UPDATE 07-21-2011: The 8-Band Research Challenge Phase 2 Winners
Congratulations Phase 2 Winners!
Dragos Bratasanu
Kelly Canham
Roberto Chávez
Anton Novichikhin
Ali Shamsoddini
Please go to the Research Papers tab to view all of the papers, including the winners!
UPDATE 05-13-2011: 2010 Research Findings
We have compiled the winning 8-Band Research Challenge research papers from 2010 into a downloadable PDF booklet. Download 2010 Recognized Research Findings.
UPDATE 03-22-11: 8-Band Challenge Phase 2
We look forward to seeing everyone at the Latin American Geospatial Forum in August. For more information about this GIS Development conference, please visit www.lagf.org.
UPDATE 2-10-11: 8-Band Challenge Phase 2
Greetings all. The deadline for final submissions for the second phase of the 8-Band Challenge will be April 1st.
The first phase of the 8-Band Challenge was a tremendous success and we learned quite a lot, both about the very high caliber of research that is being conducted in the remote sensing community, and the additional details that can be extracted using our 8-Band Imagery. I hope that all of you have had the opportunity to review the winning papers and participate in the 8-Band Discussion at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3277981.
For this phase of the challenge you have been able to work with the imagery for much longer than the first phase entrants, so we are eagerly awaiting your rigorous and thoughtful research papers. Please remember that if you submitted a paper for the first challenge, you are encouraged to re-work, enhance or build upon that first paper and submit a follow-up paper.
In selecting the winning papers for this second round, we will continue to seek papers that employ sound and rigorous scientific methods, and clearly demonstrate the added value derived from WorldView-2’s 8 spectral bands. However, we will be placing a slightly greater emphasis on those research studies that are able to assess the broad applicability of their results, and in particular to those algorithms or techniques that can be applied globally. In addition, we will be evaluating the accuracy assessment methodologies that you employ for algorithm validation.
Finally, for this phase, we will be instituting a page limit for the research papers of no more than 15 pages, single spaced, including figures and references.
Once again, all final papers should be sent as Adobe PDF attachments to the following email address: 8-Band_Challenge@digitalglobe.com.
We are eagerly awaiting the results of your research.
UPDATE 1-26-11: 8-Band Challenge Research Findings
The Geospatial World Forum was a very successful event. The recognized researchers had the opportunity to present their findings either through talks, or poster presentations. The results were very well received, and generated many interesting discussions. Overall, the findings showed that high resolution 8-Band Imagery is superior to any other commercially available multispectral imagery for remote sensing based analyses, with the level of improvement varying depending on the specific research target.
Please take the opportunity to read our Findings Brochure or view the findings on Google Earth to learn more about the results of this inaugural challenge.
I'm here in Hyderabad India, getting prepared for all the 8-Band Challenge events at the Geospatial World Forum. The five winning papers will be presented on the 20th and the 21st, plus during the DigitalGlobe User Meet on the 20th, we will be hosting an awards ceremony and moderated discussion with all the recognized researchers who have been able to attend.
In anticipation of the events at the Geospatial World Forum, all 15 papers have been published to the Winners page. Please take this opportunity to read the full research articles.
UPDATE 12-16-10: Congratulations to the 8-Band Challenge Winners
In addition to the five winners, the judges identified 10 additional high-quality papers that presented compelling research into how 8-Band Imagery adds substantial value in a wide range of applications. Please go to the Winners page to read the abstracts from these 15 excellent papers.
The five winners will be delivering presentations at the Geospatial World Forum, and the 10 additional researchers will be presenting posters at the event. We'll post more details about the event in the coming weeks, including the opportunity to pre-register for the DigitalGlobe User Meet going on at the show,
We are getting ready to announce the winners of the inaugural 8-Band Challenge. The press release will go out tomorrow morning, and the suspense will be over. Due to the overall quality of the papers, we had a difficult time selecting the winners, but in the end the judges were in complete agreement with the five winning papers.
Please remember that we will be hosting a second judging event in mid 2011. The deadline for submissions will be in the March/April time frame. Just like the first event, we will be recognizing 5 winners with $5,000 grants, and identifying up to 10 additional researchers to deliver poster presentations. The final details will be announced in January after the Geospatial World Forum.
