While Spot Image Corp. refocuses its business model in part to become more Internet savvy, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Aerial Images Inc., operator of TerraServer.com already is providing an Internet portal for remote sensing companies, and doing quite well at generating traffic and revenue.

“We have had an avalanche of service this week reaching numbers 10 times above our average daily hits of 25,000 to 35,000 per day,” John Hoffman, chairman and founder of TerraServer.com told SPACE BUSINESS NEWS. The Web site became congested April 18 when the much-publicized image of the U.S. Air Force Test site Area 51, captured by the Russian Agency Sovinformsputnik, hit Cyberspace.

“Our role here is data aggregators and our initial access to data was Russian when we signed an ongoing contract with them in 1995, but now we have additional contracts with Orbimage and Space Imaging for imagery as well,” he added.

Hoffman is confident that as the commercial remote sensing market matures, companies such as his own ultimately will compliment the satellite imagery providers of the world. The company’s business model centers on the portal concept where Arial Images can provide content and enhanced information to other Web sites for business-to-business transactions.