We've got Google Earth and Google Sky. Next up will be a map of the world below sea level--Google Ocean. The company has assembled an advisory group of oceanography experts, and in December invited researchers from institutions around the world to the Mountain View, Calif., Googleplex. There, they discussed plans for creating a 3D oceanographic map, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The tool--for now called Google Ocean, the sources say, though that name could change--is expected to be similar to other 3D online mapping applications. People will be able to see the underwater topography, called bathymetry; search for particular spots or attractions; and navigate through the digital environment by zooming and panning. Asked to comment on Google Ocean, a Google spokeswoman said the company had "nothing to announce right now."

Oceanography researchers, however, say such a tool would be incredibly useful. "There is no real terrain or depth model for the ocean in Google Earth," said Tim Haverland, a geospatial application developer at the Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "You can't get in a submarine and in essence fly through the water and explore ocean canyons yet."

Google Ocean will feature a basic layer that shows the depth of the sea floor and will serve as a spatial framework for additional data, sources said, adding that Google plans to try to fill in some areas of the map with high-resolution images for more detail.

Additional data will be displayed as overlying layers that depict phenomena like weather patterns, currents, temperatures, shipwrecks, coral reefs, and algae blooms, much like the National Park Service and NASA provide additional data for Google Earth and Google Sky.

"Google will basically just provide the field and then everyone will come flocking to it," predicted Stephen P. Miller, head of the Geological Data Center at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "There will be peer pressure to encourage people to get their data out there."

This is an image of a bathymetry map that shows the depth of the sea floor. It is based on sparse ship soundings and satellite altimeter measurements of subtle bumps and dips in the ocean surface which are produced by tiny variations in the pull of gravity.

(Credit: David Sandwell and Walter Smith/Scripps Institute of Oceanography)

While satellite imagery has the entire globe covered, as well as a good amount of known outer space, much less is known about the bodies of water that cover about 70 percent of the planet. Only a small percentage of the sea floor has been mapped in detail by sonar.

"It would take about 100 ship years to map the oceans at high resolution," said Dave Sandwell, a professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

To bring more clarity to the sea floor, Sandwell and others said, Google will likely use high-resolution grids from oceanographic institutions showing the depths of select areas of the seas and paste them in. Data for those grids, which cover a very small portion of the sea floor, are created by ships using multibeam sonar.

One possible source for Google Ocean data are detailed "tiles" from multibeam and predicted topography compiled by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University. Tiles are high-resolution sun-shaded images as well as digital elevation models covering the entire global ocean that allow for interactivity similar to Google Earth, where you can get different views by zooming in and out and by tilting the planet's surface.

This screenshot shows an example of high-resolution imagery above and below sea level. The view is looking eastward at Monterey Bay on the California coast with the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background. The continental slope is sculpted by submarine canyons with their numerous tributary gullies.

(Credit: GeoMapAppVG/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University)

"Our application gets data from databases over the Internet without the user having to know the name of the database or how to connect to it. Google could talk to our databases," said William B. F. Ryan, an earth and environmental studies professor at Columbia's LDEO.

On top of the depth map, and in addition to the select high-resolution tiled areas, there will likely be various layers of specialized data from different sources. For example, NOAA already has made public visual information for Google Earth related to sea hotspots around coral reefs, Gulf of Mexico marine debris, surface temperatures and wave heights in the Great Lakes, and shipwrecks.

Markham, Ontario: DMTI Spatial (DMTI), provider of enterprise location intelligence solutions, announced the availability of its new wireless business & network planning solution designed exclusively for Canadian telecommunications companies competing in May's Spectrum Auction. The new Wireless Business & Network Planning Solution optimises bidding decisions as well as the ongoing network planning and capital investment involved. Canada's Spectrum Auction will allow 27 companies to bid for 105 megahertz of wireless airwaves, with a 40 megahertz block open only to companies that have less than 10 percent of the national wireless market.

Using DMTI's location intelligence solutions, wireless providers and new entrants into the industry will be able to analyze potential target markets, pinpoint existing infrastructure locations and determine where to locate new towers to support their business. They will also be able to fine tune market focus through the lens of population density statistics combined with wire centre or license boundaries, and understand potential markets using current and highly targeted demographics.

Companies successful with their bid will then be able to plan the network deployment with DMTI data and pursue new customers using the critical components of DMTI's suite, including the Spectrum License Area boundary files, demographic information represented at the six-digit postal code level, Wire Centre and Exchange boundaries, Antenna/Tower Locations and Frequencies, Digital Elevation Models, as well as Clutter and Satellite Clutter Data.

New Delhi: China has deployed its latest Jin class nuclear submarine at a massive new military facility at Sanya on the Hainan Island in South China Sea — its newest and nearest naval base to India.

