Ortho and Elevation sources

[Ed McNierney]

Chip -

TopoZone continues to provide commercial WMS services for USGS topographic
maps, DOQQ aerial photos, and High-Res Urban Area imagery.  We've been doing
that for quite a while now.  For much of this data Microsoft TerraServer is
very far behind the times - I don't think they've updated any DOQQs for
several years, and of course they converted all the CIR imagery to black and
white.

Comparisons to Google Maps depend a lot on what you're looking for.  They
tend to have very good coverage in urban areas (a lot of which is the USGS
high-res urban data) but many rural areas are terrible.  Google Maps does
not seem to use USGS DOQQ images at all, and in many part of the country has
very low-resolution satellite imagery (15m or lower resolution) instead of
1m DOQQ data.  The perceived quality of their data depends a lot on what
you're looking for.

The other thing that we and other commercial providers do is provide a
commercial service.  If TerraServer goes down (and it does), too bad -
Microsoft is under no obligation to you to continue operating it at all.  If
your most important criterion is price above all else, use the free stuff.
But the biggest thing commercial providers offer is maintenance and support,
and that's not free.

I'm sure there are others out there, too.  If you'd like more info on what
we do, contact me off-list; thanks.

     - Ed

-- 
Ed McNierney
President and Chief Mapmaker
Maps a la carte, Inc. / TopoZone.com
73 Princeton Street, Suite 305
North Chelmsford, MA  01863
Phone: (978) 251-4242
Fax: (978) 251-1396
ed at topozone.com

> From: Chip Taylor <work at XWB.COM>
> Reply-To: Chip Taylor <work at XWB.COM>
> Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:53:05 -0700
> To: <MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU>
> Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] Ortho and Elevation sources
> 
> I am looking for commercial grade sources for ortho and digital photos as
> well as elevation data.  I would prefer a WFS or WMS source.  We presently
> use USGS and Terraserver data but we are looking for quality and currency on
> the order of that found in Google Maps, etc.   If you know of vendors for
> such data, any leads you could provide would be appreciated.
> 
> Chip Taylor
> Prepared Response, Inc