Showing posts with label GeoEye. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GeoEye. Show all posts

Friday, June 29, 2012

GeoEye Satellite Images Of The Philippines Soon

Thanks to PCI Geomatics! Soon, high-resolution satellite images of the Philippines will soon be available.

PCI Geomatics, a world-leading developer of geoimaging software and systems, announced today that it will be providing advanced image processing services to Geo-Surveys and Mapping Inc. (GSMI) to produce a high-quality 0.5 meter pansharpened, color-balanced mosaic of the Philippines. The final deliverable will be used by the Department of Agriculture in the Philippines.

GSMI turned to PCI’s Professional Production team to process over 304,000 square kilometers of GeoEye imagery, recognizing the high caliber of expertise and advanced production methods available through PCI’s new service offering. A key deciding factor for GSMI in selecting PCI’s Professional Production Services was to reduce overall project risk by leveraging the expertise and know-how developed at PCI for the last 30 years, ensuring that high-quality final deliverables are produced in a timely manner for their end customer.

“There are some considerable challenges in mapping the Philippines, an archipelago comprising more than 7,100 islands,” said Brad Schmidt, VP of Sales and Marketing at PCI Geomatics. “Persistent cloud cover, discontinuous land areas, and incomplete coverage are some of the issues that we must address.

The GeoImaging Accelerator (GXL) system used by the Professional Production team leverages industry leading color balancing algorithms that were developed in-house; these have been very successful in dealing with the discontinuous imagery. Using GXL, PCI is working diligently to meet the geometric and radiometric accuracy requirements in a timely fashion.”

The imagery collected by GeoEye consists of 0.5 m panchromatic and 2.0 m multispectral data, which is processed by PCI Geomatics in an end-to-end workflow that includes multiple processing steps controlled through quality assurance methods. The workflow includes orthorectification, pansharpening, and mosaicking – the resolution of the final product will be 0.5 m, and the target accuracy will be 2.0 m CE90 – providing a base data set that can be used to produce 1:2,500 scale maps. The project is expected to be completed over an 18 month period; its duration is mainly driven by the availability of cloud-free imagery.

PCI Geomatics has recently introduced Professional Production Services and continues to provide solutions to a number of clients including Esri Inc., which selected PCI to process 50 million square kilometers of Ikonos imagery using GXL deployed to the Amazon Cloud.

SOURCE PCI Geomatics Press Release

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

GeoEye Wins Multi-million Dollar Contract from GE Aviation

GeoEye, Inc., a leading provider of geospatial information and insight, announced it has received a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract from GE Aviation. Under this contract, GeoEye will produce aviation reference data to serve hundreds of the world's busiest airports. Over the next decade, GeoEye intends to capture all of the world's International Air Transport Association (IATA) airports. This agreement allows GE Aviation to utilize GeoEye 3D Airports and Terrain/Obstacle databases produced from GeoEye's stereo satellite imagery. These GeoEye aeronautical databases will be imbedded into GE Aviation's products and services.

GeoEye 3D Airports is a family of value-added geospatial products that captures precise spatial models of domestic and international airports, their surrounding terrain and man-made obstacles. These products are used to enhance the safety of flight and ground operations at airports and enable airlines to reduce fuel consumption, flight times and airport traffic noise. GeoEye 3D Airport Maps offers a three-dimensional geospatial model of an airport's features that are required to support aircraft and helicopter operations. GeoEye 3D Airport Terrain and Obstacles provide information regarding natural elevation and man-made obstacles near airports.

GE Aviation will imbed these products in their next generation products and services to facilitate Performance Based Navigation operations that will increase commercial flight frequency and fuel efficiency while reducing carbon emissions. This GE offering utilizing GeoEye state-of-the-art data products exceeds the current requirements of the global Air Traffic Management initiatives sponsored by the FAA NEXTGEN program and the EUROCONTROL SESAR program.

