ALBERT

Description: Shadows in high resolution imagery create significant problems for urban land cover classification and environmental application. We first investigated whether shadows were intrinsically different and hypothetically possible to separate from each other with ground spectral measurements. Both pixel-based and object-oriented methods were used to evaluate the effects of shadow detection on QuickBird image classification and spectroradiometric restoration. In each method, shadows were detected and separated either with or without histogram thresholding, and subsequently corrected with a k-nearest neighbor algorithm and a linear correlation correction. The results showed that shadows had distinct spectroradiometric characteristics, thus, could be detected with an optimal brightness threshold and further differentiated with a scene-based near infrared ratio. The pixel-based methods generally recognized more shadow areas and with statistically higher accuracy than the object-oriented methods. The effects of the prior shadow thresholding were not statistically significant. The accuracy of the final land cover classification, after accounting for the shadow detection and separation, was significantly higher for the pixel-based methods than for the object-oriented methods, although both achieved similar accuracy for the non-shadow classes. Both radiometric restoration algorithms significantly reduced shadow areas in the original satellite images.

Description: Despite longstanding contributions to oceanography, similar use of fluorescence light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in lake settings is not routine. The potential for ship-mounted, multispectral Ultraviolet Fluorescence LiDAR (UFL) to provide rapid, high-resolution data in variably turbid and productive lake conditions are investigated here through a series of laboratory tank and field measurements carried out on Lake Balaton, Hungary. UFL data, calibrated empirically to a set of coinciding conventionally-analyzed samples, provide simultaneous estimates of three important parameters-chlorophyll a(chla), total suspended matter (TSM) and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM). Successful UFL retrievals from both laboratory and field measurements were achieved for chla (0.01–378 mg∙m−3; R = 0.83–0.92), TSM (0.1–130 g∙m−3; R = 0.90–0.96) and CDOM (0.003–0.125 aCDOM(440); R = 0.80–0.97). Fluorescence emission at 685 nm is shown through tank measurements to display robust but distinct relationships with chla concentration for the two cultured algae species investigated (cyanobacteria, Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, and chlorophyta, Scenedesmus armatus). The ratio between fluorescence emissions measured at 650 nm, related to the phycocyanin fluorescence maximum, to that at 685 nm is demonstrated to effectively distinguish these two species. Validation through both laboratory measurements and field measurements confirmed that site specific calibration is necessary. This study presents the first known assessment and application of ship-mounted fluorescence LiDAR in freshwater lake conditions and demonstrates the use of UFL in measuring important water quality parameters despite the more complicated hydro-optic conditions of inland waters.

Description: Aquaculture coasts have become widely distributed in coastal zones as human activities are intensified. Due to the complexity in this type of coast, it is difficult to extract the coastline with traditional automated mapping approaches. In this paper, we present an automated method—object-based region growing integrating edge detection (OBRGIE) for the extraction of this type of coastline. In this method, a new object feature named OMI (object merging index) is proposed to separate land and sea. The OBRGIE method was applied to Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) (pixel size 30m) and Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT-5) (pixel size 10 m) images of two coastal segments with lengths of 272.7 km and 35.5 km respectively, and the accuracy of the extracted coastlines was assessed in comparison with the manually delineated coastlines. The mean and RMSE (root mean square error) are 16.0 m and 16.4 m respectively for the TM images, and 8.0 m and 8.6 m, respectively, for the SPOT-5 images, indicating that the proposed method derives coastlines with pixel accuracy. The OBRGIE method is also found to be robust to the segmentation scale parameter, and the OMI feature is much more effective than the spectral attribute in separating land and sea in aquaculture coasts. This method may provide an inexpensive means of fast coastline mapping from remotely sensed imagery with relatively fine-to-moderate spatial resolution in coastal sectors with intense human interference.

Description: A study was undertaken to assess Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) ScanSAR data for quantifying forest growing stock volume (GSV) across three boreal regions with varying forest types, composition, and structure (Sweden, Central Siberia, and Québec). Estimates of GSV were obtained using hyper-temporal observations of the radar backscatter acquired by Envisat ASAR with the BIOMASAR algorithm. In total, 5.3×106 km2 were mapped with a 0.01° pixel size to obtain estimates representative for the year of 2005. Comparing the SAR-based estimates to spatially explicit datasets of GSV, generated from forest field inventory and/or Earth Observation data, revealed similar spatial distributions of GSV. Nonetheless, the weak sensitivity of C-band backscatter to forest structural parameters introduced significant uncertainty to the estimated GSV at full resolution. Further discrepancies were observed in the case of different scales of the ASAR and the reference GSV and in areas of fragmented landscapes. Aggregation to 0.1° and 0.5° was then undertaken to generate coarse scale estimates of GSV. The agreement between ASAR and the reference GSV datasets improved; the relative difference at 0.5° was consistently within a magnitude of 20–30%. The results indicate an improvement of the characterization of forest GSV in the boreal zone with respect to currently available information.

Description: Despite the continued decline in sales of portable navigation devices (PNDs) and the alternative solutions from smartphones, smart watches and eyewear, the portable GPS-enabled device market is anticipated to continue to hold its own thanks to dedicated heads up display/eyewear, cycling, and health/tracking devices, according to a market research company.

Description: Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Company have successfully completed the third of five planned exercises to demonstrate the launch readiness of the U.S. Air Force’s next generation GPS III satellite and operational control system (OCX).

Description: Air Force officials should get more cost and user information and determine how many GPS satellites they will support before making decisions about revamping the navigation system, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) told Congress this week. Although an Air Force report about program options was “a good starting point, more information on key cost drivers and cost estimates, and broader input from stakeholders would help guide future investment decisions,” the GAO wrote in an assessment of the defense agency’s analysis.

Description: The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and Locata Corporation, based in Canberra, Australia, have announced the signing of a co-operative research & development agreement (CRADA) to build and demonstrate new Locata multipath mitigation technology for use in GPS receivers. This cooperation is expected to leverage many years of proprietary Locata ground-based technology development to bring completely new capabilities to satellite-based GPS receivers.

Description: The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard the Terra satellite acquires imagery at 275-m resolution at nine angles ranging from 0° (nadir) to 70° off-nadir. This multi-angle capability facilitates the stereoscopic retrieval of heights and motion vectors for clouds and aerosol plumes. MISR’s operational stereo product uses this capability to retrieve cloud heights and winds for every satellite orbit, yielding global coverage every nine days. The MISR INteractive eXplorer (MINX) visualization and analysis tool complements the operational stereo product by providing users the ability to retrieve heights and winds locally for detailed studies of smoke, dust and volcanic ash plumes, as well as clouds, at higher spatial resolution and with greater precision than is possible with the operational product or with other space-based, passive, remote sensing instruments. This ability to investigate plume geometry and dynamics is becoming increasingly important as climate and air quality studies require greater knowledge about the injection of aerosols and the location of clouds within the atmosphere. MINX incorporates features that allow users to customize their stereo retrievals for optimum results under varying aerosol and underlying surface conditions. This paper discusses the stereo retrieval algorithms and retrieval options in MINX, and provides appropriate examples to explain how the program can be used to achieve the best results.

