CraterS Solar MapS GooGle earth Builder
Transcription
CraterS Solar MapS GooGle earth Builder
E a r t h Re m o t e S e n s i n g for Securit y E n e r gy a n d the Environment Summer 2011 Vol. 26 No.3 Craters Solar Maps Google Earth Builder Analyze Earth Change Esri provides you with fast and easy access to multispectral, 20 multitemporal worldwide Landsat GLS data through free online image services. Our ArcGIS© technology simplifies image management and dissemination workflows, using on-the-fly processing and dynamic mosaicking. i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 2 Learn more at esri.com/imgnoteslandsat Copyright © 2011 Esri. All rights reserved. Imagery courtesy of GeoEye and DigitalGlobe. Summer 2011 contents > >D e p a r t m e n t s 6 Secure World Foundation Forum 9 Guest Editorial Orbital Debris Mitigation Tim Brown of GlobalSecurity.org Debates Value of Satellites for Human Rights 28 > >F e a t u r e s 14 Google Earth Builder Advantages for Businesses By Matteo Luccio 17 Solar Map Focus Infusions of Regional Data By Matthew Krusemark, Denver Regional Council of Governments 22 Craters Satellites Unearth Missing Records By Leonard David 28 Observing a Volatile Earth The Latest in Imagery Analysis By Karen Richardson, Esri > >A d v e r t o r i a l 33 Esri Business Partner Section 22 Featuring PCI Geomatics, Topcon Positioning Systems, and Océ North America 6 i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 3 U.N. Compound in Sudan cover image The violence in Sudan is still taking place, four years after our first story on the humanitarian abuses there in our Summer 2007 issue by Lars Bromley, then with AAAS. Imaging Notes published in our Spring 2011 issue an article about the Satellite Sentinel Project, launched in December to monitor troop buildup and village destruction from satellites in the hopes of mitigating further violence. Several credible NGOs are involved, including the United Nations, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the high-profile Enough Project and Not On Our Watch, nonprofits with which the actor George Clooney is involved. The project is getting a lot of attention and seems to have potential to create change. In this issue, we share a Guest Editorial by Tim Brown, an imagery analyst with www.GlobalSecurity.org. He shares some history on the use of imagery in foreign relations, and debates the real value of using imagery to actually stop violence. He contends that without “boots on the ground,” conflicts are unlikely to cease with just visual evidence. Read his editorial on page 9. In this image on the front cover, temporary shelters are shown of thousands of internally displaced people (IDP) seeking refuge in the shadow of the UN compound in Kadugli, South Kordofan, Sudan. On the upper left of the image are at least 250 structures consistent with IDP camps. On the right side are at least 55 additional structures. Credit: DigitalGlobe for Satellite Sentinel Project, taken June 17, 2011. Summer 2011 / Vol. 26 / No. 3 Our Mission Imaging Notes is the premier publication for commercial, government and academic remote sensing professionals around the world. It provides objective exclusive in-depth reporting that demonstrates how remote sensing technologies and spatial information illuminate the urgent interrelated issues of the environment, energy and security. Imaging Notes has a partnership with Secure World Foundation (www.secureworldfoundation.org). Imaging Notes is affiliated with the Alliance for Earth Observations, a program of The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (www.strategies.org). Publisher/Managing Editor Editorial Advisory Board Myrna James Yoo [email protected] Mark E. Brender, GeoEye Editor Anita Burke The Catalyst Institute Ray A. Williamson, PhD [email protected] Nancy Colleton Institute for Global Environmental Strategies Copy Editor Bette Milleson William B. Gail, PhD Microsoft Advertising Director Natalie Cutsforth [email protected] Anne Hale Miglarese Booz Allen Hamilton Creative Director Kevin Pomfret, Esq. LeClair Ryan Jürgen Mantzke Enfineitz LLC [email protected] www.enfineitz.com Editorial Contributions Imaging Notes welcomes contributions for feature articles. We publish articles on the remote sensing industry, including applications, technology, and business. Please see Contributor’s Guidelines on www.imagingnotes.com, and email proposals to [email protected]. Subscriptions To subscribe or renew, please go to www.imagingnotes.com, and click on ‘subscribe.’ If you are a current subscriber, renew by locating your account number on your address label to enter the database and update your subscription. If you cannot go online, you may write to the address below. Imaging Notes (ISSN 0896-7091) Copyright © 2011 Blueline Publishing LLC, P.O. Box 11519, Denver, CO 80211, 303-477-5272 All rights reserved. No material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. While every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy, the publisher and the Alliance for Earth Observations cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of information or for any opinions or views presented in Imaging Notes. Although trademark and copyright symbols are not used in this publication, they are honored. Imaging Notes is printed on 20% recycled (10% post-consumer waste) paper. All inks used contain a percentage of soy base. Our printer meets or exceeds all federal Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) Standards. i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 4 i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 5 Orbital Debris Mitigation Strategies Collisions Increase; Explosions Decrease Secure World Foundation Forum The Earth is encircled with human-made orbital flotsam. Space junk comes in all shapes and sizes, such as abandoned satellites and leftover booster stages. Discarded space hardware includes a variety of launch vehicle upper stages, left on orbit after they are spent. Add to this mix abandoned spacecraft that are no longer functioning. Toss in for good measure separation bolts, lens caps, momentum flywheels, nuclear reactor cores, clamp bands, auxiliary motors, launch vehicle fairings, and adapter shrouds. Given hypervelocity speeds in space, example, deployment procedures can be even the most minuscule of rubbish could designed to prevent ejection of objects. Tethcreate havoc on impact with a functioning ered lens caps and bolt catchers for explosive satellite. bolts are examples of preventive design. As of today, on-orbit explosions To avert explosions, space hardware that have been the primary source of debris. stores energy can be passivated at the end Explosions can occur when propellant of its useful life. Passivation is a practice of and oxidizer inadvertently mix, residual ridding a spent rocket stage of any residual propellant becomes over-pressurized due stored energy left on-board, typically taking to heating, or batteries become overthe form of venting leftover propellants or pressurized. See Figure 1 . pressurants, or controlled discharging of any batteries or momentum wheels. What’s Passivation? According to The Aerospace CorporaWhile the threat of orbital debris to tion’s Center for Orbital and Reentry operating spacecraft is very real, there are Debris Studies, “As the debris mitigation encouraging steps being taken by many measure of passivation becomes more spacefaring companies and countries. For commonly practiced, it is expected that explosions will decrease in frequency. It may take a few decades for the practice to become implemented widely enough to reduce the explosion rate, which currently stands at about four per year.” Leonard David By Research Associate Secure World Foundation www.secureworldfoundation.org Lengthy History Underscored in a report issued earlier this year by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), there is a lengthy history of trying to curb orbital debris. As pointed out in DARPA’s Catcher’s Mitt Final Report, to help control the future growth of orbital debris, most spacefaring nations have adopted measures to limit the creation of new orbital debris. In 1995 NASA was the first space agency in the world to issue a comprehen- sive set of orbital debris mitigation guidelines. Two years later, the U.S. Government developed a set of Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices based on the NASA guidelines. Other countries and organizations, including Japan, France, Russia, and the European Space Agency (ESA) have followed suit with their own orbital debris mitigation guidelines. In 2002, after a multi-year effort, the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), comprised of the space agencies of 10 countries as well as ESA, adopted a consensus set of guidelines designed to mitigate the growth of the orbital debris population. In February 2007, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations’ Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) completed a multi-year work plan with the adoption of a consensus set of Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines very similar to the IADC guidelines. The guidelines were accepted by the COPUOS in June 2007 and endorsed by the United Nations in January 2008. Currently accepted mitigation measures include limiting the use of explosive bolts and other disposable deployment mechanisms, limiting orbital lifetimes of retired payloads and spent rocket bodies to 25 years, and venting unused propellant at the end of operations. While the United Nations 2008 Report on Space Debris discusses these guidelines’ contribution to a slower growth in the space debris population, “these efforts have only slowed the overall growth in the amount of space debris, not halted it,” the DARPA report states. “To date, on-orbit explosions have been the primary source of debris. Nevertheless, collisions are expected to be the leading source within i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 6 debris from a launcher perspective: ›› passivate the orbital stages; ›› leave low Earth orbit stages in short- 1 SS F ig u r e 1. Upper stage rocket explodes, spewing out chunks of debris. Credit: European Space Agency. the next few decades.” In June of last year, the Obama administration issued a National Space Policy that among many other things requires the United States to “lead the continued development and adoption of international and industry standards and policies to minimize debris, such as the United Nations Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines … pursue research and development of technologies and techniques, through the Administrator of NASA and the Secretary of Defense, mitigate and remove on-orbit debris, reduce hazards, and increase understanding of the current and future debris environment.” The French Connection Dutifully aware of the menacing problem of orbital debris – and not contributing to an already cluttered situation – is French launch provider, Arianespace. It was founded in 1980 as the world’s first satellite launch company. Since its creation, the enterprise has chalked up a notable roster of boosting spacecraft for a variety of nations. The spaceport used by Arianespace – also known as the Guiana Space Center – is a strategically-located facility in French Guiana. That locale makes it ideally situated for missions into geostationary orbit. The technical performance of its launch vehicles and a substantial order book have made Arianespace the world leader in satellite launch services for the last few years, with a market share exceeding 60 percent. “Arianespace takes the issue of orbital debris mitigation seriously and actively works with the French Government to ensure that our launch systems respect international agreements whose goal is to reduce space debris,” said Clayton Mowry, President of Arianespace, Inc., with responsibility for managing Arianespace’s customer, industry and governmental relations at the company’s U.S. affiliate. Mowry told Imaging Notes that under the French Space Operation Act and policy, Arianespace authorization to proceed for each mission and with each launch system is associated with mission optimization strategies that take into account debris mitigation planning. The latest version of the Ariane 5 booster is called the Ariane 5 ECA, for Cryogenic Evolution type A. This powerful launch system is qualified to use the propellant tanks’ residual pressure and altitude control systems to lower the upper stage apogee altitude prior to a final passivation procedure, Mowry noted. “This practice prevents the upper stage from crossing into the geostationary region populated by communications satellites.” Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist for Orbital Debris at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas flags the most important actions to mitigate the growth of lived orbits, e.g., orbits from which they will re-enter within 25 years. “Both of these actions are recommended by the IADC and the UN. Some launch service providers do a good job in both areas; some do not,” Johnson told Imaging Notes. Johnson spotlighted the recent June launch of Aquarius SAC-D. The Aquarius mission is the first satellite mission specifically designed to provide monthly global measurements of how sea water salinity varies at the ocean surface, and was developed in an international partnership with Argentina’s space agency, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales. “For the SAC-D mission, the Delta 2 second stage performed a depletion maneuver that moved the stage from an orbit with a lifetime of more than 20 years to one with a lifetime of only a month or two,” Johnson said. The primary focus of the Secure World Foundation is on space sustainability – the ability of all humanity to continue to use outer space for peaceful purposes and socioeconomic benefit over the long term. Indeed, unsafe or irresponsible actions by one actor can have long-term adverse consequences for all. Given the growth of using outer space by an increasing number of governmental and non-governmental actors, steps to deal with the worrisome issue of orbital debris – today and into the future – are welcome news. That being said, there are many more steps that must be taken to tackle this environmental problem of humankind’s own making. i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 7 OCT. 16-19 San Antonio, Texas Register NOW and SAVE! http://geoint2011.com/registration The eighth annual GEOINT Symposium returns to San Antonio! The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation invites you to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in one of the GEOINT Symposium’s favorite cities, San Antonio, TX, for GEOINT 2011. The GEOINT Symposium will capture your interest with intriguing keynotes, panels and breakout tracks from the Defense, Intelligence and Homeland Security Communities’ most prominent leaders. In the 100,000-square foot exhibit hall attendees and exhibitors alike can learn about current trends and innovations. GEOINT 2011 also promises invaluable networking opportunities throughout the day and during evening reception events. Mark your calendar for Oct. 16-19 because you won’t want to miss out on this must-attend event. Attend GEOINT 2011 and hear from these Community leaders … Gen. Keith B. Alexander, U.S. Army Commander, U.S. Cyber Command Director, National Security Agency Ms. Letitia A. Long Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Mr. Bruce Carlson Director, National Reconnaissance Office The Honorable Michael G. “Mike” Vickers Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence The Honorable James R. Clapper Jr. Director of National Intelligence Adm. James A. “Sandy” Winnefeld Jr., U.S. Navy Commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command Commander, United States Northern Command Gen. Douglas Fraser, U.S. Air Force Commander, U.S. Southern Command Rep. Rogers, Chairman, HPSCI, and Rep. Ruppersberger, Ranking Member, HPSCI, will provide a joint keynote. Don’t miss Congressman this opportunity to see two i m a C.A. g i n gDutch n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 0 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m Ruppersberger key decision-makers share Maryland, 2nd District their knowledge. Congressman Mike Rogers Michigan, 8th District Gen. C. Robert “Bob” Kehler, U.S. Air Force Commander, U.S. Strategic Command 8 www.geoint2011.com Where Our National Security Begins… @GEOINTSymposium See highlights from GEOINT 2010 at www.geointv.com Satellites for Human Rights Can They Stop Genocide? Guest Editorial “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” – Plato The Satellite Sentinel Project is the latest example of how the powerful tool of commercial satellite imagery, and the analysis that goes with it, can be used (www.satsentinel.org). Previous efforts to use high-resolution, space-based imagery to raise awareness and document war crimes, while admirable, have yielded mixed results. Overhead imagery in 1995 showing mass graves in Bosnia did little to stop the “ethnic cleansing” as it was taking place. Madeleine Albright, then Secretary of State, even showed at a hearing on Capitol Hill declassified photos of the disturbed earth in northern Bosnia that provided evidence of mass graves outside the one U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica. In the end, the U.S. and the European Community did not intervene until an estimated 200,000 people were killed – 8,000 in Srebrenica alone. Tim Brown by Senior Fellow Washington, D.C. www.globalsecurity.org In 2004, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), under the auspices of the Department of State, purchased commercial satellite imagery to document and to show the scale of violence taking place in the Darfur region of southern Sudan. The Amnesty International project Eyes on Darfur (www.eyesondarfur.org) attempted to monitor the violence in Darfur, as well, in 2007. In May 2006, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) released a study using commercial satellite imagery showing destroyed villages in Zimbabwe. See Figures 1-2. Five years later, President Robert Gabriel Mugabe is still in power. In 2004, there was hesitancy in the U.S. even to use the word ‘genocide’ in reference to Sudan, as that word carried with it a legal requirement for governmental and moral action. Yet the word was used to describe what was going on in Darfur, and there was no real action. Four years later in 2009-10, the International Criminal Court issued the warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Ahmad al Bashir on ten counts — for torture, rape, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Yet even today he is still in power. If the recent arrest of the former Yugoslav military commander Ratko Mladic is any indication, it can take some time to bring perpetrators of war crimes to justice. It was 16 years before Mladic, who orchestrated the slaughter of the 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, was caught. His lawyers are fighting on the grounds that he is too weak with a medical condition for trial. It may be years before the current perpetrators of war crimes and genocide in Sudan are captured and brought to justice, if indeed they ever are. If anything can be deduced from the civil war and “ethnic cleansing” carried out against Muslim minorities of Bosnia and Kosovo by the Yugoslav leaders in the 1990s, it would be that there was a whole body of collateral information that crimes against humanity and genocide were taking place, yet the ability to detect and charact- erize those activities was not sufficient to move Europe and the West to act. There are limits to what this technology can do. Hollywood has created unrealistic expectations among the public, policy makers and celebrities. The public has been fascinated ever since the words ‘spy satellite’ were first uttered in 1968 in the movie Ice Station Zebra, starring Rock Hudson. Since then, overhead imaging capabilities have been wildly exaggerated, especially in the movie Enemy of the State in 1998. A Brief History Lesson In 1979, famed CIA imagery analyst Dino Brugioni revealed the existence of aerial imagery of the Auschwitz death camp, accidentally captured on aerial strike camera film from allied bombers attacking the nearby I.G. Farben Plant, over thirty years earlier (see Figure 3 ). Since the 1979 article, there has grown an expectation that overhead imagery can be used to detect war crimes, and once detected, the war crimes will stop or be forced to stop, or at least the imagery could be used as part of the body of evidence to bring the perpetrators to justice. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Adlai Stevenson, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, faced off against his counterpart, Soviet representative Valerian Zorin in the Security Council, over the issue of the introduction of offensive ballistic missiles in Cuba. Aerial imagery depicting the construction of Notes: This editorial is in response to the article, “Satellite Sentinel Project” from the Editor’s Spring 2011 issue. Tim Brown is an imagery analyst and Senior Fellow at Globalsecurity.org. The opinions expressed here are solely his own. This information is accurate as of the date of this writing, June 9, 2011. Also see editorial by Dino Brugioni in the Spring 2007 issue, and the feature about human rights issues in Zimbabwe and Sudan in Summer 2007. These can easily be found by keyword search at www.imagingnotes.com/archive. i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 9 2 Guest Editorial 1 WW F ig u r e 1. Porta Farm, Zimbabwe before the area was demolished, taken June 22, 2002. Images are part of a AAAS report that was previously published in the Summer 2007 issue of Imaging Notes, and are courtesy of DigitalGlobe. SS F ig u r e 2 . Porta Farm image after destruction, taken April 6, 2006. Image courtesy of DigitalGlobe. offensive ballistic missile bases was shown, to counter Soviet denials about the deployment. In the end, the U.S. imposed a “quarantine” – essentially a military blockade – of the island. The Soviets backed down, and the missiles were withdrawn. Overhead imagery, it seemed, won the day, forcing the Soviets to withdraw. It did not hurt that the U.S. had an overwhelming nuclear superiority, or that there were conventional forces ready to strike Cuba militarily, with an invasion force of U.S. troops standing by, or that a fleet of U.S. naval vessels were ready to sink Soviet merchant vessels bound for Cuba. In addition, President Kennedy secretly agreed to withdraw the U.S. medium-range ballistic missile from Turkey. So it was the threat of the use of force, along with covert negotiations, that ultimately caused the Soviets to change their minds. The overhead imagery was useful but not critical. Setbacks in the Use of Imagery The Cuban Missile Crisis was the high point in which overhead (aerial) imagery was credibly used to prove a point in foreign relations, and a high point as well in U.S. international credibility. Since then, using imagery has gradually lost its effectiveness. In 1983, President Reagan displayed aerial imagery of military arms shipments and deployments in Nicaragua and Cuba to boost public support for the “Contras” and the overthrow of the Sandinista regime in Managua. The military buildup was nonnuclear in nature and not capable of directly threatening the United States. A more recent example is when, in 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 10 displayed a simulated vial of anthrax, and showed overhead imagery of activity suggesting ongoing Iraqi chemical and biological weapons activity. It later turned out that Iraq had neither a chemical nor a biological weapons program. The single Iraqi source codenamed “Curveball” fabricated his story to West German intelligence in hopes that the U.S. would invade Iraq1. The imagery and Powell’s personal credibility helped convince skeptics that a second Iraqi war was justified. Increased use of this type of “brief occasion of amazement,” as Carl Sagan said, combined with the increased cynicism of Americans and other people of the world, has dulled overhead imagery’s usefulness over time. Summary How much evidence is required to detect and demon2 strate violence in significant enough levels to cause the SS F ig u r e 2 . Aerial reconnaissance imagery of Auschwitz International Community and showing the gas chambers and crematorium revealed in the United Nations to act? 1979, courtesy of National Archives, via Dino Brugioni. High-resolution overhead imagery is best used to detect, from the ground. Overhead imagery alone identify, and characterize activity in denieddoes not seem to move public opinion, nor access areas. Since there is an abundance does it cause the perpetrators to stop, nor of ”ground truth” of what is going on in the International Community and the United Sudan, from journalists and non-governNations to act. mental aid and human rights organizations The fundamental question is whether showing dead bodies, burned villages, and documenting ongoing war crimes and people suffering in refugee camps, satellite genocide for later use in court has any imagery can do little more than provide a effect on the behavior of perpetrators. So context to the imagery that is hard to get far, it doesn’t seem to. Deterring killing and genocide in the disputed regions of Sudan is a noble cause, but it is a daunting task to dedicate satellite imagery collection time to monitor an area larger than the state of Texas. At a speed of four miles per second, these satellites are pre-programmed to point and click at areas already identified by people on the ground reporting killing. Instead of satellites discovering new knowledge, they are more often than not used to illustrate what is already known. Persistent staring (observation) from i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 11 Guest Editorial The fundamental question is whether documenting ongoing war crimes and genocide for later use in court has any effect on the behavior of perpetrators. So far, it doesn’t seem to. a variety of platforms such as commercial high-resolution imaging satellites, aerostat balloons, and unmanned drones is useful only with “boots on the ground.” International Peacekeepers are needed, with a mandate to protect life and property and to stop the violence. The Satellite Sentinel Project as currently envisioned does not have boots on the ground to go with it. The goal of documenting violence, war crimes and genocide to prosecute is more attainable. This action is akin to crime scene investigators who show up after a murder has been committed to collect evidence and create a documentary chain of evidence to be used later in a trial. Using satellite imagery and analysis to document war crimes presumes that some of the perpetrators will be caught and brought to justice. George Clooney and other celebrities have lent their good names and money to raise international awareness about the killing going on in Sudan2. Mr. Clooney has actually been to refugee camps on the borders of Sudan enough times that his trips cannot be dismissed as mere photo-ops. He has provided substantial financial support and personal commitment to the Satellite Sentinel Project and has the support of other celebrities. The satellite company DigitalGlobe has made available to the effort its constellation of high-resolution imaging satellites. Harvard University’s Humanitarian Initiative, the groups Not On Our Watch and Enough Project, co-founded by John Prendergast, along with Amnesty International, scholars, organizers, and activists, have made the violence, war crimes and genocide in Sudan hard to ignore. