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NPA‘s new 2006 Oil & Gas Brochure now available on-line, containing
a summary of our latest Oil and Gas Exploration Services (GOSD, 3D
visualisation, etc).

Published on
NPA‘s new 2006 Oil & Gas Brochure now available on-line,
containing a summary of our latest Oil and Gas Exploration Services
(GOSD, 3D visualisation, etc).
Link
at
http://www.npagroup.com/oilandmineral/brochure.htm
(Credits NPA Group)

RSI, a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Industries, has released the ENVI
RX Anomaly Detection Tool, a free plug-in for ENVI 4.1 and 4.2, that
gives ENVI users the ability to quickly and easily identify anomalies
in geospatial images. This new ENVI tool automatically locates areas in
an image that are different from the overall image background allowing
analysts to focus on those areas that are most likely to contain
valuable information.

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The size of geospatial images often makes identifying objects of
potential interest extremely time consuming and overwhelming. The new
ENVI RX Anomaly Detection Tool provides a one-button solution for
identifying anomalies in images, making it the ideal solution for ENVI
users of all abilities to get important information from images quickly
and easily.
The ENVI RX Anomaly Detection Tool uses
the popular RXD anomaly detection algorithm in its classic form to
extract anomalous features from spectral images. Users need only select
the input file and the tool then highlights the pixels that are
different from the general image background. No expert knowledge of
image processing is required to process images and create accurate,
easy-to-interpret results that are unambiguous and useful for a wide
range of situations. Following the detection of anomalies, other tools,
such as the ENVI Spectral Analyst, can be used to address the
identification of the anomalous features, if desired.
In defense and intelligence scenarios,
applications for anomaly detection include locating targets such as
military vehicles and identifying soil disturbances that might indicate
land mines or recent troop movements. Other applications for anomaly
detection include identifying locations of crop stress for precision
agriculture applications, locating areas of infected trees for forestry
applications, and finding rare minerals for geology applications.
(Credits RSI)

The Environment Agency has awarded SciSys a three year contract to
provide core services in support of the development and enhancement of
key regulation systems in England and Wales.

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Approximately £15m is being budgeted for by the Environment Agency
to provide technological enhancements to enable improved and
streamlined delivery of regulation processes.
This latest agreement capitalises on
SciSys’ regulatory knowledge and experience, gained from existing
agreements with the Environment Agency. These have resulted in the
implementation of many key regulation business systems, including the
Permit Administration System (PAS), which is core to the Environment
Agency’s modernising regulation agenda.
Speaking today, Chris Bale, Director of Performance and Innovation at
the Environment Agency said, “SciSys has proven its ability to deliver
and maintain a robust and reliable infrastructure to support our
regulatory activities.
“This contract will make sure the
Environment Agency continues to benefit from this knowledge and
expertise, and at the same time, enjoy substantial cost savings through
the innovative design and implementation of improved regulatory
solutions.
“We are working with the regulation team
at SciSys to use the latest in technology and thinking to radically
change our business processes and service delivery. This regulation
solution will release staff to genuinely add value to the process:
advising businesses on which regulations apply to them, educating them
on how to comply; encouraging a sense of corporate social
responsibility and so reducing the enforcement burden whilst improving
outcomes for the environment.”
Mark Hampson, SciSys Managing Director added, “I am very pleased the
Environment Agency has selected SciSys as a preferred strategic
partner. This is a reflection of the long term relationship we have
built with the Agency and our continued commitment to delivering
innovation and improvement for our customers and to the wider
Regulation market. SciSys has invested in and can deliver a unique and
technically innovative approach that supports the efficient ‘build
once, use many’ strategy that can be used to build and deploy
regulatory solutions within the Environment Agency rapidly and at a
much reduced cost. SciSys is committed to the goal of being a market
leader for Regulation. The award of this contract is clearly an
important milestone in the achievement of this goal.”
The SciSys regulation solution will
eventually be used to support the whole of the Environment Agency’s
regulatory obligations, ensuring staff have more time and resources to
fully evaluate permit applications and their implications, and for
managers to co-ordinate work-scheduling and resource-planning more
effectively.
(Credits SciSys)

Geospace products on CD-ROM includes 3D animations.