This second event gives you the opportunity to submit a paper if you couldn't complete your research by the December 1st deadline, or if you submitted a paper for the first event, but would like to expand or update it for the second judging session. UPDATE 12-3-10: Exciting Times
UPDATE 12-3-10: Exciting Times
We are coming to the conclusion of the inaugural 8-Band Challenge. The deadline for submissions has closed, and we are thrilled with both the quantity and the quality of the papers we have received.
We are also pleased to announce the team of judges that will be evaluating the research papers and selecting the winners. These highly respected scientists from around the world will help us with the difficult task of selecting the five winning papers from such a strong group:
Stay tuned for the announcements of the winners in mid December.
UPDATE 11-23-10: Looking forward to December 1st
We are anxiously awaiting the many rich and thouough research papers that you have prepared for the December 1st deadline, in order to participate in the event at Geospatial World Forum. For those of you that will not be able to submit papers by December 1st, we will be having a second event in mid 2011 and the submission deadline will be in the March/April timeframe. More details will be forthcoming after Geospatial World Forum in Jaunary
Additional Technical Information:
We have published a document titled The Radiometric Use of WorldView-2 Imagery. This technical note discusses the radiometric use of WorldView-2 imagery. The first four sections describe the WorldView-2 instrument and general radiometric performance including the WorldView-2 relative spectral radiance response, solar spectral irradiance, gain settings, and radiometric correction of WorldView-2 products. Sections 5-7 cover more advanced topics: conversion to top-of-atmosphere spectral radiance, radiometric balancing for multiple scene mosaics, and conversion to top-of-atmosphere spectral reflectance.
UPDATE 10-1-10: Imagery distribution has begun DigitalGlobe 8-Band imagery has been distributed to the first group of 8-Band Challenge participants. We have notified each participant individually as to whether their imagery is in the archive, or whether we will have to collect new imagery for their area of interest. If the imagery is in the archive, we anticipate that it will be made available by the end of the month. For new imagery acquisitions, we will distribute it to the participants as it is acquired. Participants will receive an email from DigitalGlobe with information on how they can download their requested imagery. We are looking forward to reviewing your research in the coming months. UPDATE 9-28-10: Nearly All Proposals to be Accepted; Second Venue and Winners Group to be Added The response to our inaugural 8-Band Challenge has been tremendous. We have received over 500 high quality proposals; all worthy of support. We are pleased to announce that we are accepting them all and will attempt to provide all 500+ with up to 100 km2 of high-resolution 8-Band imagery. We will be able to satisfy many of the proposals with imagery from our archive. For those whose imagery needs can be satisfied with this archive imagery, we will be providing the needed imagery over the next few weeks. There are many others that will require the collection of new imagery. Due to the uncertainty of weather conditions around the globe, the nature of satellite imagery acquisition, and the very large number of accepted proposals, we will be providing this imagery as it is collected beginning in the next few weeks and potentially extending out a few months. We want to be sure that all applicants have adequate time to conduct their research and submit high-quality scientific papers. We also feel that with such a large group of researchers participating in the Challenge, we want to be able to recognize more than five winners. Therefore, we are also pleased to announce that we are expanding the 8-Band Challenge to include a second venue where we will award an additional five $5,000 grants, and give the authors an opportunity to present their findings. This second venue has yet to be determined, but it will extend the 8-Band Challenge to the second quarter of 2011. Applicants will still have the opportunity to conduct their research and submit their papers on the December 1st deadline in order to be considered for an award at Geospatial World Forum. There will also be a second submission date in early 2011 for consideration of the second award. The details of this second event will be announced in the near future. We are very excited about the interest in DigitalGlobe’s high-resolution 8-Band imagery, and we are eagerly awaiting the results of so many highly capable researchers. For the first-time ever, remote sensing and GIS researchers have access to high-resolution imagery with 8 spectral bands, including coastal blue, yellow, red-edge and NIR2. Do you have a valuable application to use this new data? Enter the 8-Band Challenge to get free imagery for your research and a chance to win $5,000 and present your findings at Geospatial World Forum in January! DigitalGlobe will make 8-band imagery available to qualifying researchers to study the impact of using this data for: Land Use/Land Cover Analysis Environmental Mapping and Monitoring Coastal Habitat Mapping Feature Extraction and more... All accepted proposals will be granted free 8-band multispectral imagery, up to 100 km2 in order to conduct the research. Completed research papers will be evaluated by a panel of experts who will select 5 winning papers. The 5 winners will be invited to present their findings at the Geospatial World Forum in Hyderabad, India, January 18 - 21, 2011 The winners will receive free conference registration courtesy of GIS Development, and a $5,000 (US) grant from DigitalGlobe intended to defray the costs of traveling to Hyderabad, India. An additional 10 researchers will be invited to deliver poster sessions on their research at the Geospatial World Forum as well. Media Sponsor: Organizers of the Geospatial World Forum and Latin American Geospatial Forum. Geospatial World Forum shall offer a platform for the various stakeholders of geospatial technologies from across the globe to come together to deliberate upon the 'Dimensions and Directions of Geospatial Industry'.