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Program (UNOSAT), along with the International Criminal Court, which has handed down indictments, all send a strong message that war crimes and genocide in Sudan will not go unnoticed, and hopefully not unpunished. The question is whether Mr. Clooney, the satellite companies, prosecutors, scholars, and human rights activists can raise public awareness to a sufficient level to pressure the U.S., the West, and the International Community to act in time to stop more violence in Sudan, or at least not to interfere in a U.N.-mandated peace enforcement. The answer lies in a highly complex international process requiring cooperation and commitment that, at this point, have not been possible. Part of that complexity is that the Sudanese ethnic minorities occupy land where the government wants to drill oil to sell to countries like China. The current Sudanese government does not want to share profits with Southern Sudan, though they will have to, once the south is independent. Also, China holds a seat on the U.N. Security Council, and could veto any vote to send in troops. In its present form, the Satellite Sentinel Project can actually do little to deter violence or stop aggression. To do that, governments, not satellite companies and celebrities, must act by putting troops on the ground and using force if necessary to stop the actions and deter further violence. Satellites watching genocide being committed and reporting after the fact is a relatively inexpensive proposition, but may also be ineffective. Whether the Satellite Sentinel Project can raise enough awareness to cause governments to act is an open question. Footnotes 1.Normally, intelligence agencies prefer to rely on multiple sources of information before they are willing to write “finished intelligence.” U.S. intelligence agencies had no opportunity to interview the Iraqi source, had no collateral information and found his claims unreliable. Secretary of State Colin Powell went out of his way to ensure that the information he was given was accurate. Yet he was not careful enough. Had he known about the CIA doubts or the fact that agency personnel did not have a chance to interview “Curveball,” he no doubt would have left that material out of his U.N. presentation. 2.The group Not On Our Watch was founded by Don Cheadle, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, David Pressman, and Jerry Weintraub. i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 12 July 24-29, 2011, Vancouver, Canada Beyond the Frontiers: Expanding our Knowledge of the World Welcome! Because of the March earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and the IGARSS 2011 team jointly decided to move IGARSS 2011 to Vancouver, Canada. Please join us at the Vancouver Convention Center July 25 - July 29 for IGARSS 2011. Check our website (www.igarss11.org) for up-to-date information on the technical program, the venue, hotels, and the social program. We look forward to welcoming you in Vancouver! Jon Atli Benediktsson President, IEEE GRSS Motoyuki Sato General Chair, IGARSS 2011 i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 13 Photo Credits: Tourism Vancouver Capilano Suspension Bridge Tourism Vancouver / Tom Ryan Vancouver G o o g le E a r t h , l au n c h e d s i x y e a r s ag o, e x pa n d e d by o r d e r s of magnitude the market for geospatial technologies. The initial 3D viewer was supplemented over time by driving directions, sky and flight simulator modes, street view, bathymetry, historical imagery, and other features. It evolved into a full-fledged enterprise mapping and GIS platform and was widely adopted across the geosciences and other scientific disciplines, as well as for a variety of business and government applications. Now Google is productizing the processing infrastructure it has developed for Google Earth and Google Maps, together with the power of its massive server farms, by launching Google Earth Builder. The new platform, which it announced at the Where 2.0 conference in April and has scheduled for release in Q3 of this year, will make Google’s back-end geospatial capabilities available to enterprise users – business customers. 1 What It Is and What It Does Matteo Luccio by Writer Portland, Ore. www.palebluedotllc.com Note: Imaging Notes regularly Editor’s asks image processing companies to share their most up-to-date offerings, as you see here, as Esri does on page 28, and as Hexagon/ERDAS did in the Spring 2011 issue. More to come! SS F ig u r e 1. Thumbnail view of uploaded mapping data in a Google Earth Builder Google Earth Builder is a cloudaccount computing platform that enables organizations to upload and manage all their geospatial data, create custom layers, and share them with staff to view on Google Earth and Google Maps. According to Google, the application will support spikes in user traffic — such as during a disaster response — and significantly reduce IT costs, by automatically scaling as needed and updating software and servers. “Google’s cloud scales to handle different scenarios and lets organizations focus more on building maps and less on managing on-premise hardware,” says Dylan Lorimer, Google Earth Builder’s product manager. The platform will also enable organizations to set attribution on custom map layers and share access to the data without sharing the raw data files. It will let them process and publish large geospatial data files, access Google’s extensive basemap of imagery, roads, and points of interest, and create custom map layers for Google Earth and Google Maps. As one would expect from a Google product, Google Earth Builder also provides users with a lot of metrics as to who is viewing their data. Google Earth Builder will enable users to view maps from desktop and mobile platforms, share them with individuals and groups, and visually analyze geospatial data without requiring GIS training. In most cases, however, for the foreseeable future, Google Earth Builder will store and catalog geospatial data files (shapefiles, TAB, Mr. SID, JPG2000, TIFF, KML, etc.) that were created using Esri GIS software. Users upload i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 14 the files via a catalog interface, which allows them to enter layer names, attribution, tags, source, and other metadata. The application automatically extracts this metadata and indexes the files for quick search. Users can upload raw satellite imagery and perform masking, edge matching, some color balancing, and “feathering” of the tiles in order to create a seamless image map. “The user doesn’t have to make many decisions, but there are a few knobs and dials,” says Lorimer. The application also supports vector data and allows users to create and manipulate map layers and style them dynamically to create thematic maps. “We create a spatial table in the cloud, which we manage,” Lorimer says. “You can define a style to create attributes and specify levels of details and cartographic rules. Maps can be rendered on the fly, in either a KLM layer or as raster tiles to be displayed on top of Google Maps. Users define one or more styles and marry them with the vectors. For example, you might display parcels for Montana in different ways on a Web site or on a tablet.” Google Earth Builder allows users to publish their data in three ways: directly to a Google Earth client, through Web Map Services (WMS), and in Google Earth and Google Maps API for developers to access. As Google continues to increase its investments in geospatial technology — for example, through its Google Earth Engine image classification project — it will probably make more of it available through Google Earth Builder. the pricing structure, he explains Google Maps Premier starts at $20,000 when you bundle vector data storage. “Google Earth Builder will start at a slightly higher price point, but will include more storage and page-view quota,” he says. It will be based on the quantity of data plus the amount of map consumption — for example, whether the maps are only for internal use or embedded on Web sites. “As we look to productize more of our technology, for example 3D models, we have to figure out how it fits into our pricing model.” By launching Google Earth Builder, Lorimer says, Google is making it easier for organizations to build and publish maps as well as productizing its core competencies, in response to persistent requests from its customers to make the mapping infrastructure it has built available to them. “It has been fairly difficult for organizations to build maps,” he says. “They have needed complicated, on-premise solutions. We want to make it easy for them. We hope that organizations that are starting will consider using the cloud for mapping. The mission of Google Earth Builder is to take the innovation we have built into our consumer products and make it available to businesses.” Google will provide both standard and premium support to users of Google Earth Builder through its Google Enterprise program, as well as online documentation and contextual help, code snippets and examples, a user group, and two yearly user conferences. Quality Control and Improvements Pricing Structure Google’s announcement of Google Earth Builder focused on two initial clients, both of which are very large organizations: Ergon Energy, a utility company owned by the government of the Australian state of Queensland, and the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). “However, the cloud scales,” says Lorimer. “If we did our job right, the product will suit the needs of the smallest to the largest organizations.” Regarding To help ensure the quality of the data uploaded, the data catalog is accesscontrolled. Google then performs some limited quality control. “We strive to do the heavy lifting, but are not trying to fix your data,” Lorimer says. “We will not rectify or fix data, but we will notify our users of any errors we see.” Publishing has a completely separate set of access controls. Cloud technology will allow Google to quickly share improvements with all users of Google Earth Builder. “We can hear from a customer about a feature request and we can implement it and make the innovation available almost at the speed of browser refresh,” says Lorimer. Image Processing and Spatial Analysis One of the data pipelines that is available at the push of a button, Lorimer explains, is massive image processing, whether one image or thousands, gigabytes 2 SS F ig u r e 2 . Blended imagery tiles processed by Google Earth Builder and shown in the Google Earth Plugin or petabytes. “As a user, you can get access to Google’s infrastructure of thousands of machines, with no set-up required. We will have customers that will have a tremendous amount of imagery; they will not need to provision any additional hardware; it will scale automatically.” However, it is not clear whether this will speed up image processing, compared to software and services that are already available. For most users, Google Earth Builder will not replace GIS any time soon, due to its limited ability to perform spatial analysis and geoprocessing. “Right now, we are not exposing any standard vector analytical operations beyond spatially constrained search,” says Lorimer. “We want to provide all the useful mechanisms you may need to access and make use of your data. The goal is to expose all of our infrastructure for enterprise use.” i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 15 The NGA’s Adoption of Google Earth Builder The NGA contract with Google is one of the first major government geospatial cloud initiatives. For four years, the NGA has been using Google Earth Enterprise to build globes and related products, under a program called GEOINT Visualization Services (GVS), according to Daniel Vernon, a technical executive with the agency’s Acquisition Engineering Office. GVS operates on three of the network levels the NGA supports, he explains. The Joint Chiefs of Staff asked the NGA to expand GVS to an enterprise-level solution, called Geospatial Visualization - Enterprise Services (GV-ES). “With GV-ES and the ever-increasing volume of users that can consume Open Geospatial Consortium-compliant Web services such as WMS and WMTS, and be able to export the products produced with Google Earth Builder for use on the classified networks.” “Google Earth Builder is one of the core elements