On 16 January, the second of the two Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites, FM2 (Flight Model 2) also known as GSAT0102, started transmitting navigation signals on the L1/E1 frequency using the E12 ranging code, according to tracking reports from the COoperative Network for GIOVE Observation (CONGO). FM2 was launched together with PFM, the ProtoFlight Model (GSAT0101), on October 21, 2011.

The GIS Research Centre at Feng Chia University in Taiwan developed Taiwan’s first municipal works cloud-based map platform. It will allow city government officials and policy makers to have a clear picture of the city’s major construction projects. The platform, which was commissioned by the Taichung City Government, will integrate the city’s digital map libraries including urban planning and cadastral map libraries, and will allow users to browse records concerning the city’s major construction projects and tenders.

The US Supreme Court ruled that police need a search warrant before tracking a suspect with a GPS device, in a case involving privacy and 21st century technology. The highest US court ruled 9-0 that police had violated the rights of a suspected drug dealer when they placed a GPS, or tracking device, on his vehicle without a warrant and tracked his movements.

Trimble selected Mannai Corp. (software division) as a mapping & GIS business partner in Qatar. Combining positioning, communications and software to equip the mobile workforce, Trimble’s mapping & GIS products improve productivity in a broad range of industries by geo-enabling field workforces with high accuracy, easy-to-use GNSS handhelds and rugged computing devices.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, global shipments of Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) declined to about 33 million units in 2011. In mature markets where the installed base of PNDs is already high, the device category is facing increasing competition from smartphones and low-cost in-dash navigation systems.

The US Defense Department intends to reduce planned purchases of commercial satellite imagery in 2013 as part of a broader initiative aimed at reducing US military expenditures by USD 259 billion over the next five years, according to the Pentagon planning document, Defense Budget Priorities and Choices.

It cannot go on forever… we have to fi nd a solution!:Durk van Willigen;
LIDAR for visualization of 3D geological models: Reginaldo Macedônio da Silva, Leonardo Campos Inocencio, Larissa Jacobi, Débora Lamberty, Francisco Manoel Wohnraht Tognoli, Mauricio Roberto Veronez;
PPP using combined GPS/GLONASS:Mohamed Azab, Dr Ahmed El-Rabbany, Dr M Nabil Aly Shoukry, Dr Ramadan Khalil;

Jarrett’s wines, the subject location of this study, had undertaken much of the above however it soon became apparent that data was poorly managed, with a mix of hard- and soft-copy data. The importance of spatial data management is rarely reported in the PV literature, and the ad hoc nature of spatial data acquisition and surveyor involvement limits the opportunities for an effi cient spatial data management system to be implemented.

GPS was offi cially declared to have achieved full operational capability (FOC) on July 17, 1995, ensuring the availability of at least 24 operational, non-experimental, GPS satellites. To meet the future requirements, the GPS decision makers have studied several options to adequately modify the signal structure and system architecture of the future GPS constellation. The modernization program aims to, among other things, provide signal redundancy and improve positioning accuracy, signal availability, and system integrity (El- Rabbany 2006 ). Unfortunately, even with the modernized system, there exist situations where the GPS signal may be partially obstructed, e.g. in urban canyons, which in turn affect the availability and reliability of the PPP solution

Geological researches have increased the utilization of tridimensional models in the last years in order to make possible visualization, parametrization and interpretation of data. The LIDAR technique allows to acquire a huge amount of georeferrenced data using a Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS). Both fastness and accuracy are the main characteristics of this equipment. Its utilization in geological studies has started in the last decade (Bellian et al., 2002), but only in the last years the number of scientifi c articles has increased signifi cantly. The TLS acquires georeferrenced point clouds that can be converted in digital models after processing, especially digital outcrop models (DOM).