ISDE Blog

Impact Factor for International Journal of Digital Earth breaks 2.0

Published September 5, 2014 Digital Earth Systems , Publications Leave a Comment

IJDE Impact Factor gets increase to 2.056

The Impact Factor of the International Journal of Digital Earth (IJDE) has been increased for 2013.

According to the annual Journal Citation Report by Thomson Reuters on 30 July, the new IJDE Impact Factor (IF) for 2013 had broken 2.0, climbing to 2.056 (2-Year IF) and 2.242 (5-Year IF). Its rank rose to 10th and 8th accordingly in the list of 27 SCI-indexed international journals in the Remote Sensing category.

Inaugurated in March 2008, IJDE was accepted for coverage in SCI-Expanded within 18 months of its launching. Currently IJDE has been indexed and abstracted in 12 databases, and entered the Q2 area in the Remote Sensing Category based on its Impact Factor.

The growing prestige of IJDE is attributed to the high-quality and high-level of published papers and the accompanying high citations. The journal’s increasing growth is also the result of the rapid development of Digital Earth science and technology, the joint efforts of researchers, and the strong support from ISDE and the host institute RADI.

As a unique journal on Digital Earth, IJDE focuses on the theories, technologies, applications, and societal implications of Digital Earth and those visionary concepts that will enable a modeled virtual world. We expect more high-quality papers related to digital earth published on IJDE and look forward to your continuous contribution and support in the future.

Source/Acknowledgements: (International Journal of Digital Earth-IJDE Editorial Office, International Society for Digital Earth)

http://digitalearth-isde.org/news/709

Free Access Articles – International Journal of Digital Earth, Editors’ Choice Collection

Published September 5, 2014 Digital Earth Systems , Publications Leave a Comment

The International Journal of Digital Earth focuses on the theories, technologies, applications, and societal implications of Digital Earth and those visionary concepts that will enable a modeled virtual world.

You can visit the link http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/est/tjde-editors-choice and have FREE access to a collection of recent articles selected by the Editors, to reflect on the journal’s scope, scholarly engagement and intellectual contribution.

Your Free Access Articles

Advancing Digital Earth: beyond the next generation, Manfred Ehlers, Peter Woodgate, Alessandro Annoni and Sven Schade

Remote sensing-based global crop monitoring: experiences with China’s CropWatch system, Bingfang Wu, Jihua Meng, Qiangzi Li, Nana Yan, Xin Du and Miao Zhang

Methods to extract impervious surface areas from satellite images, Dengsheng Lu, Guiying Li, Wenhui Kuang and Emilio Moran

Has OpenStreetMap a role in Digital Earth applications? , Peter Mooney and Padraig Corcoran

A RESTful proxy and data model for linked sensor data, Krzysztof Janowicz, Arne Br?ring, Christoph Stasch, Sven Schade, Thomas Everding and Alejandro Llaves

Redefining the possibility of digital Earth and geosciences ith spatial cloud computing, Chaowei Yang, Yan Xu and Douglas Nebert

Enabling Digital Earth simulation models using cloud computing or grid computing – Two approaches supporting high-performance GIS simulation frameworks, Ick-Hoi Kim and Ming-Hsiang Tsou

Integration of hydrological observations into a Spatial Data Infrastructure under a Sensor Web environment, Zhong Zheng, Nengcheng Chen, Pengfei Li and Wei Wang

FROM-GC: 30 m global cropland extent derived through multisource data integration, Le Yu, Jie Wang, Nicholas Clinton, Qinchuan Xin, Liheng Zhong, Yanlei Chen and Peng Gong

Estimating global land surface broadband thermal-infrared emissivity using advanced very high resolution radiometer optical data, Jie Cheng and Shunlin Liang

Sources: http://explore.tandfonline.com/content/est/tjde-editors-choice

http://digitalearth-isde.org/news/705

Writing a Scientific Journal Paper: Preparation through Publication

Published September 5, 2014 Publications Leave a Comment

Preparing a well structured manuscript before sending for publication is essential. The whole structure of a scientific paper provides the reviewers and the readers upon publication a clear view of the aims and the methodology implemented and even leads to a positive outcome of the paper being published.

Even though each journal has its own structure and guidelines at how preparing a manuscript and mostly in terms of technical and format issues, however, a very useful short content guide of how to prepare a scientific journal paper written by Russell G. Congalton, John R. Jensen and Jie Shan, is available to download at: https://engineering.purdue.edu/~jshan/publications/2011/PublishingPaperPERS2011.pdf.