of the GV-ES architecture,” Vernon explains, “and allows the NGA to produce globes and services at a much faster, more time-relevant rate. In addition to the NGA geospatial analysts, our partners also benefit from our provisioning of globes, maps, and OGC services to include organizations that provide humanitarian assistance, disaster response and relief, as well as federal, Department of Defense, and intelligence agencies.” amounts of imagery that they are acquiring through digital aerial photography by replacing on-premise servers with Google’s cloud. In addition, it will allow them to push their data to this platform while keeping it publicly open, rather than waiting for Google to update its data. Google Earth Builder’s limited analytical capabilities do not make it a substitute for GIS for any organization that requires complex geographical analysis. Nor will its floor pricing make it affordable for small businesses. Perhaps a good private sector candidate for adopting Google Earth Builder would be a real estate developer who needs to store and manage large amounts of aerial photo- 3 4 raster and vector data,” says Vernon, “the NGA needs greater capacity now and in the future to build and provision globes and related products. We have reached the limits of what we can do to build 2D and 3D products using the Google Earth Enterprise software we presently use.” Such visualization and ease of access is in alignment with NGA Director Tish Long’s vision for the agency. “In addition,” Vernon continues, “while the NGA has been serving customers on the classified networks, we have the increasing need to provide this same capability on unclassified networks. We therefore began using Google Earth Builder to build, provision, and serve products that will support Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Earth plug-in users. The NGA will also be able to serve SS F ig u r es 3 - 4 . Dynamically rendered vector tiles streamed by Google Earth Builder and shown on Google Maps. Figure 3 is Portland, Oregon. Figure 4 shows Europe. “Once our customers start using the product and services the NGA will provide from Google Earth Builder,” Vernon concludes, “it will be their comments to NGA that will most influence where we go with this capability. Our customers have shown a lot of imagination in using the capabilities we have offered thus far under GVS, which will continue to expand under GV-ES.” Benefits Perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of Google Earth Builder will be state and local governments, who will save considerably on storing the massive graphy and use it to create simple maps for use in assessing the suitability of sites for various uses. Google Earth Builder would save the company on the cost of training its staff in GIS and in buying and maintaining large servers on which to store the imagery. Google Earth Builder will also give governments and companies access to the massive amount of data Google has already collected for Google Maps and Google Earth (including 3D images of landscapes), let them combine it with their own data, and allow them to publish it in an interface now familiar to millions of people. i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 16 Infusions of Regional Data Th e De n ve r Reg ional Sol ar Map is a Web-based application the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) developed with funding from a New Energy Economic Development grant through the Colorado Governor’s Energy Office. DRCOG began developing the site in March 2010 and launched in November 2010. The application lets users easily locate their properties and explore the benefits of solar photovoltaic (PV) installation through a simple address search for their buildings. In addition, it allows local solar installers in the Denver region login access to respond to consumer inquiries. DRCOG’s initial hopes were that the project would not only bolster adoption of renewable energy in the Denver region, but also create jobs by connecting local solar providers and contractors with building owners. Installers have been actively using the site to respond to consumer inquiries. Importance of Regional Data Collaboration The Denver metropolitan area encompasses over 5,000 square miles making it a challenge to find contiguous, detailed geospatial data to support the solar map needs (see Figure 1). In order to accurately calculate solar PV potential for buildings in the region, DRCOG needed several key datasets to support the application, including digital orthophotography for feature and building identification, LiDAR to quickly identify rooftop obstructions on buildings that would potentially inhibit solar PV panel placement, and building footprints where LiDAR information might not exist. DRCOG has a long history of collaboration that includes 56 member governments (local municipalities and counties) and other regional, state and federal agency partners in the region. One area of collaboration in the last decade has been in the development of regional geospatial data to support SS F ig u r e 1. DRCOG’s map of the Denver region shows DRAPP area and LiDAR coverage. Matthew Krusemark, GISP By Information Services Manager Denver Regional Council of Governments Denver, Colo. www.drcog.gov Note A feature article about Democratic National Editor’s Convention security, by the same author from DRCOG, appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of Imaging Notes. i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 17 long-range planning and current and future transportation investments. The Denver Regional Aerial Photography Project (DRAPP) has become the de facto regional base map with which many agency’s spatial data is often referenced, including transportation, property ownership (parcels) and land use/zoning, to name a few. The DRAPP project operates on a two-year cycle and is usually made up of a consortium of 40+ members, making the approximately 1 million dollar project affordable to 2 Partnerships and Economies of Scale DRCOG partnered with Woolpert, Inc. (Dayton, Ohio) to develop a feature extraction methodology to identify rooftop obstructions to solar PV placement on buildings within the LiDAR project area. Woolpert was able to utilize DRAPP imagery, DNC LiDAR and local agency building footprints to create an automated feature extraction process that mapped rooftop obstructions for all 512,000+ buildings. Outside the LiDAR project area, DRCOG developed 3 all the partners involved. In addition to DRAPP, a Denver Regional Data Consortium (DRDC) was founded in 2009 to foster regional data development beyond the DRAPP imagery effort that could be used in regional software decision-making applications like the Denver Regional Solar Map and others. These additional DRDC-developed datasets include transportation, open space, and the built environment (categories of building types, number of building floors and addresses, for example). The DRAPP imagery provided the base map for the solar mapping effort. In 2008, LiDAR was collected to support emergency planning for the Democratic National Convention (DNC, an article about which appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of Imaging Notes) through additional partnerships that included local, regional and federal government agencies and made publicly available after the DNC event by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) NSDI Partnership Office. DRCOG acquired DRAPP imagery in the spring of 2008. The summer 2008 LiDAR acquisition covered the densest portions of the built environment in the region which is made up of 512,000+ buildings. However, the LiDAR acquisition area only encompassed approximately 20 percent of the geographic land area of the region making it necessary to reach out to local governments to fill in those gaps with building footprints they had already developed. The local governments and DRDC partners in the Denver region provided an additional 306,000+ building footprints to fill the gaps. 4 in-house algorithms that calculate a more generalized solar estimation for those areas that only had building footprints. In addition, where no building footprints or LiDAR existed, DRCOG utilized its regional parcel inventory of over 1.2 million parcels to fill in the gaps and calculate a single and more generalized solar estimation so that all facilities in the region would be included. Finally, DRCOG partnered with the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA, Boulder, Colo.) and worked even more closely with one of the COSEIA members who is a local solar installer to develop region-specific solar power generation estimates, electric bill savings and an estimate of solar PV system sizing for each building in the database. This was an important partnership that provides Solar Map users with the most accurate solar estimation specific to Colorado’s environmental factors. The App Framework DRCOG also partnered with a Woolpert software developer to build a customized front end. It was important for DRCOG to utilize a mix of open source and commercial technologies that fit the existing DRCOG architecture with which the in-house GIS programmers were already familiar, and would be able to further extend in the future, as needed. DRCOG staff used the Google Maps API (Google, Inc., Mountain View, Calif.) to allow the app user to geocode their business or residential address, or zoom around manually to find a building that they might be interested in (see Figure i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 18 2). The Google Maps API was chosen because it is already familiar to most Internet users and no training would be required to learn to geocode an address or use the map to locate a building. After a building is chosen by the user, a wizard is utilized to show the benefits of solar PV installation (see Figures 3 and 4). DRCOG’s open source enterprise spatial database environment is PostGIS (OSGeo Project of the OSGeo Foundation, Vancouver, BC, Canada) and this is where all the building locations (800,000+ records) and The Benefits and the Future The Denver Regional Solar Map has leveraged existing data and resources in the Denver region from local, regional, state, federal and private partnerships. Acquisition of high resolution digital orthophotography and LiDAR in conjunction with the availability of building footprint data has greatly benefitted the potential for solar PV installations on buildings throughout the Denver metropolitan region. The application has created a foundational mapping WW F ig u r e 2 . This is the initial screen that is displayed when a user loads http:// 5 solarmap.drcog.org. WW F ig u r e 3 . Once a user searches for an address or clicks on a building, the wizard appears. This is the first screen of the wizard, which shows approximate monthly power generation that the building could potentially produce if a solar system is installed. WW F ig u r e 4 . The second screen of the wizard displays potential savings based on an estimated solar system size for the building. WW F ig u r e 5 . Graphic shows rooftop obstructions that are automatically mapped through the feature extraction process. TT F ig u r e 6 . Graphic shows rooftop obstructions that solar installers can see for each building in the back end of the application when they login. rooftop obstruction polygons (2.5+ million) are stored for use in the application. Woolpert’s software developer used the Ruby on Rails framework to make the connection between the Google Maps API click events and the PostGIS database. The partnership with COSEIA provided the solar estimation to populate the buildings database, and provided DRCOG members with a login to the application that would allow the solar installers to see and explore the obstructions that were mapped from Woolpert’s feature extraction process (see Figures 5 and 6). COSEIA members can create a login to the site and explore the mapping details of the application that might be too complex for the users. DRCOG performed detailed interviews with several COSEIA members in gathering requirements for their interface and mapping needs. DRCOG GIS programmers then performed usability testing with additional COSEIA members to get their final feedback before deploying the application to the public. Once a member of the public chooses through the application to be “contacted by a local installer,” the record goes into a queue where up to five installers can contact and provide a more detailed building assessment and solar PV estimate for prospective customers. framework that is complex on the backend for local solar installers to research buildings with obstructions, and simple yet powerful on the front end for the public to learn more about solar and for the local installers to connect directly to customers. After the first year of use of the application by the public and COSEIA members, DRCOG will be 6 analyzing and sharing the successes and challenges encountered and thoughts on how the application might be improved for future use. In addition, the application data, database and process that were developed for identifying rooftop obstructions could easily be reprocessed in the future when new DRAPP imagery and LiDAR are acquired. This allows the team to leverage the existing methodology and make improvements to the data behind the application without a significant additional