Offset points in ArcMap

Working with GIS, everyone encounters those problems that he knows there is a solution to, but he has no idea how to fix. Dealing with overlapping points has been a persistent example of such a problem for me. The other day, I was working with a file that contained several points with identical locations. In this case, the precise location of the points was less important than depicting the number of occurrences in the general region. I still wanted to show points on the map and did not want to show the number of occurrences in an enclosing polygon. Therefore, I needed a way to spread my points out.

After briefly scouring the ESRI site I found this guide for separating points based on labels. Essentially, this documents gives instructions to remove the symbols for the points in question and to enable the labels, but replacing the label text with symbols. Now symbols for the points show up where the labels would normally appear. I used this in conjunction with the labeling tools in the Maplex extension in ArcMap to gain a little more control over how the labels would be dispersed and to provide more offset.

This solution is only appropriate in certain scenarios, but it is a quick fix to a problem that I frequently encounter.

Does anyone else use a different solution to this problem?

NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory Goes for a Swim

The NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory was intended to monitor carbon dioxide in order to help assess global warming.

Now it's hanging out with Landsat 6.

The rocket that the satellite was traveling on failed to separate from its payload fairing. The extra weight prevented the rocket from reaching orbit and the satellite plunged into the Ocean near Antartica. That's a $278 million swim.

Really though, it's all about Google Ocean now, so OCO probably just wanted a piece of the spotlight.

Demographics and the Election

Interesting map. interactively shows how voting patterns by different demographics could impact election results.

Free Landsat Imagery

The USGS announced last week that it will be releasing the entire USGS Landsat Archive at No Charge. This was the message: Imagery for Everyone… Timeline Set to Release Entire USGS Landsat Archive at No Charge. RESTON, VA – The USGS Landsat archive is an unequaled 35-year record of the Earth’s surface that is valuable for a broad range of uses, ranging from climate change science to forest management to emergency response, plus countless other user applications. Under a transition toward a National Land Imaging Program sponsored by the Secretary of the Interior, the USGS is pursuing an aggressive schedule to provide users with electronic access to any Landsat scene held in the USGS-managed national archive of global scenes dating back to Landsat 1, launched in 1972. By February 2009, any archive scene selected by a user – with no restriction on cloud cover – will be processed automatically to a standard product recipe, using such parameters as the Universe Transverse Mercator projection, and staged for electronic retrieval. In addition, newly acquired scenes meeting a cloud cover threshold of 20% or below will be processed to the standard recipe and placed on line for at least six months, after which they will remain available for selection from the archive. Newly acquired, minimally cloudy Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data covering North America and Africa are already being distributed by the USGS over the Internet at no charge, with expansion to full global coverage of incoming Landsat 7 data to be completed by July 2008 (see timeline below). The full archive of historical Landsat 7 ETM+ data acquired by the USGS since launch in 1999 will become available for selection and downloading by the end of September 2008. At that time, all Landsat 7 data purchasing options from the USGS, wherein users pay for on-demand processing to various parameters will be discontinued. By the end of December of 2008, both incoming Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) data and all Landsat 5 TM data acquired by the USGS since launch (1984) will become available, with all Landsat 4 TM (1982-1985) and Landsat 1-5 Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) (1972-1994) data becoming available by the end of January 2009. All Landsat data purchasing options from the USGS will be discontinued by February 2009, once the entire Landsat archive can be accessed at no charge. Landsat scenes can be previewed and downloaded using the USGS Global Visualization Viewer at http://glovis.usgs.gov [under “Select Collection” choose Landsat archive: L7 SLC-off (2003-present)]. Scenes can also be selected using the USGS Earth Explorer tool at http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov [under “Select Your Dataset” choose Landsat Archive: L7 SLC-off (2003-present)]. For further information on Landsat satellites and products, see http://landsat.usgs.gov For further information on USGS Land Remote Sensing please visit our website: landremotesensing@usgs.gov USGS Announcement

KML Approved as an Open Standard

The Open Geospatial Consortium announced yesterday that it adopted KML as an OpenGIS standard. OGC is an international standards body, which will now be responsible for the development of KML. Read more on Google LatLong.

Animal Tracking via SMS

Google Maps Mania posted about this interesting use of free web services to track deer. A collar on the deer sends SMS messages to an e-mail account, which creates blog posts that are used to populate a database, which in turn feeds a map. I'm particularly interested in this integration of SMS messaging for mapping, especially after hearing Deborah Estrin speak yesterday. Such methods open up huge opportunities for participatory projects.

Comparison of Open Source GIS

Free Geography Tools featured this post, which highlights a very useful table summarizing the features of different open source GIS.

GPS on walkers

I saw this on Engadget today: GPS-equipped walkers. They should add some video games onto that screen too. Really.

Bad News

For anyone researching the effects of human-induced global warming, you've been wasting your time. At least that's what the attendees of this conference are claiming.

Mashup challenge

The Official Google Maps API blog recently featured this post about NetSquared's mashup challenge. Non-profits can post their mashup dreams and then project managers and developers at NetSquared pick projects to offer assistance. You can explore the proposals thus far at the their project gallery.