SpatialNews Press Release

Detailed 3-D Russian Map of Tora Bora Region Featured in Front-Page NYT War Coverage

www.cartographic.com

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MINNEAPOLIS, Dec 13, 2001 - Arguably the world's best map of Tora Bora, the epicenter of the current U.S. effort to find and destroy forces loyal to Osama bin Laden, was published on the front page of yesterday's New York Times. The map data was sourced and produced by East View Cartographic, which gave the NYT the hands-down "visual scoop" on the Tora Bora story.

According to Kent D. Lee, President/CEO of East View Cartographic, "This map data was produced from a Russian-language 1:50,000-scale topographic map and other sources, including Russian 2-meter imagery." The topo map was originally produced by the Soviets during their war in Afghanistan. Even so, the meticulous work of Soviet cartographers makes this map, almost 20 years later, still the best such map of this area. In fact the best mapping of Afghanistan is generally acknowledged to be Soviet.

"Russian/Soviet maps can be intimidating at first glance due to their Russian-language content and the Cyrillic alphabet. Yet when digitized and rendered in the universal language of bits, and viewed or manipulated with increasingly popular GIS software, these maps are quite literally born again."

"Even experts often do not realize what a gold mine Russian/Soviet topographic maps and imagery represent," said Lee. "But the stunning Tora Bora graphic speaks for itself. That is why the Times ran this map on Page One, not buried inside."

Russian mapping and satellite imagery are still relatively unknown, except to a narrow group of experts. But for many areas of Earth they represent the best available source data for the kinds of advanced digital computer models required by more and more users-including the mass media. Known as GIS data, there is a "Russian solution" for virtually every point on Earth.

East View works every day with customers around the world -- including the United Nations -- to supply them with mapping solutions like the Tora Bora graphics -- and sometimes traditional paper maps, too.

Says EVC's CEO Kent Lee "The new challenge is now to effectively market Russian satellite imagery, which is even more underutilized. But no company is doing a better job -- the Tora Bora image was delivered in just 72 hours, a record in this business."

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Dec 13, 2001 Jun 26, 2002