Description: Roads play an indispensable role as part of the infrastructure of society. In recent years, society has witnessed the rapid development of laser mobile mapping systems (LMMS) which, at high measurement rates, acquire dense and accurate point cloud data. This paper presents a way to automatically estimate the required excavation volume when widening a road from point cloud data acquired by an LMMS. Firstly, the input point cloud is down-sampled to a uniform grid and outliers are removed. For each of the resulting grid points, both on and off the road, the local surface normal and 2D slope are estimated. Normals and slopes are consecutively used to separate road from off-road points which enables the estimation of the road centerline and road boundaries. In the final step, the left and right side of the road points are sliced in 1-m slices up to a distance of 4 m, perpendicular to the roadside. Determining and summing each sliced volume enables the estimation of the required excavation for a widening of the road on the left or on the right side. The procedure, including a quality analysis, is demonstrated on a stretch of a mountain road that is approximately 132 m long as sampled by a Lynx LMMS. The results in this particular case show that the required excavation volume on the left side is 8% more than that on the right side. In addition, the error in the results is assessed in two ways. First, by adding up estimated local errors, and second, by comparing results from two different datasets sampling the same piece of road both acquired by the Lynx LMMS. Results of both approaches indicate that the error in the estimated volume is below 4%. The proposed method is relatively easy to implement and runs smoothly on a desktop PC. The whole workflow of the LMMS data acquisition and subsequent volume computation can be completed in one or two days and provides road engineers with much more detail than traditional single-point surveying methods such as Total Station or GPS profiling. A drawback is that an LMMS system can only sample what is within the view of the system from the road.

Description: The slow movement of active deep-seated slope gravitational deformations (DSGSDs) and deep-seated rockslides can cause damage to structures and infrastructures. We use Permanent Scatterers Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (PSInSAR™) displacement rate data for the analysis of DSGSD/rockslide activity and kinematics and for the analysis of damage to buildings. We surveyed the degree of damage to buildings directly in the field, and we tried to correlate it with the superficial displacement rate obtained by the PSInSAR™ technique at seven sites. Overall, we observe that the degree of damage increases with increasing displacement rate, but this trend shows a large dispersion that can be due to different causes, including: the uncertainty in the attribution of the degree of damage for buildings presenting wall coatings; the complexity of the deformation for large phenomena with different materials and subjected to differential behavior within the displaced mass; the absence of differential superficial movements in buildings, due to the large size of the investigated phenomena; and the different types of buildings and their position along the slope or relative to landslide portions.

Description: A 30-year series of global monthly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imagery derived from the Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) NDVI3g archive was analyzed for the presence of trends in changing seasonality. Using the Seasonal Trend Analysis (STA) procedure, over half (56.30%) of land surfaces were found to exhibit significant trends. Almost half (46.10%) of the significant trends belonged to three classes of seasonal trends (or changes). Class 1 consisted of areas that experienced a uniform increase in NDVI throughout the year, and was primarily associated with forested areas, particularly broadleaf forests. Class 2 consisted of areas experiencing an increase in the amplitude of the annual seasonal signal whereby increases in NDVI in the green season were balanced by decreases in the brown season. These areas were found primarily in grassland and shrubland regions. Class 3 was found primarily in the Taiga and Tundra biomes and exhibited increases in the annual summer peak in NDVI. While no single attribution of cause could be determined for each of these classes, it was evident that they are primarily found in natural areas (as opposed to anthropogenic land cover conversions) and that they are consistent with climate-related ameliorations of growing conditions during the study period.

Description: Hemisphere GNSS has launched the Eclipse P306 and P307 multi-frequency GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou modules, the first products to incorporate the company’s new SX4 ASIC. With 372 channels, the modules can simultaneously track code and carrier phase signals on up to 89 satellites, are are Galileo- and QZSS-ready, and can be configured to address several diverse applications through software, according to the company.

Description: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has contracted with NovAtel Inc. to produce and deliver 176 Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) third-generation reference receivers (G-III). The contract also includes engineering support for the G-III receiver as well as the current generation reference receiver (G-II), Geostationary Earth Orbit Uplink Subsystem – Type 1 (GUST) receiver, and Signal Generator (SIGGEN).

Description: Characterizing the specific inherent optical properties (SIOPs) of water constituents is fundamental to remote sensing applications. Therefore, this paper presents the absorption properties of phytoplankton, gelbstoff and tripton for three small, optically-diverse South African inland waters. The three reservoirs,  Hartbeespoort, Loskop and Theewaterskloof, are challenging for remote sensing, due to differences in phytoplankton assemblage and the considerable range of constituent concentrations. Relationships between the absorption properties and biogeophysical parameters, chlorophyll-a (chl-a), TChl (chl-a plus  phaeopigments),  seston,  minerals  and  tripton, are established. The value determined for the mass-specific tripton absorption coefficient at 442 nm, a∗ (442), ranges from 0.024 to 0.263 m2·g−1. The value of the TChl-specific phytoplankton absorption coefficient (a∗ ) was strongly influenced by phytoplankton species, size, accessory pigmentation and biomass. a∗ (440) ranged from 0.056 to 0.018 m2·mg−1 in oligotrophic to hypertrophic waters. The positive relationship between cell size and trophic state observed in open ocean waters was violated by significant small cyanobacterial populations. The phycocyanin-specific phytoplankton  absorption  at  620  nm,  a∗ (620), was determined as 0.007 m2·g−1 in a M. aeruginosa bloom. Chl-a was a better indicator of phytoplankton biomass than phycocyanin (PC) in surface scums, due to reduced accessory pigment production. Absorption budgets demonstrate that monospecific blooms of M. aeruginosa and C. hirundinella may be treated as “cultures”, removing some complexities for remote sensing applications.   These results contribute toward a better understanding of IOPs and remote sensing applications in hypertrophic inland waters. However, the majority of the water is optically complex, requiring the usage of all the SIOPs derived here for remote sensing applications. The SIOPs may be used for developing remote sensing algorithms for the detection of biogeophysical  parameters,  including chl-a, suspended matter, tripton and gelbstoff, and in advanced remote sensing studies for phytoplankton type detection.