investment of resources. Additional DRCOG Imagery, Data and Mapping Links >> Denver Regional Solar Map: http://solarmap.drcog.org >> Denver Regional Aerial Photography Project: www.drcog.org/ drapp >> Denver Regional Data Consortium: www.drcog.org/drdc i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 19 Dynamic GIS = GIS + Remote i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 20 Sensing + Photogrammetry Translate change, on the fly, into actionable information. Combining the strengths of Intergraph and ERDAS (along with Leica Geosystems), we now offer the industry’s most comprehensive set of geospatial solutions, aligning all the vehicles necessary to make the Dynamic GIS a reality. Completely connecting sensors to software and software to solutions catapults our entire industry into a new era, where integrated geospatial systems replace the traditional domains of GIS, remote sensing, photogrammetry, surveying, and mapping. The Dynamic GIS aligns the most innovative offerings in the geospatial industry. We have the market ingredients, coupled with a revolutionary strategy to fulfill the increasing demands for information portraying our changing earth. Learn more at www.erdas.com/DynamicGIS. Please visit www.erdas.com or contact us at [email protected] or +1 877 GO ERDAS. i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 21 1 Leonard David By Research Associate Secure World Foundation Superior, Colo. www.secureworldfoundation.org Note: The author would like to Author’s thank Bevan French of the Smithsonian Institution and David Kring of the Lunar and Planetary Institute for their guidance in writing this article. C a ll t h e m t r o u b le - m a k e r s o f t h e h e av e n s . As t e r o i d s a n d periodic comets can wander into the Earth’s neighborhood, and on occasion, crash into our planet. Earth has the scars to prove it. Over geologic time, these malicious cosmic interlopers have left their mark on our world. But obtaining a true inventory of Earth’s impact craters is made difficult by erosional processes over eons of time, as well as vegetation overgrowth – along with politics and even a touch of secrecy. Impact-minded Searchers In the past, most images of craters were aerial or from the Space Shuttle. See Figures 1-2 . Today, in the 21st century, thanks to an armada of Earth-orbiting satel- lites that provide worldwide coverage, including use of high-resolution imaging technology, the prospect for eyeing new sites has been boosted. Moreover, special processing can reveal insights about a crater imaged by a digital system. “Impact-minded searchers have discovered at least ten new impact structures through satellite remote sensing. Before Landsat, and to some extent since 1973, observations from airplanes, and in particular aerial photos, were a source of information about possible craters,” notes Nicholas Short, formerly with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He explains in a web-based i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 22 2 Satellites Help Unearth a Missing Record remote sensing tutorial that in large parts of the world the more obvious craters have been found by conventional techniques. “But in parts that were poorly mapped or explored, evidence from satellite imagery may be the first overviewtype looking that discloses heretofore unnoticed impact shapes or scars,” Short reports. “Previously known impact craters are being re-examined in the context of their surroundings. But, the scientific ‘fun’ has been to search for new ones, especially in isolated regions not easily accessed or populated. The basic strategy in the hunt is to look for distinct circular structures or features, the hallmark of craters, and then to find confirmatory evidence that impact was involved.” WW F ig u r e 1. Meteor Crater in Arizona — The origin of this classic, simple meteorite impact crater was long the subject of controversy. The discovery of fragments of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, including fragments within the breccia deposits that partially fill the structure, and the presence of a range of shock-metamorphic features in the target sandstone, confirmed its impact origin. Target rocks include Paleozoic carbonates and sandstones; these rocks have been overturned just outside the rim during ejection. The hummocky deposits just beyond the rim are remnants of the ejecta blanket. This aerial view shows the dramatic expression of the crater in the arid landscape. The rim diameter is 1.2 kilometers, age is 49,000 ± 3000 years. Location is 35°02’N, 111°01’W. Aerial image courtesy of D. Roddy, residing at www.lpi.usra.edu. SS F ig u r e 2 . Manicouagan, Canada — The moderately eroded, central part of the structure (the plateau surrounded by the lake) is partly covered by impact melts and contains shattered rocks and several uplifted peaks about 5 kilometers north of the center. The quantity of data obtained on the melt sheet and the underlying target rocks make Manicouagan one of the most intensely studied large complex impact structures in the world, and it is an important source of Data Sources Crater-spotting is exemplified by the work of researchers at Boston University’s Center for Remote Sensing. There, Farouk El-Baz and his colleague Eman Ghoneim discov- ground-truth data for understanding the cratering process. The radiometrically determined age of the structure is close to (but not quite identical with) the biostratigraphically derived age of the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. The original rim diameter was ~100 kilometers; age is 214 ± 1 million years. Locatio is 51°23’N, 68°42’W. Courtesy of Space Shuttle, image STS42-207-14. i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 23 ered the remnants of the largest crater in the Sahara. El-Baz, the Center’s director, named the find “Kebira,” meaning “large” in Arabic and also relating to the crater’s physical location on the northern tip of the Gilf Kebir region in southwestern Egypt. See Figure 3. One of the data sources that assisted in mapping of the feature is the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which allows measurement of elevations in three dimen- 3 SS F ig u r e 3 . Kebira Crater in Egypt’s Western Desert’s outer rim is 31 km in diameter, as indicated by the dashed circular curve superimposed on the image. Landsat color composite image is courtesy of Boston University Center for Remote Sensing. sions. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images and RadarSat-1 data were also tasked. But why hadn’t this large feature been seen before? “Kebira may have escaped recognition because it is so large – equivalent to the total expanse of the Cairo urban region from its airport in the northeast to the Pyramids of Giza in the southwest,” said El-Baz in a 2006 university press statement. “Also, the search for craters typically concentrates on small features, especially those that can be identified on the ground. The advantage of a view from space is that it allows us to see regional patterns and the big picture.” In another case, the so-named “Kamil Crater” was located a few years ago during a Google Earth “low flight charting mission”– some 1,000 meters above ground level. Scientists think the impact crater was created within the past couple thousand years. Located at Djebel Kamil, south of Gilf Kebir near the Sudanese border in Egypt, the crater is 45 meters in diameter and is considered one of the best-preserved craters found on Earth to date. Subsequent ground truth visits by teams found thousands of meteorite fragments scattered within the crater and surrounding area. See Figure 4. Science Conference in March of this year, study leader Ludovic Ferrière, curator of the rock collection at the Natural History Museum of Vienna in Austria, reported that the feature was definitely an impact crater. A detailed analysis of the Luizi structure combined a remote sensing study with geological field observations and examination of rock samples during a 2010 field campaign. The researchers confirmed Luizi to be a complex and huge impact crater in the remote Congo – the first known impact crater in central Africa, bringing the number of known meteor craters on Earth to 182. Ground Truth Manual Finds The need for satellite remote sensing to hand off to in-the-field confirmation of a crater was recently illustrated. A circular depression, called the Luizi structure, deep in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was pinpointed a few years ago as a possible crater by Philippe Claeys of the Department of Geology and head of Research Unit Earth System Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels, Belgium. Looking at the world distribution map of impact structures, it was clear to Claeys and his colleagues that many craters remain to be discovered on the old shield of Central Africa. See Figure 5 for a World Map of Craters from the year 2000. In 1990, based on the circular morphology, an impact origin was proposed for a structure. Unfortunately, the feature was located in a rather remote region, difficult to visit in a country in tumult and strife for more than 25 years. In the Claeys-headed research, a digital elevation model of the promising crater was generated from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imaging instrument flying on NASA’s Terra satellite. That remote sensing study of the Luizi structure supported a possible impact crater origin. At the 42nd Lunar and Planetary Creating algorithms for automatic identification of craters on Earth is a nonstarter, said Tom Stepinski, the Thomas Jefferson Chair Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Cincinnati. Stepinski has been a leader in this arena – but for use on beyond-Earth targets. Craters on planets that either lack atmosphere or have very tenuous atmosphere are well preserved. Not so for Earth, he continued. For one, craters erode very fast (on geological time scales) due to fast scale of erosion on Earth, so terrestrial topography preserves only a very fresh crater (like the one in Arizona). Older impact sites on Earth are heavily degraded and cannot be detected remotely. Additionally, even for fresh craters, images cannot be used because vegetation masks the sites of impacts to the degree that makes automatic detection of them from satellite images impossible. “Thus, on Earth we need to rely on manual finds. Yes, we can use satellite data Digital Elevation Models and images to help us in this process, but the process cannot be automatic…algorithmic,” Stepinski explained. Use of radar imagery taken from space has been a huge help in interpreting prospective impact craters, said Richard Grieve at the Earth Sciences Sector, i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 24 Natural Resources Canada in Ottawa. “One of the problems with optical imagery is that what you’re getting back is basically a reflection of vegetation. And that vegetation doesn’t necessarily follow the structure of the crater,” he told Imaging Notes, “so I think radar is one of the ways to go.” See Figure 6 of the Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan. Grieve said that the cratering rate on Earth is considered to be twice as high as on the Moon. “So there are still craters on our planet to be found, particularly in places like Africa, which has not been well explored.” Also, with the Earth covered mostly with water, Grieve suggested that the U.S. Navy is holding tight what undersea crater sites they have charted, “but they are not telling everybody.” Evolution of Our Planet and Its Life While being on the lookout for impact sites on Earth may be a daunting challenge, there are several rationales for identifying new craters, explained David Kring at the Center for Lunar Science & Exploration at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. “My team’s discovery of the Chicxulub impact crater and its link to the K-T boundary mass extinction event illustrate how impact cratering can affect both the geologic and biologic evolution of Earth,” Kring told Imaging Notes. Discovery of new craters, he added, will help researchers explore how other events may have punctuated the evolution of our planet and its life. Kring also flagged the fact that discovering new craters can help measure better the environmental effects of impact events in the geologic history, and thus provide the foundation needed to better assess future impact hazards. “Sometimes saving the planet means looking at its past,” he said. There’s another plus, Kring suggested, in identifying new impact craters on Earth. “They are true natural wonders and provide any host country with an economic attraction and an opportunity to enhance science education of the public.” Discerning Circles, the Eye-brain Connection “Satellite images from orbit are useful for recognizing candidate impact craters. Of course, natural geological processes besides impact cratering can create circular features on the Earth’s surface. And the human eye-brain connection loves to discern simple shapes like circles, whether they are really there or not,” said Clark Chapman, a leading asteroid expert at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Certainly the earth must have been as heavily cratered as the moon, Chapman said. “But most of the moon’s craters formed billions of years ago and remain today because of the moon’s minimal geological activity. The earth is a geologically active planet, with continents forming and eroding away and seafloors in constant motion.” That being the case, Chapman added, virtually all of the ancient craters on Earth were rendered invisible long ago. Those remaining that geologists can decipher from on-the-ground studies are often not recognizable from space. Most known terrestrial craters are of rather recent origin and haven’t been around long enough to have been eroded away, he told Imaging Notes. “Understanding the earth’s impact history can help us understand the histories of other planets, since comets and asteroids like those that have struck the earth strike other planets, as well,” Chapman said. “And craters have a practical importance. They can focus geological processes that collect valuable resources, like oil and nickel, for extraction.” Indeed, the current record of ‘proven’ impact sites is measured in the range of 150-200, rather than in the thousands, as one might presume,” Garvin said. Part of the issue with discovering the largely missing terrestrial cratering record, Garvin said, is a combination of preservation (how well an impact landform or signature can be preserved over time in a given geologic setting) and detection. “We have about 150 million square kilometers of land area today to search, with much of it vegetated, overprinted by very recent geological events, such as shifting sands, and some of it covered with ice,” Garvin advised. “Methods of detecting impact features – craters, signatures in rocks, geophysical expressions – while improving, remain somewhat limited,” he told Imaging Notes. For Garvin, the bottom line: “This is a geological forensics problem!” 