Aurora, CO – February 23, 2010 – Merrick & Company (www.merrick.com) is acquiring and processing light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data and visible near infrared (VNIR) hyperspectral imagery for a U.S. Army Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC) project, located in Orlando, Florida. The work is being done under a contract for Applied Research Associates, a 1,400-person, international research and engineering company.
STTC’s mission is to ensure the dominance of the U.S. Army by creating, integrating, and delivering technology-enabled solutions. These advanced technology simulators provide key training opportunities for the war fighter. The collected data will provide the basis for urban terrain modeling and will be used to design a 3D simulation training model. The data provided includes 128 spectral bands and .5 meter pixel resolution VNIR hyperspectral imagery and 0.5 meter ground sample distance (GSD) LIDAR data in order to provide a very high fidelity data set. Features that will be extracted from the data include bare earth, building footprints, tree canopy points and polygons, surface hydrology, road networks, and utilities. The data is being collected over a 19-square-mile area.
Merrick & Company, a $100 million geospatial solutions, surveying, engineering, architecture, and design-build firm, serves domestic and international clients in the geospatial technologies, mapping, energy, security, and life sciences markets. With a focus on geospatial surveying and remote sensing services (Merrick GeoSpatial Solutions), the firm’s most recent work includes light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data acquisition in Texas for oil and gas exploration, acquiring LiDAR data for the Federal Emergency Management Association’s dam and levee recertification program, providing services to Xcel Energy, and providing services to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
Applied Research Associates, an employee-owned firm, was founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1979 and now has offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. The firm is staffed with advanced degree engineers and physical scientists with the capabilities to produce solutions for the technically complex needs of national defense and aerospace, homeland safety and security, transportation, and commercial applications.