When in Bentonville, Arkansas ....

I had a business trip in Bentonville, AR recently. Rather than stay at the regular spot, a co-worker recommended staying at:

Inn at the Mill

http://www.innatthemill.com/

Phone (479) 443-1800

3906 Greathouse Springs road

Johnson, Arkansas 72741

For those who travel regularly to Bentonville, AR (on business, perhaps?), this charming Inn is a refreshing change of pace. King guest rooms are standard, the Inn grounds sport a large koi pond and mill preserved architecture, with a ever-attentive staff - and access to the James at the Mill Restaurant, a five star taste at a fair price (though dibs are required as thanks to that co-worker, I didn't pick up the tab, but he knew chef...). Even the light fixture mouldings are unique, cast in the image of the chef' s wife.

The spanning architecture of the restaurant accentuates the grounds "motion thru elevation". When you visit, you'll see you are always traveling up or down on easy paths or staircases - exposed to wide grand views. This landscaping in built into the seasonal menus, as "food display by accents of height and layers" is apparent in every dish.

This was one of those business trips, I kept thinking how much fun the kids would have running around the grounds, feeding the fish from the pathway mill islands, and running the halls ... all the while the wife & I enjoying a five star meal (as any parent knows, I am well aware these would have to be two separate trips .... ). Still, if an Inn & restaurant make you nostalgic to travel "WITH the family", that's a good spot to remember.

Give them a try, & tell 'em Jack sent ya (like I said, dibs...).

SRC Alteryx

Very cool link

Bean Counters Drink their Way to Presidency

Also found on DirectionsMag's AllPointBlog - this is a neat marketing-to-map gimic. Given many of us are "caffeine-based life forms", kudos to the latest "morning joe" geo-mash-up.

Which way to Mecca?

Credits to DirectionsMag from their "Off the Beaten Path" section - this is an interesting mash up highlighting the distance and prayer times to Mecca.

The green box details provide geo-speciific data. for example:

Current Location
LAT: 33.063924198120645
LONG : 44.560546875

Location Data
Nearest Populated (NP):=Shaykh Muţlaq al Ghuḑayb
Distance From NP=0.6467

Time Zone Data
Time Offset: 2 Hours
Summer Time Offset:3 Hours
Time Zone=Europe/Simferopol
Countrycode=UA
Country name=Ukraine
Governorate=Wāsiţ

Weather Data
Temperature: 31
Humidity: 20
Clouds:overcast
Wind Speed: 08
Wind Direction: 110
Measuring Date/Time:2008-10-22 15:38:00

Elevation Data
Height(USGS):=25
Height(NASA):=34

Cool Geo-Pic: Salt Water Lakes in Antarctica

Another Cool Geo-Pic from NASA's Earth Observatory.

I particularly found the scientific explanation of how salt and fresh water lakes formed thru changes in glacier development.

Blood Falls, Antarctica's Dry Valleys
Click here to view full image (4725 kb)

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... The scientists believe that several million years ago, Taylor Valley was inundated by the Ross Sea, like a fjord. As climate changed, and the sea retreated, a saltwater lake occupied the valley. Iron-containing salts from the sea water settled in the lake bed. As Taylor Glacier advanced, smothering the lake, it scooped up some of the iron-containing salts. After millions of years, the ancient lake-bed salt deposits have reached the edge of the glacier, and are being squeezed out at the margin.

The researchers also offered an explanation for why Lakes Bonney and Fryxell are saltwater, but Lake Hoare is freshwater. As the Ross Sea retreated, leaving behind a saltwater lake, the Canada Glacier was also advancing. At some point, the researchers think, the Canada Glacier advanced so far into Taylor Valley that it cut off the inland part from the sea. Saltwater lakes were left on either side, and a new freshwater lake, Lake Hoare, formed from glacial melt water on the lower (inland) side of the Canada Glacier. Confirmation of these hypotheses will come from continued drilling of sediment and ice cores in these Dry Valley lakes. ..."

