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Colorado wasn’t forecast to have an unusually high wildfire risk this year, but when temperatures soared above 100°F in Denver on June 11—the earliest ever for triple digits—all bets were off. On the same day, the Black Forest fire erupted. A week later, more than 500 homes were destroyed and two lives lost northeast of Colorado Springs.

NASA’s Aqua satellite collected this image of the Black Forest fire at 1:40 p.m. MDT on June 12, 2013.

The intense, dry heat, along with gusty winds and drought-parched forests, came together to produce the Black Forest fire, the most destructive the state has ever seen. By the afternoon of June 13, the fire had destroyed 360 homes and damaged 14 others. Last year’s Waldo Canyon fire, also near Colorado Springs, was Colorado’s most destructive prior to the Black Forest fire, destroying 346 homes.

Image courtesy of NASA.

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Future EO satellites, like the Sentinels being launched under ESA's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program, will deliver huge amounts of data that will need to be acquired, processed and delivered.

Policy makers and science and industry representatives are discussing how to make large amounts of Earth observation (EO) data accessible to a wider user community.

Data from EO satellites and other remote sensing technologies are growing in volume and diversity at an exceptionally fast rate. This poses challenges and opportunities for their quick access, stewardship and applications.

Diversity of space data, the combined use of data from different space missions and the fusion of satellite data with nonspace data lead to new types of user applications. This affects the way such data are collected, processed, delivered and preserved. These new combinations of data, coupled with today’s latest technologies, open new opportunities for their handling and exploitation as well as for collaboration among scientists.

Not all applications require expert understanding of EO data. There’s an increasing need to serve a wider user community looking to retrieve simple, understandable and immediate information from remotely sensed data that have undergone complex processes and analyses.

To explore this idea, some 250 science, industry and policy-making representatives and national delegates from Europe, the United States, Australia, China and Africa met at the European Space Agency (ESA) ESRIN center in Frascati, Italy, during the first week of June for ESA’s first “Big Data from Space” event. More than 50 presentations during the three-day conference stimulated discussion among the different communities involved in the business of providing and manipulating large-scale data and complex analyses of satellite and in-situ Earth observations.

Image courtesy of ESA/P. Carril.

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This image of Princess Charlotte Bay, which lies along the east coast of Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula in Australia, was acquired by Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager on April 20, 2013. The scene shows Claremont Isles National Park, where coastal waters are protected as part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Site.

Landsat satellites were designed to gather images of Earth’s land surfaces, but during the last four decades, the satellites also have been useful for observing blue parts of the planet.

Landsat has particularly enriched the study of coral reefs. Scientists used earlier generations of Landsats to create a global image library of coral reefs. They also have been able to do time-series assessments of the health of some reefs.

For instance, researchers used 18 years of Landsat data to show a decline in the health of reef habitat across roughly 68 percent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Satellite images also can detect signs of trawling and other fishing activities that can be harmful to reefs.

“The remote location and massive size of reefs make them an ideal subject for Landsat remote sensing,” said Phillip Dustan, a marine biologist at the College of Charleston (South Carolina) who has worked with Landsat to map reefs around the world. “Reef management benefits from satellite imagery through mapping, change analysis and threat assessment. While a single image can be used to provide mapping data, the long-term data set provided by Landsat makes for powerful time series of images that can probe the dynamics of ecological change.”

Image courtesy of NASA.

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Georgia Tech researchers are examining drones as a traffic-management tool in the Atlanta area.

A Georgia Tech University researcher is exploring the potential for using Earth observation drones to supplement the Georgia Department of Transportation’s network of traffic cameras.

By fitting a drone with cameras controlled with an iPad, Georgia Tech’s Dr. Javier Irizarry is researching its potential for the Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT). According to Irizarry, a variation of the technology could be an airborne supplement to the DOT’s existing network of traffic cameras for assessing traffic conditions in areas where there are no cameras or where cameras have a limited field of view or range.

Georgia Tech’s drone research extends beyond the laboratory. At Ft. Benning, university researchers have tested military applications for a gasoline-powered unmanned aircraft. The civilian potential is equally extensive, according to the researchers, including using drone technology to provide real-time traffic counts supplemented by mobile airborne images.

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NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image of the storm system passing over the eastern United States on June 13, 2013. It’s not possible to make out the band where thunderstorms were strongest because of cloud cover.

When meteorologists say derecho, which means “direct” or “straight ahead” in Spanish, they’re referring to a widespread, long-lived wind storm associated with bands of fast-moving thunderstorms. This type of storm was given the name in the late nineteenth century, and they occur most often in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of the United States between May and July. To qualify as a derecho, a storm must cause damage over a 240-mile (400-kilometer) front/line and produce wind gusts of at least 58 miles (93 kilometers) per hour.

A composite of radar images reveals a bow-shaped band of storms—called a bow echo—propagating east at 47 mph.

When a derecho barreled over the eastern United States in June 2012, the impacts were severe. The powerful storm brought hurricane-force winds to numerous states, killed 22 people and knocked out electric power for millions.

