24 Hour World Air Traffic

Ever wonder where all those planes flying above are going? Watch this 24 time lapse of World air travel as the sun slowly makes it path from east to west.

World Air Traffic Over 24 Hours - Funny video clips are a click away

Where did all the jobs go

This interesting map details job loss through the nation via an interactive map from Unemployment statistics from the Bureau of labor statistics.

HSU GIS Day

Well GIS day was a sucess. Everyone had a great time, the presenters did an outstanding job, and a lot of friends were made. Pictures from the event are posted on the ASPRS Norther California Region's website. We should have them up on the clubs website soon as well. Thanks to all who came and especially to Whelan and Tom for making the night a success.

GIS HowTo

A new GIS website just launched, featuring GIS video tutorials for a wide range of software programs and cartography tricks. This site is intended for both students at all levels and professionals. Check out the website here.

Club to host GIS day event

The Humboldt State University Geospatial Club will be hosting a GIS day speaker series event on November 18, 2009. The club, an ASPRS student chapter, is excited to have Tom Patterson, a wildland fire specialist for ESRI, as our guest speaker. The event will be located on campus in Science B, 135 from 5-8pm. Snacks and refreshments will be provided by ASPRS. Hope to see everyone there.

Check out the event on the GIS day website.

Unofficial GIS SIG

From the group, "This is a list for software developers, programmers, and architects, for discussion of general issues around the Python language (and variants), platforms, and geographic information systems." Python GIS SIG

This is an offshoot of the Python:Web SIG which can be found here.

GIS Tips and Tricks

Aubrey Drescher, Geospatial Engineer runs this blog on GIS tips and tricks. Although it doesn't yet have a lot of content, what is there is well organized and thought out. Most of the tips and tricks have screen shots for those of us who are graphically advantaged. She has a great introduction for who are unsure of what exactly GIS is, and explains the more advanced material very well. Check it out.

Agg Data

Check out AggData which has data for almost anything you can think of. Want to know where all the Family Dollar stores are located? They got it. How about Chuck E Cheese? Yup.

From the AggData website:

AggData is short for aggregate data, which means a set of data that is collected together in one place. On this site, the AggData will come in the form of a list of records, where each record has details about a specific object in the group. For example, a set of AggData to describe countries would be a list of every country in the world, perhaps with details such as capital city, land area, population, and so forth. The raw data might look like the following:

Afghanistan, Kabul, 647,500 sq km, 31,056,997
Albania, Tirana, 28,748 sq km, 3,581,655
Algeria, Algiers, 2,381,740 sq km, 32,930,091
...

and so on. While this information is already publicly available on the web, the advantage of AggData is that the data is collected into one file that is very raw and portable, which makes it easy to integrate into any application or website.

ESRI Shapefile viewer for Data.gov

ESRI now has a slick viewer for shapefiles found on Data.gov. You can search for data, drag and drop the files, and they will be displayed on a pan and zoom map interface. It also has an identity tool that allows attribute information to be viewed for objects. The display has a slick transparency slider between street and imagery basemap options. Check it out.

Shapefile Viewer

California Wildfire Time-lapse

Amazing time-lapse of the fires down south. Check them out.

California Roadkill Observation SystemCalifornia Roadkill Observation System

Check out this site looking to document roadkill statistics in order to help understand and try to influence the factors that contribute to roadkill. Sign up for an account and help document your finding of roadkill. No more license plate alphabet games, let's look for roadkill! GPS may be required.

http://wildlifecrossing.ucdavis.edu/

2009 NAIP California Imagery Available!

The Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) Record of Decision was approved by the FGDC Executive Committee and is now available on the website at http://www.fgdc.gov/iftn. The record of decision documents the basic configuration and approach for IFTN, and forms the basis for completion of the IFTN Phase 1 plan. The record of decision was also endorsed by the National Geospatial Advisory Committee yesterday (the endorsement will also be posted as soon as the final language is confirmed).

The 2009 NAIP flights for California have now concluded and 57 of 58 sid-compressed county mosaics (exception of Tuolumne County; look for it next week) are now available at the NRCS data gateway. Those counties larger than 4 gb in size are not downloadable through the gateway, but will shortly be available through CalAltas. The entire state of sid compressions is about 160 gb. The orthorectified and to some degree color-balanced geotiff quarterquads will be available in another 6-7 months.

http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/

Also available is the new 1-ft 2008 natural color orthoimagery for the SF bay area. Other higher resolution orthophotography (2007-8) will be available in the coming months for Sacramento urban, LA, Kern, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey, and Solano counties.

Open OceanMap Released

Of interest up here on the Redwood Coast for proposed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs):

From Geoconnexion:

Data collected from resource users like commercial and recreational fishermen is invaluable for informing fisheries management and marine habitat protection. Open OceanMap is a data collection tool used to effectively collect local expert knowledge in support of marine spatial planning. Using open source technologies, Ecotrust has developed Open OceanMap as a cross platform and transferable tool, published under the GNU General Public License.

Read More

New Semester = New Meeting Times

Now that the semester is back in full swing we are starting to determine the best meeting time and place for the club meetings. For now it looks like we will be meeting at 4:30pm on Thursdays at Live from New York near the Plaza downtown Arcata. One of our main goals for the semester is the recruitment of fresh, motivated individuals looking to spend some time organizing club events. There should be a lot of fun activities on our plates this next year, so if you're interested in joining in meet us down for some pizza and refreshments.

Cartastrophe - Bad Maps Blog

Check out this blog site dedicated to reviewing, critiquing, and generally giving advice about published maps and cartography.

Earth Topographic Map Released

NASA has announced the release of the most complete topographic data of the earth to date. Over 99 percent of the earth’s surface was mapped using measurements obtained from NASA’s Terra spacecraft using the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer instrument, aka Aster. Previously, the most comprehensive mapping of the earth’s topopgraphy was accomplished through the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission which produced data covering 80 percent of the earth’s surface. The new Aster data covers the earth from 83 degrees north latitude and 83 degrees south and produces new data for mostly desert and steep terrain areas not covered previously.

Congrats to Brian and Chantell

Brian took first place with his Bathemtry poster and Chantell recieved an Honorable Mention for her Klamath HDD+ poster at CALGIS! Nice job guys.

Club Presenting Speakers 4/22

The HSU Geospatial club and the ASPRS Northern California Region are excited to present speakers on April 22, 2009. David Lamphere from Green Diamond will be giving a talk entitled "Lidar Remote Sensing in Forest Management." Ron Ondrejka will be giving a remote sensing talk entitled "Evaluation of airborne remote sensing systems in support of law enforcement on Federal wilderness lands."

Please join us in SCI B 135. Light refreshments will be served starting at 5:30pm. Talks start at 6:30pm.