Dejan Damjanovic, GeoEye's Director of Air and Marine Solutions, said, "GeoEye's unique ability to acquire 3D Airport intelligence using the highest resolution and highest accuracy commercial satellites in the world, coupled with our decade of aeronautical expertise, make our 3D Airports the best choice for GE Aviation's needs."

"This advanced aeronautical data, along with our Required Navigation Performance (RNP) products, will accelerate the deployment of RNP flight paths that will help meet the global challenge of increasing efficiency in the world's air traffic management system," said Giovanni Spitale, general manager of GE's PBN Services. "It will allow the benefits of PBN to be achieved earlier for the global air transportation community, saving time, fuel, reducing emissions and noise while increasing hourly operations frequency."

About GeoEye
GeoEye is a leading source of geospatial information and insight for decision makers and analysts who need a clear understanding of our changing world to protect lives, manage risk and optimize resources. Each day, organizations in defense and intelligence, public safety, critical infrastructure, energy and online media rely on GeoEye's imagery, tools and expertise to support important missions around the globe. Widely recognized as a pioneer in high-resolution satellite imagery, GeoEye has evolved into a complete provider of geospatial intelligence solutions. GeoEye's ability to collect, process and analyze massive amounts of geospatial data allows our customers to quickly see precise changes on the ground and anticipate where events may occur in the future. GeoEye is a public company listed on NASDAQ as GEOY and is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia with more than 750 employees worldwide. Learn more at www.geoeye.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Without limitation, the words "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future, including statements relating to growth, expected levels of expenditures and statements expressing general optimism about future operating results, are forward-looking statements. Similarly, statements that describe our business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals also are forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements and those presented elsewhere by our management from time to time are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in "Risk Factors" included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2010, which we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on March 15, 2011, and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended March 31, 2011, June 30, 2011, and Sept. 30, 2011, which we filed with the SEC on May 10, 2011, Aug. 2, 2011, and Nov. 1, 2011, respectively. Copies of all SEC filings may be obtained from the SEC's EDGAR Web site, http://www.sec.gov/, or by contacting: William L. Warren, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, at 703-480-5672.

SOURCE GeoEye, Inc.

Monday, February 27, 2012

GeoEye and Esri Developing Global Crisis Response Service

GeoEye, Inc., a leading source of geospatial information and insight, announced that it will jointly develop a new crisis response imagery service with Esri, the leading global geographic information software provider. This service, expected to be released this spring, will augment Esri's current disaster response capability with GeoEye's ability to task its satellite to collect high-resolution satellite imagery after a crisis. Currently, Esri supports disaster and crisis response globally with best practices, technology and field response teams. GeoEye content plays a critical role in all aspects of disaster response. The new service will provide Esri and their user community access to timely and quality imagery during disasters.

This new bundled solution is critical as current world events escalate and first responders, government, and commercial risk organizations have the need to see, understand and respond to crisis events when lives and property are at risk. ArcGIS users will be able to leverage GeoEye's map-accurate imagery and Esri tools to gain clear and timely insight before, during and after a crisis, emergency or global event.

Chris Tully, GeoEye's senior vice president of Sales, said, "We're extremely pleased that Esri chose GeoEye as their imagery partner for this important work. Geospatial technology plays a critical role in determining where resources should be deployed most effectively after a crisis. We feel confident that Esri users will see immediate benefits when they leverage timely GeoEye event imagery and Esri support through this service."

"Imagery plays a vital role during events," says Russ Johnson, Esri's director of Public Safety and Homeland Security. "It allows us to rapidly visualize impacts, analyze change and empower field teams conducting mobile operations. GeoEye and Esri share the same vision for supporting global incidents, and we are excited about what this means for users worldwide."

