2013 in Context

So 2013 was the 7th warmest year on record since 1880 according to NASA and they created this awesome animation/video showing not only changes over time, but also regional temperature anomalies across the globe. This combination of variability in time and space, however, makes it difficult to 'see' the 'signal' - the clear and obvious warming trend caused by human-emissions of greenhouse gases.

2013 Aerial Photographs from MassGIS

MassGIS just released the April 2013 aerial photographs for parts of Massachusetts. As usual, Western Massachusetts gets forgotten (actually...even cut-off from their index map).

http://www.mass.gov/anf/images/itd/massgis/datalayers/coq2013-4.png

Seeing Air!

This is great: here are animated GIFs of air rising due to density differences - something we obviously cannot 'see' directly as air is invisible. That concept is some of the more difficult for students to grasp, but essential for everything that happens in the atmosphere. So, maybe, these visualizations will be helpful!

• Seeing Thin Air (via NPR's Science Tumblr)

Flight Patterns

I saw this on FlowingData: An interactive map of planes in the sky right now (The Guardian) - click the Fly! button to see flight paths for the last 24 hours.

http://flowingdata.com/

FreshyMap

Looking for snow and snow conditions? FreshyMap is a fun mash-up of radar, wind, and current slope conditions at ski resorts across the U.S.

Things from Esri

Here are several useful and interesting items by Esri related to ArcGIS Online.

• Telling Stories With Maps (a nice 14-minute video that takes you from a data table to a web application)
• Adding Data Inside AGO (= an editable AGO map or web application)
• Mapping External Data via AGO (that's almost the inverse of the above)
• Happy Spreadsheeting
• Table Time

The Science of Snowflakes

Climate Change Infographics

It's not that complicated...

• 1991 to 2012
• 1993 to 2003
• 2012 to 2013

iPad Storytelling

I saw this over on Co.DESIGN: Storehouse - a new iPad app to facilitate storytelling on the iPad.

Immigration Explorer

Another great census data map from the New York Times: Immigration Explorer maps immigration across the U.S. between 1880 and 2000, viewable for individual countries or for all foreign-born populations combined.

Here's another option for exploring those data: Foreign-Born Population: A Nation of Overlapping Diasporas

A Map-Based Translator

This is fun: enter a word or two in English and see the translations from Google Translate mapped across Europe = The European Word Translator.

CO2 Emission by Town

Here's a great map: CO2 emissions by US town and separated into transportation, housing, food, goods, and services. It would be nice to include the data sources and methods, but the big-picture patterns (urban vs. suburban) are clear, for example when looking at Boston and surrounding towns.

But wait - there is more! Household carbon footprint maps and calculator from the CoolClimate Network at UC Berkeley. Read more about it here.

Spellchecker for Maps

That's such an obvious flaw of ArcGIS - the lack of a built-in spellchecker. The solution: use the MapSpeller extension by Edgetech-US.

Top-10 Graduate GIS Programs

For whatever it's worth...here are Justin Holman's rankings.

Colors in Maps!

Colors are a critical part of map making...unless...you are smart and just stick with grayscale.

• Color Oracle (a color-blindness simulator)
• Vischeck (another color-blindness simulator)
• Daltonize (image corrector for colorblind folks)
• ColorBlender (interactively mix your own colors)
• ColorHunter (similar to ColorBlender)
• ColorBrewer 2.0 (interactive color advice)
• Color Palette Generator
• Color Scheme Designer (interactively design your color palette)
• COPASO: basic and advanced (color palette tool)
• Adobe Kuler (yet another interactive color palette generator)
• Map Symbols for ArcGIS (by Brian Sheahan)
• Relief Shading (tips, information, and resources)
• Shaded Relief (similar to above)
• Map Color Resources (compiled by John Krygier)
• Gretchen Peterson: Colors for Maps
• Gretchen Peterson: Cartographer's Toolkit

LiDAR!

LiDAR data are pretty hip right now...I'm not necessarily sure why all the time, but here are some useful resources and links.

• LiDAR for New Hampshire
• LiDAR for Vermont
• LiDAR for New York (download here)
• LiDAR for Maine
• NOAA Digital Coast (data inventory)
• USGS CLICK
• U.S. Interagency Elevatiuon Inventory

To make things worse (or better...) we now have the LiDAR data format 'wars' starting with Esri announcing a new data format for LiDAR data: Optimized LAS.

Stamen Map Stack

Stamen Map Stack allows you to overlay several map layers, tweak their appearance as needed, and share your map as a PNG file. I wish there were some simple annotation tools and an embed option!

Placemeter

Cool and Scary!
Placemeter  is (supposed to be) able to track, in real-time, the movement of people and things = any web cam or smartphone camera can be used not only to capture video, but to generate 'big data'. Read more about it and similar apps at wired.com.


Placemeter Algorithms Output from Placemeter on Vimeo.

Google Earth Engine

You can explore Google Earth Engine using the embedded viewer below, but head-over to Google for the full-resolution images.

The Best Maps of 2013!

It's this time of the year - here are three compilations of the best and coolest maps of 2013: Wired MapLab, The Atlantic CITIES, and MapHugger. Here are a few that stand-out to me.

• Mapdwell or Cambridge Solar
• The Racial Dot Map: One Dot Per Person
• Stamen Map Stack (make and share your own maps)
• NYCHenge
• Google EarthEngine
• Poverty and Race in America
• Boston Sea Level Rise Map
• Earth Global Wind Map