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On Feb. 6, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkey and northern Syria collapsing buildings and killing more than 2,000 people, followed by magnitude 6.7 aftershocks. The impact of the earthquakes was significant and ranks in the red for economic losses and orange for fatalities, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The USGS reports the earthquake resulted from strike-slip faulting at shallow depths. It appears to be associated with either the East Anatolia fault zone or the Dead Sea transform fault zone.

Historical buildings throughout Turkey have been severely damaged, including the Yeni Mosque and the Gaziantep Castle, which date back thousands of years.

War-torn Syria — specifically Aleppo, Hama and Latakia — have also sustained severe damage to infrastructure that was already fragile.

The effects of this earthquake were felt as far as Lebanon and Israel.

Historical Gaziantep Castle’s east, south and southeast bastions collapse, leaving debris scattered on the road after major 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Türkiye’s southeasthttps://t.co/5j2soYI6hC pic.twitter.com/1n6whCr2gY

— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) February 6, 2023

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) Beyond Program and uAvionix have received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations. The approval signifies uAvionix and the CNO have demonstrated to the FAA that the aircraft procedures, detect-and-avoid systems and control network meet the safety requirement for operation in the national airspace.

This is the second BVLOS waiver granted by the FAA for the combinations of uAvionix SkyLine software and SkyLink hardware, allowing UAV pilots operating at the CNO range to use only an electronic observer.

The CNO will be using uAvionix SkyLine command-and-control (C2) management platform and pingStation3 dual-mode ADS-B receivers at the Emerging Aviation Technology Center UAS Test Range. The SkyLine C2 management platform is integrated with the DeTect Harrier radar for surveillance, and is used to control several CNO and uAvionix owned electric vehicle takeoff and landing aircraft through muLTElink and SkyLink series C2 radios.

“Having this capability available at CNO enables our customers to conduct testing and demonstration in Oklahoma and will further serve as guidance for future applications leveraging this concept of operations,” said uAvionix President Christian Ramsey.

Transport Canada has approved Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to operate Percepto’s drone-in-a-box solution beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) at McConnell Lake Control Dam without a visual observer on site. A BVLOS Special Flight Operations Certificate was issued for the Percepto Air Max autonomous drone-in-a-box for the remote inspection.

The approval enables remote inspection of the dam as a part of a pilot project, which started in January. Since Canadian power utilities are seeking to ensure their power grid and stations are resilient, the OPG facility will gain actionable insights from the remote inspection.

Percepto’s automated drone-in-a-box has been deployed by other electric utilities to monitor the durability of power grid infrastructure and quickly detect problems, enabling faster response times and restoring power quicker after storms and natural disasters.

EagleView Technologies is enhancing EagleView Cloud for government users by adding more imagery options. EagleView Cloud is a resource for government departments including tax assessment, geographic information systems and public safety.

EagleView cloud will now include 1-inch ground sample distance (GSD) aerial imagery. The oblique imagery, usually captured at a 40°- 45° angle, provides enhanced clarity and side-angle views of buildings, homes and properties, enabling government users to view property changes and analyze roads and infrastructure to produce accurate tax assessments.

The company has also added 3-inch GSD orthogonal imagery to the platform. The orthogonal images help government users identify structural changes to buildings, additions to homes, and the condition of impervious surfaces. The images offer a top-down view and can be delivered annually or multiple times per year.

Next, EagleView Cloud aims to be available in commercial industries including insurance, construction and solar.

SandboxAQ has been awarded a Direct-to-Phase-II Small Business Innovation Research contract by the United States Air Force. SandboxAQ will test and evaluate its quantum sensor prototype to help protect military navigation resilience.

Under the contract, SandboxAQ will advance research and development for its quantum navigation system, which is being designed to complement GPS. It will be used for accurate navigation in contested or denied environments where the loss of precision GPS may negatively impact operations.

SandboxAQ’s AQ-powered quantum sensor prototype will be optimized in close coordination with USAF through identified innovation areas, including live demonstrations aboard USAF aircraft. The sensor prototype also has potential for use in the commercial sector for aviation, unmanned vehicles and more.

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has formed the Geo for Metaverse Domain Working Group (DWG), which will serve as a forum for the collective geospatial expertise of the OGC community to gather to help build and expand the open Metaverse. The group is open to both OGC members and non-members.

The group plans to contribute its expertise in 3D, modeling and simulation, artificial intelligence, digital twins, streaming, augmented and virtual realities, routing, mapping and more — all at scale.

The group will work on pieces of the Metaverse that pertain to geospatial applications and standards by identifying standardization activities and best practices based on FAIR (making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data principles.