In July 2011, GeoEye and Esri announced their first joint product offering, GeoEye Image Pack, which provides an easy way for Esri customers with a programmatic Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) to procure high-resolution data from GeoEye's extensive imagery archive. For more information, contact Tara Cordyack, GeoEye's director of North American Channel Sales.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

About GeoEye

GeoEye is a leading source of geospatial information and insight for decision makers and analysts who need a clear understanding of our changing world to protect lives, manage risk and optimize resources. Each day, organizations in defense and intelligence, public safety, critical infrastructure, energy and online media rely on GeoEye's imagery, tools and expertise to support important missions around the globe. Widely recognized as a pioneer in high-resolution satellite imagery, GeoEye has evolved into a complete provider of geospatial intelligence solutions. GeoEye's ability to collect, process and analyze massive amounts of geospatial data allows our customers to quickly see precise changes on the ground and anticipate where events may occur in the future. GeoEye is a public company listed on NASDAQ as GEOY and is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia with more than 700 employees worldwide. Learn more at www.geoeye.com.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Sunday, December 04, 2011

GeoEye-2 Satellite Launch Schedule is 2013

“GeoEye-2 satellite is scheduled for launch in spring 2013. It will become commercially available during the 2013 imaging season”, - assured Senior Channel Manager of the GeoEye company Andrei Shumakov. A thematic workshop “GeoEye’s New Capabilities. From Online Access to Onsite Content Management and Web Dissemination. Advanced Analysis and Imagery Processing” was held on November 30 within the frames of the 5th International Conference “Earth from Space – the Most Effective Solutions”.

GeoEye company is the Operator of the very high resolution IKONOS and GeoEye-1 satellites. Besides working on GeoEye-2 satellite the designing of the GeoEye-3 satellite is already initiated.

EyeQ software system is one of the new developments of the company. It enables to provide data to the customers via web-services on-line.

- One of the advantages of the EyeQ system is the possibility of fast access to spatial data and its duplication. For example, access to updated spatial information must be instantaneous in case of emergencies monitoring and response. This is exactly was EyeQ system assures in compliance with the pre-arranged agreements. Different agencies and organizations, including mass media are among our customers, - noted Andrei Shumakov.

One of the most efficient systems, operating based in EyeQ system, runs under EnhancedView program of the US government. This system has been operated on for one year already and contains highly detailed satellite images of the territory over 2 million square kilometers. The system users from any part of the world enjoy quick access to data. Over 1000 people can be using the system at the same time. Over 100 GB of data is being downloaded every day.

The first commercial partner for EyeQ service in 2011 was the Japanese Japan Space Imaging (JSI) company. On November 29 within the frames of the 5th International Conference “Earth from Space…” JSI’s CEO & President Yoichi Kamiyama spoke about how EyeQ services are implemented and managed in Japan.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

NGA EnhancedView Web Hosting Service Launched

GeoEye Inc., a leading source of geospatial information and insight, announced the delivery of a new capability to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). GeoEye's EnhancedView Web Hosting Service (WHS) provides users with password protected, online access to unclassified, high-resolution imagery within hours of its collection. The EnhancedView WHS evolved from the NGA's Rapid Delivery of Online GEOINT (RDOG) system that began operations in April 2010. GeoEye built the EnhancedView WHS to support users across the National System for Geospatial-Intelligence (NSG). NSG members and partners have recently used the EnhancedView WHS to improve emergency response to natural disasters in Japan; Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Joplin, Mo.; and along the Mississippi River.

The EnhancedView WHS combines GeoEye and third-party imagery to deliver highly precise base maps and allows users to access new imagery online within hours of collection. Users can access imagery through Esri's ArcGIS, Google Earth and other Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) compliant tools and automatically receive notifications when new imagery is available for their area of interest.

The EnhancedView WHS is powered by GeoEye's online access platform, EyeQ™. EyeQ enables thousands of concurrent users to easily access and download hundreds of terabytes of high-resolution imagery. Recent commercial applications have combined GeoEye-1 and IKONOS satellite imagery and MJ Harden aerial imagery with data from commercial radar providers and the USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program. Chris Incardona, GeoEye's senior director for Government Programs - NGA said, "We have made steady investments in our EyeQ platform so our customers can quickly access and share precise imagery products to perform analysis and manage crisis response. The EnhancedView Web Hosting Service is the next step in our commitment to providing multi-source products, services and dissemination capabilities to help the NGA deliver online, on-demand geospatial intelligence."

