MoreLAKEWOOD, COLORADO, USA, 3 April 2006 - WhiteStar Corp. plans to introduce its new WhiteStar Elevation Service at the ESRI Petroleum Users Group Conference and at the AAPG Annual Convention. WhiteStar will be running live demonstrations of the Elevation Service in booths at the conferences, both of which will be held this month in Houston.
The WhiteStar Elevation Service utilizes a proprietary ArcGIS extension developed by WhiteStar to enable clients to create elevation profiles for features or sets of points - such as roadways, pipelines or well locations - anywhere in the world. The Elevation Service extension opens inside the client's ArcGIS and allows them to run the profile against a database supplied by WhiteStar or a database of their own. WhiteStar can host the client database if necessary.
"We designed the Elevation Service for oil & gas companies, pipeline operators, forestry firms, utilities and other organizations that must accurately determine elevation values as part of their mapping projects," said Steve Pickett, WhiteStar Director of Business Development. "Working in ArcGIS, the client can select an entire feature layer - hundreds of miles of roads or thousands of wellheads - and instantly receive elevation values for them."
For international mapping projects, the WhiteStar Elevation Service generates profiles for any region of the world using the 30-meter digital elevation database created with Enhanced Space Shuttle SRTM data. Within the Continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii, the detail is even better. The Elevation Services utilizes 10-meter elevation data from a USGS National Elevation Dataset processed by WhiteStar. Bathymetric data is also available for offshore profiles, and WhiteStar can host a client-supplied LiDAR data set for use with the service.
"The WhiteStar Elevation Service is the ultimate "what-if' scenario simulation tool for corridor selection and planning," said Pickett. "The Service enables users to instantly generate elevation profiles by clicking on an existing feature, such as a transportation network, pipeline corridor or utility rights-of-way. Users can even trace their own profiles across a map to examine hypothetical routes and corridors."
Available on a subscription or per-project fee basis, the WhiteStar Elevation Service opens a profile generation tool bar within the client's ArcGIS, allowing the user to select the resolution and sampling rate. The service outputs the profile in a graphical format or as a series of elevation points for loading into another modeling application. Clients can also download points from a GPS survey directly into the extension to create profiles of field traverses.
WhiteStar will be demonstrating the WhiteStar Elevation Service at both the ESRI Petroleum Users Group and AAPG Annual conferences. The ESRI show will be held April 3-5, 2006, at the JW Marriott Hotel in Houston, and the AAPG convention will be held April 9-12 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