Click here for full article:

References:Holland, E. (2003, November 4). Explanation Offered For Antarctica’s Blood Falls. The Ohio State University Research Communications Website. Accessed October 8, 2008.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

Geo-Mash up in Florida politics

Here is a nice example of using google mash ups to geo-visually communicate political information. While I have my presidential leanings in this year's election, this is not to sway anyone to toward either candidate - more to highlight the example of the slick technology for purpose (benefit or sly persuasion - you decide) for communicating local legislative issues via the map. My guess is the RNC is as good at it as the DNC. Its a wonderful way to tie regional issues in a "browsable" format.



For the full website - click here

To see Click2Map's google mash-up tool - click here

The Click2Map blog has some interesting posts on GooCar and Geo-Targeting.

Why I need a new car to save the planet

Well, in this case the map says it all.

Taken from ESRI's MapMPG.com (beta) - the site lets you compare how far two different cars can go on one gallon of gas.

My "cut & paste" example compares "my old but paid for truck" – a 1997 Isuzu Trooper contrasted with a burn rate of today's "auto-green darling" - a Toyota Prius.

As soon as the home budget allows for a new car payment, I think the choice of purchase is clear.

Thanks to www.DirectionsMag.com "Off the Beaten Path" article for the link.

Cool Geo-Pic: Bouvet Island, South Atlantic Ocean

Another cool geo-pic from NASA's Earth Observatory.

Click here to view full image (128 kb)

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" .... Bouvet Island (in Norwegian, Bouvetøya) is known as the most remote island in the world; Antarctica, over 1600 kilometers (994 miles) to the south, is the nearest land mass. Located near the junction between the South American, African, and Antarctic tectonic plates, the island is mostly formed from a shield volcano—a broad, gently sloping cone formed by thin, fluid lavas—that is almost entirely covered by glaciers. The prominent Kapp (Cape) Valdivia on the northern coastline is a peninsula formed by a lava dome, a volcanic feature built by viscous lavas with a high silica content. It is only along the steep cliffs of the coastline that the underlaying dark volcanic rock is visible against the white snow and ice blanketing the island...."

Full Article - Click Here

References:
Astronaut photograph ISS017-E-16161 was acquired on September 13, 2008. with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera fitted with an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.

The image was taken by the Expedition 17 crew. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet.

Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by William L. Stefanov, NASA-JSC.

Cool Geo-Pic: Wetland Damage Along the Gulf Coast

Another brilliant NASA image from the Earth Observatory.

Click here to view full image (650 kb)

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
" .... This photo-like image of the Texas and Louisiana coasts shows the impact of Hurricane Ike’s powerful storm surge on coastal wetlands. Hurricane Ike came ashore over southeast Texas on September 13, 2008, bringing with it a wall of water that stretched from Galveston, Texas, across all of coastal Louisiana. The storm’s surge covered hundreds of kilometers of the Gulf Coast because Ike was a large storm, with tropical-storm-strength winds stretching more than four hundred kilometers from the center of the storm. The strongest storm surge devastated Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula. Though it was not as hard hit, coastal Louisiana—still trying to dry out from Hurricane Gustav—suffered as well.... "

Full article - Click Here

References:
National Hurricane Center. (2008, September 13). Hurricane Ike. NOAA National Weather Service. Accessed October 1, 2008.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Cool Geo-Pic: Roan Plateau, Colorado

Cool Geo-Pic: Roan Plateau, Colorado

Click here to view full image (3405 kb)

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

Western Colorado’s Roan Plateau contains a variety of natural resources and scenic terrain: high ridges, deep valleys, waterfalls, cutthroat trout, mountain lions, bears, rare plants, and oil and natural gas. On September 25, 2008, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the region through nearly cloud-free skies.

Full Article - Click Here

References:
U.S. Bureau of Land Management. (2008, March 13). Roan Plateau Resource Management Plan and Final EIS. Accessed October 2, 2008.

Center for Native Ecosystems. Roan Plateau. Accessed October 2, 2008.

National Geographic. (2005, July). A Matter of Density. Accessed October 2, 2008.

NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.

