SPACE IMAGING ACQUIRES PACIFIC MERIDIAN RESOURCES
      Space Imaging Expands Capabilities in Visual Information Products.
      Space Imaging announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Pacific Meridian Resources (Emeryville, Calif.). The acquisition will enable Space Imaging to significantly expand its offerings of value-added, visual Earth information products to its customers and also increase Pacific Meridian's product offerings in a number of vertical market areas. Pacific Meridian will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Space Imaging. The agreement was signed March 14, 2000. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
      "Pacific Meridian Resources will provide tremendous value toward developing visual information products to meet our customers' needs," said John Copple, Space Imaging's chairman and chief executive officer. "Pacific Meridian Resources will help us expand our capabilities in product applications, analysis and decision support systems."
      "This merger is a natural fit for both our companies," said Kass Green, Pacific Meridian's president. "Our experience in image classification, applications development, and Web technology will allow Space Imaging to offer complete, end-to-end information solutions. Pacific Meridian will gain access to new markets and resources, but as a wholly owned subsidiary, will continue to serve its existing clients."
      Space Imaging acquired Pacific Meridian Resources, a leading value-added information company, to add the technology, tools and resources Pacific Meridian offers for value-added applications and visual information products to the product and service offerings of Space Imaging.
      Pacific Meridian Resources has extensive experience developing products and services for land use mapping, growth monitoring, fire modeling, change detection, toxic waste site management, pipeline siting, forestry inventorying, environmental assessment and land management. Pacific Meridian Resources' activities in GIS and remote sensing include using satellite imagery and advanced image processing techniques to create land use and land cover maps for a number of markets. Pacific Meridian Resources has created information-rich databases and classifications as well as geospatial software for quantitative and statistical analysis, spatial modeling, growth simulation, change detection and various GIS applications. Pacific Meridian Resources also develops customized Web interfaces for vertical markets.
      Kass Green will be president of the wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Meridian Resources, and lead the expansion of the Space Imaging value-added business.
      CONTACT: Linda Lidov Rich Miller Space Imaging Metzger Associates 303-254-2106 303-786-7000 [email protected] or [email protected]

ConAgra Acquires Emerge from Litton; Expands E-Commerce Focus
ConAgra, Inc. (NYSE: CAG) announced the purchase of the Emerge business of Litton Industries, Inc. (NYSE: LIT). Emerge provides agricultural and land-use information services and is located in Billerica, Mass.
      "Bringing Emerge into ConAgra makes sense," said Bruce Rohde, ConAgra chairman and chief executive officer. "It gives us a key resource to expand our agricultural e-commerce platform and will greatly complement mPOWER3, our unique, Internet-based agricultural information system."
       ConAgra's United Agri Products (UAP) group, a leading distributor of seeds, fertilizer products and crop protection chemicals, developed mPOWER3, an Internet-based information systems program (www.mpower3.com) designed to help growers use technology to increase production and manage their land better. The information system provides a comprehensive record-keeping database, pest and disease alerts, site-specific and regional weather information, yield modeling, agricultural research and other management tools to help improve yield and quality throughout the growing season.
      Emerge's aerial collections expertise will provide ConAgra with additional tools to help growers, including yield and fertilizer crop mapping developed through land-use imagery. "The sale of Emerge to ConAgra is fully consistent with Litton's strategy of building shareholder value by divesting our non-core assets and focusing on our primary businesses," said Harry Halamandaris, Litton executive vice president and chief operating officer - Electronics and Information Systems. "Through its affiliation with ConAgra, Emerge will be better able to achieve its full growth potential."
      Emerge began in 1996 as a project with an agricultural focus and in 1998 became a business unit within Litton's TASC division. All Emerge software systems and support, including its employees, are being transferred to ConAgra. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
      For more information, contact: Karen Savinski, ConAgra, 402-595-5392 Randy Belote, Litton, 703-413-1521


