Frederick, Maryland, United States
EarthData International, Inc., part of the Fugro Group since 10 April 2007, has been awarded a $5.9 million contract to complete aerial mapping over parts of South America for the United State's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). As with previous NGA contracts in the region, EarthData will use its GeoSAR radar mapping system to produce high-resolution image and terrain maps in support of land and information management activities.
"GeoSAR is perfectly suited for mapping equatorial regions like these," stated EarthData President Anne Hale Miglarese. Mounted on a jet aircraft and capturing X- and P-band radar data simultaneously, GeoSAR penetrates the characteristic dense vegetation and near-constant cloud cover that renders conventional aerial mapping techniques cost-prohibitive or impossible. "Working in partnership with NGA on similar projects over the past 4 years, we have updated 30-year-old maps and delivered original data where none had previously existed due to these difficult conditions," Miglarese explained.
Data acquisition for the 70,755-square-kilometer project will commence this month. In addition to EarthData's earlier work South America, the company has performed GeoSAR mapping projects in Papua New Guinea and other Asia Pacific areas. GeoSAR is owned and operated exclusively by EarthData and is the latest innovation in the company's long history of developing, adapting, and commercializing emerging geospatial technologies.
About EarthData International: EarthData (www.earthdata.com) provides a full range of mapping and GIS services to support customers' needs in a wide variety of natural resource management, urban planning, economic development, national defense, and engineering activities.
About GeoSAR Radar Mapping: GeoSAR is the world's only airborne radar mapping system that collects dual-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) data in a single pass, day or night, and in almost any weather condition. EarthData GeoSAR customers receive a suite of five standard products--a top-surface image and elevation model, a corresponding image and terrain model beneath the trees, and a series of laser profiles for every flight line.
Source: Business Wire (Business Wire India)