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GEOSPACE presents the unique satellite image atlas on CD-ROM.
Geospace products on CD-ROM includes 3D animations. The latest, again improved product of this line are:
• Eye in the Sky “The Alps”
• Germany from Space – 3D
• Austria from Space – 3D
(Credits Geospace)

In March 2006 Infoterra Limited, a world leader in the provision of
geographic information products and services, celebrates its fifth
birthday. Dr Andy Wells, director of sales and marketing, looks back at
the company’s history and how the launch of GeoStore™ is transforming
the market for geospatial data.

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The use of geographic information as a source of competitive
advantage has become increasingly used by both public and private
organisations over the past few years. As a result, geographic
information now affects almost every aspect of business
decision-making, from property planning and insurance through to
environmental assessment and risk management.
In
order to meet the demand for accurate and timely geographic
information, capable of adding immediate insight to any situation,
Infoterra launched GeoStore.com, a unique web based service giving
businesses seamless access to highly accurate geographical data.
Offering the immediate availability of geographic information,
GeoStore.com provides aerial data across England which can be viewed,
analysed and purchased on-line. Launched in October 2005, GeoStore.com
has been warmly welcomed by the geo-community and has been commended
for its use of uncompressed data. As the only on-line system of its
kind (to provide images that have not been compressed in storage),
images are delivered directly to the end user without having decreased
in quality due to storage or transmission techniques.
A data challenge like no other
As part of EADS Astrium, Europe’s
leading space company, Infoterra was able to draw from a 25 year
history of commercial earth observation and geospatial knowledge.
Despite this breadth of knowledge already within the group, the
challenge of storing and distributing vast amounts of aerial
photography and other geospatial data was immense. However, for many
business processes to benefit from this valuable resource, the need to
solve the technical challenges associated with storing, managing and
delivering such data required a solution. Begun in 2000, the £2m
research and development programme finally culminated in the recent
success of GeoStore.com
With England-wide aerial photography
requiring 13 terabytes of storage, overcoming the problems of loading,
management and viewing aerial imagery, was crucial.
Infoterra invested in technologies that
would enable aerial images to be rapidly loaded and easily managed,
while still providing rapid delivery over thin bandwidths, such as the
web and mobile phones.
Utilising a technology that allows the
user to immediately receive accurate aerial images, irrespective of how
the user roams, pans or zooms, has guaranteed that the user waits the
same brief amount of time for the delivery of any image.
Europe’s largest geo-information service centre
Established 10 years ago for the management
of data from ESA satellites ERS1, ERS2 and EnviSAT, the data hosting
centre in Farnborough is the largest commercial geographical data
hosting facility in the UK with 1,500 terabytes of data available on or
near-line and an archive in excess of 7,000 terabytes.
The core of the system is a storage area
network (SAN) linked to multiple server configurations. The choice of
the SAN was made following extensive testing and optimisation using
geographical datasets. This enables multiple services to link to a
single datastore with no loss in performance, providing significant
financial benefits to our clients. The system is supported by a number
of additional services including a state-of-the-art fire suppression
system, flood detection, environmental control, four levels of building
security, a secondary external generator, two separate lines from
separate bandwidth suppliers and a nearline file restoration system
capable of replacing 10 terabytes of data in less than a day.
The latest technology is complimented by a
team of trained staff with 15 years of facilities management expertise
with geographical datasets. All are experienced in data management,
archiving, on-line update, order fulfilment, disaster recovery
processes and programme management, all skill sets required for a
successful geospatial internet service provider (G-ISP).
This centre provides the service backbone
for GeoStore, ensuring high availability, rapid and consistent
performance, high level of data quality and the use of market leading
technology.
The results speak for themselves ….
In the few months since GeoStore.com
launched the site has already delivered hundreds of aerial images to
customers throughout the world. As the service continues to develop two
additional services will accompany GeoStore Select, the service
initially launched that allows a precise location to be identified and
displayed by using roam, pan and zoom functionality.
The two additional services include
GeoStore Explore, which offers the ability to view and analyse
geographic data through a web browser without the need to store a local
