Vectors are your friend, Part III

Esri just updated its World Vector Basemaps (v.2). I updated below the notoriously complex and details Aalan Archipelago offshore Turku, Finland. I contrasted in this blog 4½ years ago posting the GSHHG world vector dataset in giscloud.com, a web vector mapping system, and ArcGIS Online, richer in data but then in raster. See an OpenStreetMap backdrop earlier in my companion blog.

Global vector datasets on the web

I described exactly two years ago posting NOAA's global shoreline dataset on my AWS stack - added  recently to personal portfolio for easy access - I discussed here earlier, why post global vector datasets, when web services provided such varieties of backdrops? At issue is that vector data are so large at global scales, that NOAA above and Natural Earth post them as various scales, where details are trade-off against scale.

GIS for oil spill modelling - Part II

This is a follow-up to Part I explaining oilspill modelling using NOAA Gnome modelling software and Kuwaiti ROPME data, all in the public domain. This has now been posted on ArcGIS Online as a time-aware file geodatabase map package. In this video using a dark grey basemap, the map package shows mock oil dispersal via advanced annotation, inversely proportional to time.

More map catalog

Last week was the inaugural post of my catalog, highlighting maps from this blog in (very) roughly reverse chronological order. The second entry make the display options more evident, as this is meant to be a light and flexible version of this more complete blog. I am not about to end its success quite yet, and have no fear I will post items of substance as well as cross-links to the catalog until it has its own followers.

Vectors are your friend, Part II (updated)

[Update: ESRI blog post here for clear explanation and treatment of same, thanks Eileen Buckley! See also my ArcGIS Online / Amazon Web Services update at bottom...]

Following on my previous post about giscloud.com posting vector maps directly on-line in HTML5, I loaded NOAA's GSHHG - A Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Geography Database in its entirety. You must be crazy, you say, to load a 425 Mb dataset on line! But here is the workflow:

Step through Hurricane Sandy the last six days

NOAA NRT AIRS fly satellites that record cloud cover and other atmospheric sensors described when I tracked Kuwaiti sandstorms. Stepping back six days offers a fascinating glimpse in the progress of the hurricane. Hurry as this posting will quickly become stale-dated as the storm moves off the US East Coast. Here is a presentation built in ArcGIS Online for your viewing pleasure.

Mapping Tropical Storm / Hurricane Isaac

A map slide show last year tracked dust and wind storms in Kuwait. I simply refocused it on the Gulf of Mexico to track the tropical storm Isaac, predicted to gain hurricane strength by land fall in Louisiana. It shows NOAA's cloud cover, wind direction and alert areas detailed here. [Please be patient as this map may take a while to load.]

iPad maps

Here is a small selection of mapping tools available on the iPad. Some are from the Appstore, others simply from the web. These are screen shots that I took for those (thanks my readers for how-to tips).

Be the weatherman for others

Last week I posted dust and wind data germane to Kuwait in my banner map. This week take the same layers and mash them up with another service: Here I took a service from ESRI(France) to post volunteer ride-sharers (covoiturage) to their SIG 2011, and added weather and urban data, just to show how easy it is to augment existing offerings.

Be your own weatherman

Dust storms are what you look out for in Kuwait. The banner map was a very simple way for me to create my own weather map:

1. where are the dust clouds?
2. what is the wind direction?
3. when will Kuwait get one?

New look and banner maps

You will have noticed that the banner picture is now a dynamic map... The monsoon season has passed and the hurricane season is starting: So let's augment the previous image of dust cover with NOAA's wind speed map too, shall we? You can zoon in&out or pan across the banner too! And you may have to "wait a sec" for the display to refresh. But I simply used the "embed" feature of ArcGIS Explorer maps, available from other packages too, and reformatted the entire banner to accommodate that.

Even more beautiful maps in current affairs

I'm baaack! Here is the web mapping service directly in ArcGIS Explorer (AGX). This was posted two weeks ago as a layer package on arcgis.com. I wondered then why AGX would not accept OGC WMS services? While I was away ESRI Support responded with two caveats:

More beautiful maps in current affairs

As I'm off for two weeks you get next week's posting today! Following last week's blogpost on Esri's beautiful ocean base map, I painted over it (to use their simile) Goddard Earth Sciences' stunning near-real-time global sensor data for:

Another Take on Climate Change, Part III

[Update: Part IV, more on mapping earth gravity]

The time-space map I looked for in Part II is on esri.com... among many others for certes! Note on the map below that the oceanic trenches indeed lie slightly outboard of the Pacific plate boundaries: as suggested earlier the epicenters are at the prow of the major bend in said boundaries; the shift in landmass, however, renders that link even more graphical.

The stunning beauty of Maps, part III

History and current events are a great opportunity for GIS as they allow to disseminate pertinent information fast to those who need it. They bring out the best in map-making I posted here and here already. Not a few websites posted maps on the Japanese catastrophe, here are those I found from watching Al-Jazeera and my favourite blogs.
NOAA tsunami map (I already posted it for Chilean quake exactly a year ago):

The power of context, Part V

The tropical storm threatening the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) oilspill cleanup shows up very well in Google Earth (download GE here) by simply using:

• EPA's Deepwater Horizon - Gulf Spill Response KML shown previously
• Google Earth latest release's legend that comes complete with ocean data
  

The power of context, Part IV

Two anecdotes on remote sensing and environmental monitoring highlight some issues in measuring and predicting the current Gulf of Mexico oil rupture.

bp oil rupture, Part II

Here the latest from bp itself at the current NOC show in London.

Gathering clouds over the horizon, Part III

Eyjafjallajoekull volcanic ash blown southeastward caused air traffic disruption last week over the northern British Isles again. I post the North Atlantic section of NOAA's free web mapping services of global cloud and chemical composition:

Gathering clouds over the horizon, Part II

I posted earlier an example of a simple Google Map reading a list of Olympic cities - this was part of a list of Google and OpenLayer maps I built over the years on my old website - I also posted a nifty display of plate boundaries in Google Earth here. Following on the discussion of new web mappping (Part I of this post), I recreated both on giscloud.com to see how the two implementations compared.