Intergraph To Provide Complete Outside Plant Management System to NEXTLINK
Intergraph Corporation announced that NEXTLINK has selected Intergraph's Geospatial Network Resource Management technology to provide a complete outside plant management (OSP) solution. NEXTLINK is a facilities-based competitive local exchange carrier, or CLEC, with a complete fiber network infrastructure. The Intergraph solution will provide an end-to-end model of all network assets in a single system, enabling NEXTLINK to better manage their facilities and provide better service to their customers. According to George Walker, NEXTLINK director of outside plant and access engineering, "NEXTLINK has grown remarkably fast over the five years we've been in existence. We knew it was time to manage our plant more efficiently. We researched 12 companies, and eventually short-listed three. Of those, Intergraph had the system with the best industry capability to meet our needs. Intergraph also has a global presence, and it was very important to NEXTLINK to choose a vendor who would be able to support our international expansion plans."
      NEXTLINK required an off-the-shelf solution and selected Intergraph's template-based solution. This solution, designed for rapid implementation, will allow NEXTLINK to implement the OSP system with a very aggressive schedule. The template is based on industry best practices and will provide NEXTLINK with a full range of industry-standard functionality. The core system will be used by network planners and engineers to track and manage the fiber network. NEXTLINK is also deploying Intergraph's Web View technology to extend viewing of the system enterprisewide via the Internet.
      NEXTLINK provides service to 49 markets in the US and three markets in Canada. The system will initially be deployed in two pilot areas and then rolled out corporatewide. NEXTLINK currently has a wide variety of existing data - both in paper records and diverse, standalone systems - which will be converted or migrated into the Intergraph OSP solution. markets it serves.
      Visit www.intergraph.com for more information. For more information, visit http://www.nextlink.com.


Developer library now offers new functions ESRI's NetEngine 1.2 Is Now Shipping
ESRI announced that NetEngine 1.2 is now shipping. NetEngine software is a programmer's library designed for geographic network analysis such as networks defining streets, railways, utility and distribution facilities, or rivers. NetEngine provides the programmer the capability to define, store, traverse, and analyze many kinds of networks through a C application program interface or through Visual Basic via a type library.
      NetEngine 1.2 includes new solvers, improved performance, and options that add flexibility for programmers. The new hierarchical shortest-path and origin-destination solvers enhance the performance of NetEngine, and support for bit map and heap data structure allows the implementation of custom network solutions. NetEngine 1.2 also includes samples that show how to construct networks with turn information and how to use the allocate view and the new hierarchical solvers. "We are very pleased with the first-year success of NetEngine in the marketplace," says Ernie Ott, NetEngine product manager."This year we are looking for new developers with additional specialties, such as snowplow routing, to embrace NetEngine, especially with the new functions of version 1.2."
      Since the initial release of NetEngine in June 1998, NetEngine-based applications have been developed for a diverse set of user needs including fleet logistics, intelligent transportation systems, public transit, emergency services, utilities, and consumer routing. Several dozen developers and systems integrators in North America, Europe, and Asia are building NetEngine-based applications. In addition, more than 100 universities have licensed NetEngine for educational purposes.
      NetEngine 1.2 operates in the Windows 95, 98, and NT environments.
      ESRI is currently recruiting new NetEngine Business Partner Developers.
      For more information on how to become a developer, please visit ESRI on the Web at www.esri.com/partners/developers/developers.html. For more information about NetEngine, please visit www.esri.com/netengine.


