Satellite Imaging Corporation Delivers IKONOS Imagery For Microsoft Australia Day Event

January 26, 2007; 04:29 AM
Microsoft has commissioned Satellite Imaging Corporation ( Web: http://www.satimagingcorp.com/ ) to task the IKONOS satellite sensor (at 0.8m resolution) to take a satellite image of New Norcia, which will depict the Yuat people reflecting unity. The scene was designed by three professional artists.

Australia Day will feature numerous events around the country. The custom imagery collected by Satellite Imaging Corporation (SIC) will be processed and made ready for an appearance at Look Up and Smile (Web: http://www.lookupandsmile.com.au/ ), the official site commissioned by Microsoft Australia. It will be overlaid on Virtual Earth maps in order to complement the event listings and photos uploaded by users.

The Virtual Earth map uses groundbreaking Microsoft technology, such as pushpin clustering, custom pushpin pop-ups, on-demand content loading for pop-ups, and Web service throttling, a feature of MS AJAX RC 1.

With today's satellite remote sensing technology and the availability of satellite and airborne sensors, we are capable of obtaining valuable information that can monitor global environmental changes and provide key decision makers with essential data, such as 3D terrain visualization and geospatial information designed to support geographic information systems (GIS) projects.

United in Reconciliation
The event, a celebration of freedom, culture and religious faiths, will be held at New Norcia from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Recreated in an outback sheep paddock, the image will measure 100m x 90m and will be captured by the IKONOS high resolution satellite sensor ( Web: http://www.satimagingcorp.com/gallery-ikonos.html ) in honor of the day. The painting Peace will lay on the ground at a 160-year-old farm from the old Benedictine community, whose constituents are leading the way to practical reconciliation. Peace features six campsites and a common meeting place near the Moore River. The olive leaves, a symbol of peace, will reflect the artists' time as children, when they harvested the New Norcia olives. Peace is a creation of Sheila Humphries, Fatima Drayton, and Deborah Nannup, all artists who still call New Norcia their home. The project will unite Australians for the 40th anniversary of the 1967 referendum that officially acknowledged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as citizens.

More Info
Australia Day is a national public holiday. For many years, the holiday was held on the closest Monday of the anniversary, in order to provide a long weekend. Today, it is held on the actual anniversary of the 1967 referendum.

Australia Day is marked by civic celebrations around the country, including the Order of Australia and Australian of the Year awards for outstanding achievement. The Australia Day Achievement Medallion is awarded to citizens for their excellence in both government and non-government organizations. Air Force aerial displays are held in some capital cities. Citizenship ceremonies are also held on Australia Day, and the Prime Minister customarily makes an address to the nation.

Australia Day is treated with ambivalence by those who consider the anniversary of the foundation of one colony irrelevant to the overall history of Australia. Some Western Australians are quick to point out that Western Australia was not even claimed by Britain until September 19, 1829, while the eastern part of Australia had been claimed much earlier, in 1770.