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Satellite Images at Bin Laden Hideout

GeoEye IKONOS provided satellite images of the hideout of Osama bin Laden who was killed this weekend by US Navy SEALS. The image below was taken from Abbotabad, Pakistan on May 2, just hours after the raid.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

GeoEye to Acquire SPADAC Inc.

GeoEye, Inc., a premier provider of superior satellite and aerial-based geospatial information and services, announced today that it has agreed to purchase 100 percent of the stock of SPADAC Inc., a geospatial predictive analytics company, for $46 million in cash and stock. Upon the completion of the acquisition, SPADAC will become a wholly owned subsidiary named GeoEye Analytics. This acquisition will enhance the breadth of GeoEye's information service offerings and expand its customer base into new markets.

SPADAC provides geospatial predictive analytic solutions to over 40 customers in key markets of defense, intelligence and homeland security. Since SPADAC's formation in 2002, its industry-leading predictive analytics technology, combined with its world-class team of geospatial analysts and intelligence professionals, enables SPADAC to help customers gain the insight they need to support their mission-critical operations around the world.

Matt O'Connell, GeoEye's president and chief executive officer, said, "GeoEye is pleased to welcome SPADAC's highly skilled employees to our team. We have worked together since 2007, when GeoEye acquired a minority ownership interest in the company. We believe that, by combining our imagery collection capabilities with SPADAC's location-based analytic solutions, we can help our customers gain unprecedented insight about the areas around the world in which they operate. We believe we will be the only company in the industry to provide this end-to-end capability."

"SPADAC will continue to be a strong, trusted partner to its existing customers and will now be able to leverage GeoEye's leadership and information service offerings such as EyeQ," said Mark Dumas, SPADAC's chairman and chief executive officer. "GeoEye will also provide us with the financial resources to broaden our capabilities to better serve our existing and future clients."

Brian O'Toole, GeoEye's chief technology officer, added, "SPADAC is a strong strategic fit; their technology and services will enable us to accelerate our growth in information services. By combining SPADAC's predictive analytic solutions with our EyeQ Web platform, we'll be able to offer subscription-based access to a new class of advanced information services."

SPADAC's revenues are forecasted to be approximately $27 million in 2010. Timing and completion of the transaction are subject to customary closing conditions.

CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATION

GeoEye Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), will host a conference call for investors and analysts to discuss the acquisition of SPADAC.

When: Dec. 8, 2010, at 9:00 a.m. EST

To Participate: At least 10 minutes prior to the conference call, callers wishing to participate on the call may dial toll-free (877) 776-4039. International callers who wish to listen may dial (631) 291-4808. Callers may identify themselves to the operator as GeoEye conference call participants or by using the conference ID: 29414974.

The conference call will also be webcast on the "Investor Relations" section of the Company's corporate Web site, www.geoeye.com. To directly access the live webcast, go here, and click on the "Dec. 8, 2010, Investor Update Webcast" link. Please allow 15 minutes before the scheduled start time to register, download and install any necessary audio software.

Replay: An audio replay of the this conference call will be available through midnight Dec. 15, 2010, by dialing 1-800-642-1687 and typing in the conference ID number: 29414974. International callers may dial 1-706-645-9291. An archived webcast of the conference call will be available here approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

GeoEye-2 Price Tag Rises on Ground System Upgrades

GeoEye expects its GeoEye-2 high-resolution optical satellite will cost as much as USD 850 million after the investment in an improved ground network ordered by its US government customer is included in the bill, GeoEye officials said.

The new GeoEye-2 cost estimate is USD 50 million higher than previous forecasts and reflects an investment the company will make in ground infrastructure that will operate with GeoEye-2.

