Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/78956
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. Esri Released New Version of ArcGIS Software Esri recently released a major update to its widely used ArcGIS application. ArcGIS 10.1 debuted in early June 2012, with Esri touting the new release as an application that would appeal to the masses—including users with no GIS expertise. Improvements in the new version include the ability to edit any aspect or component of a map, including feature- level metadata; the ability to use new spatial-analysis tools (e.g., spatial autocorrelation) to predict outcomes and better explain geographic information; methods for finding new tools to simplify working with large collections of imagery and raster data; and viewing functionality for LIDAR Log ASCII Standard files as point clouds, surfaces and rasters. Core product features should allow users to create maps, models and analyses as well as deliver resources such as imagery, geodata and tools as a Web service. Meanwhile, ArcGIS Online offers organizations a cloud- based, collaborative content-management system for shar- ing geographic information internally and externally. With ArcGIS 10.1, users can deliver any GIS resource as a Web service. Geo Tool Plays Role in UFO Series An eight-part National Geographic Channel series that aired in summer 2012 applied modern imaging and surveying techniques to help address questions about unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The series, "Chasing UFOs," used tools and tech- niques from Topcon Positioning Systems Inc. to gather site data for analytic research in three episodes. Included in the work was use of Topcon's IS-3 imaging station for pinpoint scanning and mapping of a site in Roswell, N.M., famous for a purported UFO crash in the 1940s. "[W]e were able to rely on the IS-3 to help us quickly establish onsite reference grids for sci- entific data and sample collection, survey key topographic features and digitally preserve the site using 360-degree panoramic imaging—all from a single tripod," said show cast member Ben McGee, a geologist and explorer. In addition, the company's high-precision GPS/ Global Navigation Satellite System receiver technol- ogy was used during the reconstruction of greens at the Olympic Club Lake Course in San Francisco, home to the 2012 Men's U.S. Open golf tournament. Photo Science Acquiring GeoEye Subsidiary Lexington, Ky.-based Photo Science is acquiring the assets of MJ Harden Inc. from imagery and geospatial information provider GeoEye. MJ Harden operated as a GeoEye business unit, providing photo- grammetry, mapping and GIS services to local, state and federal government clients as well as utility and private-sector customers. The companies have not disclosed terms of the deal. "This agreement directly supports Photo Science's ongoing growth strategy centered on services diver- sification and geographic expansion," said Mike Ritchie, Photo Science president and CEO. "Along with the location of our Colorado Springs and San Francisco Bay area facilities, Photo Science is now ideally positioned to serve our national client base." The acquisition will expand the company's flight operations to 13 aircraft and bring its number of LIDAR sensors to eight, including four Optech Geminis, two Leica ALS-70s and two Leica ALS-50II models. Photo Science also now operates six large- format digital-framing cameras (including Z/I DMC and Vexcel UltraCam sensors). AUGUST 2O12 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . COM 7