L-3 COMMUNICATIONS FORMS STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH CORE SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY
L-3 becomes an exclusive provider of broadband communications equipment for satellite images over the Internet.
      L-3 Communications (NYSE:LLL) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Core Software Technology, a leader in the growing commercial satellite imagery market. Under the terms of the agreement, L-3 will become the exclusive provider to Core of high-speed broadband communications and networking products, including ground station uplinks and other products, to be used for the electronic distribution of commercial satellite images over the Internet. In addition, L-3 will acquire a minority equity interest in Core.
      Images from a constellation of satellites will be collected by a worldwide network of groundstations which has been established by West Indian Space, Ltd., (WIS), in which Core is a founding partner. The first of the eight satellites in this network will launch this summer. Core has the exclusive worldwide e-commerce and Internet distribution rights for the sale of WIS high-resolution imagery through its ImageNet.com (SM web site (http://www.imagenet.com), the foremost business-to-business e-commerce web site for the sale and distribution of satellite images over the Internet.
      "This agreement with Core is another opportunity for us to participate in the rapidly emerging market for telecommunications, particularly in remote satellite imaging," said Frank C. Lanza, chairman and chief executive officer of L-3 Communications. "Our plan is to have L-3's Satellite Transmission Systems division, which is part of our commercial telecommunications group, be a prime contractor for Core. We will be providing Core with the high quality products necessary to create a broadband infrastructure to support its future growth while at the same time expanding our own presence in the market for space imagery."
       Mr. Lanza continued, "As demand for satellite imaging increases, this market is expected to grow by approximately 30% a year, with a potential size of approximately $7 billion. By participating as an equity partner in Core, a market leader on a rapid growth trajectory, we enhance our ability to participate in the future success of this business with both DoD and commercial users." Mr. Lanza said that customers for this product include domestic and international government agencies, commercial and industrial organizations, the news media, utility companies, and the real estate industry.
      "As key U.S. and international government and commercial customers for commercial satellite imagery focus more on time-urgent satellite tasking and high-speed delivery of products, L-3's world-renowned expertise in high-speed broadband communications will ensure that Core's ImageNet.com remains the world's geospatial information distribution system of choice," said William R. Usher, Core's chairman and chief executive officer. "Through this relationship, we will provide data to customers faster than any other distribution channel, thereby improving the efficiency of our customers and the overall market for satellite imagery products."
      For more information contact: Cynthia Swain, Vice President, Corporate Communications,
L-3 Communications 212-697-1111; Contact: Justin Holtzman, Core Software Technology, 703-917-8700 ext. 226


ESRI Hong Kong Joins ERDAS Worldwide Distributor Network
ERDAS", Inc. announced that ESRI Hong Kong, the leading GIS consulting firm in Hong Kong and Macau, is now an authorized distributor of ERDAS' geographic imaging products and related services. The new partnership allows ESRI Hong Kong to offer a full range of integrated GIS and geographic imaging solutions, and gives ERDAS direct access to the growing GIS market in Hong Kong and Macau.
      "Being a partner and the local distributor for ERDAS will allow us to provide a full range of GIS and imagery products and services to our customers in Hong Kong and Macau," said Winnie Tang, ESRI Hong Kong's General Manager. The new partnership with ERDAS enables ESRI Hong Kong to meet the growing demand for geographic imaging tools within ESRI Hong Kong's expanding and diverse client base that includes government organizations, education, and private industry customers in the telecommunications and property management markets.
       For more information about ERDAS' geographic imaging products and services in Hong Kong, contact Winnie Tang (tel.: + (852) 27306883, E-mail: [email protected]).


World Construction Set Version 5 Released
3D Nature introduces World Construction Set Version 5. Version 5 focuses on the requests of users to enhance the feature list while simplifying the user interface. According to Gary Huber, President of 3D Nature LLC, "Version 5 is by far our biggest revision ever. Its cornerstone is a brand new interface with a much friendlier and more productivity-oriented work environment. Features have been added and enhanced in every category from architecture and engineering, to GIS, animation and artistry."
      Major improvements include easier import of many more types of data including Bryce, NED, Terragen and SDTS DEMs and 3D Shape files. Projects can now be viewed with improved and expanded OpenGL previews. Naturally accurate skies, shadows and clouds can be enhanced with star fields and volumetric atmospheres. Placing vegetation and 3D Objects, including unlimited numbers of color maps, is now easier and more flexible. For more information about World Construction Set Version 5, contact 3D Nature at (303) 659-4028 or visit the web at www.3DNature.com.


