The Sensor: January 2009
EIGS PERSPECTIVE
Providing Critical Support for Growing the Geospatial Workforce
in Mississippi
Following in its rich tradition of supporting the growth of geospatial technology since 1999, the state of Mississippi has once again provided the funds necessary to support the statewide geospatial software site license program. As one of Mississippi’s most notable and successful activities in the geospatial arena, this program provides Remote Sensing and Geospatial Information System (GIS) software learning packages for use at all Institutions of Higher Learning and Community and Junior Colleges at no cost to the individual institutions.
“We are so pleased that the Mississippi Legislature recognizes the importance of this program to help ensure that an educated, well-trained workforce is available to address the growing workforce development needs of the geospatial industry,” stated Dr. Greg Easson, EIGS Executive Director. “The wide spread use of this technology, from government agencies to engineers to farmers dictates that we keep pace with the industry’s demand for the high number of workers needing to be trained in this field. The availability of this software to our educational institutions is crucial to the sustained growth of this technology sector in Mississippi.”
As the first of its kind in the U.S., this program was established in 1999 for remote sensing/GIS software with three industry-leading vendors – ESRI, ERDAS, and ITT Visual Information Systems. Other states have since followed Mississippi’s lead in having such a progressive program that serves the entire statewide public higher education community. The program is funded through EIGS and managed by the MS Automated Resource Information System (MARIS) under the direction of the IHL Geospatial Council. The site licenses are designated for educational and research purposes and allow for unlimited copies of the software at all 8 public universities and all 15 community and junior colleges.
Including software extensions and modules, almost 22,000 licenses have been issued since the program began in 1999. With over 1,000 licenses utilized in 1999, the program increased to a peak of over 3,400 in 2006 then has leveled off during the past two years to around 2,500 annually. These numbers include the number of core licenses or the main products of each software company. They do not include the extension modules that are used for specific purposes which have increased by 125% showing more complex courses being taught requiring the more specific modules to be licensed. This demonstrates the increase in the number of students tackling advanced topics and tasks utilizing the extensions and also the diversity of new projects that the campuses are involved with.
The total cost for FY09 for the State of Mississippi is $260,000, including software and administrative expenses. The total product value for FY09 is almost $25 million. This value is the amount that would be charged for the software without the site license agreement. This represents quite a substantial savings for the state.
This software program is a resource that is critical to the research, development, and training mission of the participating universities and community colleges as well as the continued growth of the geospatial industry cluster. The software is being used as part of curricula, supporting research applications by faculty, helping graduate and undergraduate students complete research projects, and training the next generation of employees for Mississippi’s geospatial industry. This critical component will continue to address the workforce needs of Mississippi’s growing geospatial industry, attract new businesses to the state, and help solidify Mississippi’s leadership position in the geospatial industry.
IMAGE OF THE MONTH
Sediment off the Yucatan Peninsula
A burst of color lit the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the Yucatan Peninsula on December 14, 2008, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. The swirls of tan, green, blue, and white are most likely sediment in the water. The sediment scatters light, giving the water its color. The sediment comes from two sources: the land and the sea floor. Some of the color may also come from phytoplankton, tiny plant-like organisms that live in the sun-lit surface waters of the ocean.
Near the shore, the water is tan where rivers carry dirt from land to the ocean. As the sediment disperses, the water fades to green and then black. To the north, the water is more blue and white than tan and green. In these regions, the sediment has likely come from the sea floor. Made up of chalky white calcium carbonate from shell-building marine life like coral, sea floor sediment gives the water a white or bright blue color. The sediment was probably brought to the surface in shallow waters by strong waves. A few days before the image was taken, strong winds churned the Gulf. The blue-green cloud in this image roughly matches the extent of the shallow continental shelf west of the peninsula.
IMAGE OF THE MONTH
The Impact of the Economy on the Geospatial Industry
“Without available credit for acquisitions and R&D, the GIS market will definitely be impacted until money is made available. However, anyone who has been to a trade conference recently or read GIS news will see that geospatial technology innovation has not slowed down, but rather, it attends to the issues at hand and looks to the future. Vendors are offering products that if they work as promised, offering greater efficiency and accuracy to address real issues, there will be a market for them. A new spin is being added to products: during the economic downturn, you will need to save money, have greater efficiency, be able to make use of your data, etc. The good news is that products that allow more work to be accomplished by one individual, products that increase accuracy, clean up data, provide more accurate data, will always be in demand to solve real world problems.”
Susan Smith, Managing Editor, GIS Café Weekly
GIS Weekly Review, January 5, 2009
GEOSPATIAL RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
As part of the Introduction to Geographic Information Systems class at the University of Mississippi, each student must complete a project that requires analysis of geospatial data to address a issue of the region. Continued interest in the effects of the New Madrid Seismic Zone caused undergraduate Geological Engineering student Maria Brown to analyze population data for the mid-continent area to determine the populations at risk from a earthquake of magnitude similar to those of 1811-1812. By using the intensity of ground movement from the 1811-1812 earthquake and current population data for the region, Maria developed a map that clearly illustrates the populations as risk from a major earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
The goal of this project was to renew interest in the New Madrid Seismic Zone by exploring the possible results of the recurrence of an event such as the 1811-1812 earthquakes. To accomplish this mission, it was necessary to: (1) collect data regarding the extent of the historic 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes, (2) map the areas affected by the earthquakes showing current population density and land use, (3) determine what effects such an event may have if it occurred in the present-day, and (4) display this information in maps and tables that may be easily understood by the user.
