Recent developments in International remote sensing and GIS markets

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John Trinder

Emeritus Professor

School of Surveying and SIS

Sydney, Australia

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL REMOTE SENSING AND GIS MARKETS

— High resolution optical sensors

a. <10m pixel size, panchromatic and multispectral

b. ‘Agile’ sensors with flexible pointing

c. Stereo capability providing Digital Elevation Models

— Small optical sensors

a. Emphasis on multispectral

b. Serving national requirements

c. Use of constellations provides frequent revisit

— Microwave (Radar) sensors

a. All weather capability

b. Improving resolution

c. Interferometry - measuring small height displacements

Plans for New Satellite Systems (ASPRS 2005)

- Civil land imaging satellites with resolutions <36m in orbit or currently planned by 2010

a. Optical, 26 in orbit, 25 planned

b. Radar, 3 in orbit, 9 planned

— Two major resolution groups

a. 18 high resolution systems (0.4m to 1.8m)

b. 44 mid resolution systems (2.0m to 36m)

— Have greatly different coverage capabilities.

a. Hi-res swaths are in the 8km to 28km range

b. Mid-res swaths are generally between 70 km to 185 km except for the

DMC’s 600 km swaths

c. Privately funded systems now in orbit with resolutions down to 0.4m

d. Serves hi-res military market and civilian market - “Dual Purpose”

e. Radar will have significant applications for multi-polarization, multifrequency and fusion with other data sources

f. Radar interferometry

Small satellites

- Small satellites are characterised by:

a. Rapid development scales for experimental missions.

b. Start to launch schedules ranging from just 6 to 36 months.

c. Leading-edge COTS technology.

d. Innovative solutions and cheaper alternatives to the established systems.

e. Lighter satellite systems designed inside smaller volumes.

- Overall costs and ambitions to be space nations are driving developments of small satellites.

Market Trends in Remote Sensing

- Multitude of data

- Cost/benefit of space applications rarely undertaken.

- Many countries entering the space industry for Earth Observation (EO).

- Viability of space programs of limited concern to many governments.

- Most commercial satellite have not been financially independent of government.

- RapidEye an interesting development.

Group on Earth Observation (GEO)

Group on Earth Observations (GEO) established by the first Earth Observation Summit in July 2003 which declared the need for:

“...timely, quality, long-term, global information as a basis for sound decision making”.

Aims of GEOSS (Global Earth Observation Systems of Systems)

- Sustainable operations - Will capture the success of Earth observation research programs.

- Activities over full range of processing cycle - primary observation to information production.

- Co-ordinated development to reduce the multiplicity of satellites.

- Shared observations and products.

- Products are accessible, comparable, and understandable, by supporting common standards.

- Encompass all areas of the world - in situ, airborne, and space-based observations.

- Primarily focused on issues of regional and global scale.

Trends in GIS

- Web-based GIS services and applications have been substantially increased and enhanced in:

a. Access and dissemination,

b. Exploration and visualization,

c. Processing, analysis and modelling,

d. Collaborative spatial decision support

- Integration of web-based GIServices in mainstream/enterprise computing

- Moved into mainstream computing arena

- GIS users can be anywhere, location of data invisible to user

- Growth said to be approaching 10 % pa

- More applications, flexibility, incorporating image and non-image sensors

- Matching of Location Intelligence with Business intelligence - MapInfo

- Software continuing to grow but marked to 2 major players - MapInfo and ESRI

- GEO-sensors - for habitat monitoring and EO systems

- Wireline and wireless technologies have bound the virtual and physical worlds closer than ever

- Web 2.0 is a set of principles and practices that tie together sites all over the world.

- Not a platform or a set of tools

- It is a set of links with a specialized database behind it - examples are Google and Wikepedia

- The software never needs to be distributed - only to perform

- Links and software provide access to the information anywhere in the world

Web 2.0 and GIS

- Allows access and searching of spatial data over the Web a. Individuals can participate

b. ‘crowd-sourcing’ of data

- KML - (XML based language) - developed for Google Earth - ‘pdf of

Earth browsing’

a. Describes 3D geospatial data and its display in application programs.

b. Microsoft Virtual Earth aims at similar functionality.

- Google Mapplets - Mini application that runs in Google Maps.

- ‘Mashup’ - a web application that combines data from more than one

source into a single integrated tool.

Open Source

- OS Foundation - www.OSGeo.org

- Created to support and build the highest-quality open source geospatial software.

- MapServer OS is 2nd biggest map server with 50k seats.

a. Developed originally by University of Minnesota.

b. Permits creation of "geographic image maps“ - maps that can direct users to content.

c. Supported by developers around the world.

d. Advanced cartographic output, scripting, across platforms, multiple formats and projections.

Standards - OGC

- Open Geospatial Consortium

- OGC working on its Web Services Specifications for an interoperable, multi-source decision support environment

- The Open Geospatial Consortium’s Web Map Service (WMS) Implementation Specification approved as ISO Standard.

Conclusions

- Growing number of sensors

- GEO AND GEOSS are planned to coordinate satellite developments for EO for the next 10 years

- New technologies such as Web 2.0 are rapidly changing the way GIS is available to users

- Such developments will continue to advance the applications of GIS.

© John Trinder, 2008