While the Indian Navy had been aware about the upcoming military facility for some time, satellite images for the first time show the extent of the base and the fact that the Jin Class submarine, which carries 12 nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles, has been deployed at Hainan.

This has raised concern as the Chinese naval base, complete with an underground facility that can hide the movement of submarines from spy satellites, is barely 1,200 nautical miles from the strategic Malacca Strait and an access route to the Indian Ocean — a region that New Delhi considers its personal security responsibility.

Chinese nuclear submarines have never yet operated in the Indian Ocean but the facility — which is 2,000 nautical miles away from the Andaman Islands — will be its nearest access point to the region.

Details about the Hainan naval base have been widely reported but satellite images (dated February this year) obtained by nuclear weapons watchdog Federation of American Scientists (FAS) for the first time show a sea entrance to an underground facility and a Jin class submarine moored at the base.

This, experts say, could give China the capability to cut off Malacca Strait and the South China Sea for commercial traffic in event of a crisis. Experts say that the base also seems to have a demagnetization facility which makes submarines more stealthy and difficult to detect.

While India has taken note of the event, military analysts say that the South China Sea is a difficult place to operate submarines and China has not yet developed the expertise to operate nuclear submarines far away from mainland.

“It will take a long time for China to develop the operational skills and structures to be able to deploy the (Jin class) SSBNs in a way that makes a real strategic difference. The Xia (China’s older class of nuclear submarines) has never deployed on a deterrent patrol, so operationally the Chinese are starting from scratch,” Hans Kristensen, Director, Nuclear Information Project, FAS, told The Indian Express.

A report in The Daily Telegraph said that satellite imagery indicated that a substantial harbour has been built that could house nuclear submarines and a host of aircraft carriers.

One photograph shows China’s latest nuclear submarine at the base just a few hundred miles from its neighbours; another shows warships moored at long jetties and a network of tunnels at the Sanya base on the southern tip of Hainan island. One of the issues of concern to the Pentagon, the newspaper reported, is the immense tunnel entrances — 11 of these have been spotted — estimated to be 60 ft high, carved into the hill-side around the base. They could lead to caverns capable of concealing from spy satellites up to 20 nuclear submarines.

The location of the base off Hainan will also give the submarines access to very deep water — exceeding 15,000 feet — within a few miles, making them even harder to detect. Two 1,000-yard piers and three smaller ones could accommodate two carrier strike groups or amphibious assault ships.

China has been packaging Hainan as a new Hawaii with its sparkling beaches lined by hotels patronised by western expatriates, Russian package tours, and China’s new middle-class, said the newspaper.

The deployment of the Jin class submarine at Hainan may motivate India to speed up its indigenous nuclear submarine project that has been in the making for the past decade. The Indian Navy is looking at inducting five indigenous ATV nuclear submarines. However, sea trials for the first sub are set to begin only by next year. In the meantime, India is leasing an Akula II nuclear attack submarine from Russia next year to initiate the training process for its personnel.

Of late, several photographs and satellite images of Chinese nuclear submarines and naval facilities have come to light, raising speculation that Beijing is subtly showing off its increasing military prowess. In October last year, several Chinese websites carried photographs showing off its latest Jin class submarine. The first clear photographs gave experts an insight into the capabilities of the vessel.

The Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) is planning to start master’s programme in Geomatics. Earlier the CEPT had introduced Diploma and advance Diploma in Geomatics. Initially, 20 students will be taken.

The course is to create skilled manpower in the field of remote sensing, digital image processing, digital cartography, photogrammetry, Geographical Information System and Global Positioning System.

Geomatics is a fast growing technology with good career prospects. It will be a six semester course covering diploma, advance diploma and master course. Each of one year. Last date for submitting application is June 30.

Redlands, California: Three universities have been approved as sites for an ESRI Development Center (EDC), a special opportunity that is part of a new design and development programme for geospatial technology. These are the University of Redlands and Claremont Graduate University in California as well as University College London in the United Kingdom.

The EDC programme was created to give recognition and status to exemplary college departments worldwide that educate students in the advanced development of ESRI's GIS technology. Students and faculty working in an EDC have the capabilities to further apply their area of expertise in shaping GIS such as extending core GIS software, system integration, computer science and information technology related to GIS, and application development for a particular domain.

"EDCs are designed to promote the development of GIS software at the core and application level as well as to recognize institutions with existing excellence in this important aspect of GIS technology," says David Maguire, chief scientist, ESRI. "Business, computing, engineering, information technology, geography—any department with research and teaching in software engineering—can qualify."

An EDC combines education and innovation and fosters essential software development in industries such as energy and conservation. An EDC can be housed in one department or be a multidisciplinary, stand-alone GIS center. Large universities may need more than one EDC on campus.