IMAGING

Three High Performance Lenses by Phase One Industrial

Phase One Industrial has expanded its RS and RSM lens offering with three new high performance lenses for high-altitude aerial photography and long-range aerial and ground inspection applications. The 300mm AF, 180mm, and 150mm MK II lenses are designed to enhance the performance and flexibility of Phase One Industrial’s iXMRS and iXM aerial camera series. Each offers precision imagery, taking advantage of the cameras’ ultra-high resolution backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensors, to maintain a smaller ground sample distance (GSD) while flying at higher altitudes. https://industrial.phaseone.com

TCarta teams up with King’s College London

TCarta has teamed with King’s College London to win funding from the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop an air quality modeling service that leverages commercial satellite imagery. The service will provide organisations with accurate snapshots of existing air quality conditions along with modeling outputs to forecast how modifications in pollutant sources can change concentrations in the air over time.

The TCarta and King’s team will match the 1.5 million euros awarded by the ESA ARTES 20 program for a demonstration project that will generate air quality data for a number of major cities worldwide and deliver products through online services, API’s and data feeds. TCarta and King’s successfully proved the technical and commercial viability of the service in a pilot study also funded by ESA in 2018. http://air-quality.tcarta.com

Satellite mapping to monitor illegal construction in UP, India

UP Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) has engaged Remote Sensing Application Centre (RSAC) for inspection of construction sites within 10 km of the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) limits in Lucknow and adjoining Barabanki districts with the help of satellite data. In fact, RSAC has already completed 40% of the mandated satellite mapping work, which has been undertaken as a pilot, and the final report is likely to be submitted by June-end 2019. www.business-standard.com

Armenia to gain access to Russian remote sensing satellite data

Armenia will be able to get data from Russian remote sensing satellites under an agreement concluded between Russian Space Systems Company and Armenia’s Geokosmos. Under a sub-license agreement, Geokosmos will be able to both obtain the relevant data and disseminate it. The Russian Space Systems press office stressed that this would allow the Armenian company to boost its possibilities for creating geo-information services and “localizing Russian and foreign solutions in this sphere.” http://tass.com

PrecisionHawk announces aerial mapping platform

PrecisionHawk has announced PrecisionAnalytics Energy, a complete aerial mapping, modeling, and inspection platform that uses the latest generation of artificial intelligence and machine intelligence to automate analysis of their aerial data. Whether inspecting thousands of oil well pads or hundreds of thousands of utility towers, PrecisionAnalytics’ customers can reduce costs up to 80% and dramatically improve safety in the field.

Former ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar conferred with France’s highest civilian award

Former ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar was conferred with France’s highest civilian award – Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Legion d’Honneur – for his contribution to India-France space cooperation. According to an official statement, on behalf of the President of France, Ambassador of France to India, Alexandre Ziegler conferred Kumar with the highest civilian honour of France. www.indiatimes.com