Esri has signed a strategic contract with GeoEye to license a large supply of GeoEye’s high-resolution Ikonos archive imagery, the satellite imagery provider announced April 15.
    Esri said it would integrate the GeoEye imagery with its current imagery data from multiple sensors to produce a global, static cache map layer and begin building this imagery base layer within the next few weeks. The company expects to complete the projects in early 2012.
    "Esri has been GeoEye’s trusted partner for more than a decade, so we are very excited to embark on this new project with them. This innovative GIS solution will deliver a better user experience to Esri customers by providing easy access to GeoEye’s satellite imagery in their everyday tools," GeoEye Senior Vice President of Sales Chris Tully said in a statement.