Top Stories
NASA/French Ocean-Observing Satellite Set To Soar
The Dec. 7, 2001 launch of Jason 1, NASA's newest oceanography satellite, will continue the mission started by Topex/Poseidon to monitor global climate interactions between the sea and the atmosphere. Jason 1 will monitor world ocean circulation, study interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate predictions, and observe events like El Nino. Jason 1 is a joint U.S./French oceanography mission. The Dec. 7 launch of Jason 1, NASA's newest oceanography satellite, will continue the mission started by Topex/Poseidon to monitor global climate interactions between the sea and the atmosphere. Jason 1 will monitor world ocean circulation, study interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate predictions, and observe events like El Nino. Jason 1 is a joint U.S./French oceanography mission. "Jason 1 will be a tremendous asset to our oceanography program. It will take the research and development activities done so successfully on Topex/Poseidon and add operational utility and function," said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, associate administrator for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, NASA Headquarters, Washington. Since the oceans are so large, remote sensing from satellites has proved to be the only way to get global information about these vast, hard-to-measure expanses. Spaceborne altimeters, such as the Poseidon 2 instrument that Jason 1 carries, can calculate ocean heights to within centimeters.
Visit:
http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov
Raytheon selected to support Coast Guard's nationwide Differential GPS network
Raytheon Company has been selected to provide the U.S. Coast Guard with engineering, technical, maintenance and support services for the National Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS) under a $49.2 million, 10-year contract designed to support the federal land-based radio navigation network. This is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, which includes a one-year base period and nine one-year options. Under the contract, Raytheon Technical Services Company will provide contractor maintenance services for all installed equipment and support systems for the NDGPS network including call center services, and installation, de-installation and modification of equipment at up to 81 sites nationwide including Alaska. The program office will be located in Norfolk, Va. Tasks under the contract options may include site construction, site conversion, site activation and depot-level repairs. NDGPS provides land-based surface radio navigation assistance throughout the United States. Through a congressionally mandated memorandum of agreement with the U.S. Air Force and Army, as well as the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Highway Administration, the Coast Guard was given responsibility to establish, operate and support the nationwide network.
Visit:
http://www.raytheon.com/
OpenMap 4.4.2 released
OpenMap is open source software. Created the openmap/share/openmap.jnlp file, which demonstrates how to set up a file to be used with Java WebStart. MacOS X users and anyone else with Java WebStart installed can click on that file and the openmap applet will launch and run on the desktop. It also has added the com.bbn.openmap.omGraphics.labeled package, which will be the future home of OMGraphics that have text labels attached to them. Only the LabeledOMPoly was implemented. The LabeledOMPoly lets you attach a text object to a specific node, or you can tell it to center the text within the poly. The polygon parameters can be modified with the OMDrawingTool, but the text attributes cannot. The text can only be modified programmatically.
Visit:
http://openmap.bbn.com
NovAtel Makes Significant Gains in Ag Guidance Market
NovAtel Inc. has announced that it signed an agreement with BEELINE Technologies, Inc., of Fresno, California to supply the GPS and communications engine for its leading edge precision agricultural guidance systems, positioning both companies to capture a significant share of this market. The contract is worth an anticipated US$40 million over a six year term and covers both OEM and after market sales in the US and global agricultural guidance markets. The system hardware represents the third generation of auto-steer products from BEELINE. Powered by NovAtel's OEM4 GPS technology, the navigation system combines GPS, selectable methods of DGPS and RTK, sensor augmentation, communications and guidance software to provide the new auto-steer capability. The result -- a tractor guidance system that delivers automatic steering to a GPS measurement accuracy of less than one inch.
Visit:
http://www.novatel.com/ &
http://www.beelinenavigator.com/.
Map sparks a flap on Sakhalin- What a lot of fuss a map can create.
Sakhalin lawmakers are up in arms about a South Korean-made map being distributed on their Far East island that depicts the disputed Kuril Islands as Japanese. They recently sent a protest to President Vladimir Putin calling for action to be taken against "cartographic expansion on Russian territory." Tokyo claims the southern Kurils, which were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II, while Moscow maintains they are Russian territory. The impasse has prevented the signing of a treaty between the two countries formally ending the war and remains a source of tension. The Sakhalin regional government is calling the printing of such maps an "unfriendly act" and is urging South Korea's ambassador to Russia, Lee Jai Chun, to take measures against their distribution, Interfax reported. Russian media said South Korean and Japanese representatives were distributing the maps on Sakhalin. All maps published in Russia show the southern Kurils as Russian territory, while maps made in Japan show the islands as Japanese. The Sakhalin lawmakers said the recently distributed maps were not the first to appear in the region, which has a South Korean minority of about 5 percent, Interfax said. The news agency said the map was in a diary published by the Seoul-based firm Yangjisa and was being distributed in the Sakhalin region by the Mitsui Bussan firm. The Moscow office of Mitsui Bussan declined comment. Read complete story at:
The Moscow Times
Asia News
China Sees its Resources Satellite Application Technique at World Advanced Level
BEIJING, November 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Thursday's People's Daily says that China Resources Satellite Application Center (shortened as CRSAC), by displaying its special technical superiority, has succeeded in carrying out a set of high-quality work of receiving, recording, processing, filing and putting into production the remote sensing data from the No.1 Resources Satellite.
This has made China to have in its possession a remote sensing graphic data base covering almost all over China and some peripheral countries and regions. And this has on the one hand put an end to the history in which China had to reply solely on the data sources provided by resources satellites of foreign countries and on the other has been extensively used in the national economic construction with the system's comprehensive technical index stepped into the world advanced level.
Launched into the space Oct.14, 1999 China's No.1 Resources Satellite was formally handed over to the center for use on March 2, 2000. It is China's first long-life resources satellite. In a span of over a year the technicians of the CRSAC have through study and research developed a special set of processing method. And by dint of it they have overcome and made good some shortcomings of the satellite data, changed its programs and amended its data and finally succeeded in solving some thorny technical problems never encountered in the same type of resources satellites of foreign countries in the past. So far the center has processed and filed some 230,000 scapes of remote sensing data, produced some 7000 scapes of super-digital quality. The achievement obtained in so short a time is something never seen in the application history of the international satellites.
The use of the remote sensing graphic scapes showing the pollution of the Yellow River outlet and the disastrous landslides in Bomi County of Tibet provided by the CRSAC has offered departments of state environment, and of resistance and relief to calamities the bases for making scientific decisions. The Chinese Geological Survey Administration has used the satellite data for a scrutiny of fundamental geology in Tibet, in the study of formation of mineral veins in Xinjiang, Gansu and Qinghai, having all achieved twice results with half the effort.
Read complete Story at:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2001-11/22/content_129378.htm
The PriceWaterhouseCoopers consultants study on the EU's mooted Galileo global navigation satellite system shows the scheme is economically justified, European Commission transport spokesman Gilles Gantelet said. The report, made available by the Commission today, says total benefits of 17.8 bln eur outweigh costs of 3.9 bln, implying a benefit:cost ratio of 4.6.
This is "strongly positive" as it compares with ratios of about 3.0 on public sector transport projects in the UK, it said. On Tuesday, European transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said the PriceWaterhouseCoopers study should help EU states decide whether to press ahead with the project, in particular by allaying fears about its cost. Gantelet added that, contrary to its previous position, the US is now indicating it supports Galileo since "in an international context of danger, it would be useful to have a second system" in addition to its GPS Global Positioning System. EU transport ministers are due to decide on Dec 7 whether to give the green light to the Galileo project for which the EU and the European Space Agency have already budgeted 1.25 bln eur for the development phase and development application phase.