Description: Landcover change alters not only the surface landscape but also regional carbon and water cycling. The objective of this study was to assess the potential impacts of landcover change across the Kansas River Basin (KRB) by comparing local microclimatic impacts and regional scale climate influences. This was done using a 25-year time series of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and precipitation (PPT) data analyzed using multi-resolution information theory metrics. Results showed both entropy of PPT and NDVI varied along a pronounced PPT gradient. The scalewise relative entropy of NDVI was the most informative at the annual scale, while for PPT the scalewise relative entropy varied temporally and by landcover type. The relative entropy of NDVI and PPT as a function of landcover showed the most information at the 512-day scale for all landcover types, implying different landcover types had the same response across the entire KRB. This implies that land use decisions may dramatically alter the local time scales of responses to global climate change. Additionally, altering land cover (e.g., for biofuel production) may impact ecosystem functioning at local to regional scales and these impacts must be considered for accurately assessing future implications of climate change.

Description: The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) is widely used for assessing the performance of classification algorithms. In GIScience, ROC has been applied to assess models aimed at predicting events, such as land use/cover change (LUCC), species distribution and disease risk. However, GIS software packages offer few statistical tests and guidance tools for ROC analysis and interpretation. This paper presents a suite of GIS tools designed to facilitate ROC curve analysis for GIS users by applying proper statistical tests and analysis procedures. The tools are freely available as models and submodels of Dinamica EGO freeware. The tools give the ROC curve, the area under the curve (AUC), partial AUC, lower and upper AUCs, the confidence interval of AUC, the density of event in probability bins and tests to evaluate the difference between the AUCs of two models. We present first the procedures and statistical tests implemented in Dinamica EGO, then the application of the tools to assess LUCC and species distribution models. Finally, we interpret and discuss the ROC-related statistics resulting from various case studies.

Description: The Nightfire algorithm detects and characterizes sub-pixel hot sources using multispectral data collected globally, each night, by the Suomi National Polar Partnership (NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The spectral bands utilized span visible, near-infrared (NIR), short-wave infrared (SWIR), and mid-wave infrared (MWIR). The primary detection band is in the SWIR, centered at 1.6 μm. Without solar input, the SWIR spectral band records sensor noise, punctuated by high radiant emissions associated with gas flares, biomass burning, volcanoes, and industrial sites such as steel mills. Planck curve fitting of the hot source radiances yields temperature (K) and emission scaling factor (ESF). Additional calculations are done to estimate source size (m2), radiant heat intensity (W/m2), and radiant heat (MW). Use of the sensor noise limited M7, M8, and M10 spectral bands at night reduce scene background effects, which are widely reported for fire algorithms based on MWIR and long-wave infrared. High atmospheric transmissivity in the M10 spectral band reduces atmospheric effects on temperature and radiant heat retrievals. Nightfire retrieved temperature estimates for sub-pixel hot sources ranging from 600 to 6,000 K. An intercomparison study of biomass burning in Sumatra from June 2013 found Nightfire radiant heat (MW) to be highly correlated to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Fire Radiative Power (MW).

Description: The increasing availability of satellite imagery acquired by existing and new sensors allows a wide variety of new applications that depend on the use of diverse spectral and spatial resolution data sets. One of the pre-conditions for the use of hybrid image data sets is a consistent geo-correction capacity. We demonstrate how a novel fast template matching approach implemented on a graphics processing unit (GPU) allows us to accurately and rapidly geo-correct imagery in an automated way. The key difference with existing geo-correction approaches, which do not use a GPU, is the possibility to match large source image segments (8,192 by 8,192 pixels) with relatively large templates (512 by 512 pixels) significantly faster. Our approach is sufficiently robust to allow for the use of various reference data sources. The need for accelerated processing is relevant in our application context, which relates to mapping activities in the European Copernicus emergency management service. Our new method is demonstrated over an area northwest of Valencia (Spain) for a large forest fire event in July 2012. We use the Disaster Monitoring Constellation’s (DMC) DEIMOS-1 and RapidEye imagery for the delineation of burnt scar extent. Automated geo-correction of each full resolution image set takes approximately one minute. The reference templates are taken from the TerraColor data set and the Spanish national ortho-imagery database, through the use of dedicated web map services. Geo-correction results are compared to the vector sets derived in the Copernicus emergency service activation request.

Description: The mixed grassland in Canada is characterized by low to medium green vegetation cover, with a large amount of canopy background, such as non-photosynthetic vegetation residuals (litter), bare soil, and ground level biological crust. It is a challenge to extract the canopy information from satellite images because of the influence of canopy background. Therefore, this study aims to extract a soil line, a representation of bare soil with litter and soil crust in the surface, from Landsat images to reduce the background effect. Field work was conducted in the West Block of Grasslands National Park (GNP) in Canada, which represents the northern mixed grassland from late June to early July 2005. Six TM images with either no or only a small amount of cloud content were collected in 2005. In this study, soil lines were extracted directly from images by quantile regression and the (R, NIRmin) method. The results show that, (1) both cloud and cloud shadow have obvious influence on simulating soil line automatically from images; (2) green up and late senescence seasons are relatively better for soil line simulation; (3) the (R, NIRmin) method is better for soil line simulation than quantile regression to extract green biomass or green cover information.

Description: Zimbabwe’s economy declined between 2000 and 2009. This study detects the economic decline in different regions of Zimbabwe using nighttime light imagery from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS). We found a good correlation (coefficient = 0.7361) between Zimbabwe’s total nighttime light (TNL) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the period 1992 to 2009. Therefore, TNL was used as an indicator of regional economic conditions in Zimbabwe. Nighttime light imagery from 2000 and 2008 was compared at both national and regional scales for four types of regions. At the national scale, we found that nighttime light in more than half of the lit area decreased between 2000 and 2008. Moreover, within the four region types (inland mining towns, inland agricultural towns, border towns and cities) we determined that the mining and agricultural sectors experienced the most severe economic decline. Some of these findings were validated by economic survey data, proving that the nighttime light data is a potential data source for detecting the economic decline in Zimbabwe.

Description: High quality sedimentary measurements are required for studying fluvial geomorphology and hydrological processes e.g., flood and river dynamics. Mobile laser scanning (MLS) currently provides the opportunity to achieve high precision measurements of coarse fluvial sediments in a large survey area. Our study aims to investigate the capability of single-track MLS data for individual particle-based sediment modeling. Individual particles are firstly detected and delineated from a digital surface model (DSM) that is generated from the MLS data. 3D MLS points of each detected individual particle are then extracted from the point cloud. The grain size and the sphericity as well as the orientation of each individual particle are estimated based on the extracted MLS points. According to the evaluations conduced in the paper, it is possible to detect and to model sediment particles above 63 mm from a single-track MLS point cloud with a high reliability. The paper further discusses the strength and the challenges of individual particle-based approach for sedimentary measurement.

