ERDAS announces that it will collaborate with Infoterra GmbH, a leading provider of radar satellite data and services and exclusive holder of commercial exploitation rights to TerraSAR-X data. Together, they will develop operational applications for TerraSAR-X radar satellite imagery and strengthen the knowledge of SAR data analysis within the user community.
In recent years, the use of radar imagery has greatly increased. New sensors like TerraSAR-X offer high spatial resolution, excellent geometric accuracies, short revisit times and a variety of polarizations and imaging modes. At the same time, innovative techniques have been developed to extract and process information from radar data.
Radar data is consequently making a rapid transition from research and development applications to solving real-world problems. ERDAS and Infoterra plan to work together to rationalize this plethora of data into clearly defined application scenarios. A key component of this transition is dedicated software that enables the problem solver to extract the needed information from the imagery without deep domain knowledge. Experts at intelligence and military agencies, state and local governments, civil organizations, crisis response organizations and non-governmental organizations will easily be able to transform TerraSAR-X imagery into timely, relevant and accurate geoinformation.
“Radar image processing commonly involves extensive and sophisticated signal processing algorithms,” said Derrold Holcomb, Senior Radar Scientist, ERDAS. “There is a need to separate the decision maker from radar and mathematical theory. Our goal is to understand the information needed for specific applications and offer a software solution that automatically extracts that information product.”
According to Marek Tinz, Head of Development & Innovation, Infoterra GmbH, there are tremendous opportunities for the TerraSAR-X data. "With the unique features our satellite has to offer, there is a significant potential for applying its data in specific applications. We are already serving a truly diverse user community today, and are convinced that with an increased automated information extraction through ERDAS Software, we will be able to improve our services even further."
The new agreement is effective immediately and includes the creation of dedicated training material for ERDAS users. In addition, there will be joint evaluation of existing tools and potentials with regard to stereometric and interferometric data sets.
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