Alsat-1 decommissioned
A really nice PR blog entry over at SSTL on the decommissioning of Alsat-1, SSTLs first DMC satellite. Its a really nice example of a fit-for-purpose satellite, new low-cost technology and meeting the environmental needs of developing nations. Well worth a read.
posted on: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Terrestrial Laser Scanning for Mainstream Land Surveying
Good catch over at LiDAR News on an article by Mike Pinkerton, a surveyor in New Zealand reviewing the change that laser scanning is having on the industry. Worth a read.
posted on: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
TLS Round-up
GIM have a nice roundup of current terrestrial laser scanners which is well worth a look at. Select from the (limited!) list and see how comparable they are.
posted on: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
New CEO for Intermap
Interesting article over at All Points on the CEO of Intermap stepping down. The author has declared an interest in being a shareholder, but takes a fairly hard line on the state of Intermap who's share price is currently pretty low and potentially ripe for takeover. They have put alot of momentum behind NextMap and the collection of data for the USA and Europe. Is this the right direction to take? Time will tell, although it has seen hugely successful take up in the UK and perhaps this was part of the reason for expanding collection over much larger areas.
posted on: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Google to use UAVs?
Blogoscoped and PCPro are reporting a recent interview from Microdrones CEO where he noted Google having recently purchased one of their UAVs. OK, so lets be clear, these aren't the same as the Global Hawk. They are small, programmable, multi-propeller drones that are ideally suited to collected imagery over relatively small areas. Their "top of the range" kit has a cruising speed of 15 m/s, flying time of 70mins and payload of ~1kg. So Big Brother it ain't, but it certainly is a useful addition for the collection of close range imagery.
posted on: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Open Topography NLAS Project
I blogged a while back about the Open Topography portal. It's worth taking a looking back at their mission statement:
"to build an online system that provides integrated access to high-resolution topographic data, web-based processing tools, and enables the user community to share knowledge, experiences and resources"
For those interested in software tools they provide software for point cloud visualisation and DEM generation....
posted on: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Remote control LiDAR
lidar news report on an interesting transit project monitoring a section of tunnel twice daily to identify any internal changes to the infrastucture. The system is totally unmanaged and housed within protective casing. Upto 1Gb of data is collected and fed back via EVDO wifi modem. Whilst most lidar kit is far from being reliable, well-honed, products, this does demonstrate growing maturity in the market.
posted on: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
TanDEM-X Launched
TanDEM-X launched today and with it we hope the dawn of a new DEM era. The BBC have a very well written article of the mission applications, so no need to repeat it. Other than to say its a unique interferometric SAR mission employing two satellites flying in tandem with the intention of yielding a DEM of the entire surface of the Earth at 10m resolution and a vertical accuracy of 2m.
posted on: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Trimble acquires Definiens
lidar news gives a bit more thought to the widely reported acquisition of Definiens eCognition by Trimble....
posted on: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Laser scanning Mt Rushmore
Gene Roe over at lidarnews gives a great overview of the recent project to laser scan Mt Rushmore by the Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation in Glasgow. The photo and video links are well worth a look in. I wonder if our insurance and warranty would cover us for using our ScanStation like this?? ;)
posted on: Fri, 28 May 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Multi-core evaluation in ERDAS Imagine
Paul Beaty has an interesting comparison of the effect of multiple processors when using ERDAS Imagine for processor intensive tasks....
posted on: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Monitoring the Eyjafjallajökull Ash Cloud
Plenty of Eyjafjallajökull stuff in the blogs at the moment (not surprisingly!) so I thought I would compile a few remote sensing bits together:
MODIS RapidFire had one of the earlier sets of imagery of the ash cloud as it spread out over Europe....
posted on: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
UK Space Agency
Has a nice ring doesn't it? Well, as of today, it formally exists, being funded by a mix of public and private monies. Good post with various erstwhile links here.
posted on: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
The Boneyard
This was just too cool not to blog: The Boneyard. Have a read of the story over at the BBC. Great stuff!
