New Japanese satellite

The Japanese successfully launched a new satellite a few weeks ago. Named ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite), it carries 3 instruments (from their email).

PRISM (Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping): High-resolution (monochrome) images, collects elevation data AVNIR-2 (Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer type-2): Multi-band (color) images, capable of pointing PALSAR (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar): Cloud-free, Day-and-Night radar sensor

Sounds cool. If you're interested, check it out

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Speculative NSA Surveillance Map

The ACLU has released an article and map that speculate on the ways and means the National Security Agency might be spying on Americans. The map is especially interesting, showing known ports of entry for telecom data into the country, and potential points of NSA interception. I suppose it's largely rhetorical since it's almost completely speculative, but it's a powerful infographic nonetheless. Is this an abuse of cartography or a case study in its ability to simply convey important data?

More web mapping resources

More cool you-be-the-map-boss sites suggested by Brent: GPS Visualizer is an online utility that creates maps and profiles from GPS data or other data; Berkeley Mapper displays point distribution maps from distributed sources,it was created and built using natural history museum specimen locations but is adaptable for mapping any collection of points.

Geocoding Couldn’t Be Easier

Check out http://www.batchgeocode.com/. All you need to do is copy and paste your tab-delimited text file into the body (remove example locations). I assure you, this site is really easy to use. Results are generated using Yahoo Maps, though, you can generate a .kml file, then open that .kml file with Google Earth. Give it a try. If you wish to import your .kml files into ArcMap, check out KMLer at the following link http://www.mi-perm.ru/gis/programs/kmler/index.html

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Stronger GPS on the way?

Does anyone know anything about the US Chamber of Commerce's recent announcement of L2C GPS capabilities on the way? I've been searching for some extra info for a bit, and it seems that there's at least one satellite up there broadcasting on this band. Are there actually more? What's the time table? To summarize, L2C is to be the civilian version of the military's L2 frequency, which is transmitted at higher power, meaning better reception under cover, through walls, in cities, valleys, etc. There's a pretty decent summary here

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Dynamic isochronic map of the London Underground

This isochronic Tube map really is quite cool. It isn't nearly as pretty as this one, but what it lacks in aesthetics it makes up for in dynamism and utility. Back when I didn't have a car I used to wonder what a map like this would look like for all of public transportation in the Bay Area. How warped would a map look if space was adjusted for travel time from Mulford Hall? I guess all the urban areas would be all scrunched together.

That, sir, is implantable

World's smallest GPS receiver, by a company called Rakon. I want to put one in every organ in my body so if any of them are ever stolen, I will know where to find them. Then I could make a website called "Map Ken-ichi's Pancreas." No doubt the advertising royalties would enable me to buy a new pancreas.

Mapping NPR Coverage

NPR's station finding service now has a little Google Maps add-on that displays the locations of station transmitters near you, and how powerful they are. At first I thought they had forgotten to include the signal strength polylines for KQED, but then I zoomed out and realized it's just really, really powerful.

GeoLocateFox extension for Firefox

For all you Firefox users, There is a firefox extension that adds locational information for select web pages. See http://robert.accet tura.com/projects/geolocatefox for more info. Click here with your browser (Firefox) for download and install. Extension adds a little globe in the bottom right of the browser, which glows yellow when it detects a geo-enabled web page. Hover for a small pop up window, and when double clicked, it will bring up a new window with maps.yahoo.com and display whatever locational information saved with that particular web page. See the GIIF web site for an example (you may have to refresh the website if it is already cached). All you have to add to your own web page in order to geo-enable it is a simple geo-tag (eg. place '< meta NAME="geo.position" CONTENT="37.872250; -122.264804" >' somewhere between HEAD and /HEAD in your default.html file).

Beagle found on Mars! Remote Sensing Rules!

UK's Beagle space probe has been lost for almost 2 years, and imagery from the Mars orbiter program has been used to locate the possible crash landing site of the missing craft. See Beagle 2 probe 'spotted' on Mars.