20/10-05   -   Press releases

Yet Another World Record for Danish Software

A few days ago, a set of images was made available online by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of The Blue Marble Next Generation Project. The set of images was collected by satellite over a 12 month period and features views of our entire planet, shifting snowlines, etc. The project concerns climate research, but the image series is worth a visit by anyone with an interest in weather and/or photography.

A unique feature of the image dataset is that it consists of 120 Gigabytes – enough to fill approximately 180 CD-ROM’s – yet still can be viewed with zoom functions using an ordinary browser on an ordinary Internet connection.

This groundbreaking achievement was made possible by the Danish software firm YaWah.com, who supplied an eRez imaging server to NASA last year for use in efforts against forest fires, natural disasters, etc. A group of NASA researchers realized that they now had the means to make extremely large image files available online and suggested that YaWah.com explore the possibility of breaking the company’s previous record in online image management, which was 2.6 Gigabytes.

Kristian Ottosen, proprietor of YaWah.com, explains, “NASA contacted us a few months ago and asked outright if our software could handle 120 Gigabytes. That’s nearly 50 times our previous record, which was also a NASA image of the Earth. We accepted the challenge, which in fact only entailed a few tweaks to our software – and, of course, lots of room on the server."

The Project images are now online at the NASA website and can also be viewed at the YaWah.com website http://www.yawah.com/bmng It is impressive to see our world presented this way – and interesting to track the snowline’s movements over the course of a year. It offers a unique opportunity to zoom in close and actually see if there was snow in your home town during any given month.

The Blue Marble Next Generation Project is just one example of how extremely large image files can be made readily accessible online. NASA also employs eRez to transmit highly detailed images, for instance to rescue workers during major natural disasters. “In such cases, speed and high resolution can literally be a matter of life and death," notes Kristian Ottosen.

About Yawah.com
YaWah.com is a market-leading software developer specializing in image management for e-business and cross media. The company was founded in 2001 by Kristian Ottosen who has decades of experience in the development of maging software. YaWah focuses on the simplification of cross media publishing, where high quality images play a crucial role. The company’s primary product is the eRez Imaging Server, which is available with numerous expansions. For more information, visit www.YaWah.com