copy of the data or for GIS software. This added functionality is ideal
for rapid site investigation, including risk assessments, planning
reviews and environmental enquiries.
Now live, GeoStore Direct enables
immediate access to terabytes of data, delivered on-line through an
open standard solution to the users own geo-information system. By
immediately receiving the image, the user has instant access, without
having to use their own valuable hard disk space to save and then
insert the images required. Through an OGC WMS compliant interface,
environmental reports, property reports, and others can be instantly
enhanced with accurate geographic imagery delivered through
GeoStore.com.
Infoterra now services more than a dozen
clients through this hosting centre including members of the insurance,
property, mapping, government and international community. In each case
clients have remarked on the robust nature of the technology used and
the ability of the software and staff to maintain a high delivery
capability over extended periods of use. In recent a discussion, the
European Space Agency commented that Infoterra continues to be the
leading centre of its type for product delivery and value for money.
This was recently confirmed with the award of two contracts for
development of the site extending still further its remit within the
geospatial market.
Mapping out the future
As 2005 draws to a close, this year marks
the end of an incredible three years for Infoterra, having been awarded
the UK’s largest ever hosting contract from OS in 2002, having
delivered national imagery and data licences to organisations such as
English Nature, Highways Agency and DEFRA, and having been named by IBM
as the ‘partner of Choice’ in delivering DEFRA’s IT outsourcing
implementation in 2004.
In addition to winning new contracts
around the world, Infoterra has continued to invest in new technologies
having recently purchased the ADS40 digital pan broom camera which
unlike frame cameras is able to capture a seamless strip of digital
imagery over large areas. Using a three-line stereo sensor, the camera
can simultaneously capture red-green-blue and colour infra-red imagery,
providing the rapid production of both orthophotos and surface
elevation models.
The ADS40 allows aerial photography to be
captured and delivered faster than ever before and has so far been used
to capture 1,400 square kilometres of Berkshire, producing 16 lines of
imagery that were seamlessly mosaiced into a single image within a
week. Conventional aerial data capture would have processed
approximately 1,400 individual images and would have taken
approximately six to eight weeks to complete.
The use of the ADS40 and GeoStore.com, combines the best of technical acquisition and data dissemination.
Conclusion
The development of GeoStore.com combines
the power of content created by geo experts, with software built by geo
experts, and hosted in a centre supported by experts in geo information
storage and retrieval.
For Infoterra, it is the final component
in a corporate strategy initiated in 2003 to provide a complete
end-to-end solution for those needing support from geospatial
information.
“Irrespective of whether the customer
required 2 square kilometres of aerial photography, rapid map update of
anywhere in the world, complex database creation using Oracle or a
complete outsourcing of their geospatial need, Infoterra now offers the
whole package” said David Fox Managing Director of Infoterra Ltd. Fox
went onto comment “Any organisation can now grow its geospatial
capability in partnership with Infoterra, without the need to
continually change supply partners at each stage.”
Future plans for GeoStore.com are
currently being finalised but early indications offer insight into the
real potential of this portal. Already further data layers are being
planned for loading and dissemination including the recently acquired
“London Heights” layer comprising a ground and building height model
with vertical accuracies better than 15cm. In addition to other UK and
global datasets, increased on-line functionality will further extend
the potential market as non-geo specialists are finally able to harness
the power of geography for their key business purposes.
With the ability to capture the latest
aerial imagery through the ADS40 and disseminate this through
GeoStore.com, Infoterra are well placed for 2006 and beyond.
About Infoterra Ltd.
Infoterra Ltd. is a world leader in the
provision of geographic information products and services. Its
portfolio of geographic information solutions includes airborne and
satellite data acquisition, geo-information creation, database
management and outsourced hosting. Infoterra provides geospatial
knowledge to companies worldwide to help them make informed decisions.
The company has clients in communications, utilities, engineering,
agriculture, defence and oil, gas & mineral exploration. Infoterra
is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS Astrium.
www.infoterra-global.com
For more information contact
Simon Corbett ,
Edelman, +44 20 7344 1349,
simon.corbett@edelman.com
Infoterra is a trademark of Infoterra Ltd.
All other trademarks and registered trademarks used herein are the
property of their respective owners.
(Credits Infoterra global)

