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July 17, 2001 CAST,
USGS, State
of Arkansas, PCI Geomatics,
Oracle and Sun
Microsystems team up to provide quick access to satellite data to
the public through RAPID - AmericaView FAYETTEVILLE,
Ark. - In Arkansas, farmers will check their fields for today's changes
in moisture levels and forestry workers can examine forests for pest outbreaks
with the click of a few buttons, thanks to new technology created by University
of Arkansas researchers, working with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
the Arkansas State Land Information Board, PCI Geomatics, Oracle and Sun
Microsystems. RAPID (Real-time Acquisition and Processing of Imagery Data),
provides "same day service" conversion of Earth orbiting Thematic
Mapper satellite data into easy to use, publicly available information
that can be downloaded from the World Wide Web. "The technology will
demonstrate how remotely sensed data can truly solve near real-time needs
that exist within the state of Arkansas," said Chris Doescher of
the USGS EROS Data Center in South Dakota, co-leader of the AmericaView
project. The
U of A Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) has created a program
to enhance the work of AmericaView, a USGS program designed to increase
public access to geospatial data. The RAPID program rapidly translates
raw data, taken from the Landsat 7 satellite and processed by the USGS,
into usable information. "In
this project we will be able to have georeferenced, GIS-ready processed
imagery products accessible to the public in our Oracle-based statewide
geospatial warehouse (GeoStor http://www.cast.uark.edu/cast/geostor/)
within 10 minutes of receipt from the USGS," said Fred Limp, director
of CAST. More detailed information could take up to six hours, but the
turnaround time for public access still beats the current methods, which
can take up to six weeks. "Through this project, a person will be
able to type in his or her address, draw a box around their house, and
get the data specifically for the designated area," Limp said. CAST
researchers Bruce Gorham and Bill Johnston developed the computer processing
techniques involved in RAPID. "RAPID was possible because we had
access to the latest generation software from PCI Geomatics and the computing
power provided by a massive Sun Microsystems UltraEnterprise 4500 server
with 16 GB of RAM," Gorham said. Gorham
and Johnston have used a suite of tools from PCI Geomatics to automate
an entire series of processing steps. System corrected data is FTP-ed
from the EROS data Center to the CAST servers. When software on the server
recognizes a new file it starts a processing sequence that generates a
range of products. The output is a set of GeoTIFFs that are automatically
loaded into the GeoStor database. "All the products are generated
fully automatically, except for the precision location of the ground control
points in the second step," said Gorham. The
products and delivery times are: +10
minutes: All Level 1G bands available in GeoStor for download in GeoTiff
format. +2.5
hours: All Terrain Corrected (1T) bands available for download in GeoTiff
format. +3
hours: Real-color and CIR composites at 28.5 meter resolution. +6
hours: Pan-Fused Products (multispectral bands at 14.25 meter resolution).
CAST
researchers are also working on a project that will automatically create
a set of change detection maps in GeoStor that will compare current conditions
to a detailed 1999 state-wide land-use/land-cover map that they have created.
"We are also looking forward to the availability to the new PCI Geomatics
software functionality in Geomatica that will allow us to process raw
Level 0R data from EROS which we can acquire even more quickly and cheaply,"
Gorham said. The
Arkansas State Land Information Board, created by legislative act 914
in 1997, is the state's coordinating council for geospatial information
and focuses on facilitating improved decision making, effective asset
management, and reduced costs. The board worked with CAST and its many
private sector partners to develop GeoStor, a large (1.5 TB) web-accessible
seamless geospatial warehouse containing more than 500 raster and vector
data themes for Arkansas. Through Geostor, anyone with a web browser can
determine what data is available for an area of interest and download
the data in a wide range of formats and projections. These layers include
roads, cities, interstates, creeks, streams, state parks, rest areas,
churches, railway stations, grain elevators, aerial photography and satellite
imagery - anything that might be found on a map and more, according to
Learon Dalby, GIS program manager for the Office of the State Land Information
Coordinator. "Users
can select an area in many ways including typing in an address, a township/range
or section, a place name, or by drawing interactively on a map. The system
will re-project what's there and cut out only the desired data, reformat
it and ship it to the user" said Dalby. "With
support from Federal Geographic Data Council (FGDC) we are working to
add WMS and GML server capabilities to GeoStor so that any compliant desktop
client will be able to stream data as well" said Limp. The
RAPID project will add a new dimension to GeoStor, allowing public access
to the data as rapidly as possible. Such data could be extremely useful
in the wake of natural disasters, such as flooding, fires, tornadoes or
ice storms, depending upon the location of the satellite, which moves
to different locations and may not be sending data during or immediately
after a disastrous event. "In
the long term, it could also help farmers protect their crops from drought
and disease more efficiently," said Suzanne Wiley, GIS applications
specialist for the U of A Cooperative Extension Service and chairman of
the State Land Information Board. Corporate partners have provided key technology pieces for the RAPID project. These include image processing software from PCI Geomatics, computer systems from Sun Microsystems, and data base software from Oracle Corporation. Each of these companies has designated CAST as a Center of Excellence and is working with CAST on these next-generation projects.
About the AmericaView Program
About the Arkansas State Land Information Board
About PCI Geomatics
About Oracle
About SUN Microsystems
Sun, Sun Microsystems, and Java are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries PCI Geomatics is a registered trademark and Geomatica is a trademark of PCI Geomatics. |