The cost of GeoEye-2, under construction by Lockheed Martin Space Systems and scheduled for launch on a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket, is indicative of the inflation that has swept through the entire aerospace sector in the past few years, GeoEye officials added.

Launch prices in particular, they said, have escalated substantially since the company contracted for the launch of the GeoEye-1 satellite, which was placed into orbit in September 2008 and entered operations in February 2009. GeoEye-1 cost about USD480 million.

In a conference call with investors, GeoEye Chief Financial Officer Joseph F. Greeves said the ground-infrastructure investment will be financed by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).

GeoEye Chief Executive Matthew O’Connell said NGA will continue to pay the equivalent of USD150 million per year — the same amount under EnhancedView’s predecessor programme — until GeoEye is launched in 2013. Once the new satellite is in service, and the ground infrastructure enhancements are complete, NGA payments will increase by USD174 million per year for the seven remaining years of the contract.

A second piece of the EnhancedView contract, valued at up to USD702 million, is for value-added products and services. GeoEye’s competitor, DigitalGlobe, which received a similar EnhancedView award, has said the value-added piece of the contract may be affected by the severe budget pressure on US government agencies.

GeoEye is also weighing whether the cost of maintaining OrbView-2 in operational status is still worth the effort. The satellite, which is past its designed retirement date, has had several malfunctions that have forced ground teams to place it into safe mode, resolve the issue and then return OrbView-2 to operations.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

More Jobs in GeoEye

GeoEye Inc. plans to move its headquarters from Loudoun County to Fairfax County and add 100 jobs over the next three years, according to the report.

GeoEye, an imagery expert in the geospatial industry, outgrew its offices in Loudoun and needed a building that could handle anticipated future growth. This year, Fortune magazine named GeoEye as one of its 100 Fastest-Growing Companies in the U.S.

The new headquarters will include the company’s 230 Virginia-based employees. The company will spend $10 million to move to the headquarters at the Dulles Corner Office Center, The move is expected to take place in early 2011.

“GeoEye has experienced tremendous growth over the past 13 years; our satellite imagery business helped fuel our 84-percent revenue growth from fiscal 2008 to 2009,” Matt O’Connell, GeoEye’s CEO and president, said in a statement. “This move reflects the continuing growth of our company, and it is an important strategic step toward reinforcing our position as a premier provider of satellite and aerial geospatial information technology and services.”

Virginia competed with Colorado and Maryland for the investment.

Gov. Bob McDonnell approved an $84,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to help Fairfax with the project.

Monday, October 04, 2010

GeoEye, Inc. Prices $125 Million of 8.625% Senior Secured Notes Due 2016

GeoEye, Inc. (Nasdaq: GEOY), a leading provider of satellite and aerial-based geospatial information and services, announced today it has priced its underwritten offering ("Notes Offering") of $125 million in aggregate principal amount of 8.625% Senior Secured Notes due 2016 (the "Notes"). The Notes will be initially offered to the public at a price equal to 100% of their face value. The Notes Offering is expected to close on October 8, 2010, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions.

GeoEye intends to use the net proceeds of the Notes Offering for general corporate purposes, which may include working capital, future production and services expansion, contingent capital expenditures and other strategic opportunities.

The Notes Offering will be made pursuant to GeoEye's registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). This press release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security. No offer, solicitation, or sale will be made in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. will act as joint book-running managers for the Notes Offering. You may obtain a copy of the final prospectus for the Notes Offering from the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, the underwriters will arrange to send you this document if you request them by contacting J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at 383 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10179, attention: Prospectus Library.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

GeoEye - One of Fortune Magazine's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies

GeoEye announced that it has been ranked 84th on FORTUNE Magazine's 2010 "100 Fastest-Growing Companies" list. The complete list and related stories will appear in the September 6, 2010 issue.

