satellites operating at very low alti- weight of payload and thereby the detect changes between two periods. tudes for realizing high resolutions. A satellite to increase its size substantial- The increase in the number of LEO constellation of satellites working for a ly making it difficult satellites would lead single mission could enable active to achieve higher to time saving, i.e., to imaging systems providing very high agility. shortening the time resolutions. A number of mini “It would be to get the image. With It is expected that a constellation of satellites and micro possible to put the decrease in size, satellites working as a single system satellites (in the 100- micro satellites to and consequently in will orbit earth The increased data 120 kg range) with cost of satellites, this streams and delivered information provide very high interesting perform- can be expected to be will allow decision makers to be virtu- ances have been resolutions of the economical also. ally present through their remote launched. Micro satel- order of 0.1 to 0.2 vision in any region of the world at lites have been in meters by operating GEO Platform almost any time. existence for 10 or them at very low Earth observation The most advanced countries will more years providing altitudes of about satellites in geosta- have daily access to high resolution all some images of the 100 kilometers. tionary orbit from weather data in most places on the Earth but their per- where they are able to globe. In addition, possibility of observ- formances in terms of observe/ monitor a ing the Earth in many more wave- image quality or large part of the globe length bands, e.g. infrared, visible light, image production capacity have been continuously.” Such systems apart from microwave, different polarizations and rather limited. The new generation is providing useful data would also in various narrow bands in visible light expected to be far better and must be enable deciding which portion of (super-spectral or hyper-spectral) could able to produce images suitable for sci- ground needs to be monitored at a very see significant growth.
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 29 Value Addition
arth Observation (EO) is broadly the acquisition and exploitation of Edata acquired from remote (aircraft- or satellite-based) observations of the Earth. It covers a diverse range of remote sens- ing applications, including weather fore- casting, environmental monitoring, sur- veillance and numerous scientific appli- cations in the atmospheric, land and ocean domains.
With increasing demand from various walks of life, which includes individu- als, groups and commercial enterpris- es, new EO applications are being developed. Insurance sector (helping TTrraannssffoorrmmiinngg assess risk) and planning emergency response services (in case of natural or man-induced disasters) are few of the ddaattaa iinnttoo examples of areas offering newer mar- kets to the remote sensing data prod- ucts. The EO Value Adding (VA) sector iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn:: is the group of companies that process- es the raw or semi-processed data from the remote sensing instruments, and AAnn eenntteerrpprriissee converts the data into information that is commercially useful end users. The mutiple ways in which value to the source data added are - • Integration of multiple data sources and becoming a part of emerging • Geospatial technologies are being • Data process to obtain ‘GIS ready’ broader geospatial market (and even integrated more and more for user applications information products broader IT market trends). Web-based • Users want seamless applications • Interpretation and reporting mapping providers (Google) have made • Distributed yet integrated applications • Customisation more people aware of remote sensing are emerging through Internet. • User support services technology and aided further insights to its commercial applications. The These trends are likely to continue EMERGENCE OF EOVA affect is evident from the remarkable and could substantially influence how Certain essentialities put up by the growth of "aftermarket" of VA compa- the remote sensing industry develops. growth trends in demand have led to nies. Key trends witnessed nowadays Llyod E Stallkamp, in his paper “RS data the building up of the VA industry. as part of merger (with IT) are - as a Public Good” suggests that 'public Remote sensing continued to show • Marketplace moving from geopspatial good' is best served by having value technologies to information services movement toward market education added products provided by private with implications on business models and geospatial information adoption (Table 1) business. With the industry taking
30 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 GISdevelopment_ad_v4.ai 6/28/2007 9:38:26 AM
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
| IKONOS 1-meter resolution N Charles de Gaulle Airport | Paris, France See the world. With GeoEye, you can.
GeoEye captures map-accurate, 1- and 4-meter satellite imagery worldwide, making it ideal for planning and analyzing complex infrastructures located throughout the world. With our satellites’ frequent revisit times and a robust image archive—over 278 million square kilometers—GeoEye offers a full range of geospatial data designed to meet all your mapping needs.
The upcoming launch of GeoEye-1 offers opportunities for domestic and international resellers. To join our reseller program, please apply at info@geoeye.com.
GeoEye Imagery Sources
IKONOS OrbView-2 Aerial GeoEye-1 [DMC®] [2007] www.geoeye.com | +1.703.480.5670
© Copyright 2007 GeoEye. All rights reserved. DMC® is a registered trademark of Z/I Imaging. turn to value-additions, speculations projections and are quite happy to matic domains. The industry comes out are being made towards the develop- remain that way. with a variety of products that differ in ments of applications to potential terms of the way they are produced areas (niche mar- Make it easy to and delivered. With the products and kets) as agriculture, order and deliver applications so diverse, the natural communications, it quickly. staggered-ness with 'no company pro- travel, tourism, etc. Finding out the cost ducing all' is the situation. Certain Web-based and availability of (Table 2). This being broad features of the industry are - “ coverage online is mapping providers the scenario, the cumbersome - if not • The typical profile of a VA company is a small, specialised organisation that companies seem to (Google) have impossible - in most focuses on one or two thematic and have followed what made more people cases. For "archived" imagery, geographic areas. The industry is char- Donald B. Segal, aware of remote shipment should be acterised by isolated expert groups offering niche services (Table 3). president, Spatial sensing technology faster than the "5- Insights, recom- business day" esti- • An EO product (sales transaction) is and aided further mate given by most typically a one-off project delivery or a mended to the data insights to its providers. Delivery customised core product. providers. According of compressed data • The institutional market accounts for commercial via email or FTP to him data more than 75% of the customer base. could/should be providers must applications. (Markets- Figure. 1) accomplished within hours. For most • Development of innovative EO based Reconsider pack- clients, the projects services such as location based servic- es (LBS), Geo-marketing, on-line aging of the data are short-fused and are over” within a day or so.Waiting 5-7 micro-payments and web services all to be more inline with the geogra- days to receive data just doesn't work. continue to open up new business phies of the business user models for the industry. "Scenes", "sensor footprints", and Revisit pricing strategies • Data from multiple satellite sources "flight paths" are meaningless to the While the price of imagery has come are used to develop products. Integra- business user. They simply want their down over the years, it is still relatively tion with non EO data sources (ground area of interest (site, county, market, expensive, particularly for the small to sensors, socio-economic data) is also etc.), and they want it yesterday. mid-sized companies that aren't yet important for successful value adding, convinced of its value. Basic economics and so are data integration, assimila- tion and modelling. This is why the sec- Provide data in a GIS-ready format, would suggest that lower prices will spark interest in a much larger portion tor has a high level of technical sophis- rectified to a common projection of the potential market. tication and complexity. Charging extra to geometrically cor- • The industry is highly dependent upon rected data or to mosaic the data to FEATU R ES OF VA I N DUSTRY the quality of its data supply (in terms form seamless coverage of a study The EOVA industry is a highly diverse of revisit, resolution, fitness for pur- area is nuts. Build this into the price if pose, timeliness and access to data). need be, but don't burden the buyer sector that develops products and serv- with these details. Most businessper- ices addressing a wide range of the- Opportunities for the industry lies in sons are blissfully ignorant about map • Significant growth in the geospatial information, that doesn't come without Table. 1: Changing commercial observation business models competition from traditional information sources) Traditional image data provider Information age image company • Public sector's environmental moni- toring projects that long-term view Produces data Produces information ensuring at least medium term security Satellite data only Multiple data sources in contract acquisition. • New satellite programmes such as Isolated Partnerships Radarsat-2, TerraSAR-X, Cosmo- Limited pricing and access policies Flexible pricing and access Skymed, Pleiades etc. will offer more sophisticated data products than those nowsK data only Oriented on customer needs available currently, and access to data from these national missions is expect- Integrated into broader geospatial technology/IT Only collects, processes and disseminates data marketplace, vertical market expertis ed to become easier.
32 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 INDUSTRY OUTLOOK Table. 2: Niche market sectors for remote sensing: The industry oulook as is stated by eoVOX's (http://www.eovox.org/) Markets demonstrated for remote sensing Potential markets industry position paper says that Forestry Agriculture (Precision agriculture) EOVA is still very much an emerging Environmental/Natural resources management Disaster response and emergency services sector with a fragmented industry structure and highly diverse and var- Extraction industries News, media and entertainment ied product and service supply mecha- Mapping Real estate, insurance, and property finance nisms. National security Travel and tourism The keyword, which best summarises the future structure expected to be Transportation Outdoor recreation and sports seen for the EO Industry is 'consolida- Utilities Communications tion'. It is expected that the main large companies will grow bigger through absorption and expansion. Their pre- Table. 3: Services types offered by the VA companies of Europe and Canada vailing strategy will be to provide end- to-end systems and to deliver stan- Service Type Description dardised GIS ready products directly to Standardised Standardised off-the-shelf geo-information solutions with the end-user. It is believed that smaller Products and routine/standard delivery. Typically corresponds to repeat sales VA companies will be absorbed or Services offerings for many customers, in general high volume. bought up either by the big EO players Customised geo-information solutions based on EO Customised or by complementary players or end interpretation and tailored to specific users. Typically Products and corresponds to one-off offerings for individual customers, user organisations (in-sourcing), disap- Services generally project-oriented. pear, grow bigger by networking or sustain as niche players. At the same Integrated / Offerings combining EO products and services plus other ele- time small new players, mainly spin- Turnkey Solutions ments such as hardware, systems maintenance, etc. offs from universities, will keep emerg- Data Products and Reselling EO images/data (with little if any added value) ing as there are low entrance barriers Services into the industry. Software Products Packages sold under license to support use of EO images or The sector is expected to become very and Services data, including maintenance. large, and even more so considering Standalone training courses available on a the numerous new observation sys- Training commercial basis including e-learning. tems that will be set up across the world in the coming years, in particu- lar within the GEOSS and other initia- Sensing as electronic commerce" may of traditional GIS professionals and tives, and also as national or private well serve well to indicate where the into the hands of everyday users.” initiatives. industry plans (or visions) to head The industry’s ability to clearly com- catering mass customers with stan- municate the utility of satellite imag- CONCLUSION dard products (single time delivery) ing for a multitude of commercial mar- With the advent of commercial remote rather than customisations. To accom- ket applications will be key to greater sensing ventures the technology has modate new level of demands, satellite adoption of remote sensing as deci- become a part of information technolo- imagery vendors will need to address sion-making tool. gy and thereby of an emerging form of capacity concerns related to imagery Still, a “killer application” for the electronic commerce (e-commerce) and collections and updates. remote sensing marketplace that caus- not just an aerospace technology or “Once we rise to that challenge, satel- es dramatic market growth has yet to scientific technique. lite imagery will become as ubiquitous be identified. Titles of studies like "Making Remote as search engine and Internet tech- sensing a media event" and "Remote nologies, moving far beyond the realm Saurabh Mishra [email protected]
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 33 Data
For the satellites under the geospatial domain, further, it was found that there are only 9 satellites being operat- ed by the private organisations while the rest were being operated by the government. The country wise distribution of the already launched remote sensing satel- lites (till Dec 2006) are given in Fig-2a. This was compared with the remote sensing satellites, proposed to be launched (data available at Remote Sensing Satellites: Present and Future
working for a healthy environment and www.space-risks.com) in the years to a safer world) at http:// www.ucsusa. come (Jan 2007 onwards), and is shown org/global_security/space_weapons/s in Fig-2b. At present there are 19 coun- atellite_database.html, at present there tries who own remote sensing satel- he a new era of earth are 847 active satellites in the space lites while, Argentina, Brazil and Thai- observation started with being used for different purposes (Fig- land are the three new countries, who the launch of Landsat - 1 1). As per the classification done by UCS, will have their own satellites in the (earlierT named as Earth Resource Technol- only 4% are being used for remote sens- years to come. ogy Satellite or ERTS) in 1972. ing purposes and 8% for the earth The present users of the satellite data observation/earth sciences. Upon are mainly government (Fig-3) while According to the latest data available studying the purposes and the sensors the rest 50% are split between civil, mil- (updated on 9th April, 2007) from the being used in the satellites, there are 50 itary and commercial users. Among Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS, a satellites (6%), exclusively being used these 4% of the military data is also science-based nonprofit organisation in the geospatial domain. used by the commercial users whereas
34 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007
In the 1 m “better resolutio there will be 9 s the end of this Europe wi
Fig. 1 Distribution of satellites as per their purpose.