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to EIGS member company, NVision Solutions, Inc. who started 2009 with the milestone of hiring its 50th employee. Since its incorporation in March 2002, NVision has experienced success and growth at a steady pace and in July of 2007 expanded its offices to the newly opened Stennis Technology Park in Hancock County between Mobile, AL and New Orleans, LA.
Craig Harvey, NVision COO and Executive Vice President, points to their new facility with its location adjacent to the NASA Stennis Space Center as part of the reason for their continued growth. Over the last year NVision has nearly doubled in size adding 5 long-term contracts supporting more than 25 employees. Services for these contracts range from administrative services to software engineering and database
ECONFERENCE REPORT
On December 10, 2008, the 9th Annual Conference on High Technology was held in Jackson, MS, hosted by the Mississippi Technology Alliance and the Mississippi Research Consortium. EIGS and partner, the Mississippi Enterprise for Technology (MsET) presented a panel discussion on “Geospatial Technology: Mississippi and Beyond.” The panelists provided a dynamic look at how industry, education, and government are working together to put Mississippi’s geospatial technology industry cluster on the global map. To learn more about industry-leading products and services, workforce development programs, and global trade missions, be sure to view these presentations
- “Geospatial Technology in Mississippi Overview”
Ms. Lisa Stone, Associate Director
Enterprise for Innovative Geospatial Solutions - “An International Affair: To Date or Not To Date”
(Small business perspective on developing international clients and products)
Mr. J.J. Herr, Senior GIS Specialist
NVision Solutions, Inc. - “Promoting a World of GIS Opportunities”
Ms. Liz Cleveland, Manager
International Trade Office, Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) - “Geospatial Education in Mississippi: How to Maintain & Increase Relevancy in a Changing World”
Mr. Jim Steil
Director, MS Automated Resource Information System (MARIS)
Chair of the IHL Geospatial Education Council
RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
Landsat archive to be open
GISdevelopment.net
In early 2009 the entire archive of the American Landsat remote sensing program will be available for free and on-line. The announcement was made by representatives of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that access to the archive of Landsat images, collected for over 35 years, will become free soon. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has recently confirmed the plan is still in force. According to the staged project implementation, free public access to Landsat 7 imagery data became open in October, including new images. Scenes with cloud cover less than 20% after automatic processing are ready for downloading via interface programs EarthExplorer and Glovis with minimum time delay following the acquisition.
Users are now able to work with Landsat 5 images, in January 2009 – with Landsat 4 and Landsat 1-5 (MSS sensor) imagery. For your reference, the Thematic Mapper — is the optical mechanical scanner, providing imaging at 30 m resolution in six bands of the visible, NIR and mid-infrared spectrum and at 120 m in long-wave IR band. In its turn the Multispectral Scanner (MSS) enables to receive images with 80 m of spatial resolution.
The GISuser SuperPages Directory of companies
GISuser.com
Get Listed! Now you can list your company in the new Directory – for FREE! The SuperPages is a comprehensive directory of application and solution providers for geo technologies, location-based service providers, and other geo related companies. Contractors, consultants, device makers, programmers, software developers, and others are invited to leave details of their business and create their own, virtual business card in the directory. Feel free to submit suggestions for new cats or whatever you may have to contribute.
Find a Trail Near You Using Interactive Maps
Traillink.com
TrailLink features interactive mapping, dynamic driving directions, and detailed information on surface types, access points, locations, distances, services, reviews, photographs, and local links for America’s 1,500 plus rail-trails. TrailLink.com is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, America’s leader in assisting local communities in converting unused railroad corridors into community trails.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
China to launch new remote sensing satellite
Xinhua – China
China is scheduled to launch a new remote sensing satellite “Yaogan V” on Monday at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
Yahoo Begins Korean-Language Map Service
Korea Times – Korea
Yahoo Korea has launched a Korean-language satellite image and map searching service that can be used on the Web without installing additional programs.
India Wants Global Space Partners
Aviation Week – New York,NY,USA
In land remote sensing – long a focus of India’s help-the-villages space policy – “international cooperation will be the cornerstone.”
Vietnam’s First Remote Sensing Satellite To Be Orbit By 2012
Bernama – Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia
Vietnam plans to launch its first remote sensing satellite by 2012, chairman of the national Research Programme on Space Science.
Egypt seeks to unearth antiquities through satellite technology
Xinhua – China
Egypt is seeking to unearth antiquities through satellite and remote sensing technology, the official MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.
EIGS IN THE NEWS
Radiance Technologies discovery improves disaster response
Pointe Innovation Magazine, December 2008
The Center for Defense Integrated Data (CDID) at Jackson State University partnered with Radiance Technologies, a business specializing in the application of emerging technologies to deliver commercial and government solutions. Out of that partnership, the Disaster Response Intelligent System (DRIS) Architecture was born.
DSU unveils center with GIS Day
Delta Democrat-Times, December 14, 2008
The Delta State University Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Information Technologies hosted a “GIS Day” open house to showcase their ultra modern area for teaching and learning geographic information. The GIS Day included Geo Hikes, in which faculty instructed visitors on using an advanced GPS unit, the high definition projection of the “Earth the Biography” series, instruction on 3-D modeling and a presentation on the U.S. National Grid System.