GeoEye qualified for the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list by meeting several criteria which include posting an annualised growth in revenue and earnings per share of at least 15 per cent annually over the three years ended on or before April 30, 2010; trading on a major US stock exchange continuously since June 30, 2007; filing quarterly reports with the SEC; having a minimum market capitalisation of USD 250 million; and having a stock price of at least USD 5 on June 30, 2010. The company also had revenue and net income of at least USD 50 million and USD 10 million respectively, for the four quarters ended on or before April 30, 2010.

Companies that met the above criteria were ranked by revenue growth rate; EPS growth rate; and three-year annualised total return for the period ended June 30, 2010. To compute the revenue and EPS growth rates, FORTUNE used a trailing four quarters log linear least square regression fit. The overall rank was based on the sum of the three ranks.

FORTUNE Managing Editor Andy Serwer has written in the September 6, 2010 issue, "The troubled economy is on all of our minds these days, but sometimes we forget that even in the long slog we seem to be in, entrepreneurs are hard at work, creating the next Cisco or Amgen or Starbucks."

Matt O'Connell, GeoEye's Chief Executive Officer and President, said, "The worldwide demand for satellite imagery, change monitoring and surveillance continues to resist recessions and budget pressures. This, along with GeoEye's ability to collect and disseminate imagery with the world's highest resolution and unmatched accuracy in a timely, reliable and cost-efficient manner, will continue to drive the growth of our business."

Monday, May 10, 2010

GeoEye Announces Deal with ScanEx

GeoEye, Inc. a premier provider of superior satellite and aerial-based geospatial information and services, announced today that it has signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar order with its Russian reseller, ScanEx Research and Development Center, for more than two million square kilometers of high-resolution satellite imagery.

GeoEye’s high-resolution IKONOS satellite will capture imagery of infrastructure facilities, major population centers and tourist locations over Russia and neighboring areas. ScanEx is also able to sell imagery from GeoEye-1, the world’s highest resolution and most accurate commercial Earth-imaging satellite.

Moscow: Central District. IKONOS, 12.04.2010 (GeoEye, 2010)


— We are happy to continue our cooperation with GeoEye. Today, considering the size of the country and lack of current cartographic data, satellite imagery often serves as the only reliable source of information about territories. Moreover, for tasks related to infrastructure monitoring and search, rescue or recovery operations after emergencies, imagery is the most efficient data source for timely decision making, — said Olga Gershenzon, vice president for ScanEx.

Paolo Colombi, vice president of International Sales for GeoEye, commented:
— We are very pleased with this new order from ScanEx. The Russian market for high-resolution satellite imagery is very important to us, and we’ve been conducting imaging operations over Russia for some time. In 2009, our satellites collected some 11 million square kilometers of the Russian landmass.

IKONOS is the world’s first civil high-resolution Earth-imaging satellite able to see objects on the ground as small as 82 cm in size. GeoEye has already begun building GeoEye-2, its next generation commercial-imaging satellite slated for launch in late 2012.

— As a partner, ScanEx can count on us for high-resolution satellite imagery to meet the current and future needs of their customers, — added Colombi.

About GeoEye
GeoEye, Inc. is an international information services company serving government and commercial markets. The Company is recognized as one of the geospatial industry's imagery experts, delivering exceptional quality imagery products, services and solutions to customers around the world. Headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, the Company has 534 employees, as of December 31, 2009, dedicated to developing best-in-class geospatial information products and services. GeoEye is a public company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol GEOY. The Company provides support to academic institutions and non-governmental organizations through the GeoEye Foundation (http://www.geoeyefoundation.org). Additional information about GeoEye is available at www.geoeye.com.

