The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) commission the report titled, "Independent Study of the Roles of Commercial Remote Sensing in the future National System for Geospatial-Intelligence" early last year. It explores four possible business cases for how the government and private companies might work together to provide needed imagery for those agencies and their government clients. The suggested path is not the status quo and may have implications for the two current U.S. commercial satellite providers DigtialGlobe and GeoEye. Our editors try to tease out what the report means and its implications.

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Mash-ups and other Web 2.0 tools took center stage at many California media outlets this week as they tried to keep up with the latest information on the fires in that state and serve it to readers. The efforts were truly spectacular, and one My Maps implementation became a Web favorite (1.2 million views) as well as a resource for first responders. This week we look at those efforts and look ahead to what might be done better in the future. The podcast is 16 minutes long and was recorded on October 29, 2007.

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The terms were not shared but the gist from TechRockies:

The deal calls for DigitalGlobe to offer Oracle customers real-time access to its image library, for incorporation into logistics, supply chain, mobile field services, business intelligence and asset management applications.

To be clear, that's real time access to the imagery, not real time imagery.

- press release

The AP reports that "analysis of radar data and satellite images from Sept. 3, the day Fossett disappeared in a small plane, led Air Force technicians to believe they had spotted clues to his route." That's prompted two planes and teams on foot to explore a section of the desert in Nevada where Fossett disappeared on Labor Day.

"New satellite to sharpen Google Earth" That's the headline from Scientific American via Reuters and I suppose that's the impact that will be felt by most of the world, in time, if the relationship between Google and DigitalGlobe continues. It's too bad, really. The article mentions that DG president Jill Smith is looking to expand the customer base on the Internet. That's great; she and the media need to start talking about or pushing for uses beyond those from Google and other "pretty picture" sites.

Here's another from Gadgetell: "New Google Satellite To Launch" To be fair, in the first paragraph the article explains the relationship between DG and Google, but still, this could be very confusing!

And from vnunet, in an article about Galileo.

"Meanwhile, Google Earth is adding another DigitalGlobe satellite to improve the quality of its pictures and help cover a wider area. "

This week we explore how the recent disappearance of adventurer Steven Fossett is, despite its sad nature, a teachable moment. We learn the latest on satellite imagery available for the search from DigitalGlobe's Chuck Herring and then explore how we in the geospatial community, educators, and parents can educate, even as we hope for a positive outcome. We also look at hyperspectral imagery, one of the tools in the searcher's toolkit. The podcast is 5 Mb and was recorded on Sept 10, 2007.

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