8% of the government data is also used However, only three of for the commercial purposes. Since them (Cartosat-2, COSMO- 1984, till 2006, the number of satellites Skymed & TereaSAR-X) have launched every year increased which been launched. The remote saw a steep rise after 1999 (Fig-4a). sensing satellite launches, in There is a significant increase in the the coming years, with their proposed launches in 2007, which will other details are given in reach to 14 and the subsequent years Table-1 and these satellites having significant launches planned with their operating life are Fig. 2a Country wise remote sensing satellites (1984 - 2006) Fig (Fig-4b). This year, till June 2007, satel- shown in Fig-5. lites proposed to be launched (www.space-risks.com), COSMO -Skymed (4X): 8th June, 2007 GeoEye-1: 30th June, 2007 CARTOSAT-2: 10th Jan, 2007 ORBVIEW-5: 1st Jan, 2007 RADARSAT-2: 31st March, 2007 RAPIDEYE (5X): 30th June, 2007
TERRASAR-X: 15th June, 2007 Number of Satellite THEOS: 30th June, 2007 Year WORLDVIEW-1: 30th June, 2007 Fig. 4 Number of Remote Sensing satellites launched (1984 - 2006).
36 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 1 meter or lution category e 9 satellites by his decade and e will lead. ”
Fig. 3 Users of the remote sensing satellite data
OBSERVATIONS reach 1m resolution in PAN, more and With the advancement and more satellites are being launched and development in the sensor scheduled to be launched in the near technology, remote sens- future with better resolution. World- ing has reached a resolu- view1 and 2 will have 0.45m and 0.46m tion of 0.7m (PIC-2 sensor as its spatial resolution, scheduled for in the Israeli satellite EROS- launch in 2007 and 2008. Although B1, launched in April, more satellites will be launched in the 2006). Although IKONOS coming years, but according to the pub- Fig. 2b Country wise remote sensing satellites (2007 - 2013) was the first satellite with lished data, no satellite will have spa- MSS and PAN sensor, to tial resolution better than the World- view satellites. There were only three satellites with RADAR capability, till 2005, which will increase to 9, by this decade. RADAR satellites are mainly being launched by European countries with Argentina and India also ventur- ing. Surprisingly, USA does not have any RADAR satellite, nor they have planned for any! Number of Satellite In the high resolution category (1m or Year better), there will be 9 satellites by the Fig. 4b Proposed launches of Remote Sensing satellites end of this decade and except 2 from
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 37 Name of Satellite, Alternate Names 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
ARGO (RapidEye 6) BISSAT CBERS-3 BERS-4 COSMO-Skymed (4X) EROS C GEOEYE-1 HJ-1A HJ-1B IRS 2A (CARTOSAT 2) IRS 2B (OCEANSAT 2) IRS 2C (RESOURCESAT 2) NPOESS (6X) ORBVIEW 5 PLEIADES-1 PLEIADES-2 RADARSAT 2 RAPIDEYE (5X) RISAT SAC-D (AQUARIUS)
SAOCOM 1 (2X)
SENTINEL 1A
SENTINEL-1B
SENTINEL-2A Superspectral
SENTINEL-2B
TAN DE M-X
TERRASAR-X
TERRASAR-X2
THEOS
VENUS
WORLDVIEW-1
WORLDVIEW-2
Fig. 5
USA, one from India and Israel each, all and manage the satellites and the data, Another trend of collaborations five are planned by Europe (Germany, and the government will be the major between countries to build and launch France and Italy). buyer of the data. The launch of TER- satellites might change in the years to The coming years will see a lot of pub- RASAR-X on 15th of June started this come. As the sensor technologies, hard- lic-private partnerships, where the trend which will soon be followed by ware and other necessary equipments commercial operators will build, launch other countries. have become easily available, countries
38 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 Proposed 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Satellites Sensors Min Max Country Launch Date
ARGO (RapidEye 6) REIS 6.5 6.5 TAIWAN 30-Jun-08
BISSAT Not defined -- -- ITALIA 31-Dec-09
IRMSS 40 80 MuxCam 20 20 CBERS-3 CHINA BRAZIL 20-Oct-08 PanMux 5 10 WFI 73 73
COSMO-Skymed (4X) SAR 2000 1 100 ITALY 8-Jun-07
EROS C Not defined 0.7 2.8 ISRAEL / USA 30-Jun-09
HJ-1A CCD Hyperspectral 30 30 CHINA 31-Dec-07
CCD 30 30 HJ-1B CHINA 31-Dec-07 IR Camera 50 300
IRS 2A (CARTOSAT 2) PAN CAMERA 1 1 INDIAN 10-Jan-07
IRS 2B (OCEANSAT 2) OCM 360 360 INDIAN 31-Dec-07
NPOESS (6X) VIIRS -- - USA 30-Nov-09
Multispectral 1.64 1.64 ORBVIEW 5 USA 1-Jan-07 Panchromatic 0.41 0.41
PLEIADES-1 HiRI 0.7 2.8 FRANCE 30-Jun-09
PLEIADES-2 HiRI 0.7 2.8 FRANCE 30-Jun-10
RADARSAT 2 SAR 100 100 CANADA 31-Mar-07
RAPIDEYE (5X) REIS 6.5 6.5 GERMANY 30-Jun-07
HSC 200 200 ARGENTINIA / SAC-D (AQUARIUS) 31-Mar-09 NIRST AQUARIUS 350 - 350 - USA
SAOCOM 1 (2X) CONAE -- -- ARGENTINA 31-Dec-07
SENTINEL-1B Not defined 5 5 30-Jun-13
SENTINEL-2A Superspectral Not defined 5 10 EUROPE 30-Nov-11
SENTINEL-2B Not defined 5 10 30-Jun-13
TAN DE M-X Not defined 5 10 EUROPE 30-Nov-11
SENTINEL-2B Not defined 5 10 30-Jun-13
TAN DE M-X TSX-SAR 1 16 GERMANY 31-Dec-09
TERRASAR-X TSX-SAR 1 7 GERMANY 15-Jun-07
TERRASAR-X2 Not defined -- -- GERMANY 31-Dec-11
THEOS MS Camera 15 15 THAILAND 30-Jun-07
THEOS PAN Camera 2 2
VENUS Not defined 10 10 ISRAEL / FRANCE 30-Jun-09
WORLDVIEW-1 WV60 0.45 0.45 USA 30-Jun-07
WORLDVIEW-2 WV110 0.46 1.84 USA 31-Dec-08
Table. 1 Credits: http:// www.ucsusa. org and www.space-risks.com
have started assembling the satellites Every country and organisation The above observations might be and soon there will be a proliferation of responsible for the launch of the satel- achieved in some or the other form, in satellites and availability of data, lites, archive their data, but still there is the years to come.
which should result cheaper satellite a lack of a global metadata, availability Dr. Satyaprakash data and value added services and of which could help the users in locating [email protected] Please Note: The graphs in the article have been prepared products for the end-users. the desired data and procuring them. using the date from UCS and EOSS websites
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 39 Primer Hyperspectral R
libraries to facilitate analysis of hyper- spectral imagery. Several high quality spectral libraries of reflectance spectra of natural and man-made materials are available for public use. These libraries provide a source of reference spectra that can aid the interpretation of hyperspectral and multispectral images. Various type of spectra can be browsed, viewed and downloaded from USGS (http://speclab.cr. usgs.gov/spectral.lib04/spectral-lib04. html) and ASTER (http://speclib.jpl. sors, except that each pixel has many nasa.gov) website. bands of light intensity data instead of Multispectral RS deals with several just three bands: red, green and blue. images at "discrete and narrow band", Hyperspectral imaging collects data to from the visible to the Infrared wave- generate a "data cube" or "image cube" length, whereas hyperspectral RS deals ince the time when that can reveal objects with imaging narrow Sir Isaac Newton and information spectral bands over a published the con- which conventional contiguous spectral ceptS of dispersion of light, the scientific multispectral scan- It is not the number range, and produce terminology and definitions of the term ners cannot pick up. “ the spectra of all pix- of measured "spectroscopy" has evolved over time. Each element leaves els in the scene. It is Today, imaging spectroscopy or "hyper- a unique spectral sig- wavelengths that not the number of spectral imaging" is defined by a contigu- nature, also called defines a sensor measured wave- ous statement of spectral bands. spectral reflectance as hyperspectral, lengths that defines a curve, in various rather it is the sensor as hyperspec- It is the science of acquiring digital bands of the spec- narrowness and tral, rather it is the imagery of earth materials in many trum, based on their contiguous nature of narrowness and con- spectrally narrow contiguous bands spectral reflectance. the measurements. tiguous nature of the and produce complete spectral signa- The overall shape of measurements. tures with no wavelength omissions. the spectral curve and Thus, a sensor with The image produced is similar to an the position and only 20 bands can be image produced by a multispectral sen- strength of absorption hyperspectral when it bands is used to identify different covers the” range from 500-700 nm materials. The reflectance spectra of with 20 10-nm wide bands, while a sen- Anshu Miglani various materials of known composi- sor with 20 discrete bands covering the Assistant Editor tion can be measured in the field or lab- VIS, NIR, SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR would GIS Development [email protected] oratory and can be collected as spectral be considered multispectral.
