In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

On behalf of the organisers, I am delighted to kindly invite you to participate to two consecutive GNSS events that will take place in Croatia in April 2013. 

The 7th Annual GNSS Vulnerabilities and Solutions Conference will be held in Baska, Krk Island, Croatia, 18 - 20 April, 2013. A traditional and unique GNSS event in the world is organised by The Royal Institute of Navigation (London, UK) and Faculty of Maritime Studies (University of Rijeka, Croatia), addressing the most important issues of risk assessment and mitigation methods for various GNSS vulnerabilities, including the effects of space weather and the ionosphere, and their effects on performance and operation of GNSS systems and GNSS applications. Traditionally, the conference starts with the plenary session where the top officials of existing (GPS, GLONASS) and forthcoming (Galileo, Bediou) satellite navigation systems present the recent developments. Presented papers will be peer-reviewed and published in the paper conference proceedings, referenced in respectable scientific databases. More details on this conference can be found in the attached Call for Papers, including the topics, and accommodation, travelling and registration details. A modest conference fee applies. You are kindly advised to register your participation with Ms Sally-Anne Cooke, Conference Manager with The Royal Institute of Navigation, London, UK (e-mail: [email protected]).

The UN/Croatia Workshop on GNSS Applications will be held in continuation of the 7th Annual GNSS Vulnerabilities and Solutions Conference in Baska, Krk Island, Croatia, 21 - 25 April, 2013. Co-sponsored by the Government of the USA, this annual workshop assembles GNSS operators, scientists, professionals, regulators and users, with the aim to facilitate co-operation, knowledge transfer and ideas exchange. The workshop programme comprises: a one-day GNSS tutorial series, presentations of national GNSS-related developments, co-operation activities in three Working Groups (on GNSS Applications and Space Weather, GNSS Reference Networks and Services, and GNSS Education). This workshop is free to attend, and no conference fee applies. More information about this event (including the general information, application form, registration form, and programme-at-a-glance) can be found at the web-site of the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), VIenna, Austria at:http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/en/SAP/act2013/croatia-gnss/index.html.   

A dedicated Exhibition area will be organised for the course of both events. Interesting parties are offered a number of stands at no additional costs (apart from the regular conference fee for the 7th Annual GNSS Vulnerabilities and Solutions Conference).

Both events will be held in Baska, Krk Island, Croatia, a well-known holiday resort on the northern-most island on the Croatian Adriatic coast (a photo gallery of a venue can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/satnavigator), with the lovely 2 km-long sandy beach, a well-preserved cultural heritage of the Old Town and a magnificent 4 km-long promenade along the sea. A pleasant Mediterranean atmosphere, rich programme of social events and participation of the most prominent GNSS personalities in the world will facilitate co-operation, knowledge and ideas exchange in a very relaxed atmosphere.   

Baska offers a range of accommodation options in 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels. Participants to the forthcoming GNSS events are offered specially tailored discounted all-inclusive accommodation arrangements by Hoteli Baska. You are kindly advised to consult the enclosed conference materials, or to contact directly Ms Valentina Topic of Hoteli Baska (e-mail: [email protected]) for all your enquires and accommodation package booking. Do note that offer is exclusive, and only the direct booking with Hoteli Baska will allow you to attend the conference/workshop sessions and social events.

The first registrations, abstract submissions and accommodation bookings have already arrived to Baska. I kindly invite you to consider your participation as either a speaker/paper presenter, an exhibitor, or an attendee. 

I am staying at your disposal for every additional information or clarification you may need in regard to the forthcoming GNSS events in Baska. Additionally, I will very appreciate your kind assistance in informing the colleagues about the forthcoming GNSS events.

Looking forward for your registration, submission and the privilege of welcoming you to Baska.

