The considerations of national security and defense capability were the main incentives in the development of the scientific and technical progress in the past century. New technologies passed from the military to civil applications with a certain time delay. Satellite cartography which appeared in the USA and the USSR at the beginning of the space era was not an exception. It found its origin in the demands of the “cold war” epoch. Each superpower was holding its missiles targeted at the opponent, and that required precise coordinate information about the location of strategic objects. Motive forces of the technological progress have changed in this century. Commercial technologies in some spheres (communications, for example) started to surpass defense technologies. Global crises, the effects of climate change force us to develop new assets of representation, modeling and process prediction. Economic efficiency becomes the leading competitive factor of development.
By A. Kucheiko,
Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Deputy General Director of ScanEx RDC
Cover story
Cartography as the Precondition of Navigation.By A.M. Berlyant
The centuries-old history of cartography as science, technology and production indicates that its development has always been connected with real-world problems, such as running a state and operation control, needs of army, seafaring and trade support. That is the reason why navigation has been an important factor of technical progress of cartography as the set of tools for world cognition and spatial information description, visualization and transfer since ancient times. The article contains classification of modern navigation maps and the author’s opinion about the correctness of terms “neogeography” and “GPS”, about GLONASS and problems of Russian cartography.
Navigation: Development and Prospect.By Yu.A. Beletsky
Navigation burst into our life swiftly and changed our idea of orientation and routing. At the same time a great number of navigation applications appeared on the market, both Russian and foreign. The article is devoted to the present situation on the navigation services market, information portal Probki.net and navigation program “CityGUIDE”.
Car Navigation Maps Development in Russia.By R.S. Stikhanov
The popularity of car navigators among the drivers experience a wave-like growth, sales of the devices increase severalfold annually. Today, the most updated maps of Russia are used in the “Navitel Navigator” navigation system: highly detailed data covering more than 60 regions of the country and over 1100 cities and towns are available.
“RuMap”. Digital Cartography in Russia Today.By A.D. Melnichenko, I.A. Alyautdinov and K.M. Melnikov
Digital product “RuMap” is the geospatial data set that contains vector description of the whole territory of the Russian Federation. The “RuMap” product illustrates the methods and means of developing geospatial data sets.
What’s New in the World of Navigation.By P.V. Kozlov
Navigation market will reach the phase of rapid development of all segments and business models in the nearest future. NAVTEQ company is the world leading provider of digital maps, traffic and location data, which enable to carry out navigation using platforms based on LBS-services worldwide. The present article describes the new standard of data collection — NAVTEQ True — and the special product for pedestrians NAVTEQ Discover Cities that includes the detailed information about public transit system and tools for planning virtual pedestrian itineraries.
Contemporary Russian Market of Personal Navigation Devices (PND): the Present and the Future.By A.A. Selivyorstov and I.A. Rybakova
Personal navigation devices segment grows quickly. The demand for GPSnavigators increased in 2010. GPSnavigators allow getting information about emergency situations on the road in near real-time mode, finding objects of interest with the help of outer data bases, creating communities, communicating with friends and detecting their location. At present “online” navigators segment conquers Russian market of car navigation. Within the next few years the development of car navigation market will be realized due to the growing number of navigation services.
“GLONASS+112” System will Function in the Whole Territory of the Republic of Tatarstan.By M.V. Shmatko
Motor transport satellite monitoring system has been functioning in the Republic of Tatarstan since September 2007. In November 2010 “GLONASS+112” system will be launched in the whole territory of the Republic. Innovative and competitive advantage of the “GLONASS+112” project is integration of different functions in one software product, such as phone calls reception, incident cards control, digital base maps, high-resolution space images and monitoring of manpower and units based on GLONASS navigation system. At the same time the System of satellite monitoring of motor transport of the Republic of Tatarstan have been developed by the Tatar Government.
