More polar 'map porn'

[I stole the second half of the title from Reddit group of same name.]

From previous blog posts on Arctic polar maps here and here, let me share two more maps found via my favourite Facebook group Remembering the Franklin Expedition.

NASA's Worldview offers satellite imagery (and a dozen others) since 2000 in easy-to-access interactive maps, in whatever projection you wish. Here is the polar projection of the Arctic:

click ot enlarge or go to site

It was used to illustrate the possible drift of two ships from the Franklin Expedition lost at sea in 1845. Explore the dozen or so other data-sets and animate even record them...


NOAA's Historical Magnetic Declination viewer also affords arresting polar views... back to 1590! Note those are modelled data, and observations start 1904, which is still pretty long track record...

click ot enlarge or go to site

This illustrates the southernmost excursion of the North Pole, shown here at the date of the loss of the Franklin Expedition. That expedition was BTW tasked with studying magnetism, then a new science.

While there are expeditions afoot here and at sea here, this has never been a better time to be an armchair explorer... all this due to open data portals - here is one I helped curate among many, many more.