Description: A thorough review of available literature was conducted to inform of advancements in mobile LIDAR technology, techniques, and current and emerging applications in transportation. The literature review touches briefly on the basics of LIDAR technology followed by a more in depth description of current mobile LIDAR trends, including system components and software. An overview of existing quality control procedures used to verify the accuracy of the collected data is presented. A collection of case studies provides a clear description of the advantages of mobile LIDAR, including an increase in safety and efficiency. The final sections of the review identify current challenges the industry is facing, the guidelines that currently exist, and what else is needed to streamline the adoption of mobile LIDAR by transportation agencies. Unfortunately, many of these guidelines do not cover the specific challenges and concerns of mobile LIDAR use as many have been developed for airborne LIDAR acquisition and processing. From this review, there is a lot of discussion on “what” is being done in practice, but not a lot on “how” and “how well” it is being done. A willingness to share information going forward will be important for the successful use of mobile LIDAR.

Description: Web service is a technological solution for software interoperability that supports the seamless integration of diverse applications. In the vision of web service architecture, web services are described by the Web Service Description Language (WSDL), discovered through Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) and communicate by the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Such a divination has never been fully accomplished yet. Although it was criticized that WSDL only has a syntactic definition of web services, but was not semantic, prior initiatives in semantic web services did not establish a correct methodology to resolve the problem. This paper examines the distinction and relationship between the syntactic and semantic definitions for web services that characterize different purposes in service computation. Further, this paper proposes that the semantics of web service are neutral and independent from the service interface definition, data types and platform. Such a conclusion can be a universal law in software engineering and service computing. Several use cases in the GIScience application are examined in this paper, while the formalization of geospatial services needs to be constructed by the GIScience community towards a comprehensive ontology of the conceptual definitions and relationships for geospatial computation. Advancements in semantic web services research will happen in domain science applications.

Description: Trimble has introduced its BD930 module as part of its GNSS OEM portfolio.   This small module features triple-frequency support for GPS and GLONASS plus dual-frequency support for BeiDou and Galileo constellations. Capable of receiving a wide range of commercially available GNSS signals, the 220-channel BD930 takes advantage of all available signals to provide reliable RTK centimeter-level positioning.  

Description: Net radiation is a key component of the energy balance, whose estimation accuracy has an impact on energy flux estimates from satellite data. In typical remote sensing evapotranspiration (ET) algorithms, the outgoing shortwave and longwave components of net radiation are obtained from remote sensing data, while the incoming shortwave (RS) and longwave (RL) components are typically estimated from weather data using empirical equations. This study evaluates the accuracy of empirical equations commonly used in remote sensing ET algorithms for estimating RS and RL radiation. Evaluation is carried out through comparison of estimates and observations at five sites that represent different climatic regions from humid to arid. Results reveal (1) both RS and RL estimates from all evaluated equations well correlate with observations (R2 ≥ 0.92), (2) RS estimating equations tend to overestimate, especially at higher values, (3) RL estimating equations tend to give more biased values in arid and semi-arid regions, (4) a model that parameterizes the diffuse component of radiation using two clearness indices and a simple model that assumes a linear increase of atmospheric transmissivity with elevation give better RS estimates, and (5) mean relative absolute errors in the net radiation (Rn) estimates caused by the use of RS and RL estimating equations varies from 10% to 22%. This study suggests that Rn estimates using recommended incoming radiation estimating equations could improve ET estimates.

Description: The efficacy of integrating open access geospatial data to produce habitat suitability maps for the corn bunting (Miliaria calandra) was investigated. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and Corine (Coordination of Information on the Environment) land cover data for the year 2000 (CLC2000) were processed to extract explanatory variables and divided into three sets; Satellite (ETM+, SRTM), CLC2000 and Combined (CLC2000 + Satellite). Presence-absence data for M. calandra, collected during structured surveys for the Catalan Breeding Bird Atlas, were provided by the Catalan Ornithological Institute. The dataset was partitioned into an equal number of presence and absence points by dividing it into five groups, each composed of 88 randomly selected presence points to match the number of absences. A logistic regression model was then built for each group. Models were evaluated using area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC). Results of the five groups were averaged to produce mean Satellite, CLC2000 and Combined models. The mean AUC values were 0.69, 0.81 and 0.90 for the CLC2000, Satellite and the Combined model, respectively. The probability of M. calandra presence had the strongest positive correlation with land surface temperature, modified soil adjusted vegetation index, coefficient of variation for ETM+ band 5 and the fraction of non-irrigated arable land.

Description: There are many situations in which it is desirable to use a Local Positioning System (LPS), which constitutes a complete and independent unit, offers high accuracy and in addition is economical to realize. This paper describes the LPS LOSNUS (Localization of Sensor Nodes by Ultra Sound). LOSNUS is a complete and independent LPS where the same system can be used for localization and calibration. Primarily designed for locating numerous quasi-static devices, special care of system construction has taken on costly factors, especially in the construction of the infrastructure and of sensor nodes where locating can be realized with minimal additional hardware costs. LOSNUS enables a calibration process without the need of additional expensive tools and/or laborious time in order to get accurate positions of transmitters. As a result, LOSNUS delivers high locating accuracy at medium update rates, and in case of sufficient number of transmitters can also tolerate single failures in the Time of Arrival (ToA) measurement, allowing arbitrary failure modes. In this article, the system is presented starting from design, realization and algorithms of localization and calibration. Finally, new measurement results are showing the high accuracy of localization based on a discussion of the applied uncertainty description.

Description: Russia, which suffered a launch failure in July that cost it three GLONASS-M satellites, plans to launch four more by the end of this year and four more in the latter half of 2014 — part of an overall plan to place a total of 12 satellites into orbit by the end of 2015.

Description: Inside GNSS coverage of the GPS intellectual property dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States has won the magazine’s Washington correspondent, Dee Ann Divis, another journalism award — this one from the Military Reporters & Editors Association.

Description: JAVAD GNSS has introduced the Triumph-LS, a complete real-time kinematic survey system including an 864-channel receiver capable of receiving and processing all available GNSS signals, antenna, radio modem, controller, and collapsible pole. The receiver is based on JAVAD GNSS's new Triumph 2 chip.  

Description: In 2008, the campaign of President Barack Obama pioneered the use of social media to power his way to the White House. In 2010, the president unleashed the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect and analyze details — including geolocation derived from GPS and other positioning technologies — of billions of American citizens’ telephone calls, e-mails, and social media such as Facebook.

Description: The European Patent Office will award a brand-new prize for the best patented satellite technology in the 2013 European Satellite Navigation competition, or Galileo Masters. The winner - or winners -will receive a detailed economic study on the market potential of theirinvention. They will also have chance at the EPO's 2014 European Inventor Award.

Description: Spirent Communications has launched its GSS6425 multi-frequency GNSS record and playback (RPS) test system , a self-contained and portable unit that allows  users to record and play back data in the field without the need for an additional PC or external power. The GSS6425 provides customers with RF recordings on for GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS (Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System) constellations, including L1, L2, and L5 frequencies representing more than 30 megahertz of bandwidth.