RADARSAT INTERNATIONAL DELIVERS IMAGERY VITAL TO GREENLAND SHIPPING
RADARSAT International (RSI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of MacDonald Dettwiler, has extended a two-year service contract with the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) for ice monitoring and mapping of Greenland waters using RADARSAT-1 imagery. Under the terms of the contract, RSI will continue to supply the DMI with time-sensitive satellite imagery showing the distribution of ice floes to guide ships through Greenland's ice-infested waters to safe harbours.
      Since early 1999, RSI's imaging and delivery service has become a main component of the DMI's operational service in combination with AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) data, weather data, and imagery from the Defence Meteorological Satellite Program. With ice floes that can drift more than 30 nautical miles a day, and distribution patterns that can change in a matter of hours, accurate and timely ice monitoring is vital to ship navigation. Particularly since 90 per cent of Greenland ship navigation is to the West Coast where 50 per cent of the population lives.
      Hans Valeur, Chief of the DMI's ice and remote sensing division, says, "The RADARSAT-1 satellite data we use today normally exceeds the mapping accuracy we used to produce using airborne data. RSI's service has increased our ability to manage the unpredictable nature of Greenland's icy waters."
      For more information contact: RADARSAT International www.rsi.ca; Danish Meteorological Institute www.dmi.dk; MacDonald Dettwiler www.mda.ca

Research Systems, Inc. Releases RiverTools Service Pack
Service Pack Provides More Formats and Makes Software Easier to Use Research Systems, Inc., a developer of technical visualization and application development software, has released the RiverTools Service Pack delivering an extension to its already powerful digital terrain and river network analysis software.
      The service pack was released to enhance several features of the software and to add new file formats to the software's capabilities. The new formats include SDTS, DTED, GeoTIFF and irregular ASCII XYZ. The service pack also makes RiverTools compatible with the Research Systems product ENVI, the Environment for Visualizing Images. With this service pack release, RiverTools can now import data from almost any digital elevation model (DEM).
      Additional features of the service pack provide new and improved display tools, and performance enhancements to its flow grid extraction algorithm that increase the speed in which users can process and visualize their data. Bill Okubo, RiverTools product manager for Research Systems, explains, "Users can view new types of data and get more information out of their DEMs both visually and analytically," Okubo said. "The pack makes the software faster, more user friendly, flexible and it allows people to learn more from their data.
      "In addition to the added functionality of the software, the service pack includes a tutorial that includes four examples designed to bring new and experienced users up to speed on the software more quickly.
      The software is available at no cost to current RiverTools users and is available for download at www.ResearchSystems/rivertools .

Research Systems, Inc. Releases IDL Wavelet Toolkit
Advanced Tools for Image and Signal Processing Analysis Research Systems, Inc., a developer of technical visualization and application development software, has released the IDL Wavelet Toolkit, an extension to its flagship software IDL, The Interactive Data Language. The toolkit enables IDL users to do more with large datasets, including analyzing, filtering, and compressing large amounts of data for storage or Internet posting. Wavelet analysis offers significant advantages over other traditional transforms such as the windowed Forier transform
      Additional features include:
•IDL Wavelet Applet-The applet allows users to manage projects, import data, define wavelets and visualize the results from a single Graphical User Interface (GUI).
•Discrete Wavelet Transform-This feature allows users to compute the discrete wavelet transform on multi-dimensional data. The routines are optimized for fast performance.
•Wavelet Functions-Included are wavelet families that are accessible inside the applet and from user-designed applications. Users can also add wavelet families to the toolkit.
•3D Wavelet Power Spectrum Visualizer-Plots wavelet power as a three-dimensional surface that can be rotated and translated to find the power at a specific location.
•Import data from several formats-A variety of file formats are supported, including ASCII, binary, image (bmp, gif, jpeg, png, ppm, srf, tiff and dicom) and .wav audio files.
      One of the most useful aspects of the toolkit is the fast determination of relevancy of user data.
      "Users can filter out frequencies and 'white noise' that often show up in data," said Mark Goosman, IDL product manager for Research Systems. "This allows users to drill down quickly to their data and find the trends they're looking for without spending time analyzing data that doesn't apply to their project.
      "The IDL Wavelet Toolkit is available for download on Research Systems, Inc. Web site at www.ResearchSystems.com .
      ESRI's GIS Software Demonstrates Visualization and Cost-Benefit Capabilities for Environmental Contamination Problems The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) program recently subjected three of ESRI's GIS software products to a series of exacting tests. ArcView GIS and its extensions, ArcView Spatial Analyst and ArcView 3D Analyst, successfully demonstrated their capabilities in performing visualization and cost-benefit analysis of complex soil and groundwater contamination problems.
      The ETV was established by the EPA to "further environmental protection by substantially accelerating the acceptance and use of improved and cost-effective technologies." The evaluation team concluded that "the main strength of ArcView GIS, ArcView Spatial Analyst, and ArcView 3D Analyst is their ability to easily integrate data and maps in a single platform to allow spatial visualization of the data. The visualization output was clear and easy to understand.
      The ability to sort and query data makes examination of a subset of the data easy to perform. ArcView GIS has the ability to manage data files from a wide range of sources making it suitable for managing complex environmental contamination problems. The ease of use makes ArcView and its extensions accessible for the occasional user who wants to view the spatial correlation between data. For the more advanced user, the scripting language, Avenue, makes the ArcView products extremely flexible and customizable for problem-specific applications. ArcView GIS is a mature product with a large customer base."
      The ETV verification statement and the complete verification report can be found at http://www.epa.gov/etv/verifrpt.htm. Jim Bauman, ESRI, Tel: 909-793-2853, ext. 1807, E-mail: [email protected]

