GeoSAR continues to show its global reach by making a strong presence at upcoming events around the world. Fugro will be present at the 1st annual Latin American Remote Sensing (LARS) conference in Santiago, Chile October 4th- 8th and will continue the trade show trail joining forces with colleagues from Fugro’s South East Asia offices for the annual GSDI conference being held in Singapore October 19th- 22nd. At GSDI 12, Fugro will be presenting on Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and the advantages GeoSAR provides as a data source in equatorial regions. So what advantages does GeoSAR provide for countries located in equatorial regions that are updating or developing their SDI?

Many countries, large and small, developed or developing, have built what are called Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). Geospatial data is a key component in developing a SDI. Geospatial data can be collected from a variety of airborne platforms. However environmental conditions for countries located along the equator can make this data collection process a bit difficult. Consistent cloud cover and triple canopy foliage are a few of the main factors that contribute to the difficulty in data collection. Fugro’s GeoSAR is uniquely designed to conqueror these obstacles. GeoSAR is a dual-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) system. With each pass of the aircraft, GeoSAR simultaneously maps both surface features (X-band) and bare-earth terrain (P-band). X-band penetrates through the cloud cover collecting all the surface features while P-band penetrates through foliage (as well as cloud cover) collecting the bare-earth terrain. GeoSAR X- and P-band orthorectified imagery and digital elevation models contain all the information needed to produce topographic and thematic mapping at standard 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 map scale.

Please remember to stop by at learn more about Fugro’s GeoSAR and other geospatial services at LARS and GSDI 12. For more information please feel free to email or leave a comment!