About ScanEx
ScanEx Research and Development Center is the leading Russian company in the remote sensing market that offers services ranging from acquisition to thematic processing of Earth-observation images from space. ScanEx’s offerings include designing and manufacturing of hardware and software systems for spatial data reception and processing, development of software applications for satellite data reception and storage, processing and interpretation. ScanEx catalogues imagery data from leading remote sensing programs and generates thematic products, renderings and Web-mapping services.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Thursday, November 26, 2009

GeoEye Foundation Case Study on Satellite Human Rights Issues

High-Resolution Satellite Observation of Remote Mining Areas Addresses Human Rights and Environmental Protection Issues

There is considerable international concern at the rapid growth of the Freeport mine at Grasberg, operated by Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) in West Papua (Irian Jaya) over failures to address human rights and environmental protection issues. For the Amungme tribe, reduction of the beautiful Mount Grasberg, one of the largest Sudirman range peaks, to a vast hole in the ground, has been devastating. Figure 1 shows the visible spectrum at bottom left.

One benefit of satellite imagery is that it provides immediate access to inaccessible regions for ‘external’ international human rights organizations. Some Amungme and Kamoro tribes were forcefully relocated, with thousands of indigenous people removed from traditional farming and food gathering territory. Moving Amungme tribes to the lowlands brought people without natural malarial immunity into contact with mosquitoes, resulting in higher mortality rates. In April 1995, the Australian Council for Overseas Aid and Jayapura Catholic Church documented that the Indonesian military had killed and tortured dozens suspected of protesting against the mine.

The vast Grasberg copper and gold mine, at over 2.6 million hectares, comprises several climate sensitive ecosystems: alpine meadow, wetland and mangrove forest, and is considered by some to be the worst environmental case of any mining project worldwide. Damage caused by the mine to the environment has impaired the abilities of thousands of Amungme and Komoro, who are traditional owners of mine sites and river areas, to access food and clean water or to sustain cultural practices. The mine dumps an estimated 125,000 tons of industrial waste daily into the Ajikwa River, a sediment load many times that of the original background silt levels. Sediment transport has deoxygenated the Ajikwa River, killing fish and plant life. Tribesmen are not supposed to live within close proximity of the highly-polluted water but in practice may return to traditional areas and livelihoods.

Thousands of tons of waste rock are also dumped in nearby alpine valleys where high rainfall and erosion further lead to fine material moving downstream, releasing poisonous heavy metals like mercury and cadmium into the river, and causing high copper levels, which are toxic to aquatic organisms. River rainforest damage has been drastic; deposition has caused the Ajikwa to change its course and flood hectares of tropical forest and sago trees (a staple food for poor native inhabitants). Nearby alpine glaciers, among the closest to the equator (Lat -17.8) and considered to be sensitive markers of climate change, have exhibited large area loss between 2000 and 2002 (Figure 5). The greatest loss is noted on the eastern flanks facing the mine. Sensitivity of this region to climate change over such a short time interval is disturbing and may reflect wind pattern alterations around the mine due to deforestation. Similar air pattern changes have been reported in Kilimanjaro’s low foothills due to deforestation, but observed changes there may be mining dust deposition modification of nearby glacial albedo, or reflected light.

The West Papua study shows that high-resolution satellite remote sensing can reveal where mineral extraction without deforestation and good environmental practices may or may not occur and can help to identify surface mineral resources. Dr. Lavers and his research team will look at water and hyperspectral properties to attempt to verify pollution chemical fingerprints.

See images here. You can also read another case study on "Porta Farm Land Clearances in Zimbabwe."

Note:
The author, Dr. Chris Lavers, is grateful to the GeoEye Foundation for providing 1m resolution IKONOS satellite images of the West Papua region through a generous grant of satellite imagery in support of humanitarian concerns.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

New GeoEye-1 Multi-Site Option

AAMHatch is pleased to announce the popular Multi-Site product is now available for 50cm GeoEye-1 satellite imagery. Multi-Site, already available for 80cm IKONOS imagery, allows clients interested in multiple captures over small areas to acquire the higher resolution and more accurate GeoEye-1 satellite imagery.

“CTF Solution has reached the milestone of acquiring more than 1,000,000ha of submetre resolution satellite imagery to undertake property planning and mapping. The majority of the high resolution satellite data we have utilised has been IKONOS multi-site data, which we are sourcing from GeoEye’s Australian Reseller, AAMHatch”, says Tim Neale – Director, CTF Solutions.

