Whitebread Race Weekend 2009 (Photo by Fine Arts Restoration, Shelter Island, NY) Completing a 50-year quest to find and reduplicate the scene  inset at lower right, painted by Y E Soderberg, based upon a family sail with my Dad around Shelter Island, NY in 1959.   (Cedar Point Lighthouse, East Hampton, in each background.) Whitebread is Shelter Island humor, mocking the seriousness of the more famous Whitbred Race Around the World Race, now known as Volvo Ocean Racing, after its corporate owner.  

The wavy red line in the logo above is the inspiration behind the play on words in "Earth Image."  From my first underground mapping commission, it is a ground penetrating radar reflection against a burial vault at the historic Quaker Cemetery, at the westerly runway extension of the Westchester County Airport (HPN).  The wave at left end is the air/ground interface of the radar penetration, while the wave at the right end is the "earth image," the buried body.  Interstate boundary legal issues and tree growth at the cemetery necessitated a physical move of the air space definition of the runway, another complex but invisible mapping issue at the site.

 

EarthImage.Net  OFFERING SERVICES  

Technology, experience and expertise for the detection and mapping of physical resources and features over and under the ground and 

ocean, combined with

 

 Professional Forestry and Licensed Land Surveying  (NY & CT) by

 

Michael W. Finkbeiner, Yale Master of Forest Science 1971

(Click for Contact Info, Experience & Qualifications) or PDF 

 

or email me at mwf@earthimage.net  tel: 203 661-3897

We're on TwitterFacebook, You Tube, Plaxo & LinkedIn

 

Precision GPS surveying, Robotic Surveying, and Bathymetrics are performed with paired Topcon Hiper+ rovers.  Real-time high precision positions fixes to the rovers are broadcast by internet and/or FCC licensed UHF radio WQCG356 from our base station.

 

Daily Earth Image   Daily BP Oil Spill Update

 

HOT TOPICS and Special Pages:

 

  FEMA News - FEMA Changes 6/18/2010  - New Rate Maps 2010

 

Byram River Parks System   

Flooding and Discharge

Byram Valley Flood Hazard Mitigation

 

Greenwich Harbor and Harbor Master

Low-Head Hydro Power as the solution to Harbor Siltation

 

Greenwich CT Emergency Warning System and Event Management

 

Greenwich CT Planning & Zoning Issues   RE-Regressive Tax

 

Affordable Housing  and the R-6 Zone Two-Family Permitted Use

 

Greenwich Cell Phone Tower to School setback 1500 feet 

 

Personal Family History (Deceased Members Only)

 

Precision GPS/Glonass Reference Base Stations

 

Earth Image operates a pair of Topcon dual frequency (L1/L2) dual constellation (GPS/Glonass) receivers with a 56,000 ft baseline length between them to permit high precision rover fixes and triangulation throughout the Fairfield/Westchester area.  We broadcast real-time correction measurements (RTCM Ver. 2.3) through two fixed IP addresses.  These are monitored and calibrated through the National Geodetic Survey Continuous Operating Reference System (CORS), the nearest station of which is only 718 meters to our south (NYS DOT Valhalla Station CORS-nyvh.)  To the CORS constellation of GPS satellites, we add almost an equal number of Russian Glonass satellites, improving our satellites visible (SV) number substantially.

 

To view the satellites overhead right now click look up

 

Base 1   N 41-02-06, W073-37-29 from IP 96.56.48.67 Port 4000

Base 2  N 41-05-18, W073-04-55  from IP 216.150.130.99 Port 23 

 

    Base 2 is owned by Xand Corp, photo left.

 

 

Hydrographic Surveys:

 

The launchable Zodiac with its "mother ship base", hosting 5 Hertz RTK GPS broadcast by internet and CDMA cell-phone modem connection to the NY State DOT Real-Time Network in Albany.  In Connecticut, our office base station transmits GPS & Glonass Satellite signals each second to the Topcon-based Superior Network in Milldale,Ct, providing a private service alternative covering Connecticut and Long Island Sound. The Zodiac's rover unit is mounted over the 200-KHz narrow -cone depth sounder, with xyz results viewed in real-time by Carlson SurvCE data-collection software.

 

By a custom-programmed Earth Image application, these readings can be imported in real-time to an AutoCAD site drawing or GIS ortho photos of the project.

 

Real time dredge depths and volumes can be monitored for daily progress results. 

 

Launchable Zodiac Hydro Explorer

 

 

  

 

 

Marina and Mooring Field Coordination 

The JFK Marina, on the Hudson River in Yonkers, is an example of urban waterfront redevelopment requiring tight coordination of user interests, resources, and regulatory constraints.

The bronze disc (pictured left), occupied for RTK broadcast, was set for the purpose of augmenting the Yonkers Geodetic Control network, specifically to aid others in the implementation of the Master Plan.

First-order elevations were transferred to the new disc from NGS KU1795, and a series of static GPS observation sessions were submitted to National Geodetic Survey for analysis and processing.

A combination of concurrent static sessions on HARN monuments (High Accuracy Reference Network) were processed with CORS stations RINEX files (Continuously Operating Reference Stations) at NY DOT locations and the Lamont Earth Sciences Lab on the Palisades in the photo background.

Tidal datums were obtained from tide disc KU1630 at the old Yonkers Ferry Terminal across the Hudson River at Alpine, NJ.  The resultant solutions were submitted in draft form to the National Geodetic Survey OPUS program for checking, certification and inclusion in the national control database.

Regulatory lines and elevations were then established for permit coordination purposes, and observation values transferred to the limits of the project, which include seawall rehabilitation, mooring field establishment, and in-water docking facilities.

A modification to federal navigation regulatory lines in the Hudson River was submitted to the Coast Guard and published in the Federal Register.

 

Waterfront construction compliance surveys.

 

Reconstruction of jetties, groins and rip-rap peninsulas, subject to Army Corp and State DEP/DEC Regulatory Permits.  As-builts are performed on an on-going basis, with pre- and post-construction conditions monitored for compliance horizontally and vertically.  Robotic total station technology (Leica 1203) is used for precise results.

 

 

 

Regulatory Mapping:

 

Surface features are mapped by GPS, at times using lasers to precisely locate features.   For tree mapping assignments, a LaserTech Criterion 400 Forestry Laser permits optical fork measurement of tree diameter.  Our custom-designed software and data dictionaries allow collection of attributes such as species, size and condition for inclusion in municipal and private GIS databases or tree inventories in a variety of formats, including ArcView, DXF, and MS-Access .  

 

Inter-tidal zone mapping, here pictured (left) on Great South Bay, Long Island, delineates the critical regulatory interface between spartina and phragmites species, with accurate establishments of baselines and benchmarks in the prevailing State Plane Coordinate Grid and Datum.

 

GIS attributes can be added to the data dictionary, which is customized for each project.

 

Set and Coordinate Custom Project Controls.  

By occupying a First-Order USGS control disc, we transfer control values to your project site with centimeter precision. 

We also submit our observation session for quality evaluation and inclusion in the National Database of control monumentation.

This First Order Control is made available to the public with our high-accuracy tie-in to the

Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS)

https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS/

and our participation in

 OPUS: Online Positioning User Service

 

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/OPUS/showMarks.jsp

 

This Greenwich primary control is viewable at:

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/OPUS/getDatasheet.jsp?PID=LX1163