EVC named authorized reseller of DigitalGlobe products
East View Cartographic (EVC) has signed an agreement with DigitalGlobe to be an Authorized Reseller of DigitalGlobe’s high resolution commercial imagery. www.cartographic.com

Geolocation to the web
Opera Software and Skyhook Wireless to partner in bringing geolocation to the Web. With Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), any computer or mobile phone with a wireless adapter can take advantage of its positioning technology and locate a user. Users

can now simply choose to share their location with any Web site and get a range of information. www.opera.com

Norway joins Galileo project
The Norwegian government will give a boost by providing 68.9 million euros (92.5 million dollars) towards the 3.4 billion euro project. While Norway is not a member of the 27-member bloc, the

country’s economy and business minister Sylvia Brustad said it was important that Oslo took part in Galileo’s development. “The project will be of huge importance for the development of the European space industry and it is therefore important that Norwegian businesses are now able to compete,” Brustad said in a statement. In

September, the European Commission and the European Space Agency, which includes Norway as a member, shortlisted 11 European firms which are bidding for future contracts connected to Galileo. www.newsabout- space.org/story/157986254.html

RISAT – ISRO’s SAR satellite, launched
ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C12), on April 20, 2009 successfully placed two satellites – RISAT-2 and ANUSAT – in the desired orbit. RISAT-2 is a Radar Imaging Satellite with the capability to take images of the earth during day and night as well as cloudy conditions. This satellite will enhance ISRO’s capability for earth observation, especially during disaster management. ANUSAT, built by Anna University, Chennai is the first experimental communication satellite built by an Indian University under the guidance of ISRO and will demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations. www.isro.org

EXPRESSMaps delivers detailed maps in 6 hours
Spot Image and Infoterra are launching www.express-maps.com to deliver detailed basemaps covering over three quarters of the Earth’s land surfaces. This service creates 1:50000 basemaps, which can be delivered electronically in just 6 hours. It is mainly aimed at civil protection agencies, military and humanitarian aid teams in crisis management situations. www.infoterra.fr

China launches navigation satellite
China launched Beidou-2 (or Compass- G2) – their second geostationary navigation satellite recently. The Compass constellation comprises 31 satellites – 27 MEO satellites and 4 geostationaries. BeiDou-2 is reported to have a lifespan of 8 years. The first phase of the project will provide coverage for Chinese territory – ultimately giving global cover. www.nasaspaceflight.com

Galileo and China’s Compass argue over frequencies
The Christian Science Monitor reports that China’s insistence on using the same radio frequency as Galileo may render some features of the European system unusable in the event of a crisis. China’s membership of “Galileo,” has soured to the point where the two sides are locked in a dispute over radio frequencies, as China races ahead with its own network of satellites. Without an agreement, China would be able to frustrate European military forces’ efforts to deny a future enemy crucial satnav capability. http://survapedia. com/2009/03/galileo-china-argue/

GeoEye sign reseller contracts. Beijing Earth Observation reseller in China

GeoEye, Inc. has signed agreements with several international resellers to provide high-resolution, satellite imagery and value-added products from its new GeoEye-1 Earth-imaging satellite to customers in China, Middle East, Turkey and Russia. Beijing Earth Observation, China has signed a new agreement with GeoEye to receive data from the GeoEye-1. www.geoeye.com

Indian NSDI publishes Metadata Standards ver 2.0

The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), under Department of Science & Technology of Government of India, has released Metadata Standard 2.0. It is prepared by the working group on ‘Metadata Standards’ chaired by Dr. S K Pathan, from Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO, Ahmadabad. The National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS) Metadata Standards defines the schema and design for the NSDI Metadata. It also contains a set of relational tables that standardise the layer metadata, the geographic search metadata, the access metadata etc.

Metadata is the first element of the NSDI, which enables a user to find spatial data that is available in different NSDI Agency servers. It serves two major purposes – both for the spatial data generator and for the spatial data user. For the generator, it provides a framework to document the spatial data and declare its content for users. For the user, it serves many important purposes, including finding the spatial data as per need; browsing spatial data; deciding on whether the spatial data will meet the application need and finding how the spatial data can be accessed.

ISRO, with the involvement of Survey of India, National Informatics Centre, Geological Survey of India, Forest Survey of India, National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation, Central Ground Water Board, Central Water Commission and the private sector, has led the effort of defining a ‘National Metadata Standards’. http://www.nsdiindia.gov.in

Obama proposes terminating system that backs up GPS

In his fiscal 2010 budget, President Obama killed funding for a system that would back up the much relied on GPS if it failed, despite calls from the telecom industry and federal agencies that it is needed. The Homeland Security Department (DHS) endorsed Loran-C a year ago as a backup for the satellite-based GPS, but in its fiscal 2010 budget, the department zeroed out funding for the system. www.nextgov.com