So people were bracing for the worst when a fierce line of storms was bearing down on the same area on June 13, 2013. Although the 2013 storm wasn’t as powerful or destructive as the previous year’s event, the National Weather Service said it still qualified as a low-end derecho.

Terra image courtesy of NASA.

Radar image courtesy of the National Weather Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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“Flight guidance, sensor configuration and release, system monitoring and logging are now part of an integrated and complete system that significantly increases productivity”, explains Product Manager Jacques Markram of Geospatial Solutions. “Leica FlightPro is also designed to lower cost for our customers with a common hardware and software base installation. The need for training is thus reduced, even when using different types of sensors, as well as  a consistent survey acquisition is ensured.”

Every step a success: planning – executing – evaluating

The optimized workflow closes the loop from flight planning to flight execution to flight evaluation and back again to planning. It shortens project cycles, and generates reliable project feedback.

The consistent design and combination of hardware components and the software user interface across all sensors systems contribute to high productivity and ensures consistent acquisition to make every flight a success.

For more information about the Leica FlightPro, please visit: http://www.leica-geosystems.com/flightpro .

About Leica Geosystems’ Airborne Solutions
With over 80 years of experience, Leica Geosystems is a global leader in the design, delivery and support of airborne digital and LiDAR sensors for the geospatial marketplace. Along with the well-known Leica RC30, Leica Geosystems’ airborne sensor portfolio today includes a wide range of innovative technologies and products such as the Leica RCD30 series of medium format digital frame cameras, the Leica ADS pushbroom sensors, the Leica ALS LiDAR series, and the Leica IPAS GNSS/IMU solutions.

Following the acquisition of Intergraph by Hexagon in 2010, Hexagon Geosystems’ newly formed Geospatial Solutions Division has brought together Leica Geosystems Airborne Sensors and Z/I Imaging. Committed to continued innovation on all major product lines, the combined airborne sensor portfolio includes the widest range of medium and large format imaging as well as LiDAR technologies and offers a choice of sensor for every application. A full suite of software from flight planning to post-processing provides end-to-end workflow for high accuracy orthophoto generation, feature extraction and map production. In addition, Hexagon Geosystems operates a global network of customer service and support centers to ensure highest productivity around the clock.

Leica Geosystems – when it has to be right

With close to 200 years of experience pioneering solutions to measure the world, Leica Geosystems products and services are trusted by professionals worldwide to help them capture, analyze, and present spatial information. Leica Geosystems is best known for its broad array of products that capture accurately, model quickly, analyze easily, and visualize and present spatial information.

Those who use Leica Geosystems products every day trust them for their dependability, the value they deliver, and the superior customer support. Based in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, Leica Geosystems is a global company with tens of thousands of customers supported by more than 3,500 employees in 28 countries and hundreds of partners located in more than 120 countries around the world. Leica Geosystems is part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden.

Leica XPro 5.3 – Enhancing the ADS workflow

The new version XPro v5.3 provides. major improvement by supporting SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) Digital Elevation Model in the entire workflow providing a higher level of automation and accuracy for orthophoto production.

Leica XPro DSM – Expanding on multi-dimensional info clouds

The DSM extraction in Leica XPro has been extended to provide now 5-band tiff images, where in addition to the spectral information of red, green, blue and near-infrared  also height information is stored. Such images are very useful in forestry applications by offering an alternative to obtaining height from stereo pairs.

As a new option, users can now also choose to collect points on vertical surfaces, thus getting maximum information from Aerial Imagery for info cloud generation.

Leica XPro 5.3 is an upgrade “free of charge” for customers under software maintenance agreement and is available in May 2013.

About Leica Geosystems’ Airborne Solutions
With over 80 years of experience, Leica Geosystems is a global leader in the design, delivery and support of airborne digital and LiDAR sensors for the geospatial marketplace. Along with the well-known Leica RC30, Leica Geosystems’ airborne sensor portfolio today includes a wide range of innovative technologies and products such as the Leica RCD30 series of medium format digital frame cameras, the Leica ADS pushbroom sensors, the Leica ALS LiDAR series, and the Leica IPAS GNSS/IMU solutions.

Following the acquisition of Intergraph by Hexagon in 2010, Hexagon Geosystems’ newly formed Geospatial Solutions Division has brought together Leica Geosystems Airborne Sensors and Z/I Imaging. Committed to continued innovation on all major product lines, the combined airborne sensor portfolio includes the widest range of medium and large format imaging as well as LiDAR technologies and offers a choice of sensor for every application. A full suite of software from flight planning to post-processing provides end-to-end workflow for high accuracy orthophoto generation, feature extraction and map production. In addition, Hexagon Geosystems operates a global network of customer service and support centers to ensure highest productivity.

Leica Geosystems – when it has to be right

With close to 200 years of experience pioneering solutions to measure the world, Leica Geosystems products and services are trusted by professionals worldwide to help them capture, analyze, and present spatial information. Leica Geosystems is best known for its broad array of products that capture accurately, model quickly, analyze easily, and visualize and present spatial information.

Those who use Leica Geosystems products every day trust them for their dependability, the value they deliver, and the superior customer support. Based in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, Leica Geosystems is a global company with tens of thousands of customers supported by more than 3’500 employees in 28 countries and hundreds of partners located in more than 120 countries around the world. Leica Geosystems is part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden.

