In the Spotlight

We are very pleased to announce that Chris Holcroft joined our Group of columnists. His first column is scheduled for our September issue.

Four days after the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X has been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the first satellite images have been received.

3D Laser Mapping, a UK based specialists in laser measurement technology and software, has supplied a state of the art survey system to monitor volcanic activity on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

The quality of spatial data has always been an important component of mapping and spatial data handling. In Enschede, the Netherlands, it was the subject of the fifth Spatial Data Quality Conference from June 13 to 15. Hosted by the International Institute for Geo-Informatian Science and Earth Observation (ITC) and organized by ITC and the ISPRS commission II, working group 7.

Amnesty International is using satellite cameras to monitor highly vulnerable villages in war-torn Darfur, Sudan. The human rights organization is inviting ordinary people worldwide to monitor 12 vilages by visiting the Eyes on Darfur project website (www.eyesondarfur.org) and put the Sudanese Government o noice that these and other areas in the region are being watched around the clock.

The brand new congress programme for INTERGEO 2007 (Leipzig) demonstrates the high technical standards, topicality, internationality and variety of information on offer at the world's leading congress trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management. "The issues addressed by the specialist conference extend far beyond conventional surveying and cartography. The demand for location-based information is growing continuously in modern society and has now become one of the most important fields of activity in the surveying industry. A considerable number of the talks and exhibits will therefore once again focus on the latest technologies, GIS solutions, and tools and processes for GIS data capture," says Dr. Gernod Schindler, Congress Director of INTERGEO in Leipzig. Interested parties can register at www.intergeo.de from June 1. Early congress bookers will receive attractive special prices up to and including August 12.

Media giants Arts & Entertainment, owners of The History Channel, have proposed The Monte Cassino episode of The Lost Evidence series to The Academy of Television Arts & in the category of Special Visual Effects. The Monte Cassino episode is a stunning reconstruction of the desperate, costly Allied push to capture Rome from the Nazis following Mussolini’s surrender.

This IKONOS image shows the Kempinski Grand Hotel in Heiligendamm, Germany where the 33rd G-8 Summit took place (June 6-8).The image was taken from 681 km in space on June 1, 2007, as the IKONOS satellite moved from north to south over central Europe.

Under the theme “Realize Your Vision” Intergraph welcomed more than 2,500 attendees from 64 countries to Intergraph 2007. The event took place from May 21-24 at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Resort in Nashville, USA.