4 SS F ig u r e 4 . Kamil Crater is located at Djebel Kamil, south of Gilf Kebir near the Sudanese border in Egypt. This crater is 45 meters in diameter and is considered one of the best-preserved craters found on Earth to date. Photograph courtesy Museo Nazionale dell’Antartide Università di Siena. Looking Ahead Geological Forensics The impact cratering record on Earth is extremely “under-served,” said James Garvin, Chief Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “The ability to preserve the scars of major collisional events is extremely challenged by the incredible dynamism of Earth’s geological processes. Bolstering the topographic reconnaissance of Earth as a whole is possible over the next decade via planned or recommended missions that NASA’s Earth Science Program may implement. Given increased thinking of how best to thwart an incoming object from stirring up a bad day in our world, plus given new awareness of the impact flux at the i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 25 Moon and Mars, “we need a ‘mission to planet Earth’ approach to finding our own planet’s impact record.” Looking ahead, Garvin spotlights the emerging global satellite remote sensing datasets, including those from NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) spacecraft, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), Canada’s RadarSat missions, and commercial remote sensing satellites, such as GeoEye. “These datasets could revolutionize preliminary detection of candidate impact features – or signatures – over the next decade.” Garvin pointed out that the key to realistic detection will be establishment of a set of definitive criteria for recognition tied to an existing benchmark set of signatures calibrated in the new remote sensing datasets. New orbital assets such as Canada’s RadarSat-2 and Astrium and DLR’s TerraSAR-X could contribute to this criteria-shaping, as would NASA’s fine enough to investigate kilometer-scale features, are particularly interesting. Garvin also senses that declassification of certain datasets would augment stand better their signatures. “The impact record of Earth is a key to understanding the history of life,” Garvin observed. That objects impact Earth and 5 SS F ig u r e 5 . Known Impact Structures (Craters Map). This image shows the geographic distribution of about 160 structures that have been positively identified as impact structures 6 based on the presence of shock-metamorphic effects and/or the presence of a meteoritic component or fragments at the structure, as of 2000. WW F ig u r e 6 . Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan. This image combines 90-meter resolution Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) topography with Spaceborne Imaging Radar (SIR-C) polarimetric synthetic aperture radar to show the subtle crater that formed only 870,000 years ago. Courtesy: James Garvin/NASA. upcoming ICE-Sat-2 and missions of the Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) that involve Earth-imaging radar and Lidar technologies. Ultimately, however, field expeditions involving geophysics (gravity, seismic surveys) and sample analysis will be essential, Garvin said. New airborne geophysical methods, in which topography and micro-gravity can be measured at scales the search for candidate craters. For example, a bonus would be making available full resolution Shuttle Radar Topography Mission digital elevation models at 30-meter horizontal scales for Africa, South America and Asia. Furthermore, and another plus, would be release of U.S. Department of Defense imaging of regions of Africa, Asia, and South America, including their specialized radar images of known craters, to under- affect climate is not in question, he said; rather, what is in question “is a more complete history of how impact events have shaped the details of the environmental-biological-geological history of our planet for the past 4.6 billion years.” Garvin concluded that the next decade or two “could see an explosion in the recognition of as-yet undiscovered aspects of the Earth’s impact record.” Resources Lunar and Planetary Institute: www.lpi.usra.edu The Earth Impact Database at the Planetary and Space Science Centre: www.passc.net/EarthImpactDatabase/index.html Geology.com - Meteor Craters: http://geology.com/meteor-impact-craters.shtml i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 26 CALL FOR PAPERS ISDE7 Incorporating WALIS FORUM 2011 and the STATE NRM CONFERENCE 23 – 25 AUGUST 2011 Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre This invitation is your opportunity to contribute to ISDE7, WALIS Forum 2011 and the State NRM Conference by sharing your knowledge, experience and insight with over 1000 conference delegates from the areas of digital earth modelling, spatial sciences and natural resources management. Additional Information Submissions http://www.facebook.com/WALISForum http://au.linkedin.com/in/walis http://twitter.com/WALISForum If you are interested in presenting at the Conference, please refer to the website (http://www.isde7.net/call-for-papers) for suggested themes and topics. If you have any queries about the Call for Papers, please contact the WALIS Office on +61 8 9273 7046 or email [email protected]. Follow us! Abstracts are to be no more than 250 words and must be submitted by 28 February 2011 according to the details and guidelines outlined. i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 27 1 Image Analysis Provides the Intelligence Necessary to Prepare, Respond and Heal After Natural Disasters E x t r e m e w e at h e r i s w r e a k i n g h avo c i n N o r t h America this year. The 2011 tornado season was recordsetting, beginning in April with 438 confirmed twisters. The same extreme weather patterns causing tornadoes are also leading to heavy rainfall in the midwestern region of the continent. Runoff led to serious flood conditions, blocking roads and highways, inundating thousands of acres of agricultural land and leaving buildings saturated with water. While the North flooded, winds and drought struck the South. West Texas experienced multiple fires that burned more than 1.6 million acres of brush and forest land. WW F ig u r e 1. Change detection is an exact science when using properly registered imagery. Here before and after images of the Red River flooding show areas that have been impacted. Karen Richardson By Esri Writer Redlands, Calif. www.esri.com i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 28 Complex disasters like these require quick response. Earth observation through remote sensors can play a key role in managing information. Data can be collected in near real-time and analyzed for all aspects of disaster management, from preparation to response and remediation. In dire situations, imagery can become more than just a basemap or backdrop. When integrated with GIS, imagery’s key benefit becomes providing a rich set of derived information for advanced analysis. Knowledge from Accurate Image Registration 2 Esri (Redlands, Calif.) is working with its partners to bring remotely sensed data and image processing into the GIS environment. This integration is making Earth observation imagery more easily accessible to a wider user community, which stands to benefit greatly from improved understanding of the dynamic conditions of the earth through repeat data collection and monitoring. Esri partner PCI Geomatics (Ontario, Quebec, Canada) provides automated satellite sensor data integration into Esri’s ArcGIS environment. PCI’s GeoImaging Tools for ArcGIS automate the methods for correcting imagery, ensuring seamless integration within the GIS platform. Traditionally, these tasks were performed by scientists and others with specific expertise in remote sensing. A lack of tools and knowledge of how to integrate imagery into GIS has long been a barrier to accessing imagery. “Even with the increased availability of remotely sensed imagery, downloading and making use of the imagery remains a daunting task for the nonexpert,” says Kevin Jones, director of marketing and product management at PCI Geomatics. “What should I do with it now? Where do I bring it in? What format is it in? How do I access the different bands? These are some of the common questions and reasons why non-remote sensing experts hesitate in downloading and making more use of satellite imagery.” Historically, GIS users seeking to overlay imagery for their analysis needed to pre-process the imagery to ensure it would line up with existing features for a given study area. Collecting ground control points (GCPs) manually was the order of the day. Correcting imagery to remove distortions and ensure proper alignment meant manual collection of common features on referenced and non-referenced datasets. “Poor imagery registration limits a GIS user’s ability to efficiently perform simple change detection and feature extraction tasks,” says Lawrie Jordan, Esri director of imagery. “By achieving high levels of image registration accuracy, GIS users can extract features and focus on more detailed analysis.” Image registration is the first step to seamlessly integrating data into any organization’s GIS workflow. Having the right tools to perform rigorous corrections and to ensure that multiple types of data are properly aligned for further analysis allows users to tap the knowledge they need from their imagery. Now, decision makers can use multitemporal, multi-spectral and multi-sensoral imagery to derive information through advanced analysis of Earth observation in support of better business decisions. How the Red River Flows SS F ig u r e 2 . This image shows a 3D overlay of burn severity. A DNBR slice image is draped over a DEM in Esri’s ArcScene to begin visually exploring the different regions that have been impacted by fire. Red areas have steep slopes and severe burning and are at risk for soil loss. Up-to-date derived information from imagery can help disaster management authorities perform rapid response activities. Authorities not only are able to use massive amounts of remotely sensed imagery efficiently, but also have the ability to use the data for change detection, providing scientific, or evidence-based, decision making. Two years ago, during the flood season of 2009, RADARSAT- 2, with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, was used by authorities in Manitoba, Canada, to map the extent of the Red River flood and its progression on a daily basis. SAR imagery is extremely valuable, since it can detect the presence of overland flooding even through adverse weather conditions such as cloud cover and darkness. “Multiple satellite sensors collect imagery on a daily basis,” explains Jones. “These i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 29 satellites can collect vast amounts of imagery that are transmitted to the ground and disseminated for analysis within minutes of acquisition. Integrated analysis and decision making in an integrated GIS platform like ArcGIS provide the ideal environment for making informed decisions that can help save lives and limit damage to infrastructure and property.” An international watershed, the Red River flows north toward Manitoba along the Minnesota-North Dakota border into Lake Winnipeg. The Red River basin is a flat and highly productive agricultural area spreading across 116,500 square kilometers. Rapid changes from cool winters to warm summers, coupled with the terrain and climatic conditions, contribute to an area that is highly sensitive to spring flooding. and transmitted to the Water Stewardship group. See Figure 1 . “Critical decisions that affect our citizens are carefully considered by examining