With my best regards,

Dr Renato Filjar, FRIN
 

Satellite navigation and space weather specialist and analyst

Associate Professor of Electronics Engineering

Member of Council, The Royal Institute of Navigation, London, UK

Dravska 44a

48361 Kalinovac

Croatia

Tel. +385 91 33 44 662

E-mail: [email protected]

I learned on Slashdot from this story named Galileo: Europe's Version of GPS Reaches Key Phase.

Their summary: "The third and fourth spacecraft in Europe's satellite navigation system have gone into orbit. The pair were launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana. It is an important milestone for the multi-billion-euro project to create a European version of the U.S. Global Positioning System. With four satellites now in orbit — the first and second spacecraft were launched in 2011 — it becomes possible to test Galileo end-to-end. That is because a minimum of four satellites are required in the sky for a smartphone or vehicle to use their signals to calculate a positional fix."

An addition from the ESA: “By late 2014, 18 satellites are scheduled to have been launched, by which time early services to Europeans can begin."

Of course, we regularly mentioned Galileo since 2005.

The Royal Institute of Navigation, London, UK, the Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy, University of Nottingham, UK, and the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka, Croatia have a pleasure in welcoming you to the 5th GNSS Vulnerabilities and Solutions 2011 Conference to be held 23 - 25 May, 2011 in Baška, Krk Island, Croatia.

This traditional and unique world-wide event aims to gather GNSS experts and focuses on GNSS problems and vulnerabilities, as well as to developments aiming to improve the accuracy and reliability of GNSS. The unique environment of Baška and its natural resources and rich history, combined with friendly hospitality will again create an inspiring atmosphere for ideas and knowledge exchange, well known to those who attended the last year's conference. A photo-gallery of Baška, a well known tourist resort with the range of 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels, is available at: http://bit.ly/9ij0p4.

Conference activities will be organised in the following sections:

• Core satellite navigation systems (plenary),
• Space Weather and Ionospheric Effects on GNSS,
• Safety- and Mission-Critical Applications for Air, Marine, Land and Personal Navigation, and Search and Rescue Operations,
• Location-Based Services (LBS),
• Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), and
• Regulatory and legal aspects of GNSS utilisation.

Interested parties are kindly invited to submit the extended abstracts (300 - 500 words) of the proposed papers to Sally-Anne Cooke, the RIN conference and events manager (e-mail: [email protected]) no later than 25th March, 2011. Submitted papers will be considered by the International reviewing committee, with the acceptance report to be distributed before 15 April, 2011.

You are kindly invited to join the leading GNSS experts and discuss the most important issues related to further exploitations of satellite navigation systems in the wonderful Mediterranean environment of Northern Adriatic. In addition, the organising committee kindly appreciate your efforts in informing your colleagues about the event.

Finally, you are invited to contact either RIN (e-mail: [email protected]), or Dr Renato Filjar, FRIN (e-mail: [email protected]) for any further information or assistance you may need in regard to your participation to the 5th GNSS Vulnerabilities and Solutions Conference in Baška. The latest developments in regard to the fothcoming conference can be followed at: http://twitter.com/satnavigator, and at the RIN web-site: http://bit.ly/9tuseX.

The conference organisers are looking forward for a privilege to welcome you to Baška.

With my best regards,

Dr Renato Filjar, FRIN MIET
The Royal Institute of Navigation
Tel. +385 91 33 44 662
E-mail: [email protected]

 Here's Friday geonews in batch mode. Exceptionally, the last two weeks are covered.

From the Google front:

• Google now offers 'Follow Your World', an alert system to let you know when new imagery is available for your area of interest
• The official entry on this week's imagery update
• Google discontinues the real estate feature in Google Maps
• The California Bay Area is now in 3D and the GEB discusses the nice 3D models of Belgrade

From the open source / open data front:

