Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop

Planning and Analysis

Improve your ability to anticipate and manage change by using spatial analysis. ArcGIS gives you

• A set of comprehensive spatial analysis tools
• A platform for viewing and disseminating results

Asset/Data Management

Enable better use of resources by making data available to those who need it. ArcGIS empowers you with

• Online data and maps you can use in your projects
• Tools and services for maintaining your data integrity
• Industry-standard templates that help you organize information

Operational Awareness

Get a comprehensive understanding of the activities affecting your organization. ArcGIS offers

• Web-based applications that can be configured to meet the needs of the people using them, ranging from executives, to technical staff, to field workers.
• Ability to use live feeds and automated analysis and alert tools
• Capability to present large volumes of disparate data in an intuitive map-based format

Field Workforce

Experience better and more coordinated decision making as well as faster and more efficient field operations. ArcGIS provides

• Ability to get up-to-date information to field operations
• Tools that are easy for field staff to use and that support a variety of field device types.

Credit : http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/use-cases

The Numbers Behind Landsat

Landsat sensors record reflected and emitted energy from Earth in various wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.  The electromagnetic spectrum includes all forms of radiated energy from tiny gamma rays and x-rays all the way to huge radio waves.  The human eye is sensitive to the visible wavelenghs of this spectrum; we can see color, or reflected light, ranging from violet to red.
Today, Landsats 5 and 7 "see" and record blue, green, and red light in the visible spectrum as well as near-infrared, mid-infrared, and thermal-infrared light that human eyes cannot perceive (although we can feel the thermal-infrared as heat).  Landsat records this information digitally and it is downlinked to ground stations, processed, and stored in a data archive.
It is this digital information that makes remotely sensed data invaluable. “Observations from Landsat are now used in almost every environmental discipline,” explains John Barker, a Landsat 7 Associate Project Scientist and award-wining calibration expert.
Landsat data have been used to monitor water quality, glacier recession, sea ice movement, invasive species encroachment, coral reef health, land use change, deforestation rates and population growth.  (Some fast food restaurants have even used population information to estimate community growth sufficient to warrant a new franchise.)  Landsat has also helped to assess damage from natural disasters such as fires, floods, and tsunamis, and subsequently, plan disaster relief and flood control programs.
Read more : http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/

The Garmin nüvi 40

Hands on with the best entry level Garmin nuvi yet

The Garmin nüvi 40 is a 4.3” navigator in Garmin’s new 2012 Essential series. The models in this series are meant to be basic navigators at a budget price, lower than what we’ve previously seen for Garmin entry-level models. Nevertheless, they do come with some features not previously found on low-end nuvis, such as speed limit display, lane assist and junction view. Read more http://gpstracklog.com/2011/09/garmin-nuvi-40-review.html