All posts by Jeff Salmon
Deep-sea Mobile Mapping
We’re all familiar with lidar-based mobile mapping from ground vehicles, and most of us are aware that aerial lidar is being used effectively to do shallow-water mapping along coastal and riverine projects. Deep-water lidar mobile mapping from an ROV? Well it’s a first for me. Most all of the subsurface surveys I’ve read about were...
UAS Survey of the Great Sand Dunes
The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is located in South Central Colorado and contains the tallest dunes in North America, spread across 30 square miles. It is an amazing destination, one that I first visited when I was 18 years old and have re-visited innumerable times since; I simply never tire of its...
Markets for Geospatial 2017: Part 2, Infrastructure
President Trump’s plan for investing in America’s infrastructure calls for $1 trillion in spending over the next ten years. The specifics of the plan are still a work-in-progress, but with largely bipartisan support, chances are that there will be a big push on infrastructure projects in the coming years, and that should translate into significant...
Market Opportunities for Geospatial in 2017
Construction Prospects, Part One As we start a new year, it seems only fitting to take a look at what 2017 might hold in store for us. Let’s start with construction: a major source of income for the geospatial profession. Dodge Data & Analytics publishes all types of data for the North American commercial and...
Pangaea Looks Back at 2016
Undoubtedly, for me the most notable event of 2016 (in the geospatial world) was the FAA’s Rule 107 allowing sUAS to be used in the NAS for commercial work. No more Section 333 exemptions. (Well, for merely flying, anyway; if you want to go beyond the restrictions of 107, you’ll still need to file for...
Buying a Drone for the Holidays?
Friends know of my interest in unmanned aerial systems, so they ask me, “What kind of drone should I buy for Christmas?” I probe a little further to define what their “use case” is. It usually boils down to two categories. 1) For the kids: Cheap. If you’re looking for a toy drone to have...