January, Richmond, B.C. – MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.
(TSX: MDA), a provider of essential information solutions, announced
that the RADARSAT-2 satellite launch date is now set for December 2006.

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RADARSAT-2, Canada‘s next-generation commercial SAR satellite,
will be launched in December 2006 on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur
space centre in Kazakhstan.
RADARSAT-2 has
been designed with significant and powerful technical advancements
which include very high-resolution imaging, flexibility in selection of
polarization, left and right-looking imaging options, superior data
storage and more precise measurements of spacecraft position and
attitude.
Users will also benefit from the
unparalleled versatility in operations which allow for a highly
responsive data ordering system. For example, in the case of an
emergency, the time from order placement to command uplink to the
satellite can be as little as 4 hours. Routine programming of
acquisitions will be in the timeframe of 3 days to 12 hours. The
internationally recognised near-real time processing and delivery
services provided today for RADARSAT-1 data will continue into the
RADARSAT-2 era.
RADARSAT-2 is designed with variable polarization modes: single, dual
and quad. RADARSAT-2 is the first commercial space-borne SAR satellite
to offer fully operational quad-pol capabilities. Quad-pol imaging
produces an HH, HV, VV and VH dataset per image. The information
provided in a quad-pol dataset improves both the ability to
characterise physical properties of objects and the retrieval of bio-
or geophysical properties of the Earth‘s surface.
About MDA
MDA provides advanced information solutions
that capture and process vast amounts of data, produce essential
information, and improve the decision making and operational
performance of business and government organizations worldwide.
Focused on markets and customers with
strong repeat business potential, MDA delivers a broad spectrum of
earth and space based information solutions, ranging from complex
operational systems, to tailored information services, to electronic
information products.
MDA employs more than
2,500 people in locations across the United States, the United Kingdom,
and Canada. The Company‘s common shares trade on the Toronto Stock
Exchange under the symbol TSX:MDA.
Related visits:
www.mdacorporation.com
For more information, please contact:
Wendy Keyzer
External Relations
MDA
Telephone: 604-231-2743
E-mail: wendy@mdacorporation.com
(Credits MDA Corporation)

SENER completes this years his 50th anniversary; fifty years of
commitment to quality and innovation. Founded in 1956 by Enrique de
Sendagorta, SENER was the first Spanish private engineering company
that burst into the economic panorama then, trying to fill the existing
emptiness of engineering of these characteristics in the national
industrial.

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Today, century later, SENER has offices in Barcelona, Bilbao,
Buenos Aires, the Canary Islands, Lisbon, Madrid and Valencia. A staff
of 1,300 people, in its majority engineer and technical highly
qualified, apply their knowledge in the following fields of activity:
Space, Systems of Actuations and Control, Aeronautics and Vehicles,
Civil and Architecture, Naval, Energy and Proceses and Environment .
30.000 m2 of facilities with white rooms, laboratories of electronics
and a qualified center of integration and tests.
Today, a century later, SENER Group of
Engineering has a number of business in the range of 518 MEUR a 40% of
export, dedicates to I+D more than 150,000 hours annually and have a
very promising horizon ahead.
(Credits Sener)

Last October 18th, 2005 Aerodata Int. Surveys successfully completed
the countrywide digital aerial data acquisition of the Netherlands. The
imagery will be used to produce a seamless orthophoto database of an
area of 40.000 km2 and was acquired in a period of only 6 weeks time.

