GeoEye Looks At Improved Imagery And Buys In

GeoEye owns and operates the IKONOS satellite and is nearing completion of the integration and testing of its next-generation commercial satellite, GeoEye-1. This space-based camera will provide imagery with a ground resolution of 0.41-meter panchromatic (black & white) and 1.65-meter multispectral (color). When operational, GeoEye-1 will be the world’s highest resolution and most accurate commercial imaging satellite. The launch of GeoEye-1 is slated for late first quarter or early second quarter 2008 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The company has announced their MJ Harden subsidiary’s (acquired by GeoEye in March of 2007) acceptance of Optech’s Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper (ALTM) Gemini 167 LiDAR imaging unit. MJ Harden is now able to merge imagery from their current digital mapping camera with LiDAR imagery to produce enhanced products ideally suited for large-scale mapping projects, such as mapping flood plains, coastal zones and public right of ways and corridors. This is especially important in the pipeline, oil and gas, mining, urban planning, disaster management, and utility and telecommunications industries.




LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection And Ranging, is a remote sensing system used to determine the elevation of an object on the ground. LiDAR data are used to produce highly detailed elevation or terrain models. Mounted on an aircraft, the LiDAR system is fully integrated with an airborne global positioning system (GPS) and inertial measurement unit to record hyper-accurate horizontal position and vertical elevation values of precise points on the ground. The Gemini is the latest LiDAR product released by Ontario, Canada-based Optech—Dulles, Virginia