New and Improved Handling of Excel and CSV Data

Further enhancing its non-spatial capabilities, SP2 includes an entirely recreated reader and writer for Excel with improved viewing and handling of sheets, columns and cell types for greater control of data manipulation. The CSV reader has also been changed to enable greater control over the structure of incoming data.

Further Updated Read Support for Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D

SP2′s support for AutoCAD Civil 3D® data has been revised to include versions up to 2013 and adds the ability to read pipe and structure objects allowing users to transform and use richer Civil 3D designs from the more recent versions in other spatial applications.

Introducing FME Server Compatibility with Single-Sign-On Systems

FME Server 2013 SP2 includes enhancements that ensure compatibility with evolving system security protocols, particularly for any organization that has adopted the Single-Sign-On (SSO) Active Directory technology in attempts to reduce “password fatigue” while maintaining tight security levels. Once a user has logged into their workstation, this new feature of FME Server will automatically accept these credentials at any security checkpoint that the user subsequently passes through in FME Workbench or the FME Server Web Interface, eliminating the need for additional logins.

“Technology is constantly evolving,” says Dale Lutz, Co-CEO and VP of Development at Safe Software. “With every release and service pack we want FME to meet the needs of this rapidly changing landscape. Whether it’s new versions of software or new system protocols, we want our clients to be able to seamlessly adopt the latest and greatest while still being able to harness the full transformation power of FME.”

Background Map Viewing Using ArcGIS Online Basemaps

SP2 adds a feature to the FME Data Inspector that enables users with an ArcGIS Online account to view whatever data they’re working on against background maps from ArcGIS Online, thereby providing additional context for their data.

New Support for MariaDB – A Relative of MySQL

SP2 adds a feature to the FME Data Inspector that enables users with an ArcGIS Online account to view whatever data they’re working on against background maps from ArcGIS Online, thereby providing additional context for their data.

Exciting New Functionality Added to Several Transformers

Useful adjustments and additions have been made to the capabilities of several transformers including the AttributeCreator, FeatureMerger and AttributeRenamer that broaden the possibilities of what they can achieve while simplifying their configuration and the overall workspace. 

For more information or to download FME 2013 SP2 visit www.safe.com/fme2013sp2.

About Safe and FME

Safe Software is the maker of FME and the pioneering global leader in spatial data transformation technology. FME empowers users to confidently transform spatial data so it can be used and shared – where, when and how it’s needed. Available in seven languages, FME’s unmatched transformation capabilities and support for 300+ spatial and non-spatial formats enables you to quickly overcome data challenges so you can focus on your objectives. Discover why leading vendors and thousands of organizations worldwide rely on FME to quickly overcome barriers to using and sharing data. Visit www.safe.com.

“The bottom line is you don’t have to be a meteorologist to understand a hazard or a rocket scientist to understand property risk,” says Kristina Mazelis, chief operating officer at WSN. “We do the science and analytics assessing risk and provide access to it through ArcGIS Online, giving everyone the opportunity to assess their own risk.”

The solutions provide users with insight into the full life cycle of risk, from mitigation before an event occurs, during the actual event, and managing the aftermath. The first three available now are the following:

• Xtreme Tropical Cyclone—Historical data and real-time storm tracking capabilities just in time for the beginning of the 2013 cyclone season
• Xtreme Proximity—Allows users to look up perils, such as flood zones, history of high-frequency windstorms, terror risks, and more, that are located next to their business assets
• Xtreme Hazard Event Provider (HEP)—A hazard event notification system that alerts users to events that occur in areas they specify

Traditionally, risk management is an expensive process and understood by only a few in an organization who have a high level of knowledge about risk modeling. These subscription-based solutions deliver content through ArcGIS Online so users can do the following:

• Create maps
• Add additional layers of information such as maps of offices, service territories, and customers
• Use the information in other desktop applications including ArcGIS
• Share maps with others via the Internet and mobile devices

“This is a real game changing, disruptive technology,” says Simon Thompson, director of commercial industry, Esri. “Currently, when a catastrophic event occurs, everything shuts down. XtremeGIS gives businesses the advantage of insight so they can take control of their own activities and rethink where and how they grow.”

To learn more about the XtremeGIS solutions, visit www.xtremegis.com. For more information on how the ArcGIS platform helps organizations around the world manage risk, visit esri.com/insurance.

About Wall Street Network, Inc.

Wall Street Network, Inc. is an independent software vendor that develops XtremeGIS Risk Management Solutions, award winning enterprise content & knowledge management software WSN Insight and Clearview ECM, and provides professional services. Wall Street Network is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, ISV as well as a Microsoft Services Ready Partner.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, 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 www.esri.com.

Pitroda, a Cabinet Minister and Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on public infrastructure and innovation, will share his story of inspiring reform and innovation. As chairman of the Smart Grid Task Force Committee to reform public broadcasting, modernize railways, deliver e-governance, and implement other developmental activities, his work has given him years of experience in using geography to meet twenty-first-century challenges.

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