Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!amdahl!littauer
From: littauer@uts.amdahl.com (Tom Littauer)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: GIS systems
Message-ID: <38hj02CV28mg01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 18 May 89 03:03:44 GMT
References: <7949@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Reply-To: littauer@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Tom Littauer)
Distribution: na
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 43

In article <7949@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> fielding@geology.tn.cornell.edu writes:
>
>10 pixels per km is pretty low resolution. The Landsat Thematic Mapper data 
>(with complete coverage of the US several times over) has 30 m pixels and
>seven bands:  3000 km x 30 p/km x 1500 km x 30 x 7 bands = 28 GB.
>
>There is the SPOT imagery 10 m resolution x 1 spectral band = 450 GB
>I believe this is available for the full US several times over, also.

Perhaps we miscalculated at the time, but we figured it'd take about
100 GB to do "your town from space" instead of "road map of your town".
Cost of the data was all that kept us from doing it...

>
>Then there is the Eos (Earth Observing System) NASA is planning to launch in 
>the mid-90s. It will have an instrument call HIRIS with 30 m pixels and 
>up to 128 bands (limited by the rate at which they can beam it down), with
>a 30 km wide swath. This should cover the US several times a year. They are
>now trying to figure out how to deal with this data volume.
>

Ahem. :-)

>			++Eric Fielding
>fielding@geology.tn.cornell.edu
>
>(BTW, I analyzed about 2.5 GB of Landsat Thematic Mapper data for my PhD
>dissertation. The new digital videotape storage devices make this pretty
>easy.)

2.5 GB is the smallest amount we sell... it'd have been even easier on
17ms. disk, yes? Sorry for the blatant commercialism, but you guys need
to rethink what BIG is. Yes, I know it ain't cheap - but it's been shipping
for a long time and works; and it makes some problems solvable that are
out of reach on small systems.
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