Source:

https://engineering.purdue.edu/~jshan/publications/2011/PublishingPaperPERS2011.pdf

3rd ESA Advanced Course on Radar Polarimetry, Frascati – Italy 19 – 23 January 2015

Published September 5, 2014 Lifelong Education , Remote Sensing Leave a Comment

Applications deadline: 30 September 2014

The flyer is available here

Background

As part of the Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions (SEOM) programme element, the European Space Agency (ESA) is organising the 3rd Advanced Course on Radar Polarimetry devoted to train the next generation of Earth Observation (EO) scientists to exploit dual and fully polarimetric data for science and applications development.

Post graduate, PhD students, post-doctoral research scientists and users from European countries and Canada interested in Radar Polarimetry and its applications are invited to apply to the 5 day course on the subject, which will be held in ESA ESRIN, Frascati, Italy on 19-23 January 2015.

Research scientists and students from all other countries are also welcome to apply and participate to the course subject to space availability.

No participation fees will be charged for the training but participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses (financial support is not available).

The official language of the training course is English.

Objectives

The main objectives of the course are to:

Train the next generation of European and Canadian Principal Investigators (PIs);
Explain theoretical principles, processing algorithms, data products and their use in applications;
Introduce available tools and methods for the exploitation of dual polarization and fully polarimetric data;
Provide first-hand and up-to-date information on the state of the art in Radar Polarimetry and Polarimetric SAR Interferometry.

Source: http://seom.esa.int/polarimetrycourse2015

First images from SPOT 7 satellite within three days after launch

Published September 5, 2014 Earth Sciences , Remote Sensing Leave a Comment

First images from SPOT 7 satellite within three days after launch

SPOT 6/SPOT 7 constellation in place now, designed for unparalleled high-resolution national coverage

Airbus Defence and Space has published the first images obtained from the SPOT 7 satellite, a mere three days after its launch on 30 June. Over the last few hours, the entire chain – from satellite programming and image acquisition to telemetry reception and processing – was successfully put into operation to deliver these first spectacular images.

These images show highly diverse landscapes, revealing SPOT 7’s full potential in terms of natural resource and urban zone mapping and agri-environmental monitoring.

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – Fiji

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – La Reunion

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – Sydney, Australia

The SPOT 6/7 constellation is now in place and considerably improves the capabilities and performance offered by SPOT 5, which has been in operation since 2002 and which is scheduled to be decommissioned from commercial service during the first quarter of 2015. This new constellation offers a higher resolution, greater programming reactivity and a much higher volume of images acquired daily (in monoscopic or stereoscopic mode).

SPOT 6 and SPOT 7 mark the dawning of a new era for the SPOT family in forming a constellation of high-resolution Earth observation satellites phased at 180° in the same orbit. This means that each point on the globe can be revisited on a daily basis and wide areas covered in record time, all with an unparalleled level of precision. With both satellites in orbit, acquisition capacity will be boosted to six million square kilometres per day – an area ten times the size of France.

With the very-high-resolution twin satellites Pléiades 1A and 1B, SPOT 6 and now SPOT 7, Airbus Defence and Space’s optical satellite constellation will offer the company’s customers a high level of detail across wide areas, a highly reactive image programming service and unique surveillance and monitoring capabilities.

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – Baku, Azerbaijan

SPOT 7 Satellite Image – Mecca, Saudi Arabia

The first SPOT 7 images can be downloaded via FTP

ftp.astrium-geo.com/SPOT7

Source:http://www.astrium-geo.com/en/5928-first-images-from-spot-7-satellite-within-three-days-after-launch

GeoGuessr – Let’s explore the world!

Published September 5, 2014 Digital Earth Systems , Geography Leave a Comment

GeoGuessr is a geography game which takes you on a journey around the world and challenges your ability to recognize your surroundings.

Embark on a journey that takes you all over the world.
From the most desolate roads in Australia to the busy, bustling streets of New York City.

Source: https://www.geoguessr.com

Earth & Environmental Studies Jobs, USA

Published September 5, 2014 Vacancies Leave a Comment

Via the following link you can find a wealth of job vacancies, fellowships, PhD’s, post doc’s for the USA territory.

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~chopping/jobs

Source: http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~chopping/jobs

From Imagery to Map: Digital Photogrammetric Technologies, 14th International Scientific and Technical Conference

Published September 5, 2014 Conferences , Photogrammetry Leave a Comment

The 14th International Scientific and Technical Conference will be held on October 20-23, 2014 in Hainan, China.

About the conference

The role of remote sensing and photogrammetric technologies is constantly increasing. Therefore, each new conference that is devoted to this topic truly becomes a marquee event.