• MapQuest is providing an update on their increasing use of OpenStreetMap data, 8 new countries is now using OSM data, MapQuest also continues to financially support OpenStreetMap. There's even a new MapQuest Directions API based on OSM.
• It seems SPRING GIS is now open source software (GPL) [post in Spanish]
• Fortius One announced their new tool called Acetate, "a brand-new custom styled map that is designed for visualizing data and reintroduces the idea of a multi-layered basemap". Here's their technical introduction to Acetate, and the software they've used is open source.
• The city of Paris now offers open data and Finland's Land Survey opened its data too
• Ushahidi will be using the open source GeoDict free form geocoder. GeoDict is described as "a simple Python library/tool for pulling location information from unstructured text"

From the ESRI front:

• The Geodatabase Toolset for ArcCatalog 10 is now available

From the Microsoft front:

• Microsoft released a new Bing Maps Drupal module

In the miscellaneous category:

• Here's an entry named playing with the HTML5 Geolocation API
• O'Reilly offers an article named Social data and geospatial mapping join the crisis response toolset, another one on Urban Mapping's Mapfluence and two articles on health and location: New geolocation app connects citizen first responders to heart attack victims and Healthier living through mobile location data
• Via TMR, MacWorld offers an article named Apps with Maps: 11 iPhone GPS apps compared
• The FGT blog mentions iCMTGIS, a free field GIS data acquisition tool for the iPad
• ESA's budget rises to $4 billion, with 14 nations boosting contributions. And the GALILEO program is on track. And guess what, a Wikileaks cable forced a GALILEO head to step down.
• TMR also mentions U.S. Defense Department testing may affect GPS signals in Southeastern U.S. until Feruary 22nd
• TMR also note that the book "Map Projections: A Working Manual" published in 1987 by John P. Snyder is now available online.
• NAVTEQ is still selling more and more data

In the maps category:

• Here's a discussion on a map of worldwide suicide statistics, let's hope you don't live in Mari El
• Here's a map of scientific collaboration

A busy week for these geonews in batch mode.

On the Google front:

• Google Latitude is now available for our desktop computers, a reminder; Latitude is Google's tool to share your location with friends and see where there are in real-time on map. And yes, you can get alerts when friends are neaby.
• If you use Google's Panoramio, integrated into Google Maps and Earth, you now have access to new sets of statistics for your photos.
• The GEB answers the question How often does Google update the imagery in Google Earth? And of course, there was another imagery update this week.
• The GEB offers an entry named 8 things to do with Historical Imagery in Google Earth

On the FOSS4G / opendata front:

• Here's an entry on running PostGIS in parallel threads
• Here's a link on a "GDAL Web driver", GDAL filesystem implemented on HTTP
• OpenStreetMap's founder Steve Coast left CloudMade
• SpotMaps images are now available in OpenStreetMap [French link]

On the Microsoft front:

• Here's an entry about new options regarding Enabling the New Style in the Bing Maps AJAX Control.
• Here's an entry on Bing Maps and the use of U.S. 311 issues, specifically for Miami and San Francisco.

On the ESRI front:

• James Fee informs us Esri Added Parcels to Their World Streets Map Service.
• There's a new software called GeoCat Bridge for ArcGIS, to publish using OGC services data from ArcGIS Desktop to the open source GeoServer and GeoNetwork.
• Here's an entry about Trimble Support For ArcGIS 10 And ArcPad 10 Now Available.

In the miscellaneous category:

• The European GNSS (GPS) system GALILEO needs more funding and more time, completion date is now projected to be 2018.
• TMR links to Gizmodo's best navigation apps for iOS and Android.
• IBM launched CityOne, their SimCity-like game to build smarter cities.
• Spatial Sustain discusses a review of online mapping tools usability and accuracy, specifically Google Maps, Bing Maps and MapQuest.
• Regarding augmented reality, APB mentions an app with which you point an airplane with your iPhone and you get info about it (flight number, destination, height and speed).

In the maps category:

• Here's an entry on The Census of Marine Life in Google Earth, "the major international oceanographic research project involving researchers in over 80 countries, who tagged more than 120,000 types of species & millions of organisms over the past decade".
• Here's a Map of all the munitions dumped in Europe after WWI and WWII.
• The Australian Atlas of Mineral Resources has been updated