Cool Geo-Pic: Flooding from Hurricane Ike in Texas

Another great NASA "before-after" image: Flooding from Hurricane Ike in Texas

Large images
September 28, 2008 (3.6 MB JPEG)
August 15, 2006 (3.2 MB JPEG)

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
" .... Hurricane Ike came ashore along the U.S. Gulf Coast on September 13, 2008, and the storm’s eye narrowly missed Galveston and Houston. Although the storm produced tremendous damage in both cities, perhaps the greatest damage was caused by the storm surge, which inundated the coastline near Galveston. The storm surge was greatest east of Galveston, reaching 4.6 meters (15 feet) above sea level. The area devastated by the storm surge includes coastline immediately east of Galveston Bay.


These images acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Relfection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite show part of the area scoured by Hurricane Ike. The bottom image, acquired August 15, 2006, shows the region two years prior to Ike’s landfall. The top image, acquired September 28, 2008, shows the region about two weeks after the storm surge.... "

Full Article - Click Here


References:
Aigner, E., Bornemeier, J., Burgess, J., Huang J., Iaboni L., Park H. (2008, September 13). In Ike’s wake. The New York Times. Accessed September 30, 2008.

Dewan, S. (2008, September 15). On peninsula in the storm: No way out. The New York Times. Accessed September 30, 2008.

Drye, W. (2008, September 26). Why Hurricane Ike’s “Certain Death” warning failed. National Geographic News. Accessed September 30, 2008.

Urbina, I. (2008, September 15). After surviving storm, fleeing a fetid, devastated Galveston. The New York Times. Accessed September 30, 2008.

Wikipedia. (2008, September 21). High Island, Texas. Accessed September 30, 2008.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of

NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Michon Scott.

Cool Geo-Pic: Both Routes Around Arctic Open at Summer's End

___________________________________________

Click here to view full image (179 kb)

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlight:
" .... As of the first week of September 2008, Arctic sea ice extent had not fallen below the record low observed in 2007, but the season set a new kind of record. For the first time in probably half a century—and definitely since satellite observations began about three decades ago— sea ice retreated enough to create open (not ice-free) waters all the way around the northern ice pack. Open water is defined by the World Meteorological Organization for the purposes of navigation as areas where the ice covers less than one-tenth of the surface ...."

Click Here for Full Article

Credits:

Revkin, A. (2008, September 6). Arctic Ice Hints at Warming, Specialists Say. NYT.com. Accessed September 8, 2008.
U.S. National Ice Center. (2008, September 5). The Northern Sea Route (Northeast Passage) appears ‘open’ as of Sep 4th, 2008. Posted on NYT.com’s Dot Earth blog. Accessed September 8, 2008.
Further reading
Southern Route Through Northwest Passage Opens
Record Arctic Sea Ice Loss in 2007
Ice Shelves Retreat on Ellesmere Island
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

Cool Geo-Pic: Sunglint on the Amazon River, Brazil

_______________________________________

Click here to view full image (2663 kb)


Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:
The setting sun glints off the Amazon River and numerous lakes in its floodplain in this astronaut photograph from August 19, 2008. Large areas of sunglint are common in oblique views (shot from an angle, rather than looking straight down from the spacecraft). About 150 kilometers of the sinuous Amazon is shown here; the area is about 1,000 kilometers inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Arrows show the generally eastward direction of flow of the Amazon. One of the great river’s tributaries, the Uatumã River, enters on the north side of the Amazon (top center). A small side channel, or distributary, of the Madeira River (beyond the left edge of the image) enters the view from the left. Tupinambarama Island occupies the swampy wetlands between the Amazon and Madeira rivers.

Full Article - CLick Here

Credits:

Astronaut photograph ISS017-E-13856 was acquired on August 19, 2008, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera fitted with a 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 17 crew. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, NASA-JSC.