GLONASS: Following Passenger Safety.By K.V. Izotova
“M2M telematics Ryazan” company has positive experience of adoption of GLONASS/GPS solutions in Ryazan. An Integrated Route Card for the city passenger transport is one of the projects. Such an Integrated Route Card is intended for online informing of passengers about actual municipal passenger transport schedule and time of arrival. This service was implemented within the frames of developing a Smart Transport System of the city of Ryazan. In addition to that “Safe bus” and “Smart bus stop” projects have been developed.
Personal Navigation Devices: Russia’s Response to the West
Navigation receivers become more and more in demand. “GeoStar Navigation” Design Bureau keeps considerable share of the Russian market of combined GLONASS/GPS modules. A.A. Korkush, Director General of “GeoStar Navigation” Design Bureau, told about the development and the most pressing problems of the navigation devices market.
Goroda.kosmosnimki.ru: the Project Based on the GeoMixer Technology.By M.V. Dorofeeva
Goroda.kosmosnimki.ru (the word “goroda” means “cities” or “towns” in Russian) is the new user project on the basis of ScanEx Web GeoMixer technology. The project started in early 2010. Its main idea is the integration of multi-temporal satellite and aerial photo survey images of cities and towns on one map. Visitors can make a journey through the time to Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk and other places of Russia. Also it is possible to create your own thematic routes with photos and videos. Goroda.kosmosnimki.ru project is the discussion forum that allows registered users to comment on objects and events straight on the map.
Ecological Web-Site of Moscow.By E.S. Tetushkina
Web-project “Moscow EcoAtlas” (ecoatlas.kosmosnimki.ru) is an interactive web-site for publishing, editing and discussion of information about environmental protection and research in Moscow. Every user can work with ecology materials he is interested in, create vector layers and upload raster layers. “Moscow EcoAtlas” is based on ScanEx Web GeoMixer technology. The main goal of the project is to improve environment standards of residents of Moscow and to form available data base of ecological events, projects and institutions.
Use of Space Technology for Forestry Monitoring
The system of continuous imaging (in “long-strip” mode) ensuring the full coverage of Russian forests has been developed in Russia during the past few years. In 2010 ScanEx RDC has been doing imaging of Russian forests for forest use monitoring and control in behalf of the Russian Forestry Agency. Satellite images in direct reception mode are downlinked to the network of “UniScan” ground stations in Moscow, Megion, Irkutsk and Magadan. Centralized data processing is done by the ScanEx specialists in Moscow. A special “State Forest Inventory 2010” web-mapping service is used to transfer data to regional departments of Roslesinforg. Head of Department for Forest Use, Inventory and Management E.S. Trunov told us about modern technologies of the Russian Forestry Agency, problems and prospect of the Russian forest sector.
Putting the Developer in Charge.By J. Christensen
Last year Google put free navigation on the market. The company counts on the development of horizontal franchise for local search, designs all-purpose service package related to cartography that will find mass use. CloudMade company believes that vertical applications will divide market into nano-segments. Huge geodata market CloudMade Data Marketplace have been grown, where the developers could choose various content and then place it into their maps. As a result, applications have become more diverse, more deep functional have been reached, and even absolutely new types of vertical applications emerged.
Web-Mapping Services in Russia: the Experience of “Yandex” company
“Yandex.Maps” service has been developed since 2004. Its functionality has become wider from year to year. Cartographic and satellite materials (mainly for the territory of Russia and adjoining regions) on this resource are often more updated than similar materials from foreign web services. Specialists of “Yandex” tell about “Yandex.Maps” service and “Yandex.People’s Map” project.
Free Access to Web-Mapping Service: New Facilities Provided by “MegaFon” Company
“MegaFon” subscribers using a special version of “Yandex.Maps” are no longer charged for Internet traffic since summer 2010. New Products and Services Director for OJSC “MegaFon” A.O. Ivlev shared the details with us.
