Sharing spatial data has become a lot easier with Soar+

Sharing spatial data online can be a challenge. Fortunately, Soar is offering a new solution to change this, so that spatial data user groups such as the open-source community can host, share and stream spatial data in a better way.

Satellite imagery files like this are often very hard to view and share due to the size and format of the data.

If you have ever exchanged spatial data with others, you probably know how complicated this can be. Satellite imagery files, in particular, can be very large, which makes it impossible to send them over email or download them quickly. To be able to view spatial data files, you often need a separate, locally installed software program. Also, large spatial data files need to be rendered as tiles (or distinct chunks of the image) before they can be shared online, which requires significant data processing workflows.

Map files have their challenges when shared with others. For example, local maps often come with a local projection, requiring the user to re-project the data before it can be displayed on a larger (world) map using a desktop GIS or open-source library. In addition, a single map often consists of multiple data files relating to various layers, which means that forgetting to include or losing one single file makes the others useless.

Soar+ is your new home for viewing and sharing spatial data with anyone!

While commercial geospatial companies have developed expensive GIS solutions that solve these problems, they are not a solution for everyone. The open-source community has developed free GIS software for working with spatial data, though these require technical knowledge to operate. This community could benefit greatly from an online solution that lets you share and view large spatial data files on a map in a similar way to Dropbox or WeTransfer. This is exactly what the Soar platform offers through its latest offering, Soar+.

A streaming service for geospatial data

Soar+ is a new service for viewing, sharing and hosting large images and map files over the internet. It was released and presented at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas this year. The idea behind Soar+ is that users can create their private online repository, where they can upload their geospatial data and share it with others. It works as a repository (such as GitHub), but you can also share data files with others (similar to Dropbox) and view the data files on a map (like a hassle-free Web GIS program). What happens is when you upload data to your private Soar+ domain, it gets processed by Soar+’s tiling engine, projected automatically, and displayed on a map online.

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The benefits of this approach are multiple: not only do you get to share the data with your users at any time, but you also don’t need any pre-installed geospatial software to be able to view the data (or your users, for that matter). This means you also don’t need any special geospatial skills for converting, re-projecting or loading the data: it is rendered automatically on a map in your browser window.

Creating a Soar+ account and uploading data

Using the new Soar+ service is easy. On the Soar homepage, click the Soar+ button and choose the free plan option. You will need to register for a free Soar account first if you haven’t done so — just follow the prompts. Next, you can name your subdomain and log in using your Soar account details. In the browser, you will see you are now inside your Soar+ subdomain.

Soar+ home page where you can sign up for your free account

On the Soar+ dashboard that you are directed to, you can add users to your subdomain, manage your data and change your subscription. You can upload your maps and spatial data using the handy drag and drop feature. After uploading your data, the files are re-projected and tiled on the map by the Soar+ processing engine. If you’re on a free Soar+ account, your imagery will be shared publicly on the Soar super-map for all to benefit from — this is very powerful for the whole world to be able to view and make use of spatial data for various environmental, social, scientific and public good. In fact, this is the very reason we created Soar+! With the Soar+ platform, your data will have a worldwide audience. By contributing your data to the Soar platform, you’re also helping Soar’s user community build better products, services and solutions to global issues, as well as the ability to monetize your spatial data.

Professional geospatial buffs will be excited to learn that there are higher tier Soar+ plans that can be configured with unlimited network scaling on a completely private server cluster. This is very powerful for companies, NGOs and Universities who need a fast and reliable solution to share sensitive spatial data with others. If this interests you or your organisation, reach out to our team of Geospatial experts at info@soar.earth to learn more!

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