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BUSINESS
NOTES
Announcements
Vexcel Corporation announced the
installation of its Envisat/ASAR processing system at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a U.S.
Department of Energy entity operated by the University of
California. Its Earth Sciences division uses synthetic
aperture radar (SAR) satellite data to conduct research
addressing challenges in national security, environmental
remediation, energy supply, civic infrastructure, and
industry.
Intermap Technologies won a
special Gold Prize award at the 20th Congress of
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote
Sensing (ISPRS) in Istanbul, Turkey, for its “DEMs from
IFSAR” eLearning training course.
GeoVantage, Inc. announced the
launch of the GeoVantage Rolling Imagery Program (GRIP)
throughout the Southeast and Texas. The program is based
on a rolling regional schedule, which allows GeoVantage to
bundle multiple small imagery orders and offer a cost
effective price.
DigitalGlobe announced that U.S.
civil government customers at the state and local level
now have the freedom to use, distribute and modify
QuickBird satellite imagery products without penalty. This
new civil government licensing model, effective September
17, 2004, represents a pivotal change in the commercial
remote sensing industry’s traditional treatment of
product licensing. In other news, Merrick Advanced
Photogrammetry of the Americas S. de R.L. de C.V. (MAPATM)
is now an authorized reseller of QuickBird high-resolution
satellite imagery in Mexico. MAPA is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Colorado-based Merrick & Company.
Peace Parks Foundation of South
Africa received the Presidential Award in front of 13,000
attendees of the 2004 ESRI International User Conference.
Professor Willem van Riet, chief executive officer of
Peace Parks Foundation of South Africa, was on hand to
accept the award from ESRI President Jack Dangermond. ESRI
announced its support of the Mesoamerican and Caribbean
Geospatial Alliance (MACGA), a program implemented by the
United States Geological Survey (USGS)/EROS Data Center in
cooperation with several partner organizations. ESRI is
providing geographic information system (GIS) training,
documentation, and software grants to assist the alliance.
Working with ArcGIS Spatial Analyst for Geospatial
Intelligence, a new course from ESRI’s instructor-led
training program, focuses on how ArcGIS Spatial Analyst
software can be used as a decision support tool for
defense, intelligence, and law enforcement applications.
In this course, both seasoned ArcGIS users and those with
basic experience can learn how to take full advantage of
the software’s raster modeling capabilities.
Space Imaging announced it has
reached an agreement to sell its Federal Civil/Commercial
Solutions business unit to Denver-based Geo360
Corporation. The group provides mapping and GIS services
to federal, state, and local government customers.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L.
Chao announced nearly $4.9 million in grants to train
workers for careers in the geospatial industry.
The December 30th, 2004 submission
deadline is approaching for Letters of Intent for the
RADARSAT-2 Science and Operational Applications Research
(SOAR) program. Private sector, academic institutions and
research organizations that are interested in
participating in the SOAR program are invited to submit an
online Letter of Intent by this date. SOAR aims to
identify the commercial and operational opportunities
afforded by the advanced capabilities of the RADARSAT-2
satellite. Following
the launch of the satellite, SOAR sponsors will provide
access to RADARSAT-2 data to participants for research and
testing purposes.
Contracts
Pictometry International Corp.
secured license agreements with Union County, NJ and the
City of Baltimore, MD for providing software and imagery.
Clark Labs has recently been
awarded additional funding by Conservation International
for the development of modeling and simulation tools to
aid in analyses and simulation of land-cover change
scenarios and effect on biodiversity. The tools will be
developed within the IDRISI Kilimanjaro GIS and image
processing software.
Merrick & Company announced a
contract to produce one-quarter foot pixel resolution
color digital orthophotography, an update of a 1999
project, for the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts.
PCI Geomatics has been awarded a
$1.2 million contract to supply software, services, and
training to the Malaysian Centre for Remote Sensing (MACRES).
Products to be supplied include Geomatica from PCI
Geomatics and third party products eCognition from
Definiens Imaging and EarthView from Atlantis Scientific.
Product will be delivered through the PCI Geomatics
Reseller for Malaysia, Jurupro Sdn Bhd. The software will
be used to support the activities of the MACRES Ground
Receiving Station.
VARGIS LLC has been approved by
the State of Pennsylvania for the PA Invitation to Qualify
(ITQ) Master IT services contract. This statewide,
multiple-award contract is project oriented, based on
fixed price and deliverables. It is effective July 1, 2004
and is open until June 30, 2009.
J.D. Irving has selected
GeoVantage to provide Fall 2004 imagery of its New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Maine territories. GeoVantage
will deliver georegistered, orthorectified one-meter pixel
resolution digital imagery in both full color and near
infrared. This latest contract represents the sixth season
J.D. Irving will use GeoVantage’s product to manage
their forest operations. The company also captured imagery
of hurricane
damage along the Florida coast.
Intermap Technologies, in
conjunction with AERO-METRIC announced that they have
received a subscription contract from the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for Intermap’s
NEXTMap USA coastal data. The NOAA Coastal Services Center
(NOAA CSC) is managing the program. Under the contract,
Intermap will provide NOAA with NEXTMap USA imagery and
elevation map data for regions in Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana and Mississippi. This is the first phase of a
planned multi-year program that is anticipated to include
the purchase of NEXTMap data for the entire coastline of
the continental United States. Intermap’s portion of
this phase I contract is valued at approximately
CAD$690,000 (USD $522,000).
Products
McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd
(MCSL), a provider of digital airphotos, offers 1999
digital airphotos of Vancouver, Whistler and the Fraser
Valley, BC free at www.MapsByAir.com.
These color air photos provide ground details down to
50cm.
Bentley Systems, Incorporated
selected Earth Resource Mapping’s (ERM) implementation
of the ISO standard JPEG 2000 image format.
Bentley will be adding JPEG 2000 support to its
products by using ERM’s ECW JPEG 2000 Software
Development Kit (SDK).
Mapping Solutions LLC announced
that its flagship product Map-In-A-Box for MapInfo
Professional has been updated. It now includes seamless
access to the high resolution color orthographic aerial
images recently made available by Microsoft’s
TerraServer-USA Web portal.
Sensor Systems released RemoteView
Professional version 2.4.1 for Windows. The release of
RemoteView version 2.4.1 increases analytical capability
to rapidly create situation awareness over broad areas
incorporating vast amounts of image data.
People
David Schell, Chairman and CEO of
the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) announced that the
OGC Board of Directors has voted to appoint Dr. Carl Reed
as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and that George
Percivall has joined the OGC as Executive Director,
Interoperability Architecture. Schell also appointed Mark
Reichardt to the newly created position of President &
Chief Operating Officer. In this capacity Mr. Reichardt
will assume day-to-day operational management of the
company and responsibility for implementation of the
corporate business plan. In his new position Mr. Reichardt
is also appointed to the OGC Board of Directors and will
serve on the board’s Executive Committee.
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