Cool Geo-Pic: Ice Shelves Retreat on Ellesmere Island

___________________________________________________________

Ice Shelves Retreat on Ellesmere Island

Large images
July 22, 2008 (Aqua MODIS; 3.6 MB JPEG)
August 29, 2008 (Terra MODIS; 4.0 MB JPEG)

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

Prior to July 2008, only five ice shelves remained in the Canadian Arctic: Serson, Petersen, Milne, Ward Hunt, and Markham. With an estimated age of 4,500 years, these ice shelves were the remnants of a once-massive “glacial fringe” that explorer Robert Peary described in his trek along the Ellesmere Island coast in 1907. In July 2008, these shelves began disintegrating rapidly. By late August, Ellesmere ice shelves had lost a total of 214 square kilometers (83 square miles). A research team led by Derek Mueller at Trent University, and Luke Copland at the University of Ottawa, documented the ice shelves’ retreats through satellite images and photos.

Click Here for Full Article

Credits:

For more information, see the Earth Observatory feature Rapid Retreat: Ice Shelf Loss along Canada’s Ellesmere Coast.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. Caption by Michon Scott.

Cool Geo-Pic: Stormy Atlantic - Sept 2008

____________________________________________________
Another cool Geo-Pic from NASA:


Click here to view full image (1345 kb)



Quite "Cut & Paste" Highllght:
" .... The Atlantic hurricane season typically peaks in early to mid-September after the ocean’s surface has had time to heat up in the summer sun. As if on cue, a string of storms formed over the Atlantic as September approached during the 2008 hurricane season.


When the GOES satellite captured this view of the atmosphere at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on September 3, four storms were lined up across the Atlantic, and one had developed in the Eastern Pacific. GOES’ view of the clouds are overlaid on the NASA Blue Marble. ...."


Full Article - Click Here

Cool Geo-Pic: Sulfur Dioxide from Okmok Volcano

Sulfur Dioxide from Okmok Volcano
Click here to view full image (2533 kb)

"Cut & Paste" Highlights:

On July 12, 2008, Okmok Volcano, in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands erupted, releasing a plume of ash and steam. Besides emissions visible to human eyes, Okmok also released sulfur dioxide, a gas our eyes cannot see, but which can affect both human health and climate.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite measured the sulfur dioxide from Okmok Volcano from July 12-20, 2008. This image shows the estimated sulfur dioxide at altitudes around 16 kilometers (10 miles) released by the volcano over that time span, with red indicating the highest levels, and pale pink indicating the lowest. The sulfur dioxide was most intense southeast of the volcano, but lower levels spread both to the south and east, forming a large L shape, and spreading over parts of the continental United States and Canada...."

Full Article:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18098

Credits:

Image courtesy Fred Prata, NILU. Caption by Michon Scott and Rebecca Lindsey.

Cool Geo-Pic: Earth and the Moon

Cool Geo-Pic: Earth and the Moon

Click here to view animation (525 kb)

Animations
True-color high quality (9.5 MB QuickTime)
True-color web quality (530 kB QuickTime)
Infrared high quality (10.3 MB QuickTime)
Infrared web quality (570 kB QuickTime)

Another from NASA's Earth Observatory.

"Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... Among the leading criteria for habitable planets is the presence of liquid water. How would you know from a distance of 10 million or more miles that Earth had oceans? “A ‘sun glint’ can be seen in the movie, caused by light reflected from Earth’s oceans, and similar glints [if they were observed] from extra-solar planets could indicate alien oceans, ..."

Full Article:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18096

References:

NASA. (2008, July 17). NASA’s Deep Impact Films Earth as an Alien World. Accessed July 21, 2008.
NASA images and animation courtesy EPOXI science team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey, adapted from the NASA press release.

Cool Geo-Pic: Cordillera Huayhuash, Peruvian Andes

Another Cool Geo-Pic from NASA's Earth Observatory & the ISS crew.