40 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 standing of exactly what properties of ground materials are being measured and how they are related to the meas- al Remote Sensing urements actually made by the hyper- spectral sensor. Although the potential of hyperspectral remote sensing is exciting, the following issues needs to - An Overview be considered while analysis/ process- ing of this unique type of imagery, • Accurate atmospheric corrections
APPLICATION AREAS Table-1: Application areas of hyperspectral remote sensing
Data from hyperspectral remote sens- Mineral Exploration Agriculture ing provides more details of the Earth's • Lithologic mapping • Crop stress mitigation • Geobotanical mapping • Yield prediction surface than is currently available from • Soil quality • Agro-environmental health multispectral instruments. The detailed classification of complex Marine and Coastal Waters Forestry • Impacts of land use and river runoff • Forest inventory land ecosystems with hyperspectral • Eutrophication and harmful algae • Forest chemistry • Fisheries applications/productivity • Kyoto products imagery is expected to increase the • Coastal zone change detection
accuracy of remote sensing data in The Environment The Military applications including mining, geology, • Wetlands • Terrain mapping • Mine waste management/rehabilitation • Detection of soil disturbance forestry, agriculture and environmen- • Land degradation and soils mapping • Near-shore bathymetry • Climate Change • Target detection tal management. Projects utilizing hyperspectral Coastal Waters Snow/Ice • chlorophyll, phytoplankton • snow cover fraction imagery usually have one of the follow- • dissolved organic materials • grain size • suspended sediments • melting ing objectives: • Target detection: Involves distinguish- Satellite Sensors Manufacturer No. of Bands Spectral Range ing targets from similar backgrounds, or locating examples of targets that are FTHSI on MightySat II Air Force Research 256 0.35 to 1.05 µm smaller than the nominal pixel size. Hyperion on EO-1 NASA Goddard Space 220 0.4 to 2.5 µm • Material identification: The analysis is Flight Center designed to use hyperspectral imagery CHRIS (Compact High Reso- 63 - for identifying the unknown materials. lution Imaging Spectrometer) This analysis may also be accompanied on PROBA with material mapping in which the identified materials are geographically Airborne Sensors Manufacturer No. of Bands Spectral Range located throughout the image. AVIRIS NASA Jet 224 0.4 to 2.5 µm • Material differentiation: It is carried out (Airborne Visible Infrared Imag- Propulsion to distinguish between spectrally similar ing Spectrometer) Lab materials. HYDICE Naval Research Lab 210 0.4 to 2.5 µm (Hyperspectral Digital Imagery • Hyperspectral imagery has also been Collection Experiment) used for mapping surface properties that are undetectable using other types PROBE-1 Earth Search 128 0.4 to 2.5 µm of imagery. Sciences Inc.
CASI (Compact Airborne ITRES Research up to 228 0.4 to 1.0 µm Spectrographic Imager) Limited Challenges with hyperspectral imagery HyMap Integrated 100 to 200 Visible to thermal Spectronics infrared Hyperspectral images contain wealth EPS-H GER VIS/NIR (76), VIS/NIR (0.43-1.05 µm), of data, but interpreting them is a very (Environmental Protection Corporation SWIR1 (32), SWIR1 (1.5-1.8 µm), big challenge. It requires an under- System) SWIR2 (32), SWIR2 (2.0-2.5 µm), TIR (12) and TIR
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 41 Board Band Spectrum mantra for the (e.g. Landsat TM) next generation of optical satel- lite sensors. Reflection spec- tra from the Continuous Spectrum earth's surface (e.g. Imaging spectrometer) give researchers a broad basis for detailed analyses and the genera- tion of variety of data products. Several countries • Availability of spectral libraries are striving for developing their own • Spectral mixing hyperspectral sensor for its applica- tions in the environment monitoring, Hyperspectral Missions: List of risk assessment, mineral exploration space/ aircraft based sensors etc. Hyperspectral imagery is often not as readily available as other types of CONCLUSION remotely sensed data. For almost two decades now, there has In particular, there are few space been worldwide research and develop- borne hyperspectral sensors, including ment into the application of high spec- the Hyperion sensor on NASA's tral resolution remote sensing to vari- EO-1 satellite, the CHRIS sensor on ous earth resource and environmental the European Space Agency's PROBA mapping and monitoring tasks. Hyper- satellite and the FTHSI sensor on the spectral image analysis has matured U.S. Air Force Research Lab's MightySat into one of the most powerful and II satellite. fastest growing technologies in the field of remote sensing. This has the Future potential for more accurate and Hyperspectral Missions detailed information extraction than Hyperspectral instruments will be the possible with any other type of remote- ly sensed data, available today. Extract- ing the reflection spectra information OmniProbe: Third Generation Imaging Instrument from myriad of bands from the earth's surface give scientists, a broad basis for OmniProbe, the third generation imaging instrument have been patented by the Earth Search Sci- ences, Inc. which is a commercial provider of hyperspectral remote sensing technology. Based on detailed analyses. For the next genera- nanotechnology and Microelectronics. Its weighs less than 40 pounds and it can can attached to vir- tion of optical satellite sensors hyper- tually any airborne platform. OmniProbe will quickly and accurately map targets of interest from altitudes of 35,000 feet, at speeds of 500 to 600 knots per hour, and will possess telescoping optics to spectral instruments will play an scope down to 6 inch data. important role. After the success of Probe-1, OmniProbe is sure to be a blessing for geoexploration. OmniProbe is the The success of applying such tech- cutting edge imaging instrument as compared to its counter parts because of its improved resolution (both spectrally and spatially) and low cost and thus wider range of applications. niques often relies on the detection of
According to Larry Vance, the Chairman of Earth Search, "As we move into the next stage of our strat- subtle variations in the spectral proper- egy, our newly-advanced instrument will enable us to joint venture with mineral, hydrocarbon, environmental, and military resource industries to quickly map targets of interest more precisely ties of one or more of the components and economically than any instrument with which we're familiar." being imaged and on the integrity of
42 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 SAND EnMAP CHANDRAYAAN - 1
SAND is proposed specifically for The goals of EnMAP (Environ- Chandrayan, "Moon Voyager", is the assessment of dry ecosys- mental Monitoring and Analysis India's first Mission to Moon. It is tems by measuring bio-geochemi- Programme) are detailed monitor- the first Indian mission to the cal/ bio-geophysical variables to ing, characterization and parame- moon devoted to high-resolution determine land degradation ter extraction of rock/ soil targets, remote sensing of the lunar sur- processes in semi-arid geographi- vegetation, and inland and coastal face in 3-D features in visible, cal areas. waters on a global scale. near infrared, X-ray and low ener- gy gamma ray regions.
To monitor land degradation Enhanced classification perform- High resolution mineralogical and processes through erosion and ance: Differentiation and identifi- chemical imaging of permanently dryland degradation models using cation of individual species and shadowed north and south polar bio-geochemical/bio-geophysical economically important minerals regions. parameters. visible on the surface and to map and locate their extent.
To assess land degradation via Species inventory and mapping: Search for surface or sub-surface the use of a globally applicable Improvement of forest inventory water-ice on the moon, specially index of Land Degradation Status. mapping accuracies to track the at lunar pole. impact of response and control activities on invasive species.
To gain indicators for characteriz- Crop health monitoring: Identify- Identification of chemical end ing specific surface properties ing risks to crops stresses and members of lunar high land rocks related to water cycles, erosion damage due to infestation in the and to map the height variation of processes and plant productivity early stage and mapping their the lunar surface features along in drylands. extent. the satellite track.
Environmental risk assessment: Chemical stratigraphy of lunar To track the land cover and its crust by remote sensing of central changes due to natural and upland of large lunar craters. anthropogenic influences in sen- sitive remote ecosystems such as wetlands and coastal zones.
Sensor Characteristics Wavelength Spectral sampling interval Number of bands of SAND 430 nm - 520 nm 9 nm 10
520 nm - 765 nm 9 nm 27 NIR-range 765 nm - 1050 nm 12 nm 23 Canadian Centre of Remote Sensing
:
y s 1050 nm - 1300 nm 13 nm 19
e t r
u
o
C 1480 nm - 1750 nm 12 nm 22
SWIR-range 1950 nm - 2000 nm 10 nm 5 the sensor's calibration. Such require- 2000 nm - 2400 nm 10 nm 40 ments have driven sensor technology to achieve higher signal to noise ratios, Sensor Characteristics Wavelength Spectral sampling interval Number of bands improved operational stability and of EnMAP improved levels of traceable spectral VNIR-range 420 nm - 1030 nm 5-10 nm 92 and radiometric calibration. As new SWIR-range 950 nm - 2450 nm 10-20 nm 108 sensors provide more hyperspectral imagery and new image processing Characteristics of Chandrayaan Resolution Number of bands algorithms continue to be developed, Grayscale stereo mapping camera 5 m - hyperspectral imagery will become a powerful tool for research, exploration Hyperspectral imager (HySI) 80 m 64 of minerals and monitoring of natural mini-SAR 75 m - resources and their sustainability. Moon Minerology Mapper (M3) 75 m -
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 43 Public - Private
Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Launch of Ter- raSAR was initially announced to be during the second quarter of 2006, but there has been a shift of a few months due to some technical reasons. The main delay was caused by the Russian Dnepr launch failure in July 2006, which entailed an in-depth investigation of the failure cause and a careful implementation of corrective measures. This waiting period was used to per- form additional testing, especially in combination of the satellite with Ground Control and SAR Processing ele- ments of the mission. First Images The first satellite images from Ter- raSAR-X have been received just five days after its launch. The first TerraSAR-X image acquired on June 19, were delivered by DLR's pro- cessing system for a region in Southern Russia; about 500 km northeast of the TerraSAR-X Black Sea and 50 km west of Wol- gograd. Only 30 minutes after the data had been received by the ground sta- tion in Neustrelitz - the first images radar satellites are capable. Further, its appeared on the monitors at the Ger- flexible antenna enables a near-real- man Aerospace Centre (DLR) space cen- time data acquisition in time critical tre in Oberpfaffenhofen. erraSAR-X is the first Ger- situations. Its three different opera- man satellite out of a pub- tional modes allow targeted data acqui- lic-private partnership sition tailored to individual application (PPP)T between German Aerospace Center needs; e.g. large-area assessment at (DLR) and Astrium GmbH. These two 16m resolution for cartography applica- share the costs of the development, con- tions, and dedicated imagery of at 1m struction and deployment of the satellite. resolution for the detailed assessment of infrastructure settings. TerraSAR-X's greatest and most obvi- ous benefits are its weather independ- The Launch ent radar sensor, which is an advantage Initially delayed; finally the launch was over the high-resolution optical satel- a sucess lites available today; and the high reso- The German radar satellite TerraSAR-X lution acquisition capability of up to 1m was successfully launched on June 15th Launch Team with Space Head Module F Credits: Astrium GmbH A - which none of today's commercial from the Russian Cosmodrome in C
44 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 Data & Pricing marketing of the TerraSAR-X The price depends up on various speci- data, Infoterra is establishing a fications. global network of distribution part- The pricing of a TerraSAR-X scene ners. TerraSAR-X users may either depends on its individual specificia- place their data orders directly with tions, e.g. image resolution, requested Infoterra, or order through a partner processing and treatments, or the time located in their respective country or frame set for the acquisition. region. An image of 100 x 150 sqm in size with At this point, more than 30 partners a 16m resolution, ordered in a non- worldwide have joined the network. time-critical frame, can be purchased for ¤2.750. If the desired area of interest has Processing already been captured and is available Leica announced TerraSAR-X process- in the archive, this price is further ing capabilities in ERDAS. reduced by up to 50%. On 25 June, Leica Geosystems Geospa- However, if a near-real-time, high res- tial Imaging announced the develop- olution image acquisition must be per- ment of a TerraSAR-X processing capa- formed within a few hours time, and a bilities in ERDAS IMAGINE Radar Map- rapid evaluation through experts is ping Suite 9.1. The Radar mapping suite demanded, such an acquisition may will allow users to display and manipu- TanDEM-X Mission Concept cost up to ¤13.500. late images captured by the TerraSAR-X © EADS Astrium Infoterra is inviting interested satellite. users to apply for the delivery of a The Remote Sensing Technology Insti- free TerraSAR-X scenes. At this point in tute of the DLR has assisted Leica detailed information on format and time, the application can be accessed at Geosystems in developing the new sensor parameters and,free sample www.terrasar.de/promotional suite for processing radar images. data sets to use for their development According to Infoterra they are taking purposes. Partner Networks a great interest that all relevant First TerraSAR-X Direct Access Partner: geospatial software handles TerraSAR- Future PASCO, Japan X data optimally. Also they are support- The future has already started with In order to ensure a secure and reliable ing the software providers with TerraSAR-X2 and TanDEM-X The course has already been set for the successor TerraSAR-X2, which is sched- uled for launch in 2012. Astrium is preparing to implement the TanDEM-X project (TerraSAR- add- on for Digital Elevation Measurement) on behalf of DLR. This consists of an additional satel- lite, similar in construction to Ter- raSAR-X, that will fly alongside TerraSAR-X at a distance of between 500 metres and two kilometres. TanDEM-X will also be financed under First TerraSAR-X image First TerraSAR-X Direct Access Partner: the PPP model, and could be launched Acquisition date: 19. June, 2007, 15 :03 :24 PASCO, Signing Credits: DLR, Infoterra in March 2009.
