July, 2010 – 2009-2010 Leaf-Off Imagery of the Marcellus; Preview of the Q2 2010 US Parcel Release; An Exclusive Switzerland-Wide Aerial Imagery Dataset

August 2010 – IFTN, Clear30 or Google; Tracking Mountain Beetles; Parcels as KMZs

Here is a direct link to the eMap GeoView archive.

We recently added a new page to the Geospatial Forum that features links to our archive of GeoView Newsletters. We will be adding new editions to this page in the coming months so check back often to find the most recent eMap GeoView Newsletter.

Here is a direct link to the eMap GeoView archive.

Here is a direct link to the Word of the Month archive.

2009 Editions

November, 2009 – WV-2 Launches Successfully, Q3 2009 US Parcel Layer Specifics, New Parcel Product Sneak Peak

December, 2009 – Reengineered Parcel and Tax Roll Products, Exclusive Submeter Israel Imagery

2010 Editions

January, 2010 – eMap Turns 10, WorldView-2 Fully Operational, Update on GeoEye-1 Antenna Issue

February, 2010 – The Q4 ParcelPoint Release; Growth of TaxRollPlus+ Database; The Haiti Earthquake Response

March, 2010 – A Clear30 Program Update; Parcels in eBooks; ImageBoost and WorldView-2

April, 2010 – Streaming US Parcel Data; Preview of the Q1 2010 US Parcel Release; GeoEye Announces GeoEye-2

May, 2010 – eMap Adds an Employee; Imagery For the Nation or Clear30; Hydraulic Fracturing; Growth of the TaxRoll+ Database in the Woodford and Eagle-Ford Shales

June, 2010 – Changes to Imagery Ordering Polices; Retail Intelligence Using Satellite Imagery; Social Media Sites Launches

If you would like to subscribe to our newsletter, please send an email to bmccarty@emap-int.com we will gladly add you to the monthly mailing list.

The Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) is an invasive species that is native to the western states and Canada, and is especially abundant in Colorado. They infest pine trees, particularly ponderosa, lodgepole, Scotch and limber, by tunneling under the bark in larger living trees, mating and laying eggs. The larvae spend the winter under the bark and transform into pupae in June and July. The MPB then produces bluestain fungi that aids in killing the tree. Once a tree is infested, there is no way to save it. An important aspect of prevention is managing forest stands to create diversity in age and structure, as well as having proper spacing and limiting density of the forest. There are some sprays that can be applied to individual trees to kill and deter MPB, but obviously that can only be efficiently applied when one is able to thoroughly analyze large sections of forest.

One of eMap’s academic clients has had great success in assessing MPB mortality by utilizing high-resolution GeoEye-1 satellite imagery. Dr. Phillip Dennison at the University of Utah analyzes canopies with GeoEye-1 imagery to evaluate the spread of the MPB. In the first year, the canopy remains green as the tree is killed from within; and during the next year it changes to yellow then red, a stage known as “red attack”. The trees then shed their red needles and enter “gray attack”, where the canopy turns gray.

Past research has shown the existence of the Red-Green Index identified by IKONOS imagery which analyzes the red reflectance of dead trees as compared to the green reflectance of living trees. While gray canopy doesn’t indicate death by MPB necessarily, it can be used to aid in the monitoring of MPB progression along with red canopies over a period of time.

4-band pansharpened, half-meter resolution imagery from GeoEye-1 is capable of accurately mapping red and gray canopy cover (to within 1.7% of field estimates) which are indicators of the severity of a current outbreak of mountain pine beetles in a lodgepole pine-dominated forest. As the outbreaks continue to wipe out forests in the west, the ability to map patterns of MPB over large areas is of the upmost importance in the effort to combat the infestation.

Here is a link to the full article written by Dr. Dennison.

Figure 1.  A pansharpened natural color GeoEye-1 image collected over a lodgepole pine forest in southeastern Wyoming. The three circles are locations of plots used for field verification of the imagery analysis.

Figure 2.  A maximum likelihood classification of the above image.

With the help of high-resolution satellite imagery, archaeologists are making new discoveries in some of the most remote areas of the world. Sarah Parcak, an archaeologist from the University of Alabama-Birmingham and current eMap International customer, has found hundreds of new research areas in middle Egypt and the eastern Nile Delta. In 2003-04, she confirmed 132 sites that were initially mapped through the use of satellite imagery, 83 of which had never been visited or recorded – some of the discoveries included lost cities, temples and ancient enclosure walls.

Satellite images can capture both visible and infrared portions of the spectrum, allowing ruins to stand out. By using multispectral data provided by eMap from GeoEye-1, IKONOS, QuickBird or WorldView-2, Dr. Parcak can strip away layers of color to see what lies beneath and it has paid off well so far. She incorporates this newer technology with a traditional archeological approach to make more educated evaluations of terrain based on the seasons and the amount of foliage growth patterns to estimate where a possible sight may lie. To this end, Dr. Parcak has even had success using 50-cm panchromatic only imagery from WorldView-1 in this work as it can reveal many of the same foliage growth patterns.

By using high-resolution satellite imagery, archaeologists can significantly reduce the leg work required to stage and complete field studies. Where in the past they would set out on foot and lug heavy gear across the jungle and desert based on educated assessments of potential sites; they can now come prepared with positionally-accurate maps created from high-resolution satellite imagery thus saving the time required to physically hunt down the sites as was down in the past. As millions of square kilometers of high-resolution satellite imagery are collected each year, the prominence of this technology in traditional archeological field studies is likely to continue to increase in the foreseeable future.

Click here to view a QuickBird image from Vanua Levu, Fiji showing obvious circular fort structures.

Click here to view a QuickBird image from Mendes, Egypt showing ancient building footprints