Cordillera Huayhuash, Peruvian Andes: Click here to view full image (401 kb)


"Cut & Paste" highlights:
" ... Widely considered the most spectacular peak in South America, Yerupajá is so steep that it has seldom been climbed. The best climbing approach is from the southwest, the face seen in this view. Yerupajá is locally known as El Carnicero (“The Butcher”) because of its blade-like ridges, typical of mountains that have been heavily eroded by glacial ice. Other features created by the erosive effect of flowing ice are small glacial lakes, which often vary in color due to different amounts of fine mud being fed into them by meltwater from under the glaciers. During the ice ages, the glaciers advanced many kilometers outward from the cordillera, occupying all the surrounding valley floors (all of which lie above 3,000 meters), producing U-shape valleys.... "

Full Article:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18093

Save My Airport!

________________________________________________________________________

The Business Travel Coalition has created a website, Save My Airport!, that’s intended to spotlight the risk to smaller markets and presumably to stir up civic opposition to the cuts. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

At this website, BTC has put together a list of 50 larger airports at risk of having service sharply curtailed and 100 smaller airports that could even see service eliminated completely.

Top 50 Large City Airports at Risk

Top 100 Regional Airports at Risk

Cool Geo-Pic: Formation and Decay of Hurricane Bertha

Another Cool Geo-Pic from NASA's Earth Observatory.

now living in Florida nearly sixteen years, you appreciate the power of the massive storms with your livelihood in mind.

Large images
July 4, 2008 (238 kB JPEG)
July 7, 2008 (212 kB JPEG)
July 9, 2008 (181 kB JPEG)
July 13, 2008 (136 kB JPEG)

Cut & Paste" Highlights:

"... This series of images chronicles the development and decay of the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Bertha. The images were taken by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which uses microwave and radar sensors to see both the swirling clouds and bands of rain that define the structure of the storm...."

Click Here to Read Full Article

References:
National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Bertha advisory archive. Accessed July 15, 2008.
Roberts, E. and McFadden, D. (2008, July 15). Tropical Storm Bertha rakes Bermuda. Associated Press. Accessed July 15, 2008.
Images produced by Hal Pierce and caption by Steve Lang and Holli Riebeek.

Cool Geo-Pic: Dakar, Senegal

Another Cool Geo-Pic from NASA's Earth Observatory.

There is something striking about the coast edges that makes this image intriguing.

Click here to view full image (1352 kb)

"Cut & Paste Description" Highlights:
" ....In 2008, one out of every four people living in Senegal lived in the coastal capital of Dakar. Over previous decades, the city spread over the Cap Vert Peninsula as a result of both migration and growing families. In the 1940s, the city occupied just the southern tip of the peninsula. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, cityscape had sprawled both northward and eastward..... "

Click Here for Full Article

References:
United Nations Environment Programme. (2008). Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment. Division of Early Warning and Assessment, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.
Hopkins, B. (2008). Birding in the Dakar area. Seawatching in Senegal.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey. Caption by Michon Scott.

Cool Geo-Pic: Toshka Lakes, Egypt

Another cool geo-pic from NASA's Earth Observatory.

I like the idea of shift and drowning dunes.

Click here to view full image (415 kb)

"Cut & Paste" Highlights:
" ... In the late 1990s, Egypt’s new manmade Toshka Lakes, fed from Lake Nasser via a canal, grew and spilled into new basins to become four major and two smaller lakes. These lakes extended 120 kilometers across the desert west of the Nile River in southern Egypt. Starting in 2002, astronauts have seen the lakes slowly decline, with the telltale ring of darker, moistened ground showing the previous higher water levels (see prior comparison of astronaut imagery of the lakes). The rise and fall of Toshka Lakes and the economic development surrounding the region are dependent on climate fluctuations and water agreements with upstream countries that, in turn, determine the long-term water flow in the lower Nile.

In the late 1990s, Egypt’s new manmade Toshka Lakes, fed from Lake Nasser via a canal, grew and spilled into new basins to become four major and two smaller lakes. These lakes extended 120 kilometers across the desert west of the Nile River in southern Egypt. Starting in 2002, astronauts have seen the lakes slowly decline, with the telltale ring of darker, moistened ground showing the previous higher water levels (see prior comparison of astronaut imagery of the lakes). The rise and fall of Toshka Lakes and the economic development surrounding the region are dependent on climate fluctuations and water agreements with upstream countries that, in turn, determine the long-term water flow in the lower Nile.... "

Click Here for Full Article

Cool Geo-Pic: Southern Ocean Carbon Sink

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is an interesting consequence of weather - low carbon absorbtion. As weather patterns may increase to extremes with global climate change - recalcs to absorbtion rates seem re need "rethinking".