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 45 Trend Resurs-DK1 The Russian Remote Sensing Satellite
environmental commonly known as "Roskosmos" or and other needs. RKA, being the government agency Russian satellite responsible for Russia's space science imagery is dis- programme and general aerospace tributed to the research. Roskosmos plays the leading international role in commercial satellite launches market as well. and space tourism. The major civil- Resurs-DK1 was launched from ian remote sens- Baykonur launch area on June 15, 2006 ing spacecraft in with Soyuz carrier vehicle. It was built Russia is the by the Russian space company TsSKB Resurs series, Progress in Samara, Russia. The design which will play lifetime is up to 5 years. a significant role The satellite of 6570 kg weight was in the Russian placed into elliptical orbit with the alti- contribution to tude of 360-604 km. With 6-day revisit- Mission to Plan- ing frequency, 100 m position accuracy et Earth. Resurs- and 1 mln. sq. km per day of maximum DK1 is a com- technical capacity Resurs-DK1 is able of mercial earth collecting unique 1 m resolution observation imagery in panchromatic mode. satellite able of transmitting high-reso- Resurs-DK1 Major Current Tasks are as lution imagery (1 m). follows: Resurs-DK1 is operated by Research • Data supply for resource management and economical activity (inventory of uge landmass of Center for Earth Operative Monitoring natural resources, topographic and the- the Russian territo- (NTs OMZ) - an affiliated branch of the matic mapping). ries and lack of up- Space Observation Center which is a • Monitoring of pollution sources of the to-dateH technologies and information directing agency of Roskosmos atmosphere, water and soil with the demand for rapid development of GIS engaged in exploitation of Earth view of providing Federal and regional environmental authorities with the rele- solutions for the booming Russian remote sensing systems. vant information to make management economy. Looking back to the history of The lines of the NTs OMZ's activity decisions. the Russian remote sensing it is true to with regard to Resurs-DK1 satellite • On-line monitoring of man-caused say that the Russians have always had include operation, maintenance, and natural emergencies for the pur- a very active and prolific remote sens- imagery collecting, as well as archive pose of effective planning and timely performing of measures to eliminate ing program. creating and updating. damages. Russian satellite imagery is provided The Russian Federal Space Agency • Supplying home and foreign for the Ministry of Natural Resources of was formed after the breakup of the consumers on a commercial basis. the Russian Federation, state and pri- former Soviet Union and the dissolu- • Research activities (PAMELA and vate national companies, cartography, tion of the Soviet space program. It is Arina experiments).
46 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007
Fusion
cessing and fusion. The bio-target is to resentation of the earth's surface. "Digi- Space-based observation pro- garner observations from various simi- tal orthophoto: A raster photographic vides repeated, unrestricted lar or dissimilar sources and sensors, image that is combined with differen- Saccess to every corner of the extract the required information (infer- tial rectification to remove image dis- globe, in full compliance with interna- ences, illations) and combines or fuse placements caused by camera tilt and tional law. This capability provides early these with an aim to obtain an terrain relief." Orthoimagery serves as a warning of situation even before any enhanced status and identity of a per- seamless base map layer to which action has to be taken to deal with them. ceived object. many other layers are registered and This paper reports on the experiences can be combined with digital elevation Risks can be assessed before they turn gained using orthrectified images to data for 3-D modeling and slope and into threats. Image fusion has been the integrate multi-sensor images for data terrain analyses which can be easily focus of considerable research atten- fusion in order to benefit from mosaicked to create seamless images of tion in recent years with a plethora of increased spatial, spectral and tempo- larger areas. algorithms (proposed), using numerous ral resolution in addition to increased image processing and information reliability and reduced ambiguity. Orthorectification Work Process fusion techniques. Yet what is an opti- Orthorectification and stereo intersec- mal information fusion strategy or DEFINING ORTHO-RECTIFI- tion are two most important methods spectral decomposition that should CATION AS CONCEPT for preparing fundamental data for precede it for any multi-sensor data A digital orthophoto is simply a photo- multi-sensor integration applications. cannot be defined. The human brain graphic map that can be used to meas- Orthorectification transforms the cen- routinely carries out information pro- ure true distances. It is an accurate rep- tral projection of the image into an
48 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 cal relationship between the real world • Environmental Management coordinates and the scanned aerial • Tax Mapping photograph is determined and the digi- tal image is resampled to create the • Transportation Management rectified image • Operations & Planning • A digital elevation model (DEM) or a • Utilities Management regularly spaced grid of masspoints, each containing an x, y, and z value. • Land Planning and Zoning These elevations are collected from • Drainage Planning & Management stereoscopic models by photogrammet- • Agriculture ric methods to form a digital elevation model (DEM). A more robust digital ter- • Insurance rain model (DTM) can also be used • Planning & Regulation because it includes strategically placed masspoints, dense break lines, and • Natural Resource Inventories and ridgelines. Assessments
For orthorectification, the resampling Limitations of Digital Ortho-photos of the digital image involves warping Though the orthoimagery / photo the image so that distance and area are looks after plethora of issues in multi- uniform in relationship to real world sensor integration but limits itself in: measurements. • Expansion features, such as bridges, create problems in ordinary digital Depending the on the needs of the orthophotos. DTM data is captured at aerial imagery in the GIS system, there ground level, so bridges that are recti- are advantages and disadvantages to fied with this data are "pulled down to Mudit Mathur using either method. GCP orthorectifi- the ground," giving them a distorted appearance. Squadron Leader, Indian Air Force cation is a faster process while using [email protected] • Elevated features (e.g., buildings, DEMs for ortho- rectification is a more accurate orthogonal view of the ground with process. uniform scale, thereby removing the distorting affects of tilt optical projec- Usage Of ortho- tion and terrain relief. To create a digi- imagery tal orthophoto, several fundamental Digital ortho- inputs are necessary: imagery provides • Aerial photos / satellite imagery with a visual informa- high-percentage overlap:, which can be tion for the fol- obtained from scanning aerial photo Fig. 1 Usage of ortho-imagery diapositives or negatives on an image- lowing partial quality scanner or by satellite sensor list of applica- • Aerotriangulation (A.T.) results / tions. ephemeris : , Ground Control Points • Internal (GCP) are determined either conven- Security tional ground surveys, from published • Surveying & maps, by Global Positioning System Mapping (GPS) surveys, or by aerotriangulation. These points are taken at visible physi- • Emergency cal features on the landscape. Depend- Management ing on the type of algorithmic correction • In disaster to be used, a minimum of 3 to 5 good management & GCP must be established. The relation- Public Safety ship of the x, y photo coordinates to the Planning, real world GCP is then used to deter- Response, & mine the algorithm for resampling the Mitigation Fig. 2 Double mapping effects and True Orthophoto image. By using GCPs, the mathemati-
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 49 togrammetry the general availability of DEMs with 1 community. Ter- arc second posting (nominally 30 m) for rain effects have much of the world DEMs for the world's been considered landmass from the Shuttle Radar of minor impact Topography Mission (SRTM) . This per- by the remote mits the preparation of orthorectified sensing commu- satellite imagery using similar tech- Fig. 3 Scaling and sensor location: Final need for Orthorectification nity until recent- niques to those developed by the pho- ly, when togrammetry community for aerial • Higher resolu- trees, power lines) also create a prob- photographs. These two developments tion systems became available, lem due to radial displacement. Distor- provide the key datasets necessary to tion increases with the distance from • A greater emphasis on satellite data prepare a baseline image dataset to the center of the aerial photograph-fea- integration with GIS for business appli- which all satellite imagery datasets tures, such as buildings, lean noticeably. cations occurred, and having a pixel resolution of 10m or The amount a feature leans depends on • Change detection and data fusion the percentage of overlap in the aerial studies became more prevalent. greater can be automatically orthorec- photography and the height of that fea- tified to sub-pixel accuracy. ture. The higher percentage of overlap in the aerial photography used, the less The emerging standard for remotely features will lean because the amount sensed imagery data transfer has iden- MULTI SENSOR DATA FUSION of photography used from the outer tified the basic requirement for Image fusion aims at the integration of edge is reduced. orthorectification processing as well as complementary data to enhance the • In an urban landscape there are unavoidably hidden areas for which no adherence to map projection and information content of the imagery, i.e. information on the original aerial image datum accuracy standards and annota- make the imagery more useful to a par- exists. The presence of hidden areas tion . Many sensor systems (e.g. AVHRR, ticular application. The definition of results in double mapping effects on MODIS, GOES, and Landsat) employ line image combinations and techniques resulting traditional orthophoto images scan designs that view off-nadir as depends on the characteristics a dataset This distortion can have an impact on much as 55 the functional and aesthetic features of degrees, while a digital orthophoto. However these other sensor sys- problems are limited in satellite tems with push- imagery. broom imaging designs (e.g. Traditional "True Ortho" is the solu- ASTER and Hype- tion for double mapping rion) regularly In recent years several orthographic acquire off- rectification schemes compensating nadir views of Fig. 4 Multi source imagery (Right : Aerial, Left :Satellite Landsat) for double mapping effects were pro- as much as 25 posed for generating large-scale true degrees. orthophotos . These schemes use image The develop- based hidden area detection algorithms. ment of auto- matic orthorecti- CO REGISTRATION IN MULTI fication and SENSOR IMAGERY AND mosaicking sys- ORTHORECTIFICATION tem of proce- The remote sensing community has dures has relied been more concerned with co-registra- on two key
tion of images than the comprehensive recent develop- Fig. 5 Orthorectified Satallite imagery image rectification concerns of the pho- ments. The first is
50 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007
