Remote Sensing Tracks World Water Supply

C|NET reports on NASA-sponsored Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) which uses two satellites to measure changes in water supply around the world. The information is based on measurements of the Earth’s gravitational field. Small changes are modelled and can reveal “where water is distributed and where it is going.” I for one am please remote sensing is getting such good coverage in the wake of online mapping.

Update 12/13: Corrected misspelling in title, aka removed “Remove Sensing.”

Tech Development Authority Donates Money to Google Earth?

...the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority donated $285,000 to Google Earth, Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, The Pennsylvania Tourism Office, and the National Civil War Museum. The money will be used to help develop an online mapping website that will display and promote Pennsylvania’s Civil War trails.

Can you donate money to Google? Google Earth?

Channel 21, Harrisburg

More correctly, from the official press release:

The Governor said the state will provide a $285,000 grant to support an unprecedented partnership between Google Earth, Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, the Pennsylvania Tourism Office and the National Civil War Museum that will allow ‘virtual tourists’ from all corners of the globe to immerse themselves in Pennsylvania’s Civil War trails.

I can’t imagine Google will take any of the money…

“New” MapInfo Used in “Post-K” Medical Planning

In an oddly title blurb, “Post-K health needs painted by MapInfo” New Orleans CityBusiness reports on the Louisiana Bureau of Primary Care and Rural Health’s use of MapInfo to help determine health care needs and thus developing facilities for the population returning to the area. The technology is referred to as “a new mapping technology” and describes how it works this way: “the $1,600 technology depicts population increases in blue and decreases in red.”

GPS Companies Fighting for Sales

BusinessWeek reports on tactics from Garmin, TomTom and Magellan to sell more navigation devices this holiday season. They are offering discounts and rebates adding up to $100 or more per unit. And, in the mean time upstarts are challenging them like Tiwan-based Mitac and its Mio DigiWalker was priced as low as $150 on black Friday.

Another tidbit: Royal Philips Electronics bailed on its plans to enter the nav market citing it didn’t see much space for profit.

Galileo Behind Schedule

There are a few factors causing the new global navigation satellite system (GNSS) to fall behind:

- Negotiations with the eight companies planning to run it once it’s done are now almost a year behind. (They were to be competed by the end of 2005)

- Start up funding is not complete. The expected budget of Euros 1.5 billion has not been met; it’s about Euros 200 million short.

- EE Times