PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
February 2017
85
ASPRS
NEWS
ANNOUNCING THE FEBRUARY-APRIL 2017 GEOBYTES
Earth Reshaped: Designing World Map Projections
Tom Patterson will discuss the making of the Natural Earth,
Natural Earth II, and Patterson projections in collaboration
with Bernhard Jenny and Bojan Savric, Oregon State
University. The effort began with the development of Flex
Projector, a free, cross-platform application for designing
new world map projections via graphical controls. With this
software was designed to improve the venerable Robinson
projection. The resulting Natural Earth projection, also
a compromise pseudo-cylindrical projection, has better
distortion properties, a taller height-to-width aspect ratio,
and slightly rounded corners where the pole lines and
lateral meridians meet. The Natural Earth II is a follow up
projection with a highly-rounded shape that took its design
inspiration from the Mollweide. The third projection, the
eponymous Patterson, is a cylindrical derived from the Miller,
but with significantly less polar distortion. All three new map
projections are intended for general-purpose mapmaking.
Scheduled for February 24
th
. Webinar ID: 678-151-667
Registration URL
WorldDEM – the New Global Elevation Standard
A decade-long partnership between Airbus and the German
Space Agency (DLR) has led to the generation of the world’s
most complete and accurate Digital Elevation Model:
WorldDEM. The great success and almost universal adoption
of the data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
(SRTM) has only led to a greater thirst for more up-to-date
elevation data, everywhere in the world. Coming 15 years
after SRTM, WorldDEM provides a new global dataset with
a higher resolution product, with a complete pole to pole
coverage.
The presentation will describe how the WorldDEM data
was acquired, processed and edited. The 3 available versions
of WorldDEM will be introduced (Core, Hydro-enforced and
Digital Terrain Model DTM) Comparisons of WorldDEM to
other elevation datasets will be provided. Demonstrations of
WorldDEM data in several applications will be provided, as
well as information on how to procure WorldDEM. Scheduled
for March 31
st
.
John Collins is the Radar & WorldDEM Technical Sales
Manager for Airbus, based in Chantilly VA. John has worked
for 17 years in the airborne and satellite radar worlds, in such
diverse locations as Jakarta, Bangkok, Berlin and now the
Washington DC area. Trained as a Geographer, John started
working with radar data during the SRTM mission and went
on to manage Digital Elevation Model production facilities
in SE Asia and later India. Most recently he worked with a
team in Germany, developing the production processes and
tools for the WorldDEM program. His current position has
him working with sales and technical people to ensure that
their data needs are met with high-quality radar and DEM
products. Webinar ID: 727-307-259.
Registration URL:
Using ASPRS Open Aerial Data Catalog
The ASPRS Aerial Data Catalog is a tool for locating aerial
photography over the U.S. and international coverage
areas, including details and contact information about
individual collections. The Catalog currently uses a keyword
searching system. Users of this Catalog are encouraged to
enter information for collections of aerial photography not
currently listed, even if the information is incomplete and/or
approximate. This service is a contribution of the ASPRS Data
Preservation and Archiving Committee (DPAC). The Catalog
is provided to the geospatial community, to enable discovery
and access of the vast archives of historical and current aerial
photography in a way never before possible. By providing a
free hosting Catalog with no commercial interests, ASPRS
and DPAC aim to make the Catalog the definitive resource
for researchers and other users in the geospatial community
and beyond. We hope this Catalog will contribute to the
protection and preservation of aerial photography around the
world. Scheduled for April 21
st
.
John Faundeen has worked as the EROS Archivist at
the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources
Observations and Science (EROS) Center since 2001. His
current role involves policy, oversight and guidance for the
observational, cartographic, and elevation data created
and maintained at EROS. John allocates most of his time
to preservation and appraisal functions. The preservation
activity includes environmentally managing a 20,000 square
foot archive containing 100,000 rolls of analog film and
thousands of magnetic tapes. Establishing an off-site archive
containing several petabytes of electronic data continues to
be a centerpiece of EROS’s data management risk mitigation
strategy. MOUs with the U.S. National Archives and Records
Administration were established based upon proven data
management capabilities. He has previously served as the
acting USGS Records Officer. ORCID
-
0003-0287-2921. John has served as the ASPRS Data
Preservation and Archiving Committee chair for over five
years. Webinar ID: 942-747-811.
Registration URL
For more information on the GeoByte Series, visit
ASPRS Announces February-April 2017 GeoBytes
