VIENNA/TOKYO, 4 December (UN Information Service) – The team from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala have completed the development of their first satellite under the KiboCUBE programme run by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The winners of the second round of the programme handed over the cube satellite (cubesat) to JAXA on 3 December 2019 to be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) in Spring 2020.

KiboCUBE offers institutions from developing countries the opportunity to deploy cubesats from the Japanese Kibo module of the ISS. In 2018, the programme led to the successful deployment of Kenya’s first ever satellite. Now Guatemala is set to follow Kenya’s footsteps, joining the community of space-faring nations.

The Guatemalan satellite, called Quetzal-1, will be used for multispectral remote sensing. This can lead to the acquisition of data for a variety of peaceful and natural resource management purposes. The sustainable management of natural resources and the preservation of ecosystems and biodiversity are essential for fighting climate change and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The KiboCUBE initiative was launched by UNOOSA and JAXA in 2015. It has since been opening doors for...

GfK’s new CRESTA zones provide a worldwide cartographic standard for the aggregation and exchange of risk insights

Bruchsal, Germany, December 4, 2019 – GfK has released new 2019 CRESTA zones that give insurers, reinsurers, modelers, regulators and other industry professionals a common standard for analyzing, aggregating and exchanging risk-related insights. Available for 137 countries, the 2019 zones also feature a new coverage level for New Zealand, offering support for risk analysis and information sharing in this important market.

CRESTA zones are a response to the need for a common geographic standard for analyzing, aggregating and communicating risk insights. Users of the zones link their data to uniformly defined regional entitites, which are a prerequisite for carrying out meaningful comparisons of aggregated values. The new zones are available for 137 countries and reflect the many changes to the underlying administrative and postcode boundaries that have occurred since the last CRESTA update in 2013. The 2019 zones also now offer a new level of coverage for New Zealand. Improved assignment tables make it possible to compare CRESTA zone vintages with the latest postcode and administrative boundaries using an area share allocation feature.

The new CRESTA boundaries consist of 4,801 low-resolution zones and 242,172 high-resolution zones. The two resolutions provide support for a wide spectrum of insurance applications, from modeling risk...

SAN FRANCISCO and HYDERABAD, December 4, 2019 — Capella Space^[1], an information services company providing Earth observation data on demand, today announced Remote Sensing Instruments (RSI)^[2] will be the marketing partner of Capella Space products in India and will provide global access to other markets outside of India. The multi-million dollar partnership gives businesses in the region access to Capella’s on-demand, very high-resolution (VHR) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. 

“India is one of the most advanced users of satellite remote sensing technology for use in disaster management, urban development, natural resources, environmental monitoring, and national security,” said Kumar VR Buragadda, CEO of RSI. “Currently, commercial and government customers don’t have access to on-demand SAR data, which is invaluable for a range of applications — especially disaster management. After evaluating all the SAR providers, we chose to work with Capella Space due to its unrivaled technology, near real-time data delivery, highest resolution of SAR imagery commercially available and its commitment to customer service. Capella stands apart by addressing the needs of commercial and government customers in India.”

Capella will start commercial operations in 2020 with the launch of its first commercial SAR satellite named Sequoia in Q1 and six more scheduled to launch in the second half of 2020. Capella will complete its 36...

A Python language spatial package, called EarthPy, has been released for free download for working with GIS data.

The post EarthPy: Python Package for Plotting and Working with Spatial Data appeared first on GIS Lounge.

All-in-One Road Trip App Launches During Peak Holiday Travel Season, Providing Drivers with Unmatched Navigation & Search Features

NEW YORK — (BUSINESS WIRE) — December 4, 2019 — Nexit^[1] launches as the next generation in mobile mapping with $10 million in funding. As the only all-in-one app for highway travelers, Nexit goes beyond what existing map apps provide. In addition to turn-by-turn directions, Nexit also helps drivers customize the perfect road trip by finding exactly what they want, when they need it, on the road they are traveling on.

Unlike Google or Apple Maps, Nexit allows users to search for any combination of travel destinations and amenities – including popular restaurants, hotels, shopping, attractions and the cheapest gas along your route. Users can also search by multiple preferences, such as a hotel with a pool or a restaurant with dine-in options, to find the next thruway exit that best fits your needs. Nexit’s industry-leading search functions are available to plan your ideal stops before your trip or to find the exit that fits all of your needs in real-time.

“We’re thrilled to bring this game-changing app to market just as millions of Americans are preparing...