posted on: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
SRTM 10th Anniversary
Yes, believe it or not, SRTM is celebrating it's 10th anniversary. If there is perhaps one NASA mission that has had such a profound impact upon Earth Sciences (and certainly with respect to the number of days "in space") then this is it. Relatively high resolution topographic data of most of the planet's landmass, available for free, is a amazing achievement. ASPRS Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing had a special issue devoted to SRTM back in 2006 and the lead cover article (which is free) provides background to the mission. It truly amazing achievement based on this account.
posted on: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Infrared Photography
There's a nice summary article covering infrared photography over at the BBC. It's part of the celebrations of 100 years of infrared photography. If you read the article you'll see that infrared has been known about for at least a further 100 years, but getting photographic film/plates that were sensitive to these wavelengths was difficult. That occurred around 1910, with commercial film from 1930.
posted on: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Big boys UAVs: RQ-4 Global Hawk
A nice article over at Wired on the diversion of US military UAVs to Haiti to provide reconnaissance imagery for the relief effort....
posted on: Sat, 16 Jan 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Snow covered UK
It's already been flagged up on the BBC, but a Terra MODIS image captured a nearly cloud free, almost totally snow covered, UK yesterday. It's quite simply stunning and is available from the MODIS Rapid Response System which provides near real-time access to MODIS imagery on Aqua and Terra. This particular image is the highest resolution (250m pixels) version and is available with a worldfile meaning it can be loaded straight in to a GIS.
posted on: Fri, 08 Jan 2010 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Plummeting winter temperatures mapped
Nice example of environmental monitoring over at NASA, this time using MODIS Land Surface Temperature to compared temperatures in Europe this winter (11-18 December) with the 2000-2008 average. The UK is a little cooler than "normal"; the real problem areas are Russia, Scandinavia and Poland, with parts up to 20C colder than previous years.
posted on: Sun, 27 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Happy Birthday NASA Terra
NASAs Terra is now 10!! Launched to much fanfare in 1999, of interest to Earth scientists it carries MODIS (wide swath, medium resolution, super spectral) and ASTER. The latter also being super spectral, but high resolution (upto 15m) and also stereoscopic. Note the earlier post on the recently released global DEM product. An extremely successful mission and the celebration pages show some fantastic examples of environmental change.
posted on: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Open Topography Portal Expanded
As reported by lidar news, the Open Topography Portal is to be expanded following a grant from the NSF. The OTP provide a valuable service, albeit somewhat small at the moment. However growing interest in point clouds and DEMs are driving interest and so its excellent to see further investment like this.
posted on: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Low Cost LiDAR
Lidar news have a nice article on low cost 2D LiDAR. Well worth looking at the OXTS webpage and related videos. This clearly demonstrates how young the mobile LiDAR (and for that matter static LiDAR) area is so expect to see big strides to making it more cost effective.
posted on: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
DMC 22m Multiispectral Data Available
Slashgeo report on the availability of 22m multispectral data from DMC via the UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 satellites. Good to see this constellation is proving successful and improving; a great advert for the new British Space Agency!
posted on: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
LEOWorks
I recently came across LeoWorks an educational remote sensing package that is free for use in teaching....
posted on: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
UK Space Agency
Great news this week with the announcement that the UK is set to have a space agency and hopefully begin to capitalise on its rapidly increasing expertise in this area. Spaceman has a good blog entry on this and the BNSC's linked Space Exploration Review is well worth downloading and leafing through.
posted on: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Google Sketch Up extended to support point clouds
Yes, Laser Scanning Europe has developed a plugin for Google Sketchup that enables it to support point-clouds....
posted on: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
GMES Sentinel Data Policy
ESA recently announced the data policy for the GMES Sentinels. And as they say:
"The Sentinels comprise five new missions being developed by ESA specifically for the operational needs of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme (GMES)."...
posted on: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
WorldView-2 First Images
Digital Globe's WorldView-2 successfully launched last week and acquired its first imagery on 19th October over the US....
posted on: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
EO-1 Open for Tasking
After the news last week of the death of TopSat, it is good to see that NASA have opened up EO-1 for tasking. EO-1 was "launched on November 21, 2000 as part of a one-year technology validation/demonstration mission." Its been very successful and lasted considerably longer than most thought. It carries the ALI multi-spectral (10m Pan and 30m MS) and Hyperion hyperspectral (220 30m bands) sensors. If you are in need of data then visit the Data Acquisition Request page and submit a request; this will be reviewed and, if deemed appropriate, tasked.
posted on: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
TopSat is dead. RIP.
