The Geo-Spatial Revolution - Espisode 1

Most recent release of the Geo-Spatial Revolution project from Penn State. Episode 1 which covers the evolution of geo-spatial technologies and the use of open source mapping in Haitian earthquake relief efforts.

The Geo-Spatial Revolution Project: How "geo" is changing our world - from Penn State

Had to post this one.  My under-grad was from Penn State in broadcasting and my Masters of Science & career work in geo-spatial.  Interesting series on the importance of geo-spatial - a new series the folks at Penn State Public Broadcasting.

GPS-a-holic: A "windshield view" of 25 GPS devices

Don't try this .. in your car? If "device envy" exists, it's on this windshield.  The auto-instruction pauses at street corners are oddly serene. Enjoy.  Credit to the Map Room for bringing this to my attention.


crossroads (what to do) from Garvin Nolte on Vimeo.

Bringing Dynamic Content to Aerial Imagery - GeoSemble video demo

While a somewhat dated demo, I found how geoSemble seemlessly overlaps vector and raster based map-data with dynamic news content - all tied to the commonality of geography - really fascinating stuff & worth the review.

Cool Geo-Pic: Space Debris

This Cool Geo-Pic comes again from NASA's Earth Observatory. At first this is a very startling image of "trash in space". Luckily the dots are not to scale, and can be compared to other exaggerations of "blackening the sky...".

Quick "Cut & Paste" Highlights:

" ... Orbital debris, or “space junk,” is any man-made object in orbit around the Earth that no longer serves a useful purpose. Space junk can be bad news for an orbiting satellite.
The dots between the geostationary orbit and the low-Earth orbit are in an orbit used by GPS satellites or a highly elliptical orbit, called Molniya, used to monitor the far north or south. To read more about common satellite orbits, see Catalog of Earth Satellite Orbits on the Earth Observatory...."

"....Though the black dots that represent objects in space swarm around the Earth, obscuring the surface in the lower image, the space junk situation is not as dire as it may appear. The dots are not to scale, and space is a very big place. Collisions between large objects are fairly rare...."

download large Low Earth Orbit image (444 KB, PNG) acquired August 25, 2009

Full Article - Click Here


References / Credits:

NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. (2009, July). Orbital debris frequently asked questions. Accessed September 11, 2009.

NASA illustration courtesy Orbital Debris Program Office. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Instrument:
Model