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Emerge is an innovative, leading edge photogrammetric
company located in Andover, Massachusetts, an organization
with extensive experience in acquiring digital imagery for
airborne mapping, GIS and remote sensing applications for
agriculture, transportation planning, and environmental research
and analysis. The company provides high-quality orthorectified
digital image products to a number of county, state, and federal
government agencies for their particular land-use studies.
The challenge facing Emerge was to generate orthorectified
digital imagery to meet the needs of forestry GIS professionals
by providing a high-quality and cost-effective product in
a short amount of time. Multispectral satellite data or the
imagery generated using standard format aerial cameras do
not always provide the best solution for localized forested
areas, particularly when high-resolution images and fast turnaround
times are warranted.
GIS Airborne Survey
"The simple installation and operating characteristics
of the DSS system has really streamlined our image
acquisition capabilities and positioned us very
competitively."
Emerge quickly recognized the problem and saw the DSS system
as the ideal solution. Mike Burnett, Sales Manager with Emerge
explained, "For forestry applications of this type we
have adopted a different approach. By utilizing a medium-format
system we can confine our data acquisition very effectively,
to just the area required. Short turnaround times are easily
accommodated because rapid mobilization and efficient data
processing are key features of the DSS."
Once the imagery was captured we were able to generate
the mosaics very quickly, a result of the system's direct
georeferencing capability, which is a tremendous advantage
when trees are in full leaf and regular ground control survey
locations are obscured," Burnett said. "We can easily
generate orthophotos and format the data as TIF and TFW image
files, knowing the image quality is excellent."
By employing the DSS on projects where irregular shaped areas
are common, Emerge has been able to capitalize on the system's
unique advantages, namely rapid deployment, direct georeferencing,
and efficient digital processing, which together make it a
very cost effective system. With this capability Emerge has
been successfully producing orthorectified color and color
infrared digital imagery on a regular basis for the forest
industry.
