Contract Covers Development of GIS Technical Components for a Spatial Data Infrastructure Redlands, California—February 23, 2009—The Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) has awarded the INSPIRE@EC contract to a consortium that based its solution on ESRI technology. This contract covers the development of the technical components of a European Commission spatial data infrastructure (SDI)

At Plesetsk Cosmodrome, preparations are under way for the upcoming launch of a Russia-made Rockot launch vehicle with the GOCE earth observation satellite for European Space Agency. The launch is currently targeted for March 16. The GOCE launch campaign is being conducted by a combined team of ESA and Thales Alenia Space of Italy (the

Written by Matt Ball: Friday, 20 February 2009. v1 perspectives Geospatial technology hasn’t been around for very long. This year marks the 40th anniversary for both ESRI and Intergraph, two of the prominent geospatial vendors. In this short time span, many technical hurdles have been addressed and overcome, and GIS continues to expand its adoption

Interactive maps that detail carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are now available on the popular Google Earth platform. The maps, funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy through the joint North American Carbon Program, can display fossil fuel emissions by the hour, geographic region, and fuel type. A science team led

By Vector One ⋅ February 20, 2009 Modern agricultural production is highly oriented toward cropping systems that are less biologically diverse. Recent agricultural research has found that “biodiversity in crops decreases fertilizer damage to rivers and lakes. Researchers have identified a link between the diversity of crops grown in farmlands and the pollution they create

About half of the oil in the ocean bubbles up naturally from the seafloor, with Earth giving it up freely like it was of no value. Likewise, NASA satellites collect thousands of images and 1.5 terrabytes of data every year, but some of it gets passed over because no one thinks there is a use

A new step in the cooperation between ESA and the European Commission An amendment to the EC-ESA GMES agreement, which extend the scope of the original Agreement (signed in February 2008) to activities of Segment 2 of the GMES Space Component Programme, was signed on 28 January 2009. This amendment paves the way to ordering

Two Cosmo SkyMed Gen II Earth observation radarsats are to be launched in 2014 and 2015 following the formal launch of the program by the Italian defense ministry and ASI, the Italian space agency. The executive agreement between the two bodies became operational Feb. 12, with the signature of General Vincenzo Camporini, chief of defense

DigitalGlobe and Nokia have agreed to bring the real-world perspective of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery to Nokia Maps, both on mobile devices and on Ovi, improving the global driving, hiking and walking navigation capabilities for consumers who use these applications. Through streamlined technology integration and development of a proprietary format for delivering imagery to

Following word from Eurockot that launch of the Earth Explorer SMOS satellite can take place between July and October this year, ESA, CNES and the prime contractor Thales Alenia Space are now making detailed preparations for the last crucial steps before ESA’s water mission is placed in orbit. The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS)

China is going to set up its own three-dimensional (3D) Internet mapping system to provide high resolution photos to domestic online users, Changjiang Daily reported on February 11. The program, launched by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, is equivalent to “Google Earth”, a global mapping server with a database storing numerous geographic images.

Richmond Hill, Ontario – February 11, 2009: Dr. Robert Moses, President and CEO of PCI Geomatics, a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Open Geospatial Consortium, has been elected by the board to chair the consortium’s recently chartered Global Advisory Council (GAC). The GAC is formally a committee of

PISCATAWAY, N.J.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—The IEEE Committee on Earth Observation (ICEO) is launching “SaveEarthGame,” two international computer game design contests — with a top prize of $20,000 USD — that challenge participants to demonstrate how real-world events affect the Earth and impact people. A panel of specialists will award prizes for the two different contests. The first

Written by Steven Ramage and Dave Lovell Wednesday, 04 February 2009 from V1 The first line in the Mission Statement for the European Spatial Data Infrastructure Network (ESDIN) project is ‘To become a bridge over troubled geospatial data’. This statement sums up the situation quite well but it needs some elaboration in terms of what

_by Written by Matt Ball Friday, 23 January 2009_ Assessing risk is an inexact science. After all, risk is unknown until something happens, and often times we’re unaware of all of the factors that lead to catastrophic change. While we can’t know every issue that leads to a calamitous occurrence, all of the inputs to

Sustaining the Millennium Development Goals Topics • Reducing loss from natural and human-induced disasters • Understanding environmental factors affecting human health • Improving management of energy resources • Understanding and reacting to climate variability and change • Improving water resource management • Improving weather information, forecasting and warning • Improving the management and protection of