UPDATE 10-1-10: Imagery distribution has begun
DigitalGlobe 8-Band imagery has been distributed to the first group of 8-Band Challenge participants. We have notified each participant individually as to whether their imagery is in the archive, or whether we will have to collect new imagery for their area of interest. If the imagery is in the archive, we anticipate that it will be made available by the end of the month. For new imagery acquisitions, we will distribute it to the participants as it is acquired. Participants will receive an email from DigitalGlobe with information on how they can download their requested imagery. We are looking forward to reviewing your research in the coming months.
UPDATE 9-28-10: Nearly All Proposals to be Accepted; Second Venue and Winners Group to be Added
The response to our inaugural 8-Band Challenge has been tremendous. We have received over 500 high quality proposals; all worthy of support. We are pleased to announce that we are accepting them all and will attempt to provide all 500+ with up to 100 km2 of high-resolution 8-Band imagery. We will be able to satisfy many of the proposals with imagery from our archive. For those whose imagery needs can be satisfied with this archive imagery, we will be providing the needed imagery over the next few weeks.
There are many others that will require the collection of new imagery. Due to the uncertainty of weather conditions around the globe, the nature of satellite imagery acquisition, and the very large number of accepted proposals, we will be providing this imagery as it is collected beginning in the next few weeks and potentially extending out a few months.
We want to be sure that all applicants have adequate time to conduct their research and submit high-quality scientific papers. We also feel that with such a large group of researchers participating in the Challenge, we want to be able to recognize more than five winners. Therefore, we are also pleased to announce that we are expanding the 8-Band Challenge to include a second venue where we will award an additional five $5,000 grants, and give the authors an opportunity to present their findings. This second venue has yet to be determined, but it will extend the 8-Band Challenge to the second quarter of 2011.
Applicants will still have the opportunity to conduct their research and submit their papers on the December 1st deadline in order to be considered for an award at Geospatial World Forum. There will also be a second submission date in early 2011 for consideration of the second award. The details of this second event will be announced in the near future.
We are very excited about the interest in DigitalGlobe’s high-resolution 8-Band imagery, and we are eagerly awaiting the results of so many highly capable researchers.
For the first-time ever, remote sensing and GIS researchers have access to high-resolution imagery with 8 spectral bands, including coastal blue, yellow, red-edge and NIR2. Do you have a valuable application to use this new data?
Enter the 8-Band Challenge to get free imagery for your research and a chance to win $5,000 and present your findings at Geospatial World Forum in January!
DigitalGlobe will make 8-band imagery available to qualifying researchers to study the impact of using this data for:
All accepted proposals will be granted free 8-band multispectral imagery, up to 100 km2 in order to conduct the research. Completed research papers will be evaluated by a panel of experts who will select 5 winning papers.
The 5 winners will be invited to present their findings at the Geospatial World Forum in Hyderabad, India, January 18 - 21, 2011
The winners will receive free conference registration courtesy of GIS Development, and a $5,000 (US) grant from DigitalGlobe intended to defray the costs of traveling to Hyderabad, India.
An additional 10 researchers will be invited to deliver poster sessions on their research at the Geospatial World Forum as well.
Media Sponsor:
Organizers of the Geospatial World Forum and Latin American Geospatial Forum.
Geospatial World Forum shall offer a platform for the various stakeholders of geospatial technologies from across the globe to come together to deliberate upon the 'Dimensions and Directions of Geospatial Industry'.