the information derived from the imagery,” says Michelle Methot, who is a water stewardship specialist in the Water Stewardship group. “Imagery played a critical role to help the Manitoba government make the difficult but responsible decision to make a controlled opening in a dike along the Assiniboine River. Geospatial analysis allowed us to take many factors into consideration related to the affected areas, the local population and potential for greater damage. This analysis led to informed decision making and, ultimately, to the breaching of a main dike at the Hoop and Holler bend of the Assiniboine River.” Geospatial Analysis Provides a Complete Picture Many organizations were involved in monitoring and responding to the 2009 flooding. Response efforts included the use of an ArcGIS software-based decision support system that proved to be a very useful tool for collecting, storing, accessing and distributing the information pertaining to the floods. At the provincial level, the Manitoba Water Stewardship group embraced the use of Earth observations and in particular, RADARSAT to detect and monitor flood conditions on a routine basis due to the reliability of the information and timeliness of its collection and delivery. The provincial authorities established links with the Emergency Response team at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS). Satellite images were collected in real time at a ground receiving station that produced an initial imagery product within minutes of acquisition. At CCRS, experts carefully analyzed the imagery to delineate flooded areas in the updated imagery. The information was then converted to a vector format XX F ig u r e 4 . Above average fire activity has plagued the southern United States since February of this year due to above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation, drying out vegetation and creating fuel for fires. Photo credit: Joe Zamudio, ITT VIS. 4 WW F ig u r e 3 . Users can interactively select an area and run a custom image processing tool that detects a burn zone inside the GIS environment. In this case, an ENVI tool is used within the ArcGIS environment. 3 In the case of this year’s Red River floods in Manitoba and North Dakota, Earth observation coupled with GIS is again playing a critical role in providing near real-time information for disaster response. Using repeat pass collection and all-weather, day/night SAR satellites, near real-time monitoring is possible in the flood-affected regions of Manitoba. The imagery is used to support daily analysis and to enhance situational awareness by identifying the rapid changes in the landscape as a result of flooding. Derived information is used to support decision making on assessing potential damages to communities and infrastructure. Determination of the risk for failures of dikes, and help in determining where existing flood diversion and protection infrastructure needs reinforcing, are again being provided. Derived Information Helps Mitigation Efforts The use of Earth observation extends past the disaster response stage. Imagery provides a record of conditions on the i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 30 ground that can be used after the fact to confirm the location of flood-affected homes and businesses. This information is useful for individuals, businesses and insurance companies that process claims. “The usefulness of imagery extends beyond providing a backdrop. Users increasingly appreciate the rich set of information that can be derived from mutli-temporal, multi-spectral, multisensor and multi-resolution imagery,” says Esri’s Jordan. Education and outreach are critical for truly discovering the potential for the operational use of imagery. Through a joint partnership, McDonald, Detwiller and Associates (MDA), based in British Columbia, Canada, and the owner/ operator of RADARSAT-2 and PCI Geomatics, has been developing a series of instructional webinars that focus on the utility of SAR imagery. The webinars are based on operational uses such as the Manitoba case. In addition, a dedicated website was created by PCI Geomatics to provide basic information on SAR imagery, its characteristics and utility; the site can be accessed at www. pcigeomatics.com/sar. From Floods to Fires While locals in Canada and the Northern United States have been battling flooding, those living in the Southwest have been putting out fires. This year, a drought in West Texas has led to large areas with extremely dry underbrush and ground cover. Current weather conditions have included persistent winds of 20 miles per hour or faster that have contributed to severe fire conditions in the area. Total burn area in the beginning of May was more than 256,000 acres from 511 wildfires, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. While the areas of the fires are sparsely populated, the disruption to local farming and livestock production is expected to be significant. Esri partner ITT VIS (Boulder, Colo.) provides GIS analysts with the ability to visualize imagery and exploit information to face challenges like wildfires, which burn millions of acres of land each year. Working over time, ITT VIS has brought its advanced image processing software, ENVI, into the ArcGIS environment via the ENVI Tools for ArcGIS, a fully integrated ArcGIS Toolbox. Today, the two products work seamlessly together to share data and the ENVI image processing and analysis tools can be used within the ArcGIS environment. Using the toolbox, GIS users can build models that can be applied to any application on a server, and then published throughout an enterprise with Web applications anyone can use. “This capability gives GIS users access to the more real-time information from geospatial imagery for use in GIS workflows,” says Lori Thompson, vice president of marketing and support services, ITT VIS. Staff at ITT VIS created a fire fuel tool model built for ArcGIS using ENVI image processing algorithms. The model maps the distribution of fire fuels and burn hazards using spectral imagery. Fire managers need to provide effective methods for mapping fire fuels accurately, since fuel distribution is very important for predicting fire behavior. Looking at elevation of the land, slope, aspect, and canopy cover, and developing a surface fuel model coupled with weather and wind data can provide those fighting the fires with the most accurate information in order to plan their response. Surface fuels are the greatest concern, since they are major contributors to the intensity and spread of fires. The fire fuel tool developed highlights areas with high fire fuel by identifying areas with dry or drying plant material, a high risk factor for wildfire, as opposed to low fire fuel areas containing mainly lush, green plants. In addition to this model, multiple ENVI tools exist to help assess vegetation damage caused by fires and extreme weather events. Standard classification and feature extraction tools help analysts to map areas of damage. Change detection tools can also automatically locate i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 31 and measure damage. When damaged areas are small relative to the size of the scene, an anomaly detection tool can help quickly identify damaged areas that are different from those in the background. Taking Back the Land While burning fires need to be dealt with quickly and efficiently, the effects of the fire after the burn also cause significant issues. Covering hundreds of acres of land stripped of natural protection and reestablishing conservation measures, especially on rangeland such as in Texas, can be an expensive task. The importance of installing measures that reduce post-fire damage and aid in rehabilitating the area is high, as the USDA recognizes. This federal agency has made $400,000 available through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program to help Texans reestablish the land. This funding can be used to rebuild fences, defer livestock grazing and bring stability to farmers’ sometimes precarious operations, allowing the land to heal. Imagery can again assist in allocating resources when erosion remediation is necessary after a severe burn such as that in Texas. Since all agencies operate under cost controls, derived information from remotely sensed data can be used to prioritize which regions receive post-fire mitigation first. Using the ENVI image processing tools available for ArcGIS Server, ITT VIS also created another model, the Burn Severity Toolkit. Taking images before and after fires that consumed the area around Boulder, Colorado, earlier this year, staff calculated a normalized burn ratio of the damage. This was accomplished by comparing the two images to see how severely burned the area was. The U. S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service developed a burn severity index based on Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (TM/ETM) bands 4 (near-infrared) and 7 (mid-infrared) that is called the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR). NBR imagery allows federal land managers and fire ecologists to evaluate and compare burn severity within individual fires and between fires across various ecosystems. The formula for the NBR is very similar to that of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a simple numerical indicator that can be used to analyze remotely sensed measurements. In this case, the formula uses band 4 and band 7. The Differenced Natural Background Radiation (DNBR) is computed by subtracting the post-fire NBR from the pre-fire NBR. The higher DNBR values are correlated with more severe burns. The next step is to integrate the DNBR information with slope information calculated from existing digital elevation models. Areas of high DNBR and high slope are merged into a single result and flagged as having a high erosion potential. All of these processing steps are combined using Esri’s ModelBuilder technology, along with surface information such as soil type, surface cover, impermeability, and many other properties, to derive a full erosion probability model that can be used to help prioritize remediation efforts. ENVI image analysis tools such as the fire fuel load tool and the burn severity toolkit being integrated with ArcGIS are two examples of how imagery brings a layer of information to GIS workflows that helps in better critical decision making. See Figures 2-4. Importance of Imagery in the International Community Impacts from disasters in North America such as the Red River flooding and Texas wildfires, as well as others throughout the world, are considerable. Geospatial information can improve our understanding of impacts and risks, leading to improved preparedness, prevention and mitigation of impacts. The operational use of satellite Earth observation and the increase in the sources available have made a crucial difference to how the earth’s resources are managed, where people choose to live, and what steps are taken to protect against the impacts of future disasters. Detailed analysis in GIS systems has made this possible – integrating the dynamic information derived from Earth observation adds the crucial time element. The international community has recognized the valuable information that can be extracted from Earth observation imagery and places a high degree of importance on the creation of political mechanisms and agreements to facilitate the acquisition, processing and dissemination of imagery. In July 1999, the European and French space agencies (ESA and CNES) initiated the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters” with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) signing the charter on October 20, 2000. The goal of the “Disaster Charter” is to provide access to satellite imagery when disasters strike to help with assessment and relief efforts – imagery from optical and SAR satellites can be requested in a rapid manner. Satellite resources are made available through data sharing agreements set up with the space agencies of the respective governments. According to the latest annual report, the charter was activated 39 times during 2011, an average of three times per month, up sharply from previous years. The information derived from Earth observation through the charter activations has redefined people’s understanding of disasters, how to respond and what preventive actions to take in the future. Integrated use of imagery in geospatial analysis has made a tremendous difference – further integration and streamlining of workflows will lead to even better results. The information imagery brings and the information that can be derived give an added advantage by opening up another dimension to really understand what is going on in a geographic area of interest. To learn more visit www.esri.com/imagery. i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 32 SS Joplin, Missouri is hit by a mile-wide, six-mile long tornado clearing this path through town. MJ Harden aerial image was taken May 24, 2011, and is courtesy of GeoEye. Solutions for a Challenging World Esri’s partners help provide total solutions for GIS users who need in-depth intelligence on Earth information Esri’s partners provide software, services and data that create total solutions for ArcGIS users. More than 2,000 companies in 46 countries belong to the ESRI Partner Network ranging from