Space Imaging’s IKONOS Satellite is Imaging Entire Country of Jamaica
Space Imaging, the world’s leader in providing Earth
imagery and related services to commercial and government markets, announced
today that through its reseller, Spatial Innovision (New Kingston, Jamaica),
it has signed an agreement with the government of Jamaica to take 1-meter,
high resolution satellite images of the entire country. The satellite
imagery would be used by all of Jamaica’s land-related and mapping agencies.
The project, which is worth more than a million dollars, will be the first
time an entire country has been commercially imaged with 1-meter satellite
imagery.
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According to the Jamaican government, the last color aerial
images assembled for the entire 4,411 square mile island, which is slightly
smaller than Connecticut, was in 1991. The last comprehensive maps were made
20 years ago. Now, by using current satellite imagery, government agencies
will join together to assemble information for many applications such as
urban and cadastral mapping, environment, transmission systems design,
telecommunications, farming, housing, mining, real estate, public safety,
emergency response and population/demographic assessment. The project
includes the delivery of 1-meter resolution precision pan-sharpened as well
as 4-meter multi-spectral imagery for the entire country.
Hon. Seymour Mullings, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Land and
Environment, said “Our government has been concerned for some time that the
country lacked the necessary techniques capable of delivering such vital
data in the required format and in a timely manner. We feel confident that
the digital technologies of IKONOS can assist Jamaica to prepare our
much-needed maps with a shorter turnaround time than the aerial mapping
systems we’ve used in the past.” The Cabinet of Jamaica gave its approval to
the project in December 2000.
For Jacqueline daCosta, Director General in the Ministry of Land and
Environment and Chairman of the Land Information Council of Jamaica, the
project represents a major strategic success for both the Ministry and the
Council. “This acquisition was only possible through the determined and
collaborative efforts of member agencies of the council partnering together
to share the value of the latest base mapping information in order to
enhance their various business functions and operations,” said daCosta
“We are in an ideal position to help government agencies gain access to the
digital Earth information market,” said Brian Soliday, Space Imaging’s vice
president of Global Products and Services. “The ability to acquire diverse
geospatial content from a single source is invaluable. It’s through early
adopters, such as the Jamaican government that we will continue to grow the
commercial remote sensing market.”
“We are pleased to offer Jamaica a more economical approach to updating
their base map information from a single provider of high-quality satellite
imagery,” said Silburn Clarke, president of Spatial Innovision. “In addition
to the Jamaican government, we’ve received very positive feedback from
several of the island’s spatial scientists and business representatives
regarding the possibilities of using such state-of-the-art technology.”
The IKONOS satellite was designed to collect about 600 images per day. Since
IKONOS started operation it has been averaging 800-1000 images per day. To
date, the IKONOS satellite has collected more than 74 million square
kilometers of imagery, a 50 million increase since its one-year anniversary
in September 2000.
About Space Imaging
Space Imaging is a leading supplier of visual information products services
derived from space imagery and aerial photography. The company launched the
world’s first and only one-meter resolution, commercial Earth imaging
satellite, IKONOS, on Sept. 24, 1999. Other products are produced from the
Indian Remote Sensing satellites, the U.S. Landsat, Canada’s RADARSAT and
the European Space Agency’s ERS satellites. Space Imaging also delivers
aerial-derived imagery products collected by its own Digital Airborne
Imaging System (DAIS-1(tm)). For detailed information about Space Imaging,
visit its Web site at http://www.spaceimaging.com
About Spatial Innovision
Spatial Innovision, the leading geographic information systems (GIS)
solutions center, is an innovative visionary information solutions company
dedicated to expanding the use of spatial sciences and technologies as a
tool to spur national development throughout the Caribbean region. Spatial
Innovision represents the best of the world’s spatial innovators including
ESRI GIS, Trimble Mapping and Survey Systems, ERDAS GeoImaging and Vidar
Scanners. The company designs and develops spatial solutions to support
businesses in all sectors of the economy. Spatial Innovision covers the
entire Caribbean, and works in partnership with Fujitsu-ICL Caribbean
(Trinidad) Ltd. to serve their customers throughout the region. Spatial
Innovision can be found on the Web at http://www.spatialvision.com
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NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: A satellite image of Montego Bay Jamaica is
available on the web for illustration and publishing purposes at
http://newswire.spaceimaging.com .