I blogged a while back about the availability of TopSat for academic research and whilst the data I received was not great it did provide very good data for many users....
posted on: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Field spec processing scripts
I've been involved with a project looking at the reflectance of loess and seeing how well this correlates with traditional measures, including magnetic susceptibility and grain size....
posted on: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Aeryon UAV
The UAV market continues to develop at a pace. The Aeyron Scout as an example of a neat quadcopter design for military and security applications....
posted on: Sat, 08 Aug 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Get your own satellite in to orbit
You've heard of personal computers well now it's time to own your own personal satellite. Space Fellowship has a nice story on tube satellites. For $8,000, yes $8,000 (!), you get to place your own satellite in to a decaying orbit. It last for a few weeks, but this is no toy. The kit includes the satellite’s structural components, safety hardware, solar panels, batteries, power management hardware and software, transceiver, antennas, and microcomputer and as long as it stays within the 0.75kg weight limit you can design your own experiment including, for example, remote video monitoring. Plenty of scope for some innovative amateur work here.
posted on: Fri, 07 Aug 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Home
I recently caught up on some TED videos having been meaning to look through their back catalog (well worthwhile by the way!)...
posted on: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
ASTER GDEM is here!
ASTER GDEM is here!! I blogged about this last year and there has been some eager anticipation over the arrival of the product (see GIM and the BBC)....
posted on: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
OGC 3D Fusion Summit
Lidar News reports the OGC 3D Fusion Summit next week, rightly noting that
"This is being billed as a first of its kind event in North America, bringing together many of the major technology players in 3D and related topics."
Lidar is really hitting it big time and their are all many key players coming together. Whilst we have LAS as a file format and ESRI entering the fray with terrains, some standardization is sorely needed. Hopefully the OGC can provide this in the same way it has for other areas; the 3D Information Management (3DIM) Working Group seems to be the right starting point.
posted on: Mon, 15 Jun 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
NextMap on iPhone
Intermap are finally moving in to the consumer arena with the release of Accuterra, an iPhone app that offers terrain data (and other info) for off-road users. This was noted by All Points last week and they point out that the app is not streamed, but downloaded to the users phone. You buy a single tile which is 200-400 Mb in size. Meaning of course when you are out of range, the app carries on working. It'll be interesting to see how popular it proves.
posted on: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
GPS Failure?
Tidbits are reporting on the potential for a degradation in GPS accuracy over the next 2 years. The basis for the article is a recent Government Accountability Office report on the US Air Force satellite replacement program for GPS which is behind schedule and over budget (nothing new there then for the military!). However a risk analysis is highlighting the likelihood for the constellation to drop below 24 satellites potentially reducing accuracy. And, if over runs continue, the risk of a failure of the system. Not much to do but watch and wait, but clearly it's a highlighted risk.
posted on: Mon, 18 May 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
IKONOS Data licensed by ESA
Interesting news over at Mundogeo announcing the licensing of IKONOS imagery by ESA. The interesting aspect is, to quote the article:
"Ikonos as a Third Party Mission is available to Esa and Esa-approved projects for scientific research, applications development, or research and development in preparation for operational use in future, the so-called Category-1 use."
Which means that an ESA approved project can have access to IKONOS imagery. Potentially a very useful source of data.
posted on: Wed, 06 May 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
Academic programming and research
Paul Mather wrote an interesting editorial in the latest RSPSoc newsletter (2009, 32, 2) detailing recent comments proposing that photogrammetry is dead as a subject....
posted on: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 | path: /remote_sensing | permanent link to this entry
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