GeoEye Finally in the outer space

GeoEye-1, the highest resolution commericial Earth imaging satellite, was successfull launched into the space at 11:51 a.m saturday morning. GeoEye-1 was launched on a Delta - 2 rocket that carried the Google logo on it , on the side of GeoEye logo.

Google has got itself a satellite called 'GeoEye' which exclusively serves the google with highest resolution imagery available in todays market. Google is going to use this imagery in its Google Earth and Google Maps applications. According to the deal signed Google is the one and only user of the GeoEye 1's satellite imagery, said google spokesman.

One of the things that really caught my attention is google logo on the rocket which is going to take GeoEye a 4300 pound satellite into the earths orbit in another six days.

picture credit : GeoEye/ULA While Googles current imagery the maxium resolution being 15 sq mts/ pixel, GeoEye-1 is capable of capturing the imagery with details of size of 41 cms which is very cool I think. But 50 cms is the permitted resolution according to the GeoEyes license agreement with the US government.

GeoEye-2 is already in progress with launch date in 2011 or 2012 and it will have a resolution of 25 cms (wow !).

ESRI offers access to premium imagery data through ArcGIS online services

ESRI now offers access to new premium map service through ArcGIS Online. The i-cubed's Nationwide Prime 1-meter or better resolution imagery for the continental Unite States is included in USA premium map service. i-cubed's 15 meter eSAT Imagery at medium-to-large scales and the NASA Blue Marbel: Next generation 500-meter resolution imagery at small scales -are also included with the USA premimum map service. Now ArcGIS Users can leverage the 2D maps and 3D globe services of i-cubed for authoring and publishing maps and perform situational analysis. Along with premium imagery, ArcGIS online gives users access to street maps, topographic maps and shaded relief maps.

"We believe that a high-resolution online imagery service like Nationwide Prime, which is updated quarterly with the latest commercial and publicly available data, will give ArcGIS users an invaluable base for a wide variety of GIS projects and applications," said Andrew Pitcairn, i-cubed's senior director, strategic sales

This is very good news for the GIS community because now ArcGIS is the one stop shop for high resolution and most updated imagery data along with access to the Microsoft Virtual Earths hybrid imagery(See http://www.geospatialnews.com/2008/09/microsoft-virtual-earth-now-accessible.html). This is an invaluable feature for anyone who is building turn key GIS Solutions that requires high resolution and more importantly the latest imagery data. What makes it so invaluable is the the clients don't to have waste a lot of time on findinig,storing and maintaining the data because now its all maintained by ESRI. It really cut lot of costs because there is no more hussle with data storage and maintainence.

"By helping to provide ArcGIS users with consistently updated, high-quality commercial imagery of the United States, i-cubed has been an important partner in delivering premier imagery for projects requiring such basemaps," said Rob Shanks, senior product manager for the ArcGIS Online program at ESRI.

For more information on ArcGIS Online visit www.esri.com/arcgisonlineservices.

Rasterex releases the new RxSpotlight R9.0

For starters Rasterex is the world leading software provider for raster editing and raster to vector conversion. RXSpotlight is a desktop application for cleaning up drawings and converting scanned drawings into CAD. Rasterex made a big leap by introducing full CAD vector processing and intelligent image processing through RxSpotlight R9.0. With this new features, RxSpotlight R9.0 stands as a one stop shop for image processing, raster editing and vector processing.

"We are proud to present the perfect one-stop solution for companies working extensively with raster and CAD drawings", says Per Christian Lindstad, CEO at Rasterex Software. "Whether the user starts with a scanned drawing, retrieves a file from the archive or imports a DWG file from AutoCAD, he can clean up and edit the raster, make lossless data reduction and advanced image enhancements, convert between raster and vector data and complete the CAD processing up to final CAD output - all without leaving the application".

New features in RxSpotlight R9.0: (taken from https://www.rasterex.com/)

Microsoft Windows Vista compatible
Import of DWG and DXF files for full AutoCAD compatibility
AutoCAD 2009 supported
Workspace includes Drawing Layouts and Viewports as in AutoCAD
Extended line styles and hatch type support
Dimension style support, new dimension objects
Proxy and complex entities processing
User Coordinate System AutoCAD-style support
New angular units in coordinate settings
AutoCAD style editing
Construction objects (ray, line) and primitive object (polygon) added
AutoCAD style object grips and dragging
Node selection mode for polylines
Object tracking snap mode on vectors (similar to AutoCAD) extending also onto raster objects
COM and DDE interface
Languages such as C++, Java and scripts available for improved usability
Updated internal format, more compact and robust
Autosave and Recover
Print Setup dialog redesigned for better usability
Added feature - individual clip for multiple raster insertion

For more information goto https://www.rasterex.com/