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GIS & Remote Sensing

GIS: Meta releases SAM 3

The geospatial community gains a powerful new tool as Meta releases Segment Anything Model 3 (SAM 3), setting the stage for immediate integration into specialised packages.

GIS: Meta releases SAM 3
Photo by Dima Solomin / Unsplash

Hello! Today is Friday and here’s your end-of-week-catch-up on all things geospatial. 

🚀 New Tools & Platforms

  • Meta releases SAM 3. The latest Segment Anything Model is out. Expect rapid integration into geospatial packages like SAMGeo and GeoAI for advanced image analysis.
  • Anaconda launches AI Catalyst. An end-to-end suite on AWS designed to accelerate enterprise AI by providing pre-vetted, optimised open-source models with built-in security and governance.
  • Terrasolid's LiDAR & Splatting Fusion. TerraSplat now integrates with TerraScan, merging accurate LiDAR point clouds with photorealistic Gaussian Splats to create more intuitive 3D environments for analysis.
  • Google Maps Platform expands AI access. New capabilities allow users without GIS training to leverage AI-ready geospatial datasets and analysis tools through BigQuery integration

🛰️ Missions & Satellite News

  • Sentinel-6B under control. EUMETSAT has taken control of the new satellite. It will soon fly in tandem with Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich to ensure calibration before becoming the new global reference for sea level measurement.
  • Sentinel-4 tracks air pollution. The recently launched satellite, dedicated to monitoring air quality over Europe and northern Africa with hourly UV-IR spectrometry, is now making headlines.
💡
H3 heatmap of 2.5 billion global building footprints from Overture Maps, all processed efficiently with DuckDB.

💡 Innovation & Applications

  • Geoversity: An open learning platform. Discovered at the GeoBuzz conference, this platform from ITC offers high-quality, open courses on a wide range of geospatial topics, from remote sensing to AI and ethics.
  • Google Maps Platform & AI. Google is highlighting how its AI-ready geospatial datasets and tools, like Roads Management Insights, are being used for real-time traffic prediction and management without requiring deep GIS expertise.
  • Automating CAD to GIS. A powerful Python workflow that automates the conversion of DWG/DWF files into clean GIS shapefiles, saving planners and surveyors countless hours of manual work.

📝 Tutorials

  1. Google Earth Engine tutorials
  2. 22 Free WEBGIS tutorials
  3. 8 Free Google Earth Engine tutorials on SAR applications

💡 Tip or resource of the week

  • DuckDB for Geospatial. Qiusheng Wu released a new book and walkthrough, "Spatial Data Management with DuckDB," a major resource for leveraging this high-performance database in spatial analysis.
  • I've been sharing my top 5 maps everyday. 👉 here

📩 Newsletters you don’t want to miss:

  1. Remote Sensing News by Rafaela Tiengo
  2. Matt Forrest (He also has a podcast and a YouTube channel)

🔎 Jobs lists

  1. Women in Geospatial
  2. Karolina Lehotska
  3. Remote Sensing News

☕ Support the work

If you enjoy my content and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. It really helps keep these updates coming! ☕💛 

 📬 Stay Connected

Have an interesting GIS project or update to share? send it to me on LinkedIn!

That's all for now, see you soon. 🫶🏼
-Verónica

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