Weekly GEOINT Community News

Radiant Solutions Announces Plan of Operations; General Atomics Acquires Surrey Satellite Technology U.S.; Planet Imagery Made Available in SpyMeSat App; USGS Publishes Global Crop Map; & More

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Radiant Solutions Announces Plan of Operations

Maxar Technologies’ geospatial business unit Radiant Solutions will combine former service brands RadiantBlue, HumanGeo, MDA Information Systems, and DigitalGlobe Intelligence Solutions into one commercial provider. The business will be organized into three missions: sensor and ground modernization; data to insight; and agile intelligence. This convergence of data-gathering sensors, cloud computing, open source, big data, and machine learning will offer customers a strong and thorough way to uphold national security missions.

General Atomics Acquires Surrey Satellite Technology U.S.

General Atomics acquired the majority of the assets of Surrey Satellite Technology U.S., a Colorado-based provider of small satellite technologies, systems, and services. The assets and workforce will be integrated into General Atomics’ Electromagnetic Systems Group to support the organization’s growth initiatives focused on the development and delivery of small satellite and advanced payload systems.

Planet Imagery Made Available in SpyMeSat App

Planet reached an agreement with Orbit Logic, allowing users of Orbit Logic’s SpyMeSat mobile app to access Planet’s daily satellite imagery. SpyMeSat provides on-demand access to recently archived imagery and the ability to request tasking over specific areas. Planet images available in the app cover 625 square kilometers at 3.7-meter resolution and cost less than $1.30 per square kilometer, while new tasking options begin at $375.

Esri Partners with Mobileye on Driver Assistance

Esri announced a collaboration with Intel’s Mobileye, a provider of driver-assistance software, to integrate Esri’s analysis and visualization capabilities with Mobileye’s Shield+ system. A network of sensors placed on the vehicle will record real-time data like pedestrian or cyclist detection in blind spots—that data will be uploaded into Esri’s ArcGIS platform and viewed on the Mobileye dashboard. Municipal buses and other public transport will be outfitted with this technology, making for safer commutes and communities.

USGS Publishes Global Crop Map

The United States Geological Survey released a new high-resolution map of croplands around the world. The map identifies 1.87 billion total hectares of farmland—India has the highest net cropland area, followed by the U.S., China, and Russia. The map was built using Landsat imagery at 30-meter resolution, the highest quality of any global agricultural dataset.

Loft Orbital Raises Funding for Condo Constellation

Loft Orbital has raised $3.2 million in seed funding to create a constellation of satellites carrying multiple payloads from different customers. Spacecraft would weigh between 100 and 200kg to keep launch prices low enough to dissuade customers from purchasing and operating satellites of their own. Loft will manage the satellite procurement, launch, operations, and downlinking data, while customers will task their own payloads. Loft is targeting a first mission for the second half of 2019.

Boundless Rebrands GIS Software

Boundless announced the rebranding of its flagship GIS software from Boundless Suite to Boundless Server. The new enterprise package will feature enhanced styling and increased compatibility with Esri’s ArcGIS. The software’s flexible architecture allows users to manage and publish location data with ease.

Luciad Launches Data Management Software Updates

Luciad announced the new V2017.1 version of its software suite, particularly the LuciadFusion data management platform. Luciad refers to the suite as a one-minute data manager—it can complete setups, publishing, visuals, discovery, and analytics in 60 seconds each.

Pitney Bowes Launches Collaborative Online GIS Community

Pitney Bowes launched its Li360 Community, a global online population of GIS professionals, clients, and customers collaborating on business tools and capabilities. The community serves as a way to promote innovation from geospatial industry as companies realize the benefits of location intelligence and begin using it to drive sales.

ODNI Re-launches Intelligence.gov

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced the re-launch of Intelligence.gov, a central website for the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). The move is rooted in a community-wide effort to standardize transparency about the IC’s activities. Users can parse through public data, documents, and products, and can link to other resources such as the websites of specific intelligence agencies.

Photo Credit: USGS

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