Indian Ocean Images on Google Maps

An eagle eyed reader pointed this out to me today.  If you look on Google Maps in the Indian Ocean, you will notice a patchwork of what appears to be recent satellite photos.

 

Thanks goes to Tim Harvey for pointing this out.

This might be related to the search of flight MH370, however I could not find any articles about it.  If any of you know, please reply to this post and give us all the details.

1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the US

In 1932, Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright published an Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States. It was a seminal reference book, containing almost 700 maps, and now it’s been digitized for you to explore online.  It is full of fascinating data, mapped across the US, from weather, travel, population, to gold reserves, oil fields, and vegetation types.  It’s been painstakingly transcribed into digital format, which you can view georectified or as scanned plates.  Check it out!

1932atlas

Earn an MS in GISci in 1 Year

Earn an MS in GISci in 1-year – CSULB’s MSGISci

There is still time to apply to the California State University Long Beach MS in Geographic Information Science (CSULB MSGISci). The MSGISci is a 1-year 30-unit program geared toward working professionals.

Click here for more information http://www.ccpe.csulb.edu/email/GIS.html and/or visit www.beachgis.com.

Please contact the MSGISci Program Coordinator  Ms. Beth Moody CCPE-GIS@csulb.edu and/or the MSGISci Program Director Dr. Suzanne Wechsler (Suzanne.wechsler@csulb.edu) with any questions.

April 15th is the priority application deadline.  Additional applications will be accepted through June 1st, pending remaining openings within the cohort.

National Land Cover Database

Just released, the latest edition of the nation’s most comprehensive look at land-surface conditions from coast to coast shows the extent of land cover types from forests to urban areas. The National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2011) is made available to the public by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners.

Dividing the lower 48 states into 9 billion geographic cells, the massive database provides consistent information about land conditions at regional to nationwide scales. Collected in repeated five-year cycles, NLCD data is used by resource managers and decision-makers to conduct ecosystem studies, determine spatial patterns of biodiversity, trace indications of climate change, and develop best practices in land management. Click below to check it out.

The Importance of Open GIS

This came through in one of the email lists I’m subscribed to.  I thought the articles were interesting on the importance of Open GIS and studies/research in academia.  I know we in goverment GIS appreciate and reap the benefits of Open GIS standards and software solutions.  Here is the posting (note the AAG conference starts tomorrow in Tampa, Florida):

Dear Colleague,

As some of you know, there is pre-AAG workshop on "Open GIS: New 
Opportunities for Research and Education" on Monday (7th April) that 
Prof. Sergio Rey (Arizona State University) and Prof. Daniel Sui 
(Ohio State University) are organising.  The primary goal of this 
workshop is to bring together researchers from academia, industry, 
and government agencies to discuss the new opportunities and set the 
agenda for Open GIS research and education in light of new advances 
during the past five years.  An edited volume is planned based upon 
the talks given at this workshop.

The two background papers for the AAG meeting which might be of 
interest to you:

Open Regional Science by Sergio J. Rey (article here)

Opportunities and Impediments for Open GIS,Transactions in GIS
Volume 18, Issue 1, pages 1–24, February 2014
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tgis.12075/abstract

It is only rarely fundamental changes happen in a discipline and 
OpenGIS is the fundamental change that has happened in Geospatial 
Science. The pace of change has been much beyond our expectations 
and I thank all universities who have already established and those 
in the process of establishing Open Source Geospatial Labs and all 
our colleagues in "Geo for All" initiative.

Our aim is to empower staff and students worldwide by using Free and 
Open Source GIS for education.  What is the point of teaching GIS to 
students (in both developed and developing countries) and taking away 
the tools from them after the course and telling them that now you 
need to buy these expensive proprietary software licences if you want 
to continue using them after their course (which is what the 
proprietary GIS vendors would like !)

I am determined to do everything in my abilities to make sure we can 
keep the windows of opportunities open for geospatial education for 
all students worldwide and for our future generations.  I am looking 
forward to work with you on this.

Best wishes,

Suchith Anand
University of Nottingham

How Big is a Big Map?

Stanford University Libraries digitized William Smith’s Stratified Map of England, Scotland and Wales from 1815.  It is part of an ongoing project to digitize thier “large map” holdings. Although the main section of the map is split into 15 pieces, when assembled, it measures approximately 8′ x 6′.  The digital version is made up of 253 shots and is the largest item they have digitized so far. A high resolution composite of all parts would yield an image file approximately 12Gb in size.

A Tetrad of Lunar Eclipses

A total lunar eclipse on April 15th marks the beginning of a remarkable series of eclipses all visible from North America.  For more info, visit the NASA site here.

When you mail in your tax forms that night on April 15th, you can watch the lunar eclipse too … or is that some kind of sign?

Greatest eclipse times in PDT:
April 15, 2014 – 12:47am
October 8, 2014 – 3:54am
April 4, 2015 – 5:00am
September 28, 2015 – 7:47pm