Eric D. Colburn, PLS

Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News-U.S. Geological Survey Awarded JAVAD GNSS up to $3.9M Contract

The Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, has awarded contract G10PC00160 resulting from competitive solicitation 10WRSS0010 to JAVAD GNSS, Inc. of San Jose, CA.

The contract is an Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity contract for various configurations of GPS/GNSS receivers and antennas with a five (5) year ordering period and a $3.9M ceiling.

Protested, Reopened, and Competitively Awarded Read the rest of this entry →

Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News: USAF Begins Test  Satellite GPS IIF Transmission of L5 Signal

LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, El Segundo, Calif. – Officials from the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Global Positioning Systems Wing announced that the first GPS IIF satellite, launched May 27, 2010, has begun test transmissions of the new Safety-of-Life (L5) navigation signal.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News: Air Force Upgrades GPS Constellation

SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — The 2nd and 19th Space Operations Squadron will soon take control of the Air Force’s newest GPS satellite following its tentative launch into orbit May 27 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

The GPS IIF SV-1 satellite represents a substantial upgrade for the GPS constellation. Thanks to improvements with the cesium-based atomic clocks used for timing, the IIF is expected to provide more accurate navigation signals than those of its predecessors.

The new IIF satellite will also broadcast two new signals: a jam resistant military code signal and a third civil signal known as the L5.

This latest addition is part of an ongoing modernization effort for the GPS constellation by the Air Force.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News: GeoEye Receives U.S. Government Contract Award for New Web Mapping Service

GeoEye, Inc., announced this week that it has signed a modification to a contract with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to provide Web mapping services under the NGA’s Rapid Delivery of Online GEOINT (RDOG) program. This contract modification was made so that GeoEye can provide for Rapid Delivery of High-Resolution Commercial Satellite Imagery to Department of Defense Users.

GeoEye reports that this Web hosting and dissemination contract modification is in addition to ongoing production work being done under the RDOG contract originally awarded in June 2009 and under GeoEye’s Service Level Agreement with the NGA.

About GeoEye Read the rest of this entry →

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket lifts off with the NASA/NOAA GOES-P from Space Launch Complex-37 at 6:57 p.m. EST. High resolution (Credit: The Boeing Company)

Here’s a news article from earlier this month that I missed, but thought was interesting. Besides, the picture of the rocket taking off is pretty cool, too!

Newest NOAA Geostationary Satellite Reaches Orbit

GOES-P has improved severe weather, solar storm detection capabilities

March 4, 2010

NOAA and NASA officials announced a new Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), launched tonight, successfully reached its initial orbit, joining four other GOES spacecraft that help NOAA forecasters track life-threatening weather and solar activity.

The new satellite, GOES-P, lifted off at 6:57 pm EST from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and separated from the launch vehicle at11:18 pm EST. The first signal from the satellite was captured at the same time.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

FEMA and NOAA Renew Partnership to Encourage Flood Safety

March 15, 2010

As one of the snowiest winter seasons in many years yields to warmer weather and the promise of rain and snowmelt, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s FloodSmart Campaign and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they are again working together during Flood Safety Awareness Week (March 15-19) to raise awareness of the dangers associated with flooding and steps to protect against damage. Year in and year out, floods are the most common, costly and deadly severe weather related disaster in the U.S. NOAA will announce this year’s official spring flood outlook on March 16, and an unusually wet and snowy winter in many communities will likely increase the potential for spring flood events. Both agencies urge that important measures can–and should–be taken now to ensure safety and financial security, including obtaining flood insurance.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

MAPPS Seeks Legislation in Congress to Authorize “Imagery for the Nation” “Making America Prosperous (MAP) Act” Would Create National Geospatial Image Maps

A bill to authorize the program known within the geospatial community as “Imagery for the Nation” is being presented for introduction in Congress, MAPPS announced today.

“‘Map it once, use it many times’ is not only a mantra in the geospatial community, but it is technologically feasible through the use of satellite and aerial imagery and geographic information systems. To save tax dollars, create private sector jobs, and provide baseline geographic data for economic development and a variety of other applications beneficial to government programs and private business and investment, MAPPS is urging Congress to authorize and fund a program of geospatial image maps of the United States through a bill known as the Making America Prosperous Act, or MAP Act,” said Jeff Lovin, PS,CP, (Woolpert, Inc, Dayton, OH) MAPPS President.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Trimble Acquires LET Systems to Expand its Utilities
Solutions for Smart Grid Outage and Incident Management

SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 5, 2010 — Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today it has acquired privately-held LET Systems based in Cork, Ireland. LET Systems is an internationally recognized leader in incident and outage management system (OMS) solutions for utilities. The acquisition is part of Trimble’s strategic utilities and smart grid initiative to bring productivity solutions to the global utilities industry. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

FEMA Announces That eLOMA Is Available Again

The other day I told you FEMA announced that the eLOMA process was temporarily unavailable. Also, FEMA would not be issuing Letters of Map Amendment (LOMA).

This was because Congress did not reauthorize funding for FEMA, along with other programs such as extension of the current highway bill and funding for extending federal unemployment benefits, the National Flood Insurance Program’s authorities expired on February 28, 2010.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Leica Geosystems Launches SmartNet North America

1 March 2010

(Norcross, GA., 1 March 2010) – Leica Geosystems, Inc. is proud to announce the launch of SmartNet North America. SmartNet is a subscription based service offering GNSS Network RTK corrections throughout North America with Leica Geosystems directly operating, managing, and maintaining all segments of the network. From the reference stations in the field to the server and IT infrastructure, SmartNet offers a turnkey solution.

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