The DWG will be the primary point of contact with the Metaverse Standards Forum, of which OGC is a founding and principal member.

3D geospatially anchored data is powering innovation across a range of industries. This same data — relied upon for construction of the real world — is now driving the creation of virtual/digital worlds that will form parts of the Metaverse.

Learn more about the mission, goals and planned activities of the group on the OGC Geo for Metaverse DWG homepage.

ADVA and Brandywine Communications have partnered to provide a defense-grade M-code device with advanced timing, the OSA 5422 grandmaster clock, for military applications. ADVA’s OSA 5422 meets key requirements of military networks by providing advanced positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities and improved resilience.

ADVA’s OSA 5422 grandmaster clock is integrated with a highly reliable M-code receiver, which meets stringent frequency and phase synchronization needs. The device is equipped with multi-band, multi-constellation GNSS receivers for when M-code is not available. OSA 5422 also has long holdover and precision time protocol backup, which enables it to maintain accurate timing even in the event of M-code disruption.

The OSA 5422 supports legacy interfaces such as BITS and IRIG and features eight field-upgradable 10G bit/s ports and 1G bit/s interfaces. The device is suitable for most demanding military edge applications.

SBG Systems has released Quanta Plus, a GNSS-aided inertial navigation system (INS). Quanta Plus is a small, lightweight product, which can be easily integrated into survey systems with lidar or other third-party sensors.

The device combines a micro-electromechanical (MEMS) inertial measurement unit (IMU) with a resilient GNSS receiver to get reliable position and attitude, providing real-time kinematic (RTK) fixes.

Quanta Plus includes motion profiles, which enable users to optimize the sensor parameters to suit different use cases. The built-in precise time protocol server ensures sub-microsecond synchronization with external devices such as lidar. The device also has a built-in datalogger, Ethernet interface for easy integration, and a web configuration interface for simple setup and control.

The INS can be integrated with Qinertia, SBG System’s post-processing software. Qinertia improves the performance of acquired data during a mission using reliable RTK corrections from a wide range of continuously operating reference station networks, or by importing base-station data during the process.

Quanta Plus also improves the accuracy of the position and attitude using forward and backward processing and by integrating a tight coupling between GNSS and IMU data.

Quanta Plus is suitable for survey professionals or a navigation-dependent company seeking a robust navigation device. Specific solutions are available for integrators and OEMs who want to use Qinertia as a component in their application-specific data-processing solutions.

Inertial Labs has released a remote sensing payload instrument. The Resepi Hesai XT32 laser is designed for accurate remote-sensing applications. The Resepi laser can be used with commercially available lidar scanners, including Velodyne, Quanergy, Ouster, RIEGL, LIVOX and Hesai, as well as with UAVs.

Resepi is completely modular, so users have full control for customization. The remote sensing device uses a GPS-aided inertial navigation system with NovAtel RTK/PPK single- or dual-antenna GNSS receiver, integrated with a Linux-based processing platform. It also comes with a 2 TB USB memory drive and has an embedded Wi-Fi cellular modem.

Resepi has 3-5 cm point-cloud accuracy and can reach heights of more than 200 m above ground level. It is compatible with most UAV models; however, it is typically used with DJI M300, DJI M210 or DJI M600 models.

The device is suitable for scanning and mapping, precision agriculture with lidar, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm development, utility inspection and construction site monitoring. Resepi-supported software includes Hexagon NovAtel, PCPainter and PCMaster.

CHC Navigation’s mobile mapping solutions, the P330 Pro vertical take-off and landing unmanned autonomous vehicle (VTOL UAV) and the AlphaAir 450 lidar, are being used for mining exploration in Indonesia. The solutions help with effective data collection to measure the volume of an open-pit mine.

The P330 Pro UAV and the AlphaAir 450 provide an effective surveying solution, which is critical to the life cycle of mining projects. During this operation, the solutions covered more than 5 km² per mission, with an error of less than 5 cm. Accurate lidar in vegetated areas enabled surveying of the ground surface, including structures missed by other surveys due to dense vegetation.

A CHC Navigation i50 GNSS receiver and processing software provided with the AlphaAir 450 were deployed during the operation.

The P330 Pro UAV enables small- and large-scale aerial surveying. It comes with a portable ground control station for remote control and communication between the UAV and its operator. The UAV is designed for vertical takeoff and landing, making it convenient to operate and transport.

The AlphaAir 450 is a lightweight and rugged system, which integrates lidar with an industrial-grade professional 26 MP camera and an inertial navigation system for data collection.