Neale goes on to advise that, “Over the past year, AAMHatch has provided CTF Solutions with good advice and timely service, and we have been able to take good advantage of the cost-effective Multi-Site product for our clients, both in Australia and internationally.”

“As many clients wish to acquire imagery over multiple smaller sites or over multiple dates, this new option is really cost effective” says Lisa Dykes, AAMHatch Satellite Imagery Team Leader.

The benefit of this new offer is really that the minimum new capture area of 100km2 is slashed to only 50km2 if the same site is imaged 3 times annually or 3 separate sites of 50km2 are ordered at the same time. This equates to a 50% saving on each new capture order. The added advantage is that users still maintain the other benefits, i.e.

1. 2km x 2km guaranteed cloud free area
2. 15% cloud cover or less assurance policy
3. Unparalleled horizontal accuracy of 3m (excluding terrain effects) without ground control
4. 4 band multispectral imagery

For further information, visit the satellite imagery webpage here.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

GeoEye-1 Satellite Anniversary

GeoEye, Inc., a provider of satellite and aerial-based geospatial information and services, marked the one-year launch anniversary of GeoEye-1, the world's highest resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on September 6, 2008.

In celebration of the anniversary, GeoEye tasked the GeoEye-1 satellite to collect a half-meter resolution image of Madrid, Spain. The full high-resolution satellite image is featured on GeoEye's corporate home page.

GeoEye began delivering GeoEye-1 imagery to Google Inc. for both the Google Earth and Google Maps services in March. A sample of images from GeoEye-1, including the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt; Borneo, Indonesia; Cabo Polonio, Uruguay; and British Columbia, Canada can be seen at http://earth.google.com/geoeye/.

Plans are in development for GeoEye-2, another high-resolution satellite. GeoEye has contracted with ITT Corporation to build the GeoEye-2 high-resolution camera and electronics.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

GeoEye receives US government awards

GeoEye, Inc. announced that new government awards totaling more than $25 million to supply geospatial products and services. Under awards during the first and second quarters of 2009, GeoEye will provide the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) a significant amount of value-added, imagery-based geospatial-intelligence products.

Imagery processing and production will be performed at GeoEye's advanced imagery processing centers located in St. Louis, MO, Thornton, CO, and Dulles, VA.

These awards are in addition to the Service Level Agreement (SLA) modification to the company's existing NextView contract with the NGA announced Dec. 10, 2008.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Google Earth of Tehran, Iran: Satellite Images of Iran

Google Earth updates the satellite images of Tehran, Iran. With the current civil unrest happening in Iran right now, Google takes a step of updating the satellite images of Tehran for public viewing. Google Earth used GeoEye's IKONOS satellite with roughly 1-meter spatial resolution. Below is just a sample image of Tehran from Google LatLong.

You can view the images on Google Earth with this KML file (assuming you already have Google Earth installed on your PC). You can download Google Earth for free if you have not done it yet.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

GeoEye: First quarter 2009 revenues

GeoEye, Inc. reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2009. First quarter 2009 revenues were $45.2 million, a 26 percent increase compared to $35.9 million in the first quarter of 2008. The increase was primarily due to our GeoEye-1 satellite beginning commercial operations in February 2009 resulting in increased imagery orders from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). In addition, we began recognising deferred revenue related to the cost share from NGA for GeoEye-1.

Income from operations was $1.7 million for the first quarter 2009 compared to $5.6 million for the first quarter 2008. The decrease was due to increased costs related to GeoEye-1 becoming operational, offset by our initial revenues from GeoEye-1. Beginning in the first quarter of 2009, operating expenses included operating costs related to the GeoEye-1 satellite including depreciation, satellite insurance and salary costs.

Our net loss for the first quarter of 2009 was $1.7 million compared to a net loss of $0.8 million for the corresponding period in 2008.
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