Click here to view full image (84 kb)

Cut & Paste Highlights:

" ... As people have put more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the ocean has responded by soaking up more carbon dioxide—a trend scientists expected to continue for many years. But in 2007, a team of scientists reported in the journal Science that between 1981 and 2004 carbon dioxide concentrations in the Southern Ocean didn’t change at all, even though global atmospheric levels continued to rise. This graph shows the changes scientists expected to see (blue line) compared to their estimate of actual carbon dioxide absorption (red line). The results suggested that the Southern Ocean was no longer keeping pace with human carbon dioxide emissions."

Full Article - click here

Data Display - Change in Airline Service

• This interactive map is a great mix of two of my passions; the intelligent display of complex data and air travel.

Full credits to USA Today, asn William Coauch, Barbara Hansen and Anne Carey who put this together.

• Link to Full article:

Cool GeoPic: Recent Ocean Level Change

Well, so now we know where is started....

Cut & Paste Highlights:

" ... Unlike the water in a sink or a bathtub, the water level in Earth’s oceans is not the same everywhere; sea level varies with location and time. On time spans of hours to days, sea level is influenced by tides, winds, and waves, including storm surges. Sea level rises when oceans warm, and it drops when they cool (because water expands when it heats up and contracts when it cools). Regional variations in sea level can persist for many years, even a decade. Underlying all these changes is the slower rise and fall in global average sea level as ice ages recede and advance over millenia.

This map shows global patterns of changes in sea level (sea surface height) measured by satellite-based altimeters (Topex and Jason 1 satellites) from 1993 through the end of 2007. Places where the sea surface height increased up to 225 millimeters (about 8.9 inches) are shown in dark red; places where sea level dropped are blue. The most widespread change in sea level over this time period was an increase in the Western Pacific sea surface height. During the period spanned by this image, a climate pattern called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation was in its warm phase, and sea surface temperatures were above average in much of the basin. Thermal expansion during this warm phase would be consistent with a rise in sea level...."

Full Article:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18075

Cool Geo Pic: Where do these images come from?

This one wins for "where the Next Cool Geo-Pics will come from" award.

Click here to view full image (360 kb)

Cut & Paste Highlights:
" When we hear the word topography, most of us think of mountains and valleys on dry land. But the surface of the ocean has topography, too, and the variation in the height of the sea surface from place to place reveals important information about weather, climate, and rising sea level. On June 20, 2008, NASA launched the Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 satellite, the latest in a series of U.S./French satellites to collect observations of ocean surface height...."

Full Article:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18069

Cool Geo-Pic: Heat Wave in Northern Europe

Click here to view full image (15434 kb)

Europe goes global warming ... perhaps. I believe the science, but this snapshot is more intriguing than conclusive. As always, watch this space.

Cut & Paste Highlights:

On the calendar, Scandinavian summer starts on June 21 in 2008, but summer temperatures had already settled over much of northern Europe by early June..... The image compares the average temperature between June 2 and June 8, 2008, to average temperatures recorded during the same period in June 2000 through 2007. Areas that were warmer than average are red, while cooler than average conditions are represented in blue.The heat that dominated the weather in northern Europe in early June is evident in the dark red that covers Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and parts of Germany and Poland. Southern Europe experienced cooler than average temperatures during the period.... "

Full Article:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18066

DayJet SNN6 commercial

NextGen DayJet video

Aero-TV Jets Into The 2008 Eclipse E-rrival

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Cool Geo-Pic: Lake Formation in the Aftermath of Magnitude 7.9 Earthquake

Another Cool Geo-Pic from NASA's Earth Observatory. From earthquakes, comes lakes ....