Every year our conference brings together the best specialists of the field from dozens of countries and provides them excellent opportunities for professional communication and discussion. Permanent participants of the Conference are such leading companies in the remote sensing field as DigitalGlobe (USA), Airbus Defence and Space (EU), enterprises of the Federal Space Agency (Russia), SCANEX R&D Center (Russia), Hexagon (Sweden), Microsoft/Vexcel (Austria), and VisionMap (Israel). The use of satellite and aerial surveys is presented by industry leaders such as FSUE Roslesinforg (Russia), JSC Roscartography (Russia), Gazprom VNIIGAZ (Russia), KazGeoCosmos (Kazakhstan), Eurosense (Belgium), Leibniz University Hannover (Germany), MapWorldTechnologies (India), and many others.

One of the features of the Conference is its annual change in location. This not only allows for a variety of Conference work, but it also opens up new opportunities. This year we chose China as the venue, taking into account the increased influence of Chinese on the remote sensing and geoinformation market.

Currently the Chinese market is one of the most challenging consumers and suppliers of geospatial data. Due to China’s huge area, rapid economic growth, and advances in space technology, the world’s leading companies aspire to work with this nation. Our decision to hold the next Conference in China is further proof of the great importance of the Chinese market to methods of remote sensing development and photogrammetry technologies.

How will participation in the conference benefit you? First of all this is a unique opportunity to share your own experience and get acquainted with the achievements of colleagues, as well as take in large amounts of interesting and very useful information. You should consider that our Conference is covered broadly by leading Russian and foreign industry mass media. It also allows participants and sponsors to network with each other and create new contacts.

Based on the experience of previous conferences, there is no doubt that this will be a very interesting, vivid, and memorable event. We hope you will take part in the upcoming conference.

For those who are interested to attend this conference, kindly visit the link below for more information:

http://conf.racurs.ru/conf2014/eng/

Source: http://conf.racurs.ru/conf2014/eng/

Geospatial Analysis – A comprehensive guide – A free web-based GIS resource

Published September 5, 2014 Geospatial Data , GIS , Publications Leave a Comment

A free web-based GIS resource – Dr Michael de Smith and Prof Paul Longley, University College London, and Prof Mike Goodchild, UC Santa Barbara

Geospatial Analysis book online – web version

Geospatial Analysis book online – PDF version

The full text of “Geospatial Analysis – A comprehensive guide” is provided on this website. It covers the full spectrum of analytical techniques that are provided within modern Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related software products.Click here for a PDF extract (first 60 pages, links not enabled).Topics covered in detail include:

Geospatial analysis concepts
Analytical methodologies and model building
Core components of geospatial analysis, including distance and directional analysis, geometrical processing, map algebra, and grid models
Exploratory Spatial and Spatio-temporal Data Analysis (ESDA, ESTDA) and spatial statistics, including spatial autocorrelation and spatial regression
Surface analysis, including surface form and flow analysis, gridding and interpolation methods, and visibility analysis
Network and locational analysis, including shortest path calculation, travelling salesman problems, facility location and arc routing
Geocomputational methods, including agent-based modelling, artifical neural networks and evolutionary computing

“Written in an engaging and accessible manner, this book does a marvelous job of balancing its coverage on principles, techniques, and software tools for spatial analysis. … It is truly a tour de force of geospatial analysis and is likely to become a classic …I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about the latest developments in geospatial analysis and modeling.” Prof D Z Sui, Review in: Annals, Association of American Geographers, April 2009.

Source: http://www.spatialanalysisonline.com

Kartograph – A simple framework to build interactive digital map applications

Published September 5, 2014 Geography Leave a Comment

Kartograph is a simple and lightweight framework for building interactive map applications without Google Maps or any other mapping service. It was created with the needs of designers and data journalists in mind.

Actually, Kartograph is two libraries. One generates beautiful & compact SVG maps; the other helps you to create interactive maps that run across all major browsers.

Kartograph.py

A powerful Python library for generating beautiful, Illustrator-friendly SVG maps.

Renders vector maps from shapefiles and PostGIS
Compact SVGs using Visvalingam simplification
Stores metadata in data attributes
Built on top of GDAL/OGR and shapely
Licensed under AGPL

Kartograph.js

A JavaScript library for creating interactive maps based on Kartograph.py SVG maps.

Easy to use: create an interactve map within minutes.
Runs 100% stand-alone. No server needed.
Gracefully degrades to Internet Explorer 7+
Built on top of Raphaël and jQuery
Licensed under LGPL

Source: http://kartograph.org