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Aerodata’s digital camera UltraCam-D simultaneously recorded the
colour and colour-infrared imagery and was mounted in the fast
Fairchild Merlin survey aircraft.
The colour orthophoto mosaic at 40 cm
ground resolution will be colour balanced and shows a very high level
of detail. The use of the digital camera leads to significant
improvement of the final product with respect to image clarity,
brightness, contrast and visibility of details in shadow areas. With
this product Aerodata sets a new standard for countrywide digital
orthophoto databases.
The complete product will be finished
early 2006 and from then on the complete dataset or parts of it can be
delivered to clients under the brand name aeroGRID® NL2005.
For inquiries, please contact our sales department by email at info@aerodata-surveys.com, by telephone at +32 (3) 287 00 31 or on the web at www.aerodata-surveys.com.

Paris, January 11, 2006. Alcatel Alenia Space announced the delivery of
Earth observation data acquisition systems to the China State Radio
Monitoring Center (CSRMC), the national Chinese network of Earth
observation stations. This equipment will be located in three satellite
data reception stations operated by the CSRMC.

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“The contract signed with Integrated Systems strengthens Alcatel
Alenia Space‘s position in the growing Chinese market,” says Alain Van
Doninck, Managing Director of Alcatel Alenia Space in Antwerp, Belgium.
“Our experience and drive for innovation, supported by funds of the
Belgian Federal Science Office and under the technical supervision of
the European Space Agency made possible the development of this
solution. Our system ranks amongst the world‘s most powerful and
flexible solutions for earth observation data acquisition.”
“We are convinced that this
state-of-the-art solution will contribute to the success of our
business”, said Charles Sun, Managing Director of Integrated Systems
Ltd.” Covering the future needs in the Earth observation satellite data
acquisition domain, the Alcatel Alenia Space engineers demonstrated
their outstanding innovation skills, fully supporting our goals.”
Alcatel Alenia Space has developed over
the last 25 years a strong experience in satellite data acquisition
systems. The Alcatel 9910 OMNISAT is the core element of earth
observation ground stations. It handles data transmission rates up to
500 Mbit/s in a wide range of modulation and decoding schemes. The
product meets all requirements of today‘s station operators facing the
increasing offer of Earth observation satellites and receiving the
highest data rates applicable in Remote Sensing satellites. The
multi-mission solution provided through the Alcatel 9910 OMNISAT allows
the ‘station operator’ to reduce drastically the cost of ownership,
applying a single reception chain for data acquisition of a wide range
of satellites.
About Alcatel Alenia Space
Alcatel Alenia Space is the European leader
in satellite systems, at the forefront of orbit infrastructures.
Created in July 2005, the company brings together the vast experience
and know-how of Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio to form a new leading
force in European space technology. Alcatel Alenia Space represents a
worldwide standard for space development that impacts everybody‘s
future: from navigation to telecommunications, from meteorology to
environmental monitoring, from defence to science and observation. An
affiliate of Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) (67%) and
Finmeccanica (Milan:SIFI.MI, FNC.IM) (33%), Alcatel Alenia Space
generated an estimated turnover of 1.8 billion euros with around 7,200
people in 2004.
About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions
to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and
enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their
customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed
and mobile broadband networks; applications and services, to help its
partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales
of EURO 12.3 billion and 56,000 employees in 2004, Alcatel operates in
more than 130 countries.

ARGOSS is nominated as one of the most innovative companies in the Province Flevoland in the Netherlands.

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ARGOSS is nominated as one of the most innovative companies in the
Province Flevoland in the Netherlands. Out of a range of more than 100
companies only three companies are nominated. The final election of the
most innovative company will be announced on 1 March 2006 during a
special gala evening.
(Credits Argoss)