large multinational corporations to regional specialty companies. While their products and services vary, they all hold a common vision – to bring GIS users the tools they need to perform sophisticated analysis necessary to face the challenges of our complex world. GeoEye, with their high-resolution imagery such as this one of the tornado in Joplin, Missouri, is an example of one organization bringing specialized tools into the ArcGIS environment. The satellite and aerial imagery that GeoEye collects around the globe each day is processed and can be used in a multitude of applications ranging from mapping, disaster response, infrastructure management and environmental monitoring. Other examples of how imagery and advanced image processing help GIS users become part of the recovery from catastrophes like this is detailed in this issue’s feature article on page 28. Information on Esri partners can be found at www.esri.com/partners. Find organizations that span the spectrum of solutions from getting data into your GIS system to creating professional quality output, such as those showcased in this special section. i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m ESRI B u si n ess Pa r t n ers Fo r I m a gery [special sponsored section] 33 The Cloud is rolling into San Diego Esri international User Conference - Imagery Island Booth 1406 What will the cloud bring to you? Is cloud computing an opportunity or a threat? Why is improving access to volumes of multi resolution, multi spectral, multi sensor, and multi temporal information important, and how will it move the geospatial industry forward? PCI Geomatics experts will be on hand in booth 1406 at the Esri International User Conference to discuss all this and more. Stop by the booth and discover your cloud strategy. The Cloud is Here. Be ready i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 34 GeoImaging Accelerator www.pcigeomatics.com/cloud PCI Geomatics Improves Access to Historical and New Imagery ESRI The use of geospatial information has exploded in the recent years, and the vision expressed by Jack Dangermond several years back “GIS is for Everyone” has come true. Consumer mapping is the new reality, and imagery is a key reason for this. As a developer of software tools and solutions that enhance the ArcGIS platform, PCI Geomatics is working closely with Esri to make imagery more accessible to non-remote sensing experts. Imagery, as the new basemap, provides that instant connection to geography. Anyone looking at imagery, especially high resolution, can make an immediate connection to the features they can see – their houses, cars, schools, neighbourhoods, community centres, etc. Current operational satellite missions are many, and vary from coarse resolution (with large spatial coverage) to medium and high resolution (with decreasing spatial coverage). Spectral bands and sensor types are also many, ranging from multi-spectral sensors, hyperspectral sensors, and also Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors. The latest trends are to operate satellite missions as constellations, as has been seen with RapidEye, and TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X, for example. Consumer mapping applications have grown exponentially, but PCI Geomatics believes we have only begun to scratch the surface. Stored away in the archives are incredible volumes of multi-resolution, multi-spectral, multi-sensor, and multi-temporal information from these Earth observation sensors. What applications can be developed using this rich source of information? Finding out requires that imagery be accessible, and tools make discovering, accessing, analyzing, and disseminating/sharing information derived from imagery as easy as it is for hundreds of millions of people to download a geospatial application like Google Earth, or adopt the use of map-based local search sites such as Google Maps, Bing, Yahoo Maps, or MapQuest. Esri has made incredible advances in building a platform that enables sharing of geospatial information, deploying the infrastructure for hosting and sharing geospatial information, such as ArcGIS. Together with Esri, PCI Geomatics is working to develop easy to use tools and offer solutions that will allow users to tap into those rich sources of historical data mentioned above. An oft overlooked, but critical step in extracting valuable information from these varied sources of imagery is pre-processing. PCI supports the Esri platform by offering automated means of co-registering raster layers to each other in a completely automated manner – vector layers can also be used as a reference – by bringing data into pixel-perfect alignment using a well known environment (ArcGIS); non-remote sensing experts are empowered to discover applications of imagery that have not yet been created. PCI’s extension, GeoImaging Tools for ArcGIS helps make this possible. Recognizing the increasing use and interest in Radar-based Earth observai m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m B u si n ess Pa r t n ers Fo r I m a gery tion information, the company is also working to make SAR Analysis tools available for ArcGIS users. Lastly, and perhaps most interestingly, PCI is working to deploy advanced, automated image processing technology to the cloud, making imagery, and accurate analysis thereof, accessible and available. PCI Geomatics is a leader in geoimaging products and solutions, delivering modular image processing software, training, and support services to government, industry and academic clients worldwide. For nearly 30 years, PCI has been at the forefront of the geoimage processing software industry, developing desktop software for production workflows. [special sponsored section] 35 Shifting gearS Scan with speed... iP-S2 3D Mobile Mapping System Engineered to operate at normal traffic speeds, the IP-S2 collects precise vehicle position and bearing data while capturing spherical imagery and georeferenced scans of roadway objects. Revolutionize the way you collect anD Manage Data. i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 36 Scan to your mobile phone Get the free mobile app, Tag Reader: http://gettag.mobi topconpositioning.com/ips2 Dmapas Launches Topcon’s IP-S2 in South America Technology and Adventure Meet on a Global Scale ESRI B u si n ess Mapas Digitales, S.A. (also known as Dmapas) is based in Santiago, Chile. With more than 15 years of operations, the company has become the leading provider of business solutions based on digital map data, GIS solutions, and exact street address databases for Chile, Argentina, and Peru. The company provides the most complete and dynamic data, spatially organized to help their customers on their business management. Dmapas databases cover more than 93 percent of the populated areas in Chile. In 2009, Dmapas created the second countryspecific mapping product in South America. Dmapas collected its vast pool of street map data with mobile digital camera/GNSS receiver systems. These systems met the customers’ needs for many years, but the company wanted to gain a competitive edge by adding mobile LiDAR to their services. Adding LiDAR to Dmapas’s customer-oriented solution equation would provide a more accurate level of geopositioning for measurements and feature mapping. In addition, LiDAR point clouds can be exported for use in CAD-based engineering software to create profiles and cross sections of roadways. Alfredo Escobar, Dmapas’s director general, expressed interest in Topcon’s IP-S2 and traveled to the United States for a demonstration. Topcon’s mobile mapping system uses a GNSS receiver and camera, but also includes LiDAR laser scanners. Escobar returned to Chile to seek projects F ig u r e 1. Dmapas’ RAV4 with newly for which LiDAR technology could be used. installed IP-S2 at Agua Magallanes Within months, the opportunity for a pilot control center. project became a reality. Dmapas was engaged to perform a detailed mapping project for Aguas Magallanes (www.aguasmagallanes.cl/), the company that supplies water to the Antarctic and Magellan provinces of Chile. Aguas Magallanes is headquartered in Punta Arenas, Chile, the southernmost city in the world. The city is an 800-mile hop to the closest point of land on the continent of Antarctica. Punta Arenas borders on the Strait of Magellan. To manage and plan water distribution, Aguas Magallanes needs updated street maps and road cross-sections of three cities — Punta Arenas, Porvenir, and Puerto Natales. For the level of detail and degree of accuracy required, Dmapas determined that the IP-S2’s combined LiDAR and 360° spherical imagery would be the perfect solution. As part of the IP-S2 deployment, Topcon provides onsite installation and training. Richard Rybka, Topcon’s mobile mapping specialist, was selected to assist in the project. Patrico Escobar, Dmapas’s operations i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m Pa r t n ers Fo r I m a gery manager for Latin America, decided to install the system onsite in Punta Arenas rather than at headquarters in Santiago to expedite work on the project. When the equipment arrived, Aguas Magallanes provided the team with space in one of their mechanical shops. Installation of the IP-S2 and mounting system on the vehicle was completed in a day. After the mapping project is completed, Dmapas will provide Aguas Magallanes with high-level deliverables: LiDAR point clouds of three project cities; cross sections of 250 different streets for each city; measurements; and Excel reports. The services and products that Dmapas can now provide to customers using the IP-S2 would have been impossible to produce using GNSS and camera systems. The story of Dmapas and their venture into IP-S2 technology has one more interesting twist. To signify the change in Dmapas’s operational technology and business model, the company will be identified soon by a new name, XYGO, demonstrating a new brand to illustrate the personalized service they bring to their clients. See www.dmapas.com and www.topconpositioning.com/ips2/. [special sponsored section] 37 Océ Provides 65 D-sized Maps/Hour Printed, Dried, Cut and Coll ated ESRI B u si n ess Pa r t n ers Fo r I m a gery Now GIS users can have fast access to high quality printed maps. This means they can discuss critical information with project teams with greater speed and accuracy, and present information with the confidence that last minute details can be printed and distributed quickly. With the Océ ColorWave 600 printer, there is no longer a need to wait for full coverage maps to process and print, or damp prints to dry. Productivity is amazing with this flexible, easy-to-use wide format printer. ›› Easy job submission and powerful large-file processing allows for quick access to critical printed information ›› Fast print speeds and greater throughput – up to 65 D-sized maps per hour – due to the toner-based system, means that more maps can be printed per hour with no drying time. ›› A wide variety of supported media including inexpensive 20 lb. bond paper, recycled paper, even Tyvek media, mean GIS users can print project team maps, presentations and water-resistant field maps without time-consuming roll changes. According to Larry Wachel, National Resources Conservation Services, “The planning department used to send an aerial map to the HP plotter. It would take 15 minutes to get across the network to the memory in the plotter. Then 19 minutes to plot and 5 minutes to dry – total of 38 minutes for the plot. With the Océ [ColorWave] 600 printer, it takes 8 minutes to send and receive the plot. No drying time saves 30 minutes per plot.” To find out more, visit www.oceusa.com/moremaps10 or call 800-714-4427. Print Large Format Color Maps and Drawings Quickly, on Plain Paper, with Great Quality (and waterfast, too). No more printer bottlenecks [special sponsored section] 38 i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m Productivity is extraordinary with the flexible, easy-to-use Océ ColorWave® 600 printer. One state DOT shortened their print time for fifty 42” x 42” maps from 11 hours on their inkjet printer to 1½ hours on the Océ ColorWave® 600 printer. You can, too. To find out more, visit www.oceusa.com/moremaps11, or call 800-714-4427. © 2011 Océ GEOEYE-1 .50-METER J U LY 2 0 0 9 GEOEYE-1 .50-METER FEB R U A R Y 2 01 1 Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, South Africa © 2011 GeoEye. All Rights Reserved. Change is constant. Access a visual record to help you make better decisions. GeoEye® provides GIS analysts and decision makers with easy, real-time access to today’s most accurate high-resolution imagery. You can search our vast archive to compare images over multiple timeframes. Keep a visual record of change as it happens with GeoEye imagery and insight. i m a g i n g n o t es / / S u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m Elevating Insight for Better Decision Making Download complimentary sample images to see for yourself. Go to www.geoeye.com/change 39 INAUGURAL The fully-assembled Soyuz has undertaken its first “virtual” flight and downrange mission trajector y simulation at the Guiana Space Center. The review of the workhorse mediumlift vehicle confirms its readiness to join the Arianespace rocket family in 2011. i m a g i n g n o t es / / s u m m e r 2 0 1 1 / / w w w . i m a g i n g n o t es . c o m 40 www.arianespace.com