ERDAS India Opens Doors in Hyderabad
ERDAS, Inc. announced that ERDAS India, a new business collaboration between Remote Sensing Instruments (RSI) (Hyderabad, India) and ERDAS Inc., is now open for business in Hyderabad. ERDAS India was established in direct response to the expanding demand for ERDAS' geographic imaging solutions by government organizations and private companies within the well-established remote sensing community.
      "India has a long history of commitment to remote sensing," said Bruce Rado, ERDAS Vice President. "As a country that develops, builds and launches its own satellites, and uses remote sensing technologies on a daily basis, it is a very important country and business partner to ERDAS."
      Of the 24 states within India, 17 have established remote sensing centers that exclusively use ERDAS software, with other states expected to come on line in the near future. ERDAS India is positioned to meet the growing needs of the Indian remote sensing community and will provide streamlined purchasing, delivery, and installation processes, as well as locally based training and technical support services.
      "The influence of ERDAS IMAGINE" in the remote sensing community is growing day-by-day," said Dr. T. Sesha Rao, ERDAS India's Managing Director and owner of RSI. "A situation is emerging in India where new customers are specifically requesting [in their tenders] for only ERDAS products."
      For more information about geographic imaging products and services in India, contact ERDAS India, Dr. T. Sesha Rao (tel.: +91-40-3074066 fax: +91-40-3079566, E-mail: [email protected]).

Insurance group puts GIS to work on customer relationship management
Leading French international assistance company implements high performance CRM using GeoConcept eXplorer. The international assistance arm of a number of well established French mutual insurance companies has implemented a client/server based system to facilitate around-the-clock response to clients in difficulty throughout Europe, GeoConcept, leading European publisher of PC-based geographical information systems and software, announced. Inter Mutuelles Assistance (IMA), a subsidiary of mutuals including MAIF, MACIF, MAAF and MATMUT, developed this non-stop system using the open, modular GeoConcept eXplorer 4.0 software.
      To ensure help arrives as fast as possible while maintaining control of its business, Inter Mutuelles Assistance requires immediate access to information on the exact location where the incident took place (address, town, country), on the type of incident (road accident, breakdown, illness), and on how and by whom the problem is being solved (garage, hospital, airport, station, nearest approved hotel).
      "The use of GeoConcept eXplorer 4.0 allows us to process more than 35,000 requests a day on the system," said Yves Régnault, head of development at IMA. "Our clients have benefited from a faster and better service, and IMA can control its costs more efficiently. The fact that we can now get a clear picture of the distances and the geography involved gives us much better handle on managing our services."
      About GeoConcept (http://www.geoconcept.com) Tel: +44-1273 675100 Tel: +33-1 43 22 79 56 Fax: +44-1273 675400 Fax: +33-1 43 20 90 92 email:[email protected] OR [email protected] (For ALA Paris office only)

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