tinguished between three different ume, change detection or image fusion levels: enhancement. RVS is used to replace • Pixel, Feature, and Decision level bands by linearly combining additional Image fusion mostly refers to pixel- image channels with the dataset. based data fusion, where the input data is merged applying a mathematical RATIOCINATION algorithm to the coinciding pixel values The experiences gained show very of the various input channels to form a clearly that a major element of the new output image. Once the alignment operational implementation of image of the dataset is established, it is possi- fusion with respect to visual image ble to apply certain fusion techniques. interpretation is the interactive compo- The manifold fusion techniques can be nent. The fine tuning of the image grouped into enhancement parameters, i.e. his- Colour related techniques: This group togram value distribution, filter, assign- Fig. 6 Orthorectified Imagery cross platform comprises methods that refer to the dif- ment of colours etc., influences the suc- ferent possibilities of representing pixel cess of the fusion itself. Similar types of values in colour spaces. An example is areas and datasets require similar val- the Intensity (I) - Hue (H) - Saturation ues for a successful merge. Crucial in (S) colour transformation. If a multi- the overall achievement of image spectral image is transformed from fusion is the adjustment of the colours the RGB space into HIS, it is possible to in the final product. The use of filters for integrate a fourth channel exchanging noise reduction or edge enhancement it with one of the elements obtained is a sensitive matter in visual image (I, H or S). There are many other tech- interpretation. Depending on the scale niques that follow the substitution and type of feature to be looked at, fil- principle. Of course, there are other ters can help understand the image. In Fig. 7 Diagrammatic representation of Orthorectification to data fusion colour transformations which suit the some cases however, it leads to a loss of fusion concept (e.g. RGB or Lumi- detail which might be relevant for the nance/Chrominance - YIQ). application performed. It has to be should have in order to serve the user . Statistical / numerical approaches decided on a case by case basis, if and However, it is possible to summarize a (Pohl, 1996) : The second group of fusion when to apply filtering to VIR or SAR general approach, which describes the techniques deals amongst others with data. Change detection is vastly simpli- overall processing chain needed in arithmetic combinations of image fied, and SAR and multispectral order to achieve image fusion. In the channels, Principal Component Analy- imagery can be more easily and accu- case of multi-sensor image data, the sis (PCA) and Regression Variable Sub- rately interpreted. images have to be geometrically (ortho- stitution (RVS) . Fusion by band combi- The perspective and terrain distortion metrically ) and radiometrically correct- nations using arithmetic operators that presents a significant obstacle ed, before being suitable for the fusion opens a wide range of possibilities to both to human and machine correla- process, using collateral data such as the remote sensing data user. Image tion can be overcome by orthorectifica- atmospheric conditions, sensor view- addition or multiplication contributes tion which provides a common per- ing geometry, ground control points to the enhancement of features, whilst spective and thus both reduces mental (GCPs), etc. . channel subtraction and ratios allow labor and provides a practical first step An elementary pre-processing step is the identification of changes. The for follow-on correlation algorithms.
the accurate co-registration of the Brovey transformation forms a particu- “This work is a collection of works done in the dataset, so that corresponding features lar method of ratioing, preserving spec- field of orthorectification and data fusion by various individuals and institutes. Author takes coincide. tral values, while increasing the spatial no claim in either designing the concept or its Depending on the processing stage at resolution. The PCA and similar meth- methodologies, however, direct integration of isolated works in the field of orthorectification which data fusion takes place, it is dis- ods serves the reduction of data vol- and data fusion is been done in this article.”
52 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007
Observation Remote Sensing Data Policies
sensing of the earth from outer space, GENERAL OBSERVATIONS which are discussed in the following Most of the countries (stated earlier) oday, with the changing paragraph. have space laws, which relate to launch global and regional dynam- and safety of satellites in orbit. These ics, coupled with strategic UN PRINCIPLES ON laws have been framed on the basis of Tand military environments, the world REMOTE SENSING respect for the principle of full and per- is witnessing a growing appetite for The United Nations General Assembly manent sovereignty of the State and its geospatial information and high-reso- adopted Resolution 41/65 in December, people over their own wealth and natu- lution remote sensing data. But, clearly 1986, which contained general princi- ral resources, in accordance with inter- defined policies on remote sensing data ples related to remote sensing of Earth national law. But, only a handful of acquisition and distribution are hard to by satellite. countries address remote sensing data come by. The Principles (specific to data related issues through laws or policies. Accord- This gives rise to a question as to why issues) adopted in the 1986 resolution ing to Gabrynowicz (2003), countries have most of the states (that have are as follows: which have no legislation on remote satellite programmes in place and con- • In order to maximize the availability of sensing in place, follow international benefits from remote sensing activities, sequently generate large volumes of treaties. More often than not, U.S. law is States are encouraged, through agree- data) shrouded their satellite remote ments, to provide for the establishment considered a benchmark and is there- sensing policy on data issues under a and operation of data collection, stor- fore, given due consideration while veil? The reasons may range from an age, processing and interpretation facil- framing policy directives. One such ities, in particular within the framework absence of a well-defined policy to of arrangements wherever feasible. example is the U.S. Land Remote Sens- deliberate secrecy. • As soon as the primary data and the ing Policy Act of 1992. In this article, some general observa- processed data concerning the territory The Act confirmed U.S. supremacy in tions on remote sensing data policies of under its jurisdiction are produced, the land remote sensing technology sensed State shall have access to them different countries have been outlined, through the Federal Government's on a non-discriminatory basis and on especially those pertaining to availabil- reasonable cost terms. The sensed Landsat programme. It states that “to ity of data in the public domain. State shall also have access to the maximize the value of the Landsat pro- available analysed information concern- gram to the American public, unen- ing the territory under its jurisdiction in OVERVIEW the possession of any State participat- hanced Landsat 4 through 6 data The countries engaged in remote sens- ing in remote sensing activities on the should be made available, at a mini- ing data collection and distribution are same basis and terms, taking particular- mum, to United States Government ly into account the needs and interests many. USA, Canada, China, India, Israel, of the developing countries. agencies, to global environmental Japan, Russia, and the European Union change researchers, and to other • Remote sensing shall promote the (especially France, Germany and Italy) protection of mankind from natural dis- researchers who are financially sup- are the major players in the remote asters. To this end, States participating ported by the United States Govern- in remote sensing activities that have sensing industry. Other nations which ment, at the cost of fulfilling user identified processed data and analysed are gaining a foothold in the industry information in their possession that may requests, and unenhanced Landsat 7 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, be useful to States affected by natural data should be made available to all Malaysia, South Korea, Nigeria, Thai- disasters, or likely to be affected by impending natural disasters, shall trans- land and South Africa. All of these mit such data and information to States Ananya Ghosh countries express agreement and com- concerned as promptly as possible. Sub Editor GIS Development pliance with UN resolutions on remote [email protected]
54 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 users at the cost of fulfilling user systems that provide medium resolu- South America. The Earth Resources requests”. tion global data ranging from 5 to 15 Satellite Programme was developed in The Land Remote Sensing Policy Act meters are SPOT, LANDSAT and IRS- collaboration with China and is better also states that “to stimulate develop- 1C/D. The following paragraphs provide known as CBERS, that is, China-Brazil ment of the commercial market for a brief overview of remote sensing poli- Earth Resources Satellite. The objective unenhanced data and value-added cies in some of the other nation states. of CBERS was to build a family of services, the United States Government remote sensing satellites to fulfil the should adopt a data policy for Landsat 7 AUSTRALIA needs of users working on earth which allows competition within The Australian Centre for Remote Sens- resources applications. The free CBERS the private sector for distribution of ing (ACRES) promotes the use of data distribution strategy is the high- unenhanced data and value-added Advanced Land Observing Satellite light of Brazilian-Chinese partnership. services.” The Landsat 7 data, therefore, (ALOS) data within national and CBERS images received in Brazil are is available to all the countries regional government agencies, insti- freely available on the internet for that have entered into an agreement tutes, educational establishments and Brazilian and Latin American users. with U.S thereby, becoming non-US non-profit organisations for non-com- Similarly, CBERS images received in ground receiving stations. It is to mercial purposes only. The Australian China are freely available on the inter- be noted that USA retains ownership of policy requires the customers to sign a net for Chinese users. The CBERS data all unenhanced data generated by legal agreement (at the time of order- policy has been appreciated by the Landsat 7. ing the data) stating that they are per- Government as well as the user com- Another important policy that engages mitted to use the data only for non- munity in Brazil as internet has attention is the U.S Commercial commercial purposes and that they reduced the cost of data distribution to Remote Sensing Policy, released in will prevent commercial use of that almost zero. April, 2003. Among other things, it data by other parties and also follow states that “United States Government restrictions related to data sharing and EUROPE civil agencies acting individually, or redistribution. European Space Agency (ESA) is the when beneficial, together shall acquire The distribution of simply converted nodal agency for space-faring countries and operate U.S Government systems imagery or unprocessed data to third of the European Union (EU). One of the that collect data only when such data parties is not permitted, or in other main problems debated by ESA was are not offered and will not be made words, permission is not granted for that