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Even in the face of Tehran and U.N. inspectors trading accusations about access to nuclear sites and experts, Iran recently did some PR duty by opening a key space facility to visiting journalists for the first time. This week, the country hosted a press tour of the Alborz Space Center, about 40 miles west of Tehran, which showcased Iran’s advances in aerospace sciences.

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With GPS and other location-based apps available on smart phones these days, one would assume that the demand for paper road maps from AAA has gone down tremendously. Well, this not necessarily the case. According to the Travel Manager for AAA in travel manager in Pottsville, PA, many GPS people are using paper maps as a back up. For example, if they are stuck in traffic, then they can rely on paper maps to easily look for an alternative route. With this AAA branch giving out about 20,000 paper maps free to members in a year, which are all updated annually, it begs the larger question: do we still need paper-based GEOINT?

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope you all had a restful weekend and are ready to charge back into the work week. Once again, we have provided all of the actionable GEOINT news you need to kick off the work week — even if you are a bit tired from staying up late watching the Oscars last night. So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on. Happy Monday!

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Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post from got geoint? Fifty years ago this week, astronaut John Glenn circled the Earth three times in five hours and immediately became a national hero. It was quite an amazing feat that captured global attention and further propelled our nation as being Space innovators. We are going to highlight this and other major Space breakthroughs that have brought us to where we are today in this week’s FFFT post. Happy Friday all!

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According to researchers, knowing the height of Earth’s forests is critical to estimating their biomass, or the amount of carbon they contain, which will ultimately help scientists understand the role that forests play in global warming. Along these same lines, scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Maryland, College and Woods Hole Research Center created a map using LiDAR that depicts the highest points in the forest canopy to help in our understanding of forests and climate change.

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The global fishing industry is often known for underreporting the number of fish and other organisms that it culls from the oceans each year. According to a recent study, 16 Mediterranean countries collectively reported that 199,542 tons of fish were harvested, when the reality was that 225,736 tons of fish were pulled from the region. How did this study come about? Through the use of Google Earth, researchers were able to scoured the entire Mediterranean coast at least three times and counted more than 20,000 fish cages throughout the region. By using the imagery, as well as calculating optimal cage volumes, densities, and harvesting rates, researchers could tell that something fishy was going on.

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Fifty years ago, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. He also was one of the first humans to study the planet from space, capturing some stunning images and sharing some very eloquent words. On February 20, 1962, Glenn reached near orbit and had this to report: “This is Friendship 7. Can see clear back; a big cloud pattern way back across towards the Cape. Beautiful sight.” NASA celebrated this anniversary by posting one of the photos that Glenn took, as well as excerpts from his report from this mission — which we have been kind enough to share as well.

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? As always, we hope everyone had a restful weekend. Although it is the President’s Weekend holiday, the trains don’t stop a running in the GEOINT world. As such, we have compiled all the actionable news you need to kick start the work week. So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on. Happy Monday.

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Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post from got geoint? This week, we covered the news about the FAA developing a GPS-based system for more efficient and accurate air traffic control. As we highlighted, this will certainly create opportunities for the GEOINT community. But, this news made us think. The purpose of this new system is to safely guide us to our destinations, which is most often home. So, this week’s FFFT post is all about tools that help us get home. Speaking of home, the GEOINT Community Week is like a mid-year homecoming for us. And, it’s back on this year! We hope to see you all then, and in the meantime happy Friday and safe travels home!

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USGIF member company Intergraph Corporation recently announced the availability of Live Link, which connects GeoMedia and ERDAS IMAGINE. For the first time, users can leverage GeoMedia’s rich set of vector handling tools and ERDAS IMAGINE’s raster capabilities to support synchronized data sharing, viewing, editing, updating, and analysis. Today, we are speaking with Mladen Stojic, Vice President, Geospatial at Intergraph SG&I about this announcement and as the upcoming launch of Intergraph’s Smart Client.

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