got geoint?

Welcome to the “Tuesday Morning News Kick Off” on got geoint? We hope everyone had a restful long holiday weekend. Since many of us spent our downtime relaxing with family and friends, the transition back into our professional lives may be a bit challenging (always is after a long weekend!). But fret not. We have pulled together all the actionable news you need to kick off this short week in professional style. Well, we did find one story that is not necessarily “actionable” but certainly – somewhat – entertaining: Google Earth picked up an image of Jesus’s face. According to the National Post, this is much cooler than seeing Jesus’s face in a piece of burnt toast. Read on and enjoy!

Jesus’s Face Seen in Google Earth Satellite Image
The face of Jesus Christ has been picked up by Google Earth’s satellite in an area of farmland in Puspokladany, Hungary. The image was caught by a 26-year-old British man who was using Google Earth to scout out holiday vacations, the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reports. “I’m not a religious person looking for images of Mary or Jesus in everything, but this is obvious.” This is much cooler than seeing Christ’s face in some burnt toast or a messy frying pan. Check out the full National Post article here.

ESRI to Offer Free Location Data App
ESRI, the Redlands, Calif.-based GIS firm, has developed an iPhone application that provides users with detailed demographic data for any given location. The app, called BAO (Business Analyst Online), will be available for free at the Apple App Store in coming days. Originally BAO was built with commercial realtors in mind. But ESRI sources said they realized the app would be useful for government agencies’ economic development initiatives, thanks to the wealth of demographic data the app can access. The company claims this data — which was researched in-house by ESRI demographers, statisticians and economists — sets BAO apart from other “here’s the stuff around you” type of applications. Read the full Government Technology article here.

Thank Our Intelligence Community
In a maneuver that would make John le Carré or Ian Fleming proud, a Russian spy arrested in Boston apparently stole the identity of a Canadian infant who died in 1962. Authorities found the birth certificate of the deceased Canadian — Donald Howard Graham Heathfield — in a Cambridge safe deposit box used by a deep-cover Russian agent living in our back yard as “Donald Heathfield.” Heathfield and his “wife” — “Tracey Lee Ann Foley” — were two of 10 people arrested on charges of being undeclared “agents” of a foreign power, and money laundering. These 10 were arrested in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Virginia, with an 11th man connected to the conspiracy being captured at an airport in Cyprus this week. Read the full Cape Cod Times article here.

BAE Systems Announces Two Software Updates
SOCET SET v5.5.0 supports new Earth Gravitational Model 2008
The Earth Gravitational Model 2008 (EGM2008), developed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), has been released. The model provides worldwide coverage of gravity data at 5′x5′ mean resolution with geoid accuracy of 15cm. EGM2008 is constructed from a combination of GRACE satellite data, topographic data, altimetry on sea, and gravity observations on land areas. EGM2008 is developed up to degree/order 2160 with some additional terms up to degree/order 2190. Read the full American Surveyor post here.

SPADAC Adds Vector and Google Earth Support to Its EarthWhere Product Line
SPADAC Inc., a leading provider of geospatial technology services and solutions, has released their highly anticipated EarthWhere product update with EarthWhere 4.4. EarthWhere, a web-based spatial data management system has dramatically expanded its support for common GIS formats, Vector map data, and introduced a new scalable distributed architecture for rapidly cataloging, provisioning, and disseminating geospatial data. Cataloged data can now be exported directly into Google Earth or exported to a GeoPDF map file. Peter Borissow, Vice President of SPADAC’s product group noted, “EarthWhere 4.4 is a milestone release for our customers, delivering remarkable productivity, performance, and value. Increasing performance by multi-threaded ingestion to flexibility with vector file and database support, EarthWhere addresses our customer’s requirements.” Read the full press release here.

Happy Monday!

Tags: BAE, BAE Socet GXP, BAE Systems, GEOINT, Google Earth and Jesus, got geoint?, Jesus, Jesus Face and Google Earth, Russian Spies, Russian Spy Ring, USGIG