European legislation did not cover available by U.S. Commercial remote transferring data if it retains its original remote sensing data. Most of the satel- sensing space systems.” This suggests pixel structure and can be converted lite operators in Europe earlier protect- an increased reliance on commercial back to primary data. Also, duplication ed their data under copyright which remote sensing satellites for data pur- of data is not permitted, except for was risky because the implementation poses, signifying a major shift from the keeping backups. The ACRES policy (as could differ between ESA Member dependence on data provided by gov- outlined on their website) also states States depending upon the national ernment controlled satellites. that “should non-commercial use copyright laws. Therefore, the EU Direc- extend over time to be a commercial tive on databases was adopted in 1996 COUNTRY-SPECIFIC use, a commercial use licence must be with ESA’s full participation, and was POLICIES obtained from a commercial distribu- subsequently incorporated into domes- Remote sensing policies vary from one tor. If an organisation requires data for tic laws by the EU Member States. This country to another. Most of the cou both non-commercial and commercial means that the remote sensing data tries have data distribution policies for purposes, it is recommended that only which is not protected under copyright medium resolution imagery as they are a commercial licence be purchased.” are secured under the protection grant- useful for determining the general lay- ed by the EU Directive. out of large-scale facilities and also for BRAZIL Although, a well-defined policy on finding out the approximate locations Brazil is also a major player in the Earth remote sensing data is not available, of illegal facilities. Some of the satellite Resources Satellite arena, especially in the Resolution on the European Space
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 55 Policy adopted recently in May, 2007, remote sensing satellite from India as agency from foreign sources. MACRES discusses the 'key issues to be consid- well as to acquire/distribute remote is also striving hard to acquire MS ISO ered in the implementation of instru- sensing data within the country. The 17799 certification for Information ments and funding schemes for Com- policy further states that “for acquisi- Security Management System (ISMS munity actions'. One of the main issue tion/distribution of IRS data for use in 17799) for its data services. is the development of a comprehensive countries other than India, the Govern- data policy, comprising data access and ment of India, through the nodal NIGERIA pricing, which will aid the rapid devel- agency, would grant license to such There exists a proposed pricing policy opment of the space services sector. bodies/agencies of those countries as for the NigeriaSat-1 data, the first satel- Therefore, we can hope for a compre- are interested in the acquisition/distri- lite launched by Nigeria in 2003. It calls hensive European policy, specially for- bution of IRS data, as per specific proce- for acquiring all images over Nigeria mulated for data acquisition and distri- dures.” which would be available for sale at bution. The Indian remote sensing policy also National Space Research and Develop- provides clear guidelines that need to ment Agency (NASRDA). It is proposed FRANCE be adopted for distribution of satellite that the disaster response images France boasts of the SPOT satellite earth remote sensing data within India. would be free, while the images of observation system, which was These are: scenes covering an area of 600x300 km designed by CNES, the French Space • All data of resolutions up to 5.8 m will be available on request. shall be distributed on a non discrimina- Agency, and developed in collaboration Short term plans of NASRDA also tory basis and on “as requested basis”. with Sweden and Belgium. Direct include the development of a perma- • With a view to protect national securi- reception of real-time SPOT data is ty interests, all data of 5.8 m and better nent site of the National Centre for available through a SPOT data recep- than 5.8 m resolution images will be Remote Sensing (NCRS) in Jos, Nigeria. tion licence that allows direct reception screened by the appropriate agency NASRDA also plans to build a national before distribution so that images of of data acquired from SPOT 2, SPOT 4 sensitive areas are excluded. earth observation ground receiving sta- and SPOT 5. The licence includes a data tion with foreign partnerships. • The Government of India does allow distribution licence for imagery sale of 1m resolution commercial acquired within the station’s territory imagery also but its distribution is kept RUSSIA or for a given market on request. SPOT under check through specific sale/non- Russia entered into a new phase of disclosure agreements that need to be data or any value-addition to it can be commercial image marketing in 1992 concluded between National Remote used by the clients for internal purpos- Sensing Agency and users of the data. by permitting the distribution of high- es only. The policy also states that any resolution images acquired by KVR- scene (maximum size of 1024x1024 pix- MALAYSIA 1000 panchromatic camera, which was els) from the images or value-added Malaysian Centre for Remote Sensing initially designed for intelligence appli- products, can be printed and distrib- (MACRES), the centralised national cations. But, it should be noted that the uted only if the full credits (to CNES) are remote sensing data provider of Russian policy regarding sale and distri- clearly displayed. Malaysia, hosts a Data Quicklook Sys- bution of pre-1992 high-resolution tem, which is a web-based system that imagery is not clearly defined, probably INDIA provides online remote sensing satel- due to intelligence and military com- In India, there exists a comprehensive lite data catalogue browsing to the pulsions. Although the available com- Remote Sensing Data Policy which con- public users. MACRES Ground Receiv- mercial images from KVR-1000 have a tains “modalities for managing, permit- ing Station directly acquires data from resolution of two meters, in June 2000, ting the acquisition or disemmination Radarsat-1, and Spot 2, 4 and 5, Landsat, Sovinformsputnik (the Russian Space of remote sensing data in support of NOAA, Terra/Aqua (MODIS) and IRS Agency) announced the commercial developmental activities.” It is neces- (OCM) satellites which are subsequent- distribution of one-meter spatial reso- sary to obtain license and/or permis- ly used for generating value-added lution space images taken by Russian sion from the nodal agency (Depart- products. IKONOS and QuickBird high- satellite system KOMETA. The KOMETA ment of Space) in order to operate a resolution data are also acquired by the images were ultimately used to
56 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 produce 1:50,000 scale topographic maps. The use of these images are currently prohibited for civil commercial purposes.
CONCLUSION Satellite-based services for communication, broadcasting, navigation and earth observation have become the main- stay of our modern world. Space, therefore, is not confined to being just a technological frontier but has also become a geopolitical issue today, which transcends all international borders. As pointed out by Gupta (1994) in a paper titled 'New Satellite Images For Sale: The Opportunities and Risks Ahead', "there are numerous potential hazards associated with the horizontal proliferation of high-resolution imagery and many high-resolution satellite images are a function of the specific circumstances that surround the application. In general, the risks depend on how the new remote sensing services will be distributed throughout the political land- scape, how belligerent states will use high-resolution images, and how observed states will respond to routine overhead imaging by their neighbours". Many countries prohibit the reproduction of multiple copies of data for dis- tribution for commercial purposes to prevent misuse of data for non-peaceful purposes. But, these restrictive measures have given birth to applications like Google Earth, which provide free high-resolution imagery to users around the world. This, therefore, highlights the need for an interna- tionally coordinated strategy to curtail the threat posed by free-for-all high resolution images. Hence, it would be in the common interest of all the nations if a common internation- al policy framework is formulated to help streamline the processes of data acquisition and data distribution around the world, without jeopardising or comprising national security.
References http://ceos.cnes.fr:8100/cdrom-00b/ceos1/policy/policy1.htm www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Intellectual_Property_Rights/SEM1I01A90E_0.html http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/ coverage.html www.ga.gov.au/acres/prod_ser/ALOS/alos_ noncompolicy.jsp Prof. Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz,'A Brief Survey of Remote Sensing Law Around the World',2003 www.spacelaw.olemiss.edu/activitiesandevents/2003/RSLawAroundWorld.pdf Indian Remote Sensing Data Policy, www.isro.org/Announcement opportunity/rdsp.pdf Vipin Gupta, 'New Satellite Images For Sale:The Opportunities and Risks Ahead',1994, http://www.llnl.gov/csts/publications/gupta/pd.html www.lsgi.polyu.edu.hk/sTAFF/zl.li/vol_2_2/03_li_zl1.pdf www.llnl.gov/csts/publications/gupta/contents.html http://www.spotimage.fr/html/_167_.php
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 57 Launch Pad GeoEye-1 The Next-Generation Imagery
will be its ability to collect a large amount of imagery. In the panchromatic mode the satel- lite will be capable of collecting up to ater this year Geo- 700,000 square kilometers in a single Eye will launch day, and in multispectral mode GeoEye-1, a com- 350,000 square kilometers per day. Lmercial Earth-imaging satellite The standard image swath width will which, will provide the high reso- be 15.2 kilometers, but GeoEye-1 will be lution and advanced collection able to swivel and collect multiple capabilities in commercial remote sensing domain. Offering 41-centimeter panchromatic Current 1 meter resolution and 1.64-meter multispectral in the blue, green, red and near-infrared bands, the satellite will enable clients tion and checkout. The satel- to identify and differentiate small lite will then commence a objects and features at high level of three-month imaging oper- detail. Geospatial data users in the ation dedicated almost urban planning, utility, and carto- exclusively to meeting the graphic disciplines - all of which tradi- needs of the U.S. Govern- tionally map small features - are ment's National Geospatial- expected to expand their use of satel- Intelligence Agency (NGA). lite imagery as a result. While GeoEye-1 will be
GeoEye-1 will offer three-meter geolo- GeoEye 1: 0.41 meter resolution able to collect imagery with cation accuracy, which means end a resolution of 41 centime- users can map natural and man-made ters, under the company's features in stereo to within three adjoining swaths on a single pass, current operating license from the meters of their actual locations without meaning that very large continuous National Oceanographic and Atmos- ground control points. areas can be imaged at one time. This is pheric Agency (NOAA), the imagery This level of geolocation accuracy ideal for large-scale mapping require- will be re-sampled to 50 centimeters or will be achieved with the help of three ments, especially in terms of monitor- half a meter for commercial customers. onboard systems: a Global Positioning ing climate change, emergency However, modification to this licensing System (GPS) receiver, gyroscope response and disaster relief. constraint is being worked upon, to and star tracker, which will enable The satellite will swivel up to 40 offer customers best available product the satellite to determine its precise degrees off nadir, giving it an effective and more effectively compete with attitude, position and location at all revisit rate of less than three days. providers outside the United States. times. Another technological advance- Once in orbit the satellite will under- Mark Brender ment found in the GeoEye-1 satellite go approximately 45-60 days of calibra- VP Corporate Communications & Marketing, GeoEye
