7_10 Remote-Sensing Broadcast (NASA, UN and More)

Hello, and welcome to this remote-sensing themed GeoSpatial Stream. I’m your host, Todd Danielson, and today’s Lead Sponsor is Trimble Geospatial Division.

Today’s Top Story is Carbon Dioxide. On July 2nd, NASA launched its Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite, which will measure atmospheric carbon dioxide by observing its effect on sunlight. The new sensor will be synchronized in orbit with other NASA satellites for more-precise measurements and results.

Here’s a new NASA video describing the mission:

That was today’s Top Story. I’ll be back with more news after this brief message.

In other NASA news, the space agency soon will attach its ISS-RapidScat instrument to the International Space Station. The Scatterometer will measure ocean winds created by solar heat to better understand weather phenomena such as hurricanes.

Two New York University instructors are creating a live-view, photorealistic portrait of Earth with real-time imagery and remote-sensing data from hundreds of satellites. The Satellite project will include six high-resolution projectors and a spherical screen for optimal viewing.

And United Nations Peacekeeping missions are using unarmed UAVs to monitor armed militias and protect civilians in Africa. According to Martin Kobler, who leads the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, “We have a mandate here to neutralize armed groups—you can’t do it without intelligence.”

In Industry Headlines, Fugro is one of eight firms recently awarded a five-year hydrographic survey contract from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to support development of updated navigational charts.

exactEarth released ShipView, providing customers with a modern Web-based ship-viewing tool that can be used any where at any time.

IMT Latinoamericana purchased SimActive’s Correlator3D product to streamline its production process.

And EOMAP launched the EOMAP Web store where clients have direct access to global water quality and bathymetric data derived from satellite imagery.

And now for today’s Final Thought: In just a few days, I’ll be heading to the 2014 Esri User Conference in San Diego. I’ve been to at least 10 of these events, but I look forward to it each time. In addition to a brief stay in lovely San Diego, it’s a great shapshot of the current geospatial-technology industry.

I’ll learn all about the latest Esri technology and innovations, of course, but the event includes a wide variety of guest speakers that talk to a much wider technology base. It also features the largest exhibit hall I see each year, meaning hundreds of companies to learn from and see what’s coming up on the technology radar.

I’ll be reporting about the event in future broadcasts, but wanted to let you know that during the conference from July 14th to 17th, I’ll be posting videos summarizing the Finalist entries for Esri’s Climate Resilience App Challenge, which called for developers to create desktop, Web or mobile apps that enable communities to see, understand and prepare for a more resilient and sustainable future. So be sure to check those out.

That’s it for this broadcast, I’m Todd Danielson, and this … was your GeoSpatial Stream.