Remote Sensing

Our editors attempt to judge the health of the geospatial tech industry based on evidence from last week's Esri International User Conference. Do they see mergers, morphing or mortality?

Over the weekend the world learned that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) had informed GeoEye it will be canceling parts of the 10-year, $3.8 billion EnhancedView contract because of budget cuts. DigitalGlobe recently got the nod for at least the next year's worth of funding. What does this mean for NGA? For the commercial remote sensing marketplace? And what does the future hold for GeoEye?

Apple's new Maps offering for iOS had some expected features and a few unexpected ones. What are the implications of this new player in the mobile mapping marketplace?

Google shared some of the history of its geospatial offerings and then made three announcements about some features and technology that are

A report from the National Research Council suggests that NASA is not putting up satellites fast enough to support the needed basic science related to weather, climate and other challenges facing the U.S. and the rest of the world. The report warns that the U.S. constellation may drop to just one quarter its size in just a few years. What does this mean for geospatial technologists and how can we help fellow citizens to understand the value of this in-orbit infrastructure?

How do you put a value on geospatial technology? Does it just come down to revenue and profits? Or intrinsically is it more because critical information is held within the bounds of certain technology formats?

GeoEye and DigitalGlobe have been communicating via letter and press release over the last few days. The topic: who might acquire whom. As we go to press neither company has said

WBUR (a Boston NPR station) host Anthony Brooks interviews Nathaniel Raymond, director of operations for the Satellite Sentinel Project, based at Harvard University’s Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. The project uses satellite imagery to follow the movement of military vehicles, rebel forces, or other activities that might be leading to an attack on civilian populations, in places like Sudan, and most recently, Syria.

On the ground, Tropical Storm Irene floodwaters devastated Vermont's communities, cutting off roads and washing away homes and businesses. Now with a digital bird's-eye-view, the world can see the dramatic statewide extent of Tropical Storm Irene's damage to Vermont's landscape. Google has just updated its maps for Vermont with post-Irene satellite imagery. VPR's Mitch Wertlieb turned to two professors at St. Michael's College, Geography Professor Richard Kujawa and Environmental Studies Professor Laura Stroup to tell us the value of having these images at our digital fingertips.

On Monday's Fresh Air [3/12/12], John Villasenor, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA, explains what these drones will be able to see and how they work. He also talks about the privacy and national security concerns raised by using drones for surveillance purposes.