58 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007
Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview “ Map is being evolved as social media”
Dr. Vincent Tao Director, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Business Unit
Q: How has been the experience, being ly into their websites. So, Microsoft has and page views. There is a daily track- part of industry after a long stint as had a long experience with providing ing system to analyse how the num- academician? consumer-based map products online. bers (traffic) are growing. We have not Microsoft started building the Virtual released any figures yet; we only have Here at Microsoft the environment is Earth (VE) platform in early 2005 to internal numbers that help our analy- different than the organisation I previ- help consumers gain more immersive sis, but there are third party companies ously lead and managed (GeoTango, a mapping and search experiences. The who track these numbers using a cer- 3D mapping and visualization compa- entry point to Virtual Earth is through tain approach. However, there are oth- ny). The issues we are tackling are of a the Live Search Maps consumer portal er factors also affecting growth for VE, larger scale than the ones I used to han- at http://maps.live.com, which is built Microsoft as a whole and for many oth- dle before. But one thing I find in com- on the Virtual Earth platform. er businesses. There is a lot of room for mon, between academic research and Virtual Earth is a technology platform us to grow in this sector. On the busi- industry, is that we are all focused on with a set of services and API's allowing ness side, this is based on transactions. innovation. If researchers have oppor- developers to integrate Virtual Earth We do count how many mapping tiles tunities I would definitely encourage into their own applications or their are being accessed by users, by third them to work in the industry for some own entry points (websites). Microsoft party websites and also by fees when time period so as to understand the Virtual Earth, in both 2D and 3D ver- people pay to license our platform. We major drivers behind the industry evo- sions, is offered as part of the Microsoft are very pleased with our growth so far. lution. However, this is really a person- Developer Network. For consumers, Q: How do you differentiate MapPoint al choice as academia also has many Virtual Earth powers online mapping from VE? exciting research issues to address. services through Microsoft’s www. Q: How has the growth of Microsoft Live.com and MSN, the later is available VE goes far beyond the general map- in 21 languages in some 42 markets, and ping features like finding maps and virtual Earth been since its inception? we are able to reach a huge audience directions. It extends online-mapping It started in 1995 with Encarta, where through these entry points. to the next stage. The next stage is people get the view of 3D globe with Q: How do you analyse the growth of VE? what we define as local search, online detailed map of different regions. Then infotainment and social networking. came MapPoint in 2001, which provid- The growth is of two sides. On the con- So, it is beyond the scope of MapPoint, ed online maps and directions, with a sumer side, the analysis is based on of which was merely a mapping software. set of APIs allowing third parties to course, the statistics about usage of VE's vision is to enable the connection integrate a mapping component direct- users such as unique visitors per month between people to local content, people
60 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 w Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview
to local business and people to people grate into their own software applica- the proprietary formats and their locally. This allows users to access not tions. For example the Microsoft Virtual implications with regard to interoper- just maps and directions; but much Earth Plug-in for Outlook is available ability. However, there is no OpenGIS more rich information about the com- for free downloading. Once you down- format currently available that sup- munity they live in, about the places load and install it, it is part of Outlook ports the capabilities that we need they want to visit and about the events scheduling. When you schedule a meet- for VE. they want to join. We have invested ing for example with someone in Q: If after using Google API user wants significantly in technology innovation, Downtown, and it will take 30 minutes to migrate for some reasons to VE and from oblique images to 3D textured to get there, the programme will alert models, from streetside images to Pho- you 30 minutes before the meeting and vice-versa, how do you see such situa- tosynth. The later two features have provide driving directions as well. This tions? not been released yet. Map is being is how you can integrate the 2D and 3D evolved as social media where commu- features of Virtual Earth into your own It should be straight forward. At the API nication and collaboration among client and desktop applications. level, it is interesting that many users users will become one of the major Q: Is there any current support in VE have experienced different API's (pro- drivers for people to use maps to share vided by different vendors). Unfortu- for the industry standard Vector or their knowledge, information, and nately you will observe that there are experiences. Imagery formats to be overlaid for no API standards as vendors try to pro- Q: If a city wants to integrate local analysis? vide innovative features through their own API's. information say, traffic information As I have said earlier, we provide APIs But the good news is, at the web serv- to VE, do standards play role? and the developers can have their own ice level all those API's are similar, i.e. For the Virtual Earth platform, we ways for integrating their content. XML based and it is not too difficult for deliver a very rich set of APIs that sup- There are many data conversion utili- developers to switch, to use one API or ports both 2D and 3D functions, which ties available that can help to convert the other. In fact, they can even com- is VE 2D and 3D repectively. In our own data and use our APIs to overlay over bine different API's in their own soft- portal, you can see 2D and 3D are fully VE. So at the API level we support ware. I do not see the possibility of integrated into the web browser envi- image overlay, different formats, and standardising all the APIs in future. At ronment. For example, without down- many of the GIS functions and opera- the data format level, however, I loading a separate client application, tions. At the data format level, we cur- believe that there is room for standard- you can either look at a 2D map for traf- rently support GeoRSS for the web por- isation. fic information or you can drive tal, and VE is one of the first to support Q: Would you like to describe licensing through in 3D to have a feel of it. These GeoRSS, an open standard that will options availabile on VE? capabilities are provided to developers help in import/export of data collec- and the third parties so they can inte- tions. There is a big question for us, i.e For developers it is free for use on should we offer websites that have less than 1 million a new format unique visitors per month, which is a for data lot. You have limitations in terms of exchange?. Per- transactions of mapping tiles up to 3 If researchers have opportuni- sonally, I am million per month. If it is more than “ ties I would definitely encourage very careful that, meaning your business is sub- them to work in the industry for about that. I am stantial, Microsoft would like to have a some time period so as to coming from a share from it by way of fee based understand the major drivers geospatial back- licensing. This policy allows as many ground and we developers as possible to do the inte- behind the industry evolution. all understand gration for free either for research or for ” the issue with business purposes. JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 61 SENSORS High Resolution Remote Sensing Sensors
Thus, the targets can be differentiated The Thematic Mapper (TM) by their spectral reflectance signatures It is a sensor carried onboard Landsats 4 in the remotely sensed images. Optical and 5 and has acquired images of the he term, “remote sensing,” remote sensing systems are mainly Earth from July 1982 to the present, was first introduced in classified Panchromatic, Multispectral, with a 16-day repeat cycle.Landsat TM 1960 by Evelyn L. Pruitt of and Hyper spectral depending on their image data consists of seven spectral theT U.S. Office of Naval Research. spectral resolution. bands with a spatial resolution of 30 meters for bands 1 Over the past decade, a renewed and NASA - LANDSAT to 5 and band 7. expanding interest in practical applica- Landsat satellites have been collecting Spatial resolution tions of Earth observations from space images of the Earth's surface for more for band 6 (ther- and airborne platforms has coincided than thirty years. NASA launched the mal infrared) is with and been fueled by changes in the first Landsat satellite in 1972, and the 120 meters, but data, in how they can be used, and in most recent one, Landsat 7, in 1999. band 6 data are who produces them. There have been Instruments onboard the satellites have oversampled to 30 significant improvements in the avail- acquired millions of images of the Earth. meter pixel size. ability of remote sensing data from These images provide a India, US and France in the spectral and resource for global research. It spatial resolution. In addition, the data has the following the sensors. Approximate can be adapted for more varied uses scene size is 170 because of the extension and advance- The Multispectral Scanner km north-south ment of complementary spatial data (MSS) by 183 km east- technologies, such as GIS and the GPS, It was a sensor onboard Land- west (106 mi by which can be used in conjunction with sats 1 through 5 and acquired 114 mi). remote sensing data. images of the Earth nearly continuously from July 1972 Enhanced The- to October 1992, with an 18- matic Mapper HIGH RESOLUTION day repeat cycle for Landsats 1 through Plus (ETM+) OPTICAL REMOTE SENSING 3 and a 16-day repeat cycle for Landsats It consist of eight spectral bands, with a Optical remote sensing makes use of 4 and 5.Landsat MSS image data con- spatial resolution of 30 meters for visible, near infrared and short-wave sisted four spectral bands , although bands 1 to 5 and band 7. infrared sensors to form images of the the specific band designations changed Resolution for band 6 (thermal earth's surface by detecting the solar between Landsats 1-3 and Landsats 4-5. infrared) is 60 meters and resolution radiation reflected from targets on the The resolution for all bands of 79 m, and for band 8 (panchromatic) is 15 meters. ground. Different materials reflect and approximate scene size is 170 km north- Approximate scene size is 170 km absorb differently at different wave- south by 185 km east-west (106 mi by north-south by 183 km east-west (106 lengths. 115 miles). mi by 114 mi).
