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On September 23, 2014, the White House announced that the highest possible resolution elevation data generated from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000 will be released globally over the next year. The announcement was made at the United Nations Heads of State Climate Summit in New York. Previously, SRTM data for regions outside the United States were sampled at 3 arc-seconds (approx. 90 meters) for public release. The new data being released at 1 arc-second (approx. 30 meters) pixel size, now reveals the full resolution of the original measurements. With the announcement, data for most of Africa and its surrounding areas was released jointly by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Immediately following the President’s speech, Esri announced that it will enhance its existing World Elevation Map to include this more detailed 1 arc-second (~ 30 meters) SRTM data, making the data available to its customers and others around the world. Esri’s comprehensive World Elevation layers provide online access to a global collection of multi-resolution and multisource elevation data from best publically available sources and includes derivative layers for visualization (such as multi-directional hillshade, tinted hillshade) and analysis (such as slope, aspect). source : http://blogs.esri.com

Phoenix Aerial Systems, a leading manufacturer of unmanned aerial LiDAR products, announced today two new revolutionary LiDAR products, the Scout and the Ranger. The Scout is a lightweight, accurate and low cost solution for companies looking to enter the mapping market. Weighing less than 2.5kg, measuring only 12cm x 22cm x 8cm and options starting at $55k, the Scout is the most affordable UAV LiDAR mapping solution on the market. At the core of the Scout is the Velodyne VLP-16 puck, which features 16 lasers aligned over a 30º Vertical Field of View, 100+ meter range and captures up to 300,000 measurements per second. Phoenix Aerial Systems is also introducing the Ranger, a survey-grade, long-range mapping system featuring the Riegl VUX-1 and Fiber Optic Gyro IMU sensors. The Scout and Ranger both include Phoenix Aerial System’s proprietary software suite which allows the operator to monitor the process and view a high-definition 3D point cloud in real time. In addition to LiDAR, the Scout and Ranger also include a photogrammetry option, giving our customers the ability to deliver LiDAR and imagery data simultaneously. source ; http://www.phoenix-aerial.com/