Between the Poles: First commercial Earth observation satellite with 31 cm resolution to be launched Aug 13

Geoff Zeiss

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OSGeo was created to support the collaborative development of open source geospatial software and promote its widespread use
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Sharing information about the location of underground utilities
The U.S. devotes an estimated $10 billion annually to locating underground infrastructure. Every construction project requiring excavation involves significant efforts in locating underground utilities prior to and during construction to reduce the risk of injuries and unexpected project delays. But this information is rarely shared and the location of underground infrastructure is recaptured over and over again. There are successful examples around the world where municipal and regional governments have helped enable a shared underground utility network database.
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Building information modeling (BIM) has been applied to design-build construction projects for many years. A growing number of countries are mandating BIM for public projects. While the UK government has said that "...we know that the largest prize for BIM lies in the operational stages of the project life-cycle", until recently there has not been hard data to support this conjecture. Similarly there has been only anecdotal support for an integrated BIM and geospatial approach for design, build, operate and maintain projects. Now we are beginning to see data from real world projects that offer evidence for the benefits of an integrated BIM+geospatial full lifecycle approach for construction projects.
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The BIM and geospatial interoperability challenge is the latest symptom of the broader problem of integrating AEC and geospatial workflows, that has contributed to low productivity in the construction sector. After the announcement about a year ago by Jack Dangermond and Andrew Anagnost of a new relationship to build a bridge between Autodesk and ESRI technologies, I thought it a good time to review progress toward interoperability between the AEC and geospatial worlds.
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I thought it would be worth while to include here a talk I gave at GEOGRAPHY 2050 Powering Our Future Planet at Columbia University in New York about the importance of accurate location information about underground infrastructure for the future development of the energy grid. With some notable exceptions accurately recording the location of subsurface infrastructure including oil, gas, electric power and other energy infrastructure is ignored - perhaps this is a case of out-of-sight is indeed out-of-mind. The reality is that knowing the location of underground energy infrastructure is critical for national security, for disaster planning and management, for public safety and for economic efficiency. Everyone is aware of at least one disaster resulting from or exacerbated by not knowing where our energy infrastructure is - the explosions in San Bruno in California (2010) and Belgium (2004) immediately come to mind.
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BIM + geospatial interoperability would avoid another CAD + GIS quagmire
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Transmission line inspections for vegetation management and other purposes are essential in ensuring grid reliability and resilience. We saw the devastating effect of vegetation encroachment in the recent California fires, which in part have been blamed on failure to maintain properly cleared transmission lines. With drones that can cover great distances in a single flight and provide detailed and accurate aerial imagery of transmission lines and other infrastructure, it is now possible to almost completely automate this expensive process. Automating transmission line inspections for vegetation management using BVLOS drones not only saves money, but also could improve the resiliency and reliability of the transmission grid.

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August 11, 2014

First commercial Earth observation satellite with 31 cm resolution to be launched Aug 13

Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services has set the launch date for DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-3 Earth observation satellite for Aug. 13, 2014. The spacecraft will launch on an Atlas 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

WorldView-3, is the first multi-payload, super-spectral, one-foot-resolution commercial satellite. It is intended to operate at an altitude of 617 km and can collect up to 680,000 km² per day. WorldView-3 is capable of

31 cm panchromatic resolution
1.24 m multispectral resolution (8 bands)
3.7 m short-wave infrared resolution (8 bands)
30 m Clouds, Aerosols, Vapors, Ice, and Snow (CAVIS) resolution (12 bands)

with an average revisit time of less than 1 day.

Digital Globe has received permission from the U.S. Department of Commerce to sell imagery to all of its customers at up to 25 cm panchromatic and 1.0 m multispectral ground sample distance (GSD) beginning six months after WorldView-3 is operational.

The Atlas 5 launch is set for August 13, 2014 at 11:30 AM (PDT). You can watch the launch here.

Posted at 09:30 AM in Earth from space, Earth observation from satellites, Imagery | Permalink

Comments

Those seriously pondering UAV's really need to keep watch on this technology as I suspect it will provide a better solution longer term.

Posted by: Talbot | August 11, 2014 at 11:04 AM

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Between the Poles

Geoff Zeiss

October 2024

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August 11, 2014

First commercial Earth observation satellite with 31 cm resolution to be launched Aug 13

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