National Remote Sensing Centre of India will set up a remote sensing ground station in the continent of Antarctica. Once the Antarctica ground station is operational, it will boost the remote sensing data transmitted by Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites. The data will be helpful during natural calamities like earthquakes, tsunamis and floods, besides providing regular data terrain. According to NRSC sources, the proposed ground station in Antarctica will receive data around 10 to 12 orbits per day from different IRS satellites.

Autodesk, Inc has announced several new features to be added to the next release of AutoCAD WS, a free* web and mobile application that enables users to view, edit and share AutoCAD projects across desktop, web and mobile devices. AutoCAD WS users will have access to 3D interactive features, including the ability to work with 3D drawings on mobile devices.

u-blox has announced two new products equipped with Automotive Dead Reckoning (ADR) technology. The NEO-6V GPS module and UBX-G6010- SA-DR single-chip deliver drop-in, self calibrating GPS Dead Reckoning performance for high precision vehicle navigation systems. ADR enables highly accurate positioning in areas of weak or no GPS satellite reception such as within tunnels and park houses.

On November 30, the GLONASS-K1 satellite, GLONASS 701(K), which had been using broadcast almanac slot 3 and transmitting on frequency channel -5 while undergoing flight tests, ceased transmissions on its assigned channel and was removed from the almanac.GLONASS 744, launched with the other Block 44 satellites on 4 November 2011 and which achieved its orbital slot 3 in Plane 1 a few days ago, was activated and is transmitting on frequency channel 5. It is currently set unhealthy in both the almanac and the ephemeris while undergoing further commissioning.GLONASS 743 and 745 are still moving towards their designated orbit slots.

Recent geodetic and oceanographic MSL studies have shown that neither the sea levels nor the land are permanent with respect to time variations. The data analysis of tide gauges produces ‘relative’ sea level changes. However, using tide gauge data alone, it is impossible to distinguish between any true sea level variation and any changes in ground level at a tide gauge site. GPS monitoring can be used to decouple vertical land movements from change in relative MSL, so that tide gauge can provide estimates of changes in absolute MSL. In order to monitor “absolute” changes in sea level, the rates of any vertical land movements at a tide gauge must be determined and subtracted from the resulting rate of tide records [e.g. IPCC, 2001 and Bingley et al, 2000]. Consequently, a sea level monitoring system has been installed at Alexandria tide gauge site containing a GPS receiver as a geodetic monitoring technique to perform this task.

Geodesy: Out with the Old, In with the New:Chris Rizosl;
Experiences from world bank development support for land reform:Keith Clifford Bell;
Improving the administration of marine and coastal spaces:Harun Kenan Subasi, Reha Metin Alkan;

The concepts proffered in paper generally are in relation to developed jurisdictions that have fully embraced the Information Age and its significant investments in digital data management. Since 2001, and as a means of improving the administration of marine and coastal spaces through decision support, interested members of the international geomatics community have increased research efforts towards the development of marine cadastres in various jurisdictions. Among them are researchers from Canada, Australia and the United States of America (USA) (Collier, Leahy and Williamson, 2001; Ng’ang’a, Sutherland and Nichols, 2002; Sutherland, Wilkins, and Nichols, 2002; Barry, Elema and van der Molen, 2003; Binns et al., 2003; Ng’ang’a et al., 2004; Sutherland, 2004; Sutherland and Nichols, 2004; FGDC, 2008). The main focus of this paper is Canada but developments from the U.S. and Australia are briefly discussed.

Land administration and ict Over the past thirty years, considerable progress has been made since the initial work on first registration programs using largely analogue, methods of data capture, presentation and records management. The early adoption of total stations and electronic data recording by land surveyors, post processing using computer-aided drafting (CAD) and GIS, as well as data storage in relational database management systems have been highly successful.

Since taking over the position of president of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG – http:// www.iag-aig.org) on the 6th July 2011, I have had on occasion mused on what geodesy “is” and how to explain this arcane field to those who are not acquainted with it. For example, how do I tell the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, at the University of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia), that I, the head of a department within his faculty which has its primary objective the education of undergraduate students in “surveying” (or more broadly in “geomatics”), now occupy an important position in the geoscience field of “Geodesy and Geophysics”? (This is not an idle exercise, as the Dean will be asked to approve my increased travel commitments over the next four years

LightSquared is a gem! I am not only talking about its nationwide high-speed 4G capabilities and that it will be a boost to our lagging IT industry which has fallen behind 18 other nations. I am focusing on how it can beautifully complement high precision applications of GPS. It is a gem for GPS high precision users and for RTK.