Recreating Remote Sensing Technology

Sometimes in order to understand lectures from the classroom, you have to get outside and apply the theories. That is what a group of junior undergraduates did in their remote sensing course at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York. A design made up of a helium weather balloon attached to a protected digital camera and cell-phone with GPS capabilities was lifted more than 80,000ft (24,000m) above the earth with a maximum horizontal speed of 120 mph (190 km/h). The camera was set to automatically take pictures of the earth, and the trajectory was mapped using the cell-phone; the sensor traveled from Syracuse to Poughkeepsie, NY (a distance of about 150 miles/240km). This project shows that behind all of the technology we are exploring, there is a way to (relatively) reproduce the process. I hope this keeps you down to earth... or not.

To check out more on the story and see images of the launch and those taken by the sensor, click here.

Free Intermap Webinar

Intermap Technologies will have a couple of educational opportunities in July and August. This is part of their Terrainscapes series of webinars with a program that examines the use of digital elevation models in oil and gas production, and another event that focuses on geospatial Web services.

Wednesday, July 21: Oil and Gas Production, presented by Lorraine Tighe of Intermap and Brian Thompson of New Century Software, will explain how digital elevation data and images are used in this critical energy market.

Tuesday, August 3: Web Services, presented by Rick Eagle, Josh Parker, and Kevin Thomas of Intermap, will examine the many ways in which geospatial data is delivered and used online.

Both of the Webinars are free, and you can register for either or both of the events by clicking here.