Description: The head of Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces (VKO) said four more GLONASS launches are planned for 2013.  “Three GLONASS satellites are scheduled to be launched on board a Proton carrier rocket in July from the Baikonur space center and another one is planned to be launched in December from the Plesetsk space center,”  said Major General Alexander Golovko in a June 7 story for state news agency RIA Novosti.

Description: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and NEC Corporation have received contracts to build the spacecraft and ground control system, respectively, for Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS). The Japanese Cabinet Office announced the contract awards last Friday (March 29, 2013). Mitsubishi will receive ¥50 billion (US$540 million) for building one geostationary satellite and two additional quasi-zenith satellites (QZSs) to join “Michibiki,” the first QZS launched on September 11, 2010.

Description: President Obama has signed a continuing resolution, an omnibus federal spending measure that includes funding for the GPS program.  

Description: This study analyzed more than 50 years of land cover and land use changes in the 260 km2 Koga catchment in North Western Ethiopia. The data used includes 1:50,000 scale aerial photographs, Landsat MSS, TM and ETM images, and ASTER images together with ground truth data collected through field surveys and community elders’ interviews. Aerial photographs have high spatial resolution but provide lower spectral resolution than satellite data. While most land use/cover change studies compare changes from different spatial scales, this study applied land use/cover classification techniques to bring the data to a relatively similar scale. The data revealed that woody vegetation decreased from 5,576 ha to 3,012 ha from the 1950s to 2010. Most of the deforestation took place between the 1970s and 1980s, but there is an increasing trend since then. No significant changes were observed in the area used for agriculture that comprises the pastures and crop fields since the 1950s, while there is an enormous increase in the area used for settlement, due to a tremendous increase in population from one point in time to another. The bare lands that used to exist in previous years were found to be totally covered with other land cover/use classes and no bare lands were observed in the study area in the year 2010. Population pressure and land use policies were found to be reasons for the changes in land use/cover while soil degradation, decrease in the indigenous woody vegetation and erosion were the observed consequences of the land use/cover changes.

Description: High resolution Digital Surface Models (DSMs) produced from airborne laser-scanning or stereo satellite images provide a very useful source of information for automated 3D building reconstruction. In this paper an investigation is reported about extraction of 3D building models from high resolution DSMs and orthorectified images produced from Worldview-2 stereo satellite imagery. The focus is on the generation of 3D models of parametric building roofs, which is the basis for creating Level Of Detail 2 (LOD2) according to the CityGML standard. In particular the building blocks containing several connected buildings with tilted roofs are investigated and the potentials and limitations of the modeling approach are discussed. The edge information extracted from orthorectified image has been employed as additional source of information in 3D reconstruction algorithm. A model driven approach based on the analysis of the 3D points of DSMs in a 2D projection plane is proposed. Accordingly, a building block is divided into smaller parts according to the direction and number of existing ridge lines for parametric building reconstruction. The 3D model is derived for each building part, and finally, a complete parametric model is formed by merging the 3D models of the individual building parts and adjusting the nodes after the merging step. For the remaining building parts that do not contain ridge lines, a prismatic model using polygon approximation of the corresponding boundary pixels is derived and merged to the parametric models to shape the final model of the building. A qualitative and quantitative assessment of the proposed method for the automatic reconstruction of buildings with parametric roofs is then provided by comparing the final model with the existing surface model as well as some field measurements.

Description: Recent profound changes have been observed in the Arctic environment, including record low sea ice extents and high latitude greening. Studying the Arctic and how it is changing is an important element of climate change science. The Tundra, an ecoregion of the Arctic, is directly related to climate change due to its effects on the snow ice feedback mechanism and greenhouse gas cycling. Like all ecoregions, the Tundra border is shifting, yet studies and policies require clear delineation of boundaries. There are many options for ecoregion classification systems, as well as resources for creating custom maps. To help decision makers identify the best classification system possible, we present a review of North American Tundra ecoregion delineations and further explore the methodologies, purposes, limitations, and physical properties of five common ecoregion classification systems. We quantitatively compare the corresponding maps by area using a geographic information system.

Description: Real-time estimation of crop progress stages is critical to the US agricultural economy and decision making. In this paper, a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based method combining multisource features has been presented. The multisource features include mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), fractal dimension, and Accumulated Growing Degree Days (AGDDs). In our case, these features are global variable, and measured in the state-level. Moreover, global feature in each Day of Year (DOY) would be impacted by multiple progress stages. Therefore, a mixture model is employed to model the observation probability distribution with all possible stage components. Then, a filtering based algorithm is utilized to estimate the proportion of each progress stage in the real-time. Experiments are conducted in the states of Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska in the USA, and our results are assessed and validated by the Crop Progress Reports (CPRs) of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Finally, a quantitative comparison and analysis between our method and spectral pixel-wise based methods is presented. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method for the estimation of corn progress stages. The proposed method could be used as a supplementary tool in aid of field survey. Moreover, it also can be used to establish the progress stage estimation model for different types of crops.

Description: Low resolution satellite imagery has been extensively used for crop monitoring and yield forecasting for over 30 years and plays an important role in a growing number of operational systems. The combination of their high temporal frequency with their extended geographical coverage generally associated with low costs per area unit makes these images a convenient choice at both national and regional scales. Several qualitative and quantitative approaches can be clearly distinguished, going from the use of low resolution satellite imagery as the main predictor of final crop yield to complex crop growth models where remote sensing-derived indicators play different roles, depending on the nature of the model and on the availability of data measured on the ground. Vegetation performance anomaly detection with low resolution images continues to be a fundamental component of early warning and drought monitoring systems at the regional scale. For applications at more detailed scales, the limitations created by the mixed nature of low resolution pixels are being progressively reduced by the higher resolution offered by new sensors, while the continuity of existing systems remains crucial for ensuring the availability of long time series as needed by the majority of the yield prediction methods used today.

Description: NovAtel Inc. has announced its new SPAN-IGM series of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) inertial sensor products, including the IMU-IGM-A1 MEMS enclosure and the SPAN-IGM-A1 GNSS/INS enclosure.   The IMU-IGM-A1 is a small, rugged enclosure that houses a MEMS inertial sensor, which can be configured from the factory as an integrated GNSS + Inertial Navigation System (INS) or as a standalone IMU sensor for pairing with a customer’s existing SPAN-enabled OEM6 receiver.  

Description: The International GNSS Service (IGS), a worldwide federation of agencies involved in high-precision GNSS) applications, has announced the launch of its Real-Time Service (RTS). The RTS is a global scale GNSS orbit and clock correction service that enables real-time precise point positioning (PPP) and related applications requiring access to IGS low latency products. The RTS is offered in beta as a GPS-only service for the development and testing of applications.

Description: A research team at the NAVIS Center at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Vietnam has achieved what it says is the first successful Galileo-only positioning in Asia.

