30-Arcsecond Global Climate Data

Very nice - have a look at Global Climate Data (Oregon State University) - they provide the data, script, methods, and a peer-reviewed paper. 30-arcseconds is about 1 km at the equator and obviously less as you travel towards the poles.

Before The Internet!

StoryMap JS

StoryMap JS is similar to Google Tours or Esri Story Maps, expect you can create your story based on a large and high-resolution image of something, be that a gigapixel panorama, satellite image, or scanned historical map. Below is a quick proof-of-concept using a 4000 by 3000 pixel image. Obviously this would be a lot cooler with a real gigapixel image, but you get the idea.

Mapping Life!

The folks at Google Maps Mania posted-up a nice compilation of maps showing where stuff lives, why, and how. I guess I'm getting bored with these well-designed, data-rich, and very complex ways to show information - that's all they do: collate and show information, really no better than the old dictionary. We still have not gotten to the 'Web Map 2.0' level that allows for true analytics and is tied to action!

What We Know

Not to be outdone by the US National Academy of Science and The Royal Society...now we have the AAAS and What We Know (about the reality, risks, and response to climate change).


Consensus Sense from What We Know on Vimeo.

The Geology of Adventure

The geology of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

The 6th Extinction: An Unnatural History

The 6th Extinction: An Unnatural History is a great book by Elizabeth Kolbert, one of the great non-fiction writers of today - read it!

• On the Daily Show (after the annoying ad)
• On NPR's All Things Considered

Go Take A Drive!

Well - at least virtually using this cool Bing 3D demo. Click over to Google Maps Mania for some information and instructions. Locally, try 'driving' from Lincoln to North Conway (NH) along the Kancamagus Highway).

Mapping Drought 1896 to 2012

Simple and effective: the US Drought Footprint as mapped in the NYT - this is essentially a simplified version of the US. Drought Monitor.

Mapping the Moon

Here is a GigaPan mosaic of the Moon - all you need is a camera (in this case mounted on a satellite) and the software. Just a few years ago this was pretty high-tech and impressive....now every smartphone can do it (it does get a but more complex if you want a very high-quality mosaic at very high-resolution).

The Geography of Coffee Chains

Mapped @ FlowingData

GIS Maps with MS Excel

Heat maps to be specific - have a look at Polczynski and Polczynski (2014) A Microsoft VBA Application for Generating Heat Maps. Or, download everything you need here.

The same authors also have another paper and Microsoft Excel VBA application for creating KML maps from spreadsheet data.

Live from the ISS

Live From Space is another example of TMJ = too much junk (on a map). All I had hoped for was a simple and fast map showing the ISS moving along...on this one I can't even figure-out how to zoom-out.

Population Division

Population Division = a map showing, well, population across the Earth, has received a lot of attention lately...not sure why. Sure, it's cool, different, and hip (using D3), but I don't find it particularly useful and informative.

Solar Power

The folks at NASA provided a great Landsat 8 satellite image of the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California.

Forecast.io

Forecast is without a doubt the coolest weather forecasting app out there - the maps and animations are stunning. They also provide very high-resolution temperature maps via their Project Quicksilver and Dark Sky, the matching iOS app. But, is any of that actually a better forecast than forecast.weather.gov?

Shale Gas/Oil and Light Pollution

Seen on Google Maps Mania: an interactive map of shale gas and oil drilling across the USA and the already well-known Earth at Night 2012 map - put them side-by-side and see the light pollution created by shale gas exploration.

North Dakota shale gas

Tornado Outbreaks

This 'web map' of tornado outbreaks by Brenden Heberton is incredibly-well done - it's really not a map, but an interactive multimedia visualization that happens to include maps. I'm not sure what you would do with it other than admire the design?

Time!

Where Time Comes From from The Atlantic on Vimeo.

Europe 24

Europe 24 from NATS on Vimeo.

Matterport

This is the indoor (and commercial) version of Structure-from-Motion to create 3D models of the inside of a room, house, whatever.

• Matterport
• Article on Wired.com

Apples vs. Digital Apples

Or: How does Bitcoin work?
Here is a map where you can pay with Bitcoin.

How Mountains Form and Fall Apart!

The Weight of Mountains from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

ArkGIS

No typo here...ArkGIS is a nicely-done interactive mash-up web map about the Arctic (I like the screenshot function: simple and useful).

UAV and Structure-from Motion

There is more high-tech in this paper than I can handle: Lucieer et al. (2014) Mapping landslide displacements using Structure from Motion (SfM) and image correlation of multi-temporal UAV photography. Progress in Physical Geography 38(1), 97-116.

• Here's the Mikrocopter UAV they used.
• Structure-from-Motion was implemented using Agisoft (see also this previous post about Structure-from-Motion).
• The displacement was determined using COSI-Corr from CalTech.

80 Maps that explain the world

Well, at least according to Mark Fisher from the Washington Post. He provides a few sentences of context for each map. This could make for a nice learning activity in a GIS course.

• Part 1 (= the first 40)
• Part 2 (= 40 more)

Population Density Map

This is about as good as it gets: Population Density by Derek Watkins, highlighted recently by MapCarte 64/365.

Historic Maps

Here are three very similar web maps: historic maps were scanned, georeferenced, combined into mosaics, and are shared with the world using ArcGIS Server.

• Toronto
• Cleveland
• Pittsburgh

This would be a good project for local cities and towns using the Historic USGS Maps of New England and New York available from the UNH Library.

The Continents of Mammals!

Mapping Migration

Here are four excellent web maps / infographics showing international and national migration. The underlying technologies are also quite interesting and the different approaches to data visualization.

• MigrationsMap.Net is a classic web map, nicely executed in HTML5.
• Immigration Explorer combines space and time data from the U.S. Census in a classic NYT style.
• Restless America is not a 'map' but instead an interactive infographic.
• Origins and Destinations of the World’s Migrants, from 1990-2015 shows the flows of people in and out of countries.

Google and World Domination

Excellent read in the NYT Magazine (11 December 2013): Google's Road Map to Global Domination

Some interesting points:

• It's all about the data - more specifically finding the data inside the data, such as the locations of fast food restaurants that can then become part of 'augmented reality'. Apparently Google employs over 2,000 human operators as well pattern-detection bots to add value to their Street View images.
• The open-source alternative Open Street Map gained once Google started charging large users for location-based services through Google Maps.
• Turn-by-turn driving directions are convenient, but essential for self-driving cars. In essence they can operate in the real world because they can follow the directions of the virtual world.

MOOC: Skills for the Digital Earth

4-weeks and free - not a bad deal - maybe worth trying: Skills for the Digital Earth by Elmhurst College on the Desire2Learn platform.

Climate Change for K-12

NeoK12 has some nice short videos for teaching K-12.

• Global Warming
• Energy
• Carbon Cycle
• The Seasons

Ocean Currents

Here are a few excellent visualizations of ocean currents.

• NASA Perpetual Ocean (July 2005 to December 2007)
• Ocean currents around the USA (real-time)
• Ocean currents global (real-time)

Science Comics

Here's a great listing of science comics (via Beatrice the Biologist).