Combined Organization to Focus on Penetration of 5G Systems to New and Existing Global Carrier Customer Base for Fixed Infrastructure and Aerial Mobile Communications Platforms

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Dec. 4, 2019 — (PRNewswire) —  Drone Aviation Holding Corp. (OTCQB: DRNE^[1]) ("Drone Aviation" or the "Company"), a developer of specialized, tethered aerial monitoring and communications platforms serving national defense and homeland security customers, announced today that it has closed on a merger with ComSovereign Corp^[2], a U.S.-based consortium of 5G telecommunications radio, silicon photonics and power systems designed for the next generation of global networks.

The newly merged company will focus on supplying ComSovereign's existing global wireless carrier customer base with new infrastructure technology including industry leading carrier backhaul capability and 5G/NR connectivity for fixed and mobile aerial applications. As a result of the transaction, Drone Aviation has postponed FINRA's previously approved reverse stock split of its shares due to the merger and the change in the board structure. The name of the Company will be changed from Drone Aviation Holding Corp. to ComSovereign Holding Corp. as soon as possible in accordance with State, FINRA and SEC notice requirements, currently expected by December 15^th, 2019....

November 2019. "WCS is the natural way to deliver and exploit coverage data" - this insight shared by INSPIRE orthoimage and elevation data cluster facilitator, Jordi Escriu from ICGC (Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalunya/Spain) was brought to life at the hands-on WCS/WCPS workshop held in Helsinki/Finland.

Coverage based data models are foreseen in a wide spectrum of INSPIRE Themes as an interoperable way for providing raster data exploitation-ready in Annex II (Elevation, Land Cover, Orthoimagery, Geology) and Annex III (Soil, Land Use, Natural Risk Zones, Atmospheric Conditions, Meteorological Geographical Features, Oceanographic Geographical Features, Energy Resources). The OGC / INSPIRE Web Coverage Service (WCS) standards suite defines services on such spatio-temporal sensor, images (timeseries), simulation, and statistics data. In practice, coverages often represent "Big Earth Data". Unfortunately, the way the coverage based INSPIRE data models have been crafted, their structure precludes provision via WCS.

The WCS workshop held in Helsinki this October was prepared and held by a team of three key INSPIRE and coverage experts: Jordi Escriu (ICGC Spain) facilitates INSPIRE Thematic Cluster 3, Orthomagery and Elevation; Kathi Schleidt (DataCove E.U.) facilitates Thematic Cluster 4, Observations and Measurements; and Peter Baumann (rasdaman GmbH and Jacobs University) is OGC/ISO coverage standards editor and German INSPIRE delegate. This team has been working for several years on aligning INSPIRE and OGC/ISO coverage...

A Developed And Complete RS-Fusion-P5 Was Launched In Markets Outside China

SHENZHEN, China — (BUSINESS WIRE) — December 4, 2019 — RoboSense today announced its launch of a developed and complete LiDAR perception solution for Robo Taxi (RS-Fusion-P5) in markets outside China. The RS-Fusion-P5 was first launched in China last month. Equipped with an RS-Ruby and four RS-BPearl, The RS-Fusion-P5 is considered to be the alternative to Waymo's LiDAR solution, further accelerating the development of Robo Taxi.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191204005271/en/^[1]

Full Coverage, Zero Blind Spots In The Range Of 200 Meters

RoboSense RS-Fusion-P5 uses an RS-Ruby on top of the vehicle to ensure a sensing range with a radius of more than 200 meters. However, even if the vertical field of view (FOV) of RS-Ruby reaches the perfect angles from -25° to +15°, there is still a small blind zone around the vehicle body. Therefore, to cover the small blind zone, 4 RS-BPearl embedded sideways around the vehicle form a hemisphere FOV scanning area relative to the vehicle's perspective, to guarantee a complete 360° surrounding view.

Empowers...

Rome, NY, Dec. 04, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- December 18, at 9am or 6pm, join Microdrones for their final Wednesday Webinar of 2019, with a special presentation that dives into the science behind the data of LiDAR and Precision Mapping led by Dr. Mohamed Mostafa, Director mdSolutions, Microdrones.

This webinar is intended for the unmanned airborne LiDAR user community including mapping professionals, land surveyors, managers, and decision makers to understand the underlying concepts of lidar from the technical and business perspective, in the form of theory and practice.

Dr. Mostafa will review the fundamentals of GPS, GNSS Differencing, GNSS-Aided Inertial Navigation, Georeferencing, Calibration, Quality Control and the Best Practices that account for gathering highly accurate data with a drone.

In this one-hour webinar we will cover:

• The concepts of GNSS/IMU
• The science behind the datums
• Quality Assurance / Quality Control and a review of best practices
• Invitation to Special Offer for attendees only

 

Date: Wednesday, December 18 9:00AM EST or 6:00PM EST

Seats are limited and issued on a first come, first serve basis to the first 500 professionals to register.

Please ...