Description: As open source volunteered geographic information continues to gain popularity, the user community and data contributions are expected to grow, e.g., CloudMade, Apple, and Ushahidi now provide OpenStreetMap© (OSM) as a base layer for some of their mapping applications. This, coupled with the lack of cartographic standards and the expectation to one day be able to use this vector data for more geopositionally sensitive applications, like GPS navigation, leaves potential users and researchers to question the accuracy of the database. This research takes a photogrammetric approach to determining the positional accuracy of OSM road features using stereo imagery and a vector adjustment model. The method applies rigorous analytical measurement principles to compute accurate real world geolocations of OSM road vectors. The proposed approach was tested on several urban gridded city streets from the OSM database with the results showing that the post adjusted shape points improved positionally by 86%. Furthermore, the vector adjustment was able to recover 95% of the actual positional displacement present in the database. To demonstrate a practical application, a head-to-head positional accuracy assessment between OSM, the USGS National Map (TNM), and United States Census Bureau’s Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding Referencing (TIGER) 2007 roads was conducted.

Description: Registration has opened for the European Space Agency’s International Summer School on GNSS. Scheduled July 15–25 in Davos, Switzerland, this year’s program will be held in conjunction with the European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC). The program is open to graduate students (with a first university degree), Ph.D. candidates, early-stage researchers, and young professionals wishing to broaden their knowledge.

Description: Furuno Electric Company has announced that new multi-GNSS receiver chips eRideOPUS 6 and eRideOPUS 7 — with active anti-jamming, multipath mitigation, and dead reckoning interfaces — will be available to the market beginning August 2013. The eRideOPUS 7 receiver chip can process GPS and GLONASS signals (with a combined antenna), satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) transmissions, Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), and — with a software update —Galileo signals. The eRideOPUS 6 is not GLONASS-capable.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the water balance in a semi-arid environment with limited in situ data using a remote sensing approach. We focus on the Lake Manyara catchment, located within the East African Rift of northern Tanzania. We use a distributed conceptual hydrological model driven by remote sensing data to study the spatial and temporal variability of water balance parameters within the catchment. Satellite gravimetry GRACE data is used to verify the trends of the inferred lake level changes. The results show that the lake undergoes high spatial and temporal variations, characteristic of a semi-arid climate with high evaporation and low rainfall. We observe that the Lake Manyara water balance and GRACE equivalent water depth show comparable trends; a decrease after 2002 followed by a sharp increase in 2006–2007. Our modeling confirms the importance of the 2006–2007 Indian Ocean Dipole fluctuation in replenishing the groundwater reservoirs of East Africa. We thus demonstrate that water balance modeling can be performed successfully using remote sensing data even in complex climatic settings. Despite the small size of Lake Manyara, GRACE data showed great potential for hydrological research on smaller un-gauged lakes and catchments in similar semi-arid environments worldwide. The water balance information can be used for further analysis of lake variations in relation to soil erosion, climate and land cover/land use change as well as different lake management and conservation scenarios.

Description: We introduce and test the performance of two sampling methods that utilize distance distributions of laser point clouds in terrestrial and mobile laser scanning geometries. The methods are leveled histogram sampling and inversely weighted distance sampling. The methods aim to reduce a significant portion of the laser point cloud data while retaining most characteristics of the full point cloud. We test the methods in three case studies in which data were collected using a different terrestrial or mobile laser scanning system in each. Two reference methods, uniform sampling and linear point picking, were used for result comparison. The results demonstrate that correctly selected distance-sensitive sampling techniques allow higher point removal than the references in all the tested case studies.

Description: In the North Sea, an array of wind profiling wind lidars were deployed mainly on offshore platforms. The purpose was to observe free stream winds at hub height. Eight lidars were validated prior to offshore deployment with observations from cup anemometers at 60, 80, 100 and 116 m on an onshore met mast situated in flat terrain. The so-called “NORSEWInD standard” for comparing lidar and mast wind data includes the criteria that the slope of the linear regression should lie within 0.98 and 1.01 and the linear correlation coefficient higher than 0.98 for the wind speed range 4–16 m∙s−1. Five lidars performed excellently, two slightly failed the first criterion and one failed both. The lidars were operated offshore from six months to more than two years and observed in total 107 months of 10-min mean wind profile observations. Four lidars were re-evaluated post deployment with excellent results. The flow distortion around platforms was examined using wind tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics and it was found that at 100 m height wind observations by the lidars were not significantly influenced by flow distortion. Observations of the vertical wind profile shear exponent at hub height are presented.

Description: This paper presents an integrated approach to landslide research based on remote sensing and sensor networks. This approach is composed of three important parts: (i) landslide susceptibility mapping using remote-sensing techniques for susceptible determination of landslide spots; (ii) scaled-down landslide simulation experiments for validation of sensor network for landslide monitoring, and (iii) in situ sensor network deployment for intensified landslide monitoring. The study site is the Taziping landslide located in Hongkou Town (Sichuan, China). The landslide features generated by landslides triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake were first extracted by means of object-oriented methods from the remote-sensing images before and after the landslides events. On the basis of correlations derived between spatial distribution of landslides and control factors, the landslide susceptibility mapping was carried out using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique. Then the Taziping landslide, located in the above mentioned study area, was taken as an example to design and implement a scaled-down landslide simulation platform in Tongji University (Shanghai, China). The landslide monitoring sensors were carefully investigated and deployed for rainfall induced landslide simulation experiments. Finally, outcomes from the simulation experiments were adopted and employed to design the future in situ sensor network in Taziping landslide site where the sensor deployment is being implemented.

Description: Global temperature is increasing, and this is affecting the vegetation phenology in many parts of the world. In Fennoscandia, as well as Northern Europe, the advances of phenological events in spring have been recorded in recent decades. In this study, we analyzed the start of the growing season within five different vegetation regions in Fennoscandia using the 30-year Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) NDVI3g dataset. We applied a previously developed pixel-specific Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) threshold method, adjusted it to the NDVI3g data and analyzed trends within the different regions. Results show a warming trend with an earlier start of the growing season of 11.8 ± 2.0 days (p 〈 0.01) for the whole area. However, there are large regional differences, and the warming/trend towards an earlier start of the growing season is most significant in the southern regions (19.3 ± 4.7 days, p 〈 0.01 in the southern oceanic region), while the start was stable or modest earlier (two to four days; not significant) in the northern regions. To look for temporal variations in the trends, we divided the 30-year period into three separate decadal time periods. Results show significantly more change/trend towards an earlier start of the growing season in the first period compared to the two last. In the second and third period, the trend towards an earlier start of the growing season slowed down, and in two of the regions, the trend towards an earlier start of the growing season was even reversed during the last decade.