Cut & Paste Description:

" ... Within days of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that shook China’s Sichuan Basin, floods became a hazard. The earthquake and its aftershocks sent earth and rock tumbling down mountains into rivers, creating natural dams behind which lakes quickly built up. As of May 19, 2008, 21 lakes had formed throughout the basin, said China Daily.... "

Full Article: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18034

Cool Geo-Pic: Wine country in Moselle River Gorge, Germany

Another Cool GeoPic from NASA's Earth Observatory.

Always wondered where a good German Riesling came from .....

Cut & Paste description:

" Within the narrow and very steep valley, those slopes which face south and west are best for grapes. The north-facing slopes not only receive less direct sunshine, but the deep shadows of the canyon walls fall on them sooner in the day. These shadows are visible on the canyon wall opposite Kroev and elsewhere, where they make the river difficult to see. The vine-covered slopes, with very small plot sizes, appear as light grays and light greens along most of the gorge slopes. In this view, slopes around the villages of Kroev, Kuess, and Maring enjoy the best south-facing aspect.... "

Click here to view full image (536 kb)

Full Article: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18031

When Geo Strikes Back: Earthquake near Chengdu, China

This image helped me map out " devastation to geography". The death toll makes this a sobering map.

Click here to view full image (1960 kb)

Cut & Paste Description:

" At 2:28 p.m. local time (06:28 UTC) on May 12, 2008, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9 struck China’s Sichuan Province. The quake was felt throughout much of China, as well as parts of Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Within 24 hours, the death toll stood at 12,000, and was expected to rise significantly as search-and-rescue efforts continued.... "

Full Story: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18027

"Old School" Geo-Pic: William Smith's Geological Map of England

This image wins the "Old School" Geo-Pic Image posting - as before 'pics', we drew our views of the world with 'sticks' (pencils, canoe navigational stick sculptures, lines in the sand, etc.) As most, this comes from NASA's Earth Observatory site.

Also, it emphasizes the long standing relationship of maps to commerce; i.e. right or wrong - we most often explore for gains.

Cut & Paste Description:

" Before the late eighteenth century, residents of England didn’t necessarily take much interest in the rocks under their feet. The arrival of the Industrial Revolution, however, drew the attention of the country’s entrepreneurs downward. England’s industrialists began plunging deep underground for coal—the fossilized remains of ancient swamps—and carving canals across the countryside to transport it efficiently. In this environment, a geologist named William Smith managed to marry his knowledge of rock layers with his love of fossils.... "

" The eventual outcome of Smith’s research was A Geological Map of England and Wales and Part of Scotland, first published in 1815. On a scale of 5 miles per inch, the map measured 6 feet by 8 feet 6 inches. It was not the world’s first geologic map, but it was the first to map such a large area in such detail.... "

Full Story: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18023

Cool Geo-Pic: Chile's Chaiten Volcano Erupts

Another Cool Geo-Pic from NASA's Earth Observatory:

Two points that amaze me. The first, this supposed dominant volcano last erupted several millennia BC. The second, the ash plume flow across the entire South American continent to the Atlantic Ocean.

Large Images:

True color (3.85 MB jpg)

Infrared (5.25 MB jpg)

Quick Cut & Paste Description:
" Three days after its surprise eruption on May 2, the Chaitén volcano of southern Chile was still pumping out dense clouds of ash. The plume stretches east from the peak in this pair of images, taken on May 5, 2008, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. ....

" The eruption that started on May 2 was unexpected because Chaitén was thought to have been dormant. Radiocarbon dating of the last lava flow from the volcano suggests that Chaitén last erupted in 7420 BC, plus or minus 75 years, says the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program...."

Full Story at: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18020

DayJet in Sarasota & Jacksonville, FL

Maps of Religion - a historical timeline

This is a neat site that provides animation to historical map series - as a timeline of rolling events.

This particle link is on the History of Religion - and the site creator's have a nice selection of other compilations.

Other compilations include the History of Democracy, various Gulf War scenarios and other animated timeline visualizations overlayed on geography .

Click thru and donate generously - good work.

Full Link: http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/Religion.swf

Website link: http://www.mapsofwar.com/