Commercial Distribution of WorldView-4 Satellite Imagery in Europe

European Space Imaging has announced that the company has started operations of its new ground station with access to the entire satellite fleet of its WorldView Global Alliance partner DigitalGlobe. The Munich-based company is now in the position to directly task five very-high-resolution satellites (GeoEye-1, WorldView-1, WorldView-2, WorldView-3 and WorldView-4). This speeds up the whole process of planning, collection, data downlink and delivery and allows European Space Imaging to quickly deliver satellite imagery products to WorldView Global Alliance customers in Europe, North Africa, CIS countries and the Middle East. WorldView-4, the latest addition to the DigitalGlobe satellite fleet, joins WorldView-3... (read more)

2017-04-18 03:30:34

Bluesky Reaches Irish Aerial Survey Milestone

Aerial mapping company Bluesky has reported a successful 2015 flying season in Ireland. Having captured nearly 10,000 square kilometres of high-resolution aerial photography, the company is well on the way to achieving its ambitious plans to capture high-resolution aerial photography for the whole of the Republic of Ireland. Bluesky also announced the early take-up of its groundbreaking Irish datasets, with sales of aerial photography and detailed Lidar height models to early adopters including local government organisations, central government departments and commercial businesses. Bluesky originally launched its plans to capture high-resolution, leaf-on, aerial photography and colour infrared imagery for the whole... (read more)

2015-12-04 10:04:04

Underground Mobile Mapping

Laser Scanning and Imaging of Corridors in Japan

Common mobile mapping systems heavily rely on positioning using GNSS. However, concrete, soil and other materials block GNSS signals, thus impeding their use when inspecting pipelines, subways or other underground corridors. Furthermore, such corridors are often narrow, which requires the system to be compact. Here, the author describes a platform equipped with laser scanners and a camera which has been developed in Japan for mapping a wide variety of narrow underground spaces. Regular inspection of underground corridors is important to detect deformations and damage. The success of above-ground mobile mapping systems (MMSs) triggered us to design an MMS for use... (read more)

2014-06-06 10:27:22

Small GPS L1/L2 OmniSTAR Receiver

Geneq has introduced its smallest GPS L1/L2 OmniSTAR receiver. The SXBlue III-L is designed to use OmniSTAR’s HP service to attain decimetre accuracy in all regions of the world including North/South America, Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East reinforcing Geneq’s “Go Real-time, All the Time” strategy. Measuring 14.cm (5.57”) x 8.0cm (3.15”) x 5.6cm (2.22”) and weighing slightly over a pound (1.14lbs, 517g) including battery, the SXBlue III-L GPS is the smallest and lightest GPS L1/L2 OmniSTAR receiver being produced in the world today. In addition to the OmniSTAR service, the SXBlue III-L GPS is... (read more)

2011-04-11 12:00:00

SXBlue GPS L1/L2 RTK Receiver

Geneq has launched an ultra-small SXBlue GPS L1/L2 dual-frequency GPS RTK receiver for high accuracy positioning. One of the smallest dual-frequency RTK GPS receivers in the world, weighing only 268g (~1/2 lb) and having dimensions of 11.26cm x 8.54cm x 3.53cm (4.43" x 3.36" x 1.39"), the SXBlue L1/L2 GPS is designed to be mounted on vehicles and use the vehicle power for machine control applications such as agriculture, mining, construction and other high-precision applications. With a long-range Class 1 Bluetooth implementation capable of distances of up to 100 metres (300 feet) and RS-232 interface port, the SXBlue L1/L2 GPS... (read more)

2011-02-28 10:03:50

TerraPos Post-processing Software

The Norwegian company Terratec has introduced software capable of accurate positioning based on post-processing of GPS-observations, without the use of reference stations or DGPS services. Typical accuracy for kinematic applications are 3cm horizontally and 4cm vertically (RMS). This level of accuracy makes the software unique worldwide. TerraPos utilises precise orbits and clock corrections for the satellites, together with advanced error modelling to produce positions with impressing accuracy. Typpical RMS for a kinematic survey is 3cm horizontally and 4cm vertically. The result is an excellent tool for positioning in applications allowing for post-processing, such as airborne photogrammetric or Lidar operations, seabed... (read more)

2006-12-08 12:00:00

10 Million Square Kilometres of High-resolution Aerial Views

Esri and DigitalGlobe recently updated the ArcGIS World Imagery basemap service with more than 10 million square kilometres of high-resolution aerial views. The World Imagery Map is a free map service for ArcGIS users that contains quality contributions from Esri partners and the global GIS community. The World Imagery Map is one of several useful basemap services freely accessible through ArcGIS Online. The new update includes 30cm imagery for the continental United States down to 1:1,000 scale, and 60cm imagery for large parts of Western Europe down to 1:2,000 scale. Throughout 2013, Esri and DigitalGlobe will grow the map with... (read more)

2013-02-26 08:37:05

Z-Max.Net GPS Tests TERIA

Magellan Z-Max.Net has has been qualified for the new French GPS Reference Network Teria. Originally planned by the Ordre des Géomètres-Experts (French Surveyors Union) to facilitate the work of its members, the TERIA network is an RTK network, based on the use of Magellan reference stations, that will allow users to position themselves in real time with great accuracy, throughout Metropolitan France using the positioning reference of the established network. EXAGONE, the network administrator, will make available an accurate and instant positioning tool for all georeferencing applications. The tests performed in August this year were the first in the... (read more)

2006-12-28 09:59:38

3D City Models of Paris and Florence

CyberCity AG (Switzerland) has extended its library of European 3D city models with two impressive datasets: Paris and Florence. Paris 3D is a highly detailed 3D model of the city of Paris. It covers the 20 city districts with an extent of 90km2 and includes more than 200'000 reality-based 3D building models, generated semi-automatically from aerial images (dated June 2005) with the specialised photogrammetric software CyberCity-Modeler. CyberCity distributes the 3D city model, the detailed digital terrain model and the orthophoto (AeroGRID France, 12.5cm and 25cm resolution). Florence 3D was generated from 20cm-resolution digital aerial images (dated June 2006) with the... (read more)

2007-01-10 03:29:51

First ALS LIDAR Project

Airborne Laser Solutions (South Africa) has undertaken the first aerial lidar survey project in its new Rockwell Aero Commander 1000 aircraft. This survey is required for the route selection and design of a 220km-power line linking Tete in Mozambique and Blantyre in Malawi. The company’s prime equipment currently consists of an Optech 3033 ALTM LiDAR system combined with a Hasselblad camera and Phase One digital back. With this equipment in the Aero Commander ALS is able to generate terrain models at 50cm to 10cm vertical accuracy, and colour digital orthophotos at pixel ground resolution ranging from 50cm to 10cm. The... (read more)

2005-03-17 12:00:00