Description: Persistent Scatterer interferometry (PSI) represents a powerful tool for the detection and monitoring of tiny surface deformations in vast areas, allowing a better understanding of its triggering mechanisms, planning of mitigation measures, as well as to find better solutions for social and environmental issues. However, there is no record hitherto of its use in active open pit mine in tropical rainforest environment. In this paper we evaluate the use of the PSI technique for the detection and monitoring of mine slope deformations in the N4W iron mine and its surroundings, Pará State, Northern Brazil. The PSI processing was performed with 18 ascending SAR scenes of the TerraSAR-X satellite acquired in the dry season of 2012. The results showed a significant number of widely distributed persistent scatterers. It was observed that most of the study area was stable during the time span. Nevertheless, high deformation rates (312 mm/year) were mapped over the mine waste piles, but do not offer any hazard, since they are expected displacements of meters in magnitude for these manmade land structures. Additionally, it was mapped tiny deformation rates in both the east and west flanks of pits 1 and 2. The main underlying reasons can be assigned to the accommodation phenomena of very poor rock masses, to the local geometric variations of the slope cuts, to the geological contact between ironstones and the country rocks, to the exploitation activities, as well as to the major geological structures. This study showed the applicability of the PSI technique using TerraSAR-X scenes in active open pit mines in tropical moist environment. However, the PSI technique is not capable in providing real-time warnings, and faces limitations due to SAR viewing geometry. In this sense, we strongly recommend the use of radar scenes acquired in both ascending and descending orbits, which would also provide a more complete understanding of the deformation patterns.

Description: This study presents a method for adjusting long-term climate data records (CDRs) for the integrated use with near-real-time data using the example of surface incoming solar irradiance (SIS). Recently, a 23-year long (1983–2005) continuous SIS CDR has been generated based on the visible channel (0.45–1 μm) of the MVIRI radiometers onboard the geostationary Meteosat First Generation Platform. The CDR is available from the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM SAF). Here, it is assessed whether a homogeneous extension of the SIS CDR to the present is possible with operationally generated surface radiation data provided by CM SAF using the SEVIRI and GERB instruments onboard the Meteosat Second Generation satellites. Three extended CM SAF SIS CDR versions consisting of MVIRI-derived SIS (1983–2005) and three different SIS products derived from the SEVIRI and GERB instruments onboard the MSG satellites (2006 onwards) were tested. A procedure to detect shift inhomogeneities in the extended data record (1983–present) was applied that combines the Standard Normal Homogeneity Test (SNHT) and a penalized maximal T-test with visual inspection. Shift detection was done by comparing the SIS time series with the ground stations mean, in accordance with statistical significance. Several stations of the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and about 50 stations of the Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA) over Europe were used as the ground-based reference. The analysis indicates several breaks in the data record between 1987 and 1994 probably due to artefacts in the raw data and instrument failures. After 2005 the MVIRI radiometer was replaced by the narrow-band SEVIRI and the broadband GERB radiometers and a new retrieval algorithm was applied. This induces significant challenges for the homogenisation across the satellite generations. Homogenisation is performed by applying a mean-shift correction depending on the shift size of any segment between two break points to the last segment (2006–present). Corrections are applied to the most significant breaks that can be related to satellite changes. This study focuses on the European region, but the methods can be generalized to other regions. To account for seasonal dependence of the mean-shifts the correction was performed independently for each calendar month. In comparison to the ground-based reference the homogenised data record shows an improvement over the original data record in terms of anomaly correlation and bias. In general the method can also be applied for the adjustment of satellite datasets addressing other variables to bridge the gap between CDRs and near-real-time data.

Description: We evaluated the accuracy and sensitivity of six previously published reflectance based algorithms to retrieve Phycocyanin (PC) concentration in inland waters. We used field radiometric and pigment data obtained from two study sites located in the United States and Brazil. All the algorithms targeted the PC absorption feature observed in the water reflectance spectra between 600 and 625 nm. We evaluated the influence of chlorophyll-a (chl-a) absorption on the performance of these algorithms in two contrasting environments with very low and very high cyanobacteria content. All algorithms performed well in low to moderate PC concentrations and showed signs of saturation or decreased sensitivity for high PC concentration with a nonlinear trend. MM09 was found to be the most accurate algorithm overall with a RMSE of 15.675%. We also evaluated the use of these algorithms with the simulated spectral bands of two hyperspectral space borne sensors including Hyperion and Compact High-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) and a hyperspectral air borne sensor, Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI). Results showed that the sensitivity for chl-a of PC retrieval algorithms for Hyperion simulated data were less noticable than using the spectral bands of CHRIS; HyspIRI results show that SC00 could be used for this sensor with low chl-a influence. This review of reflectance based algorithms can be used to select the optimal approach in studies involving cyanobacteria monitoring through optical remote sensing techniques.

Description: NovAtel has announced support for the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System on its OEM6 family and selected OEMStar GNSS receivers. The long-anticipated BeiDou Interface Control Document (ICD) release is a significant milestone that facilitates global acceptance of the Chinese GNSS system into the growing range of satellite-based positioning applications, the company says.

Description: The U.S. Air Force Space Command has awarded Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions–Defense a $100 million contract to upport the GPS ground control segment. The contract's period of performance is from January 2013 through June 2019.

Description: The United States and United Kingdom announced today (January 17, 2013) that the British government would end efforts to obtain patent or intellectual property (IP) rights related to GPS.

Description: UrsaNav, Inc. has finalized an agreement to acquire the assets of Loran-C pioneer Megapulse, Inc., of Bedford, Massachusetts, with the transaction expected to close this quarter. Megapulse's general area of business is low-frequency (LF) radionavigation, position-fIxing, orientation, and time transfer systems, with primary product and service lines in Loran and enhanced Loran (eLoran). Since the 1970s, all Loran transmitter systems installed were of Megapulse design.

Description: Broadcom Corporation has introduced a GNSS chip with an architecture designed to enable geofence capabilities while preserving battery life. Geofence technology provides virtual perimeter — the geofence — awareness in a geographical area of interest. The geofence feature enables an application to receive a notification when a user enters or exits a virtual perimeter.

Description: Although not on the scale or at the strategic level of China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s takeover of Canada’s Nexen Inc., the recent acquisition of the Precise Products business of Hemisphere GPS by Beijing UniStrong Science & Technology Co. Ltd. marks a notable achievement in the GNSS world — the acquisition of a North American manufacturer with core GNSS receiver intellectual property by a Chinese enterprise.

Description: Several studies attempt to describe changes in the spatial patterns of forests over time, resorting to the comparison of landscape pattern indices (LPI), but new methods for quantifying landscape differences in a statistical context are necessary. In this paper, we quantified and assessed the statistical significance of the forests pattern changes, which have occurred since the end of WWII in Central Italy (Isernia). To do this; based on the proportion of forest cover (pi) and contagion (H) of three land cover maps (1954–1981–2006); we generated 100 forest maps with predictable results through the midpoint displacement algorithm. Then, for both observed and simulated maps, we computed a set of LPI (number of patches, cohesion, largest forest patch index and area weighted mean shape index) and we derived their empirical distributions; finally, we compared the empirical distributions using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test. Our results show significant changes in the spatial pattern of forests and underline the process of natural forest re-growth, which, in the area, is constrained by “remnants” of traditional activities. The adopted approach could be extended to a large ensemble of landscapes and spatial scales and could become a standard procedure when comparing patterns in time.

