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RS : January 2000
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ERDAS - Space Imaging Alliance
ERDAS's New Products
Space Imaging, Latin America will receive IRS Data
Landsat 7 images Available
A Dual launch by Arianespace in February
Ariane launches "Spy in Sky"
Terra Launched
ERDAS - Space Imaging Alliance
A joint venture has been signed between ERDAS and Space Imaging to integrate their products. ERDAS will work to provide tailored software products for Space Imaging. It will also be bundling Space Imaging’s satellite imagery with a new PC software.
ERDAS’s New Products
In its IMAGINE series, ERDAS has recently announced new products for image processing. OrthoBASE is a photogrammetry product, which utilises automation to cut production time of orthophotos. It eliminates the need to collect points manually and allows the user to automatically identify and measure ground points throughout an entire block of image within minutes. The process also allows the user to undertake block triangulation simultaneously modelling the geometry of multiple overlapping photos and the formation of DEM where external models are not available.
Another important release within the IMAGINE series of ERDAS is IMAGINE IFSAR DEM, the fourth radar processing module in the IMAGINE Radar Mapping Suite. IMAGINE IFSAR DEM is wizard-based, terrain extraction software that uses interferometric processing techniques to create high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. The wizard interface is especially useful for novice users, as it takes them through each stage of the process and removes the otherwise complex nature of interferometric processing.
The IMAGINE Radar Mapping Suite consists of four add-on modules to ERDAS IMAGINE, consisting of the IMAGINE Radar Interpreter, IMAGINE OrthoRadar, IMAGINE StereoSAR DEM, and IMAGINE IFSAR DEM. The modules of the Suite can be used individually, or in unison, for a complete radar mapping solution that enables ERDAS IMAGINE users to process SAR data and merge it with optical imagery or GIS vectors for analysis and map creation, without having to learn a new user interface.
Space Imaging Latin America will receive IRS Data
Space Imaging Latin America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Space Imaging, will receive and process satellite imagery collected over Latin American regions by the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites. A ground receiving station in Cotopaxi, Ecuador, is receiving the imagery since August 1999. With this facility South America, for the first time, will receive high-resolution imagery, which previously relied on lower-resolution imagery from the US Landsat satellites. The IRS data received by the Latin American ground station are transferred to Space Imaging’s Norman, Oklahoma, operations centre, where they are processed and made available to customers.
Landsat 7 Images Available
NASA’s Earth-imaging satellite Landsat 7 completed its checkout phase and is transmitting images. The images can be viewed and purchased by the public via the Internet from the US Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA. The site is http://landsat7.usgs.gov. Landsat 7 images can help to monitor nature’s mysteries, including ice stream movement, volcanoes and urban growth impacts. In addition, Landsat data is used worldwide by government, commercial and educational customers for forestry, agriculture, geology, oceanography, land mapping and geographic research applications.
A Dual launch by Arianespace in February
On its new launch vehicle, Ariane 5, Arianespace - the European space transponder company, will launch in February 2000 Insat-3B, along with Asia Star - a satellite of World Space Organisation, Washington headquarter. Dual satellite launches like this would become a standard practice with Ariane 5, which can currently place a payload of 5.9 tonnes into the geostationary transfer orbit. Insat-3B is a multi-purpose communications satellite built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which will be the second commercial launch for Ariane 5.
Ariane launches "Spy in Sky"
A Western European Ariane rocket launched a military surveillance satellite, the second in a French - led drive for a European "spy in sky" independent of the United States. The Ariane-40 rocket was blasted off from the Kourou launchpad in French Guiana. It placed into orbit 23 minutes later the 2.5 tonne Helios IB satellite launched four years ago. France, running the project with minority partners Italy and Spain, gave high publicity to the launch.
Terra launched
Terra was successfully launched on December 18,1999 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Terra is the flagship of the Earth Observation System (EOS), a major international programme to monitor climate and environmental change on earth over the next 15 years. Part of a series of EOS satellites, Terra will enable new research into the ways that Earth’s lands, oceans, air, ice, and life function as a total environment system. ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) is an imaging instrument used in this mission to obtain detailed maps of land surface temperature, emissivity, reflectance and elevation. The ASTER intrument was built in Japan for the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Terra’s sensors will begin collecting first images atleast 30 days after the launch.
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