62 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 INDIAN REMOTE SENSING mapping for Resource sat ranges from homeland security, coastal monitoring SATELLITES 1:100,000 - 1:25,000. and facilitates 3D Terrain analysis. The launch of India's first civilian remote sensing satellite IRS-1A in IRS Cartosat-1 & Cartosat-2 SPOT March 1988 marked the beginning of a Cartosat-1 is the first in-track stereo SPOT is a high-resolution, optical imag- successful journey in the course of the viewing satellite in the IRS series of ing earth observation satellite system. Indian Space Programme. satellites. Cartosat 1 with a capability SPOT 1 was launched in 1986 with 10m for global coverage, revisit period 5 panchromatic and 20m multispectral IRS 1C &1D days and 2.5 m nadir resolution and 27 capability. SPOT 2 was launched in 1990 The fourth in the IRS series, IRS1C and km swath. and is still operational. SPOT 3 was IRS1D were launched on 1995 and 1996. Cartosat -1 images can be utilized to launched in 1993 and stopped function- The satellite payload consists of three generate data products resulting in ing in 1997. SPOT 4 was launched sensors, namely panchromatic camera topographic map generation in in 1998 .SPOT 5 was launched in 2002 (PAN), Linear Imaging and Self-Scan- 1:10,000 scales with 2.5m, 5m and 10m capability. Spot ning Sensor (LISS - III) and Wide Field Cartosat-2 carries a panchromatic satellite imageries are widely used Sensor (WiFS). The PAN camera pro- camera (PAN) to provide imageries for the mapping scale of 1 : 50,000 - vides data with a spatial resolution of with a spatial resolution of better than 1: 10,000. 5.8m. LISS - III camera provides multi- one meter and a swath of 9.6 km. The spectral data in 4 bands. satellite can be steered up to 45 deg CSA - RADARSAT The spatial resolution for visible (two along as well as across the track. It is equipped with a Synthetic Aper- bands) and near infrared (one band) is ture Radar (SAR), which can transmit 23.5m. WiFS camera collects data in two DIGITAL GLOBE - QUICK BIRD and receive signals to "see" through spectral bands with a spatial resolution Launched in October 18, and 2001 clouds, haze, smoke, and darkness, and of 188m and a ground swath of 810 km. fueled for 7 years orbiting the earth at obtain high quality images of the Earth The scale of mapping for IRS 1C & D an Altitude: 450 km - 98 degree, sun- in all weather at any time. ranges from 1:100,000 - 1:25,000. synchronous inclination, the Quick Bird This provides significant advantages satellite is the first in a constellation of in viewing under conditions that pre- IRS RESOURCESAT spacecraft that Digital Globe has devel- clude observation by aircraft and opti- The RESOURCESAT-1 (IRS-P6) is envis- oped that offers commercial high-reso- cal satellites. Using a single frequency, aged as the continuity mission to IRS- lution imagery of Earth. C-Band, the RADARSAT SAR has the 1C/1D, with enhanced capabilities both Quick Bird’s panchromatic and multi- unique ability to shape and steer its in the payload and the platform, to spectral imagery is designed to support radar beam over a 500 kilometre range. meet the increasing demands of the a range of applications. Quick Bird col- It can image a swath from 35 kilome- lects image data at 0.61m tres to 500 kilometres with resolutions pixel resolution and can fit from 10 metres to 100 metres respec- for the application that tively. Incidence angles range from less needs upto 1:3000 scale. than 20 degrees to more than 50 degrees.The satellite's orbit is repeated GEOEYE - IKONOS every 24 days. The RADARSAT-2 Syn- The IKONOS Satellite is a thetic Aperture Radar (SAR) will acquire high-resolution satellite data at horizontal (HH), vertical (VV) operated by GeoEye. Its capa- and cross (HV & VH) polarizations over bilities include capturing at 4 a range of resolutions from 100 to three m multispectral, Near- metres. user community. The resolution of the Infrared (NIR)/0.82m panchromatic res- Mohamed Elias sensor is 55, 23 & 5 m Multispectral as olution at nadir. Its high resolution Technical Manager, Global Scan Technologies, Dubai well as 5 m Panchromatic. The scale of data makes an integral contribution to [email protected]
JULY 2007 GIS DEVELOPMENT 63 Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview “Aerial and satellite imaging are complimentary in nature”
Q. How has DigitalGlobe evolved as a The range of people who use the Q. Keeping in view the scheduled company in the past few years? Where imagery has also undergone a change. launch of WorldView-I in September is it headed to in the near future? Historically, it was the domain of GIS 2007, what according to you has fuelled and Remote Sensing specialists. Also, the growth of satellite industry? DigitalGlobe was earlier a traditional only a few people in an organisation satellite company. In other words, we could access this information. Increas- The fundamental difference is in the had an asset up in space and people ingly, what we have seen is that in the capacity to acquire imagery which is of would approach us with requests to last few years is an increase in aware- high resolution and accurate. The take pictures of their area of interest ness for and expansion of use of launch of WorldView I, would in cer- using our satellite. This was the model imageries within an organisation. tain regards, mean better imagery than for many years for the satellite indus- Today, there are more tools available what we have today. The satellite is try. What has changed for DigitalGlobe that make it easier to view this data also more agile. It can capture five in the past few years is that we have (Google Earth, Virtual Earth, GIS pack- times the imagery that QuickBird can tried to become a content company by ages etc.). Hence, more people are using capture today. If you couple the launch focussing more on making strategic this information than ever before. of WorldView I with that of WorldView decisions regarding which areas to cap- Q. Do you foresee a shift in the model II, scheduled for launch in late 2008, ture and thereafter trying to sell them there will be a ten times increase in our of image delivery? multiple times. We will be expanding capacity. This means that it would our capacity to systematically image There will be a shift in the image deliv- become much more easier to execute different parts of the earth significant- ery model definitely. The web is going the content strategy as the required fre- ly, later this year, with the launch of to play an increasingly larger role in quency of capturing more areas will WorldView I satellite. This will be a fun- how people consume the content. Digi- become quite feasible. It would signify damental change for us. The model talGlobe has an online store. It is differ- a big shift in the model where one had entails working with our partners in ent than the typical delivery model to wait for six to eight months to get a various countries of the world, under- where someone can order for the relatively smaller imagery to pro- standing which areas of the earth they imagery in a JPEG format, which does actively going out and refreshing key care about the most, doing our best to not contain geo-referenced informa- parts of the earth at regular intervals. image them and finally selling the tion. So, we see a need to have products Q. Aerial imaging is emerging as an images to multiple customers. that are useful to different types of cus- industry very strongly. Do you consid- Q. Every industry changes with the tomers, that is, people whom we are selling these imageries to. In case of the er that as a competition to the satellite change in demand pattern. Has there DigitalGlobe online store, we have tast- imagery market? been a change in the demand pattern ed major success in commercial real for satellite products too? estate industry. Other distribution I view it as very complementary mechanisms through which you can indeed. It certainly becomes competi- Spurred by Google Earth, there has get a lot of detailed information is tive if you do not have access to aerial been an increase in the demand for through direct desktop plug-ins and photographs. This is the reason why we satellite imagery in the past few years. software solutions. acquired GlobeXplorer earlier this year.
64 GIS DEVELOPMENT JULY 2007 w Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview Interview
GlobeXplorer has a subsidiary called Q. Many nations worldwide are build- unbelievable amount of infrastructure AirPhotoUSA. This company has a very ing their own satellite programmes. being built as cities are growing and interesting model. They fly all over the What is your reaction (being a com- expanding rapidly. Whenever there is a U.S to acquire and maintain current, lot of change and investment in infra- mercial satellite company) to such nationwide aerial imagery at one-foot structure, it suits our industry very pixel resolution. Plans are afoot to developments? well. I think there is a lot of opportunity extend into Europe as well. All the pro- It is good for the industry that there are there and as we increase our capacity, cessing would then be centralised. going to be more satellites. There is a we will be in a much better position to We at DigitalGlobe think that aerial growing demand for satellite data. serve this growing market. imagery and satellite imagery are quite According to me, the key to success in Q. How do you view the relationship complimentary because aerial imagery the future will be our ability to execute between DigitalGlobe and Google is useful for imaging downtown metro- ourselves as a content company. Hav- politan areas, giving a wider coverage ing the content that people need today Earth? at higher resolution which is not possi- in our image library is not everything. It is a fantastic relationship. We view ble in commercial satellite images due It is important that we make it possible one another as strategic partners. The to restrictions. Satellite images, on the for them to consume it the way they relationship has worked out very well other hand, are great for markets all wish to. So, I think our data archive , owing to the synergy. Google Earth has over the world where it is not possible available over the web, will give us an contributed immensely in increasing to fly. advantage. Other new emerging com- awareness about our industry and in panies will probably not be systematic contributing to DigitalGlobe's success. in giving out their con- It makes me happy to say that we have tent. A lot of them are played a small part in making what probably going to be Google Earth is today. project-based. Hence, Q. What is DigitalGlobe's strategy for they are going to satisfy making available satellite imageries individual project demands probably with- for commercial consumer level appli- in the market. But, our cations? advantage is that we can go to people with I think the consumer is more demand- the imagery they need, ing than the professional user. A con- customised to their sumer expects the imagery to be cur- requirements. rent. So, the bar is quite high. Therefore, Q. What are your views the key to being successful is to have consistent coverage which is of a good on the Asian market quality and is current. If these three ele- with regards to its ments are achieved, then the imagery potential? can be deployed in a number of con- sumer-based applications. That really Historically, Asia has has driven the success of Google Earth been the fastest growing in many regards because they were the region for us for a num- first to invest in seamless coverage of ber of years. It is the the earth. market that we are most This, I feel, was the turning point for
Marc Tremblay excited about. The Asian the industry. Until then, nobody had Vice President, Commercial Business Unit, market is growing very the resources to really go out and do DigitalGlobe, USA rapidly. There is an that kind of work. We like to think our-
GIS DEVELOPMENT 65 JULY 2007 selves as the first company that is emerge, which were not feasible in the our leadership in the market. Two satel- emerging as a content company by past. If an area is visited frequently, it lites (WorldView I and WorldView II) building the largest constellation of opens up a lot of new application possi- are being developed by DigitalGlobe. commercial satellites and compliment- bilities which we had not considered Worldview II is going to be a purely ing that with an aerial programme. before. commercial satellite. From a constella- Q. As one of the leaders of the satellite Q. There is a lot of competition in the tion standpoint, we are in a really good position. industry, where do you see this indus- satellite imaging market especially in As I mentioned earlier, marrying the try heading to in the next few years? sub-metre resolution data. How is aerial imaging with the satellite is real- There will be two major develop- DigitalGlobe trying to consolidate its ly going to benefit us in the long term. ments. One is the growth in the num- position? There is a big difference in having satel- ber of people who will be using this lites and partnering with an aerial information. I think, presently we have Competition will always be there. imaging company than actually con- only scratched the surface. So, instead DigitalGlobe will much rather be in an trolling where the sensors go. Hence, of being a very specialised industry for industry where there is competition we can be more efficient in avoiding a select few scientists or defence ana- because it means that there are oppor- overlaps. lysts, you are going to witness a contin- tunities available. If there are no com- If we know that we are going to cap- ued expansion in the use of satellite petitors, it means that most people do ture a certain market aerially, we are imagery. not consider it a valuable industry to be not going to waste precious satellite Also, given that we are about to expe- in. So, competition is beneficial. capacity on that market. We will redi- rience an explosion in capacity, we will We are very confident that we are in a rect it to aerial which will prove to be see new applications for the imagery good position to continue to maintain more useful. Keynote Sessions
Business Meets 14 - 16 August, 2007 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
www.MapAsia.org
Exhibitions
29 - 30 October, 2007 Cape Town, South Africa http://mapafrica.gisdevelopment.net Workshops & Seminars
6 - 8 February, 2008 Social Evenings New Delhi, India
www.MapIndia.org
8 - 10 April, 2008 Dubai, UAE
www.MapMiddleEast.org
January, 2009 New Delhi, India
www.MapWorldForum.org [email protected] GEOMETRICALLY correct the digital IMAGERY, then create a seamless MOSAIC
and semi-automatically EXTRACT FEATURES,
completing the perfect WORKFLOW.
Successfully retrieve valuable information contained in your imagery. Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging provides ® proven technology solutions ERDAS IMAGINE to maximize your workflow. DSW700 Scan your film to produce digital imagery IMAGINE Enterprise Loader™ with our high performance photogrammetric IMAGINE Enterprise Editor™ film scanner, the DSW700. The resulting output is ready to be orthorectified with Leica IMAGINE AutoSync™ Photogrammetry Suite, our workflow-driven, production-oriented photogrammetric software Leica Virtual Explorer ™ tool. Or, use IMAGINE AutoSync and skip the photogrammetric processing step, employing Leica Photogrammetry Suite your existing image library to semi-automatically georeference the new images. Easily create your seamless mosaic in Leica MosaicPro, with advanced seam-editing Leica MosaicPro capabilities and increased overall efficiency. And finally, extract features effortlessly Stereo Analyst® for ArcGIS using semi-automatic feature extraction in IMAGINE Easytrace™. Image Analysis™ for ArcGIS
From preparation of source material to final product generation, maximize your workflow IMAGINE Easytrace™ with solutions from Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging. Call us at +1 877 463 7327 or +1 770 776 3400 or send an e-mail to [email protected]
Copyright © 2007 Leica Geosystems. All rights reserved. ERDAS IMAGINE is a registered trademark and exclusive property; Stereo Analyst is a registered mark. IMAGE Analysis, IMAGINE Enterprise Loader, IMAGINE Enterprise Editor, IMAGINE Easytrace and IMAGINE AutoSync are trademarks. Geospatial Imaging Chain is a trademark, service mark and property of Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging, LLC.