Description: While OGC’s WFS facilitates disseminating heterogeneous spatial data over the Web and allows feature-level geospatial information sharing and synchronization, performance issues challenge the efficient and effective utilization of WFS for disaster response. Literature shows that obtaining spatial information becomes very slow when querying WFS systems from large geospatial databases over the Internet. Solutions on how to improve the WFS system performance so that spatial data can be delivered to disaster responders within a reasonable amount of time are needed. This paper proposes a parallel approach based on Voronoi diagram indexing and data/task parallelism for improving the query performance of WFS systems for disaster applications. Experimental results show that the parallel approach can significantly improve the response time needed to process the spatial queries from a massive volume of spatial data for disaster response.

Description: The environment affects agriculture, via soils, weather, etc. and agriculture affects the environment locally at farm level and via its impact on climate change. Locating agriculture within its spatial environment is thus important for farmers and policy makers. Within the EU countries collect detailed farm data to understand the technical and financial performance of farms; the Farm Accountancy Data Network. However, knowledge of the spatial-environmental context of these farms is reported at gross scale. In this paper, Irish farm accounting data is geo-referenced using address matching to a national address database. An analysis of the geographic distribution of the survey farms, illustrated through a novel 2D ranked pair plot of the coordinates, compared to the national distribution of farms shows a trend in the location of survey farms that leads to a statistical difference in the climatic variables associated with the farm. The farms in the survey have significantly higher accumulated solar radiation values than the national average. As a result, the survey may not be representative spatially of the pattern of environment x farm system. This could have important considerations when using FADN data in modelling climate change impacts on agri-economic performance.

Description: Spectracom has announced the upgrade capability of its GNSS simulators to China’s BeiDou system. The Spectracom GSG Series 5 and Series 6 GNSS simulators, released last year, are designed to be field upgradeable to simulate current and future GNSS constellations. The recent release of the Beidou ICD specification has enabled Spectracom to ensure that its GSG Series 5 and Series 6 equipment will be able to simulate these satellites with a simple field-upgradeable firmware update.

Description: The European Council heads of states meeting ended today (February 8, 2013) without making further cuts in the proposed budget for Europe's GNSS programs.

Description: NovAtel Inc., has announced the addition of a new commercially exportable MEMS IMU (microelectromechanical inertial measurement unit) to its line of SPAN GNSS/INS products. Available for immediate shipping, the MEMS IMU is supplied by Analog Devices (Norwood, Massachusetts) and is exclusive to NovAtel. It can be paired with an OEM6 receiver card to provide continuously available position, velocity, and attitude (roll, pitch, yaw) in a small, single-unit form factor.

Description: The U.S. Air Force GPS Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Califorinia, has awarded Lockheed Martin Space System Company a $62-million firm-fixed-price contract for GPS III Space Vehicles (SVs) 5 and 6 to be completed by June 30, 2017. Funded under the federal Fiscal Year 2013 budget and announced February 8, construction will take place at the company’s facilities in Newtown, Pennsylvnia.

Description: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is defined as the technologies, policies and people necessary to promote sharing of geospatial data throughout all levels of government, the private and non-profit sectors and the academic community. The US Census Bureau is the federal agency lead for administrative units data, one of the seven data themes identified by the NSDI framework. The administrative unit is a unit with administrative responsibilities. These units are organized as nodes/lines/areas feature data. The OpenGIS Geography Markup Language (GML) is the XML grammar to express the geographic features. This study at the US Census Bureau investigates how the general-purpose GML standard could be leveraged and extended to describe the most comprehensive geographic dataset with national coverage in the US. Challenges and problems in dealing with data volume, GML document structure, GML schema design and GML document naming are analyzed, followed by proposed solutions proven for feasibility. Our results show that one key point in making a successful GML deployment for NSDI is to reflect the characteristics of the geographic data through a carefully designed GML schema, structure and organization. The lessons learned may be useful to others transforming NSDI framework data and other large geospatial datasets into GML structures.

Description: The U.S. Air Force has awarded The Boeing Company a $51 million to continue modernizing the GPS satellite constellation for up to five more years. The contract covers GPS IIF satellite shipment to the launch site in Florida, pre-launch preparation, post-launch checkout, handover, and on-orbit support. It has an initial one-year term with four one-year options.

Description: At present it is common to use geographic information system (GIS) applications to assess runoff generation. One of these GIS-based tools to generate maps of dominant runoff processes is the so called GIS-DRP approach. The tool, which has been developed mainly based on agricultural areas, uses commonly available input data like a digital elevation model (DEM), geological information as well as land use information. The aim of this study is to test, validate and improve this GIS-DRP method for forested and silviculture areas. Hence, soil-hydrologic investigations and several mapping techniques of dominant runoff processes were conducted on 25 test-plots in four forested catchments in Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. By comparing the results of the mapping techniques and those of the test plots, weak points in the original GIS-DRP method were detected. Subsequently, it was possible to enhance the GIS-DRP approach by incorporating new discharge relevant parameters like topsoil sealing, extreme weather events and semipermeability of the substratum. Moreover, the improved GIS-DRP approach can be widely used in different landscapes and for different fields of application. The adapted method can now support foresters and decision makers in forestry planning, answer questions concerning the landscape water balance and peripheral water retention or provide extra information for sustainable forest planning in times of a changing climate.

Description: China’s transport authorities have announced that certain commerical vehicles in parts of the nation are now required to use the homegrown BeiDou GNSS system, Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, reported on Monday (January 14, 2013).

Description: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a staff report last Friday (February 1, 2013) that suggests companies consider offering a Do Not Track (DNT) mechanism for smartphone users among other measures to protect location privacy. Use and possible abuse of real-time geolocation data was well up on the list of concerns addressed by the report, “Mobile Privacy Disclosures: Building Trust Through Transparency.”

Description: Hemisphere GPS Inc. moved closer to a final exit from the OEM GNSS space yesterday (January 31, 2013) by signing a definitive agreement to sell the business assets associated with its non-agricultural operations to the Canadian subsidiary of Beijing UniStrong Science & Technology Co. Ltd. The cash sale price was $14.96 million. Meanwhile, the company also announced that it plans to change its corporate name to “AgJunction Inc.,” subject to shareholder approval at its 2012 annual shareholders meeting, planned for May 2013.

Description: A recently announced deal between the United States and the United Kingdom to revoke the UK’s surprise patents on a key GPS technology has a glaring omission: Intentionally left out of the agreement are patents on the European Union’s version of the technology, a signal structure important to enabling Europe’s Galileo system to work seamlessly with America’s GPS constellation.