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GeoWorld June 2012

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Time-sensitive GeoWorld departments such as NetLink, PeopleLink, Product News and Business News now are maintained solely at the GeoPlace.com Web site. Check there often for the latest updates as they happen. Brazilians Target Illegal Logging with Near-Real-Time Imagery DMC International Imaging Ltd. (DMCii), a provider of remote-sensing solutions, received a contract from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) for near-real-time satellite imagery that will be used to moni- tor forest clearing in the Amazon rainforest. The move should help Brazilian officials discover illegal logging as it happens. "With the recent failure of [the U.S. Geological Survey's] Landsat 5 [satellite], it became urgent to increase the supply of satellite imagery to operate our forest-monitoring system, and DMC data provides a very cost-effective tool," said Gilberto Camara, director general of INPE. The agency's DETER service uses sat- ellite images to detect forest clearance as it happens, rather than surveying damage afterward. DMCii's contract, worth an estimated $3.4 million, lets INPE downlink 22-meter-resolution data directly from the UK-DMC2 satellite to the institute's ground station at Cuiaba, Brazil. "I am particularly pleased that DMCii has agreed to an open license so that INPE can make the data freely available through its Web site—an innovation which has enhanced public monitoring of forest management in Brazil," added Camara. An image from DMCii's UK-DMC2 satellite shows a portion of Rondonia in western Brazil. A Brazilian research agency is leveraging similar imagery to more rapidly pinpoint illegal logging. Digital Archive Offers Map and App for Titanic Remains CyArk, a nonprofit organization focused on digitally preserving cultural heritage, launched a project that involves data collected from the site of the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic. The organization's Titanic Database Project results from a donation by James Cameron, the director of the 1997 film "Titanic," who continued to research and explore the sinking long after the movie's release. Cameron donated dive footage and volunteer hours for the CyArk project, which also includes historic photos and 3-D renderings. The remains of the ship, which foundered after colliding with an iceberg in 1912, were discovered by Robert Ballard in 1985. In subsequent years, Cameron assembled a crew of experts to help document the remains, in preparation for his 1997 film. Cameron also conducted two docu- mentary efforts in 2001 and 2005. A CyArk sup- porter, Michael Arbuthnot, an archaeologist who worked with Cameron on the projects, approached him about contributing footage to CyArk's digital archive. The public can view Titanic-related videos and other multimedia information through the project's multimedia gallery (archive.cyark.org/titanic-intro) or through CyArk's GIS interface, where each item is geo-relative to the ship and its decks. The organization also released a Titanic Database App, available through the Apple iTunes store. All proceeds from the app will benefit future efforts on the Titanic Database project. JUNE 2O12 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . COM 7 DMCII

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