AUSLIG is now the National Mapping Division of Geoscience Australia, providing spatial information for the nation. Until an integrated site is developed, we will have two sites: Geoscience Australia (formerly AGSO) and GA's National Mapping Division (formerly AUSLIG). The merger between the two organisations coincides with a new-look website. We have simplified the design, removed pictures from the page banner and introduced all text links to make this an ultra-fast site to download. Please check your bookmarks as we have also streamlined page navigation. There is a more concise navigation bar on the left and pages are fully resizable and will print easily on an A4 page.
Wouldn't it be nice if someone developed a simple software "Esperanto" for divergent GIS data? Someone has! On December 12, Global Geomatics will launch MapFusionT-- the first commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software that provides access to geospatial data from diverse sources and formats (including Mil-Spec, commercial, and open GIS formats) -- without requiring complex pre-processing or time-consuming translations. MapFusion's underlying technology allows it to seamlessly and dynamically "fuse" heterogenous and distributed geospatial data files into a single map. For more information contact:
Congratulations to Drew Clarke, this year's Eminent Individual award winner who was presented with the award at the annual AURISA dinner held on Wednesday 28th November. The award recognises Drew's contribution in the field as the Head of the Analytical and Mapping Division of the then Department of Industry, Science and Resources. In that position, Drew was Chairman of the Commonwealth Spatial Data Committee (CSDC), and represented the Commonwealth on ANZLIC. The award recognises Drew's outstanding contributions to the theoretical basis of the spatial sciences, to the development of standards, to policy development, to numerous national and international coordination initiatives and, especially, his persistent promotion of a vision for spatial data infrastructures both in Australian and internationally.
TES, beams 1 m imagery successfully
BANGALORE, DECEMBER 2: INDIAN space scientists in Bangalore recently had an exclusive, live peek at America’s war against terrorism in Afghanistan — and the cable networks had nothing to do with it. Sources told The Indian Express that detailed terrain pictures of Kandahar and Kabul and snapshots of American attacks there were the first images beamed by the Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The TES, equipped with powerful cameras, was launched on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on October 22 from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. However, the images captured by the satellite will not be released as it was launched as an experiment, an ISRO official said. In fact, very few ISRO officials here are believed to have seen the pictures so far.
The satellite, which orbits at least 14 times around the earth each day (at the rate of one orbit every 100 minutes), has been beaming pictures for more than a month, the official added.
‘‘Yes, such images as the temples at Puri (Orissa) and of Afghanistan have been beamed,’’ the official said. ‘‘But we will not want to release these for strategic and security reasons.’’
ISRO is still in the process of data and picture analysis of information beamed by the satellite. ‘‘However, we wish to clarify that these are only being used for experimental purposes now. We are testing the capacity of the TES,’’ the official explained.
While ISRO officials declined to divulge more information on the images or their implications, TES is reliably learnt to be covering about 60 per cent of the earth and sends pictures at regular intervals. With this satellite, India can hope to keep track of every movement along the border and is capable of catching even movement of cars, ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan had said soon after the TES launch.
Source: Indian Express, 3 December 2001
Disaster management workshop begins
Ahmedabad: A national workshop on the 'Role of youth in disaster management' was inaugurated at the state guest house on Saturday by Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari.
The workshop has been organised jointly by Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and the Union ministry of youth affairs and sports, to mark the International year of youth at the national level. It is being conducted in consultation with Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority, UNDP and the Ministry of youth services and cultural activities, Gujarat.
Participants from Maharashtra, Orissa, AP, Daman and Gujarat are taking part in the event, and they include senior youth work officers of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), National Service Scheme (NSS) and Young Volunteers representing the movement of the youth clubs with experience in disaster management.
At the end of the workshop, an action plan shall be prepared, said its convenor.
Source:
Times of India
A battle has erupted in Cabinet over Britain's reluctance to join its European partners in backing a global satellite navigation system, which could bring work worth billions of pounds to UK industry. Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, has written to the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, urging him to support the £2bn Galileo project in his capacity as head of the Cabinet's European policy committee. However, the Treasury and the Department of Transport are said to be opposed on the grounds that taxpayers' support should not be given unless there is also a private sector contribution. Galileo will be Europe's answer to the rival US satellite navigation system GPS, which was originally developed for military use. More than 100 commercial applications have been identified. The Cabinet dispute is likely to come to a head this week since the UK needs to clarify its position on Galileo. The Council of Transport Ministers meets on Thursday and Friday to approve a further 450m euros (about £283m) of support for the project. Thirteen of the 15 members of the European Space Agency have already agreed to provide launch funding of 547m euros for Galileo. The two exceptions are Britain and Denmark. Galileo is scheduled to go live in 2008. Its uses range from air traffic and train control to the tracking of stolen cars or dangerous cargoes. However, the biggest commercial application is likely to be pinpointing the location of consumers through receivers built into their mobile phones and then sending them information on local shops and services. Read complete story at: 
AUSLIG is now the National Mapping Division of Geoscience Australia, providing spatial information for the nation. Until an integrated site is developed, we will have two sites: Geoscience Australia (formerly AGSO) and GA's National Mapping Division (formerly AUSLIG). The merger between the two organisations coincides with a new-look website. We have simplified the design, removed pictures from the page banner and introduced all text links to make this an ultra-fast site to download. Please check your bookmarks as we have also streamlined page navigation. There is a more concise navigation bar on the left and pages are fully resizable and will print easily on an A4 page.
Congratulations to Drew Clarke, this year's Eminent Individual award winner who was presented with the award at the annual AURISA dinner held on Wednesday 28th November. The award recognises Drew's contribution in the field as the Head of the Analytical and Mapping Division of the then Department of Industry, Science and Resources. In that position, Drew was Chairman of the Commonwealth Spatial Data Committee (CSDC), and represented the Commonwealth on ANZLIC. The award recognises Drew's outstanding contributions to the theoretical basis of the spatial sciences, to the development of standards, to policy development, to numerous national and international coordination initiatives and, especially, his persistent promotion of a vision for spatial data infrastructures both in Australian and internationally.