Satellites and maps: hindsight and present times.By A.А. Kucheiko
Satellite imagery was the outcome of the cold war epoch: each superpower kept their missiles targeted at their potential enemy. Precise coordinates of the strategic targets were required. Large volumes of data have been compiled over dozens of years of Earth satellite imagery delivered by military and civil satellites. This data was used to create global mosaics of satellite ortho-images and maps. While the image of future satellite system is being discussed and reshaped in Russia, the space imagery cartography market is being occupied by other countries.
Trends
The Experience of Space Monitoring of the Spring Seasonal Flood on the Northern Dvina River in 2010.By Yu.V. Lupachev, E.N. Skripnik and A.A. Kucheiko
Archangelsk Center for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of the Northern Hydro-Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring Department has been taking part in the “Flood” project under the guidance of ScanEx RDC since 2009. The goal of the project — hydrometeorological support in the period of spring ice drifts. The article is devoted to the “Flood” project and its results, features of ice cycle of the Northern Dvina river basin, Earth observation data application in order to assess ice cover conditions, satellite monitoring of ice drift progress and the results of operational hydrometeorological support applying satellite-based monitoring tools.
Satellite Monitoring of the Tom River Flash Flood.By S.V. Sidorenko and A.D. Romantsov
Spring ice drifting the Tom river and its tributaries take special place among the rivers of West Siberia. Ice drifts very violently along the rivers. The process is accompanied by serious ice blocks. As a result of ice blocks, water levels rise and provoke floods. In 2010 during the Tom river flash flood all flooded territories of Tomsk were detected with the help of various data, satellite imagery first of all.
River Flood Monitoring Based on the Terra Data.By M. Yu. Markov
Introduction of emergency situations space monitoring technology in the Volgograd region started in September 2009, when “UniScan-24” ground receiving station had been installed in Fire Fighting and Civil Protection Department of the Volgograd Region Administration. At present time the station receives data from Terra satellite (USA). Monitoring of ice situation, snow cover, temperature of Earth surface, flood situation and fires has been carried out over the territory of the Volgograd region on the basis of Terra data. Methodology of flood detection with the help of middle resolution (250 m) data, delivered by Terra satellite, has been developed and tested in spring 2010.
3D-Geospatial Data Provided by Satellite Sensors.By A.V. Kalabin
3D-vector data, digital surface models and building information modeling (BIM) are important components of GIS infrastructure beyond the scope of twodimensional space. With the appearance of digital photogrammetry, stereo images became the main source of threedimensional geospatial data. The most important advantage of stereo images is the availability of extra geospatial information that is the basis of digital surface models (DSM) and digital orthophotos production.
Geometric Correction of Satellite Images Using Reference Points in ScanEx Image Processor Application.By A.Yu. Bakasheva and D.S. Akhmetova
Geometric correction is one of the fundamental tasks in the area of Earth remote sensing data processing. The primary objective of this task is to provide maximum accuracy in transition from an image’s internal coordinate system to a selected cartographic coordinate system. An example of a universal tool for processing space imagery data is the ScanEx Image Processor software package, which contains the full set of tools required for operations with ERS data: from importing and initial geometric correction of images to arithmetical operations with rasters and building 3Dmodels of landscapes.
TTS Systems.By A.I. Gusev
The present level of development of multimedia hardware opens wide possibilities in various data visualization and provides interactive cooperation and processing. TTS complex is the special digital information display that guarantees the most realistic picture due to high resolution, better brightness and contrast.
Fire Season 2010: Satellite Monitoring
Operative satellite monitoring of fire situation in Russia has been carried out in summer 2010. Probable fire areas have been detected daily on the base of MODIS spectroradiometer data delivered by Terra and Aqua satellites. Highly detailed SPOT 4 and Landsat 5 images enabled to observe consequences of fires and to map burnt-out territories. Constantly updated results of the monitoring have been available at ScanEx Fire Monitoring Service (SFMS) and “Fires — Kosmosnimki” (fires.kosmosnimki.ru).
