Mosaic of Antarctica

Data, Internet Mapping

NASA has stitched together over a thousand satellite images to create the most detailed map ever of Antarctica.  The main LIMA site contains information about Antarctica including fact sheets, detail on how LIMA is being used to study and understand the continent and access to a virtual tour of Antarctica.  A map server hosted on the ... read more

Highspeed Rail Plans for the U.S.

Geography

Popular mechanics has an article in their December issue that provides an overview of highspeed rail plans for the United States.  The article looks at steel-wheel and maglev lines as a possible solution for easing the air and roadway gridlock.  The second page of the article has an interactive map showing proposed high speed rails ... read more

What American Accent Do You Have?

Geography

Take this fun quiz to see where your American accent comes from.  The thirteen question quiz asks you to select from a list of choices to see how closely you pronounce various words before calculating a result of what region your accent most matches. 

What American Accent Do You Have?

Which GIS Blogs Do You Read?

Community

With hundreds of geography and GIS related sites available in the blogsphere to choose from, it can be a daunting task to figure out which blogs to read to meet your own spatial learning needs.  I’m doing a survey among GIS professionals to understand what geoblogs are the most popular among readers and why.  If you’re ... read more

Books about maps

Geography

William Grimes over at the New York Times has published a review of books relating to cartography and geography in his latest column (published November 23, 2007) entitled “From the Glove Compartment to the Shelf.” The books presented run the plethora from the romantic novel by Béa Gonzalez called the “The Mapmaker’s Opera” to the ... read more

Interview with GeoNames Founder

Data

Good Gear Guide has an interview with Marc Wick who founded the GeoNames site which was launched in 2005 to provide and open and free source of geographical names.  At the last count, the service has over 8 million geographic names and has a wiki style interface for users to add, edit and correct names ... read more

Call for women role models

Community

From Sophia Teper: I’m working with the CalWomenTech Project for California Community Colleges to promote recruitment and retention of women in male-dominated programs, such as GIS. One of the ways in which we’re assisting the women in these programs is through Role Model Panels. I’m looking for panelists to participate in our upcoming panels. The topics are listed below: 1) Creating Female ... read more

Air Quality for Google Earth

Data

Hourly updates of air quality for the United States is now available for Google Earth.  Available from the AIRNow database, information about the Air Quality Index (AQI) is pulled from different government sources including the National Park Service and NASA.

Air Quality Index in Google Earth

Google Earth Resources

Link Library

Google Earth combines satellite imagery, geographic data and Google’s search capabilities to create a virtual globe application that you can download to your desktop. Find resources here to help you expand this geographic data viewer application. Google Earth Home Page Learn about and download the free version of Google Earth from this page. Creating Google Earth KMLs ... read more

Longest Avian Non-Stop Flight

Geography

E7 is a female bar-tailed godwit who has earned herself the distinction of the longest non-stop flight recorded for a land bird.    According to scientists at the USGS who tracked E7 using a satellite transmitted that she was fitted with in New Zealand: On March 17, E7 departed Miranda on the North Island of New Zealand and ... read more