Mapping Liquid Water on Mars

To tie in with NASA’s recent announcement about the discovery of liquid water on Mars, Esri has put together an interactive story map showing the craters and canyons on Mars that reveal evidence of water. Watch animations of the recurring slope lineae (water stains) across four different craters and explore satellite imagery and elevation data for the 'Red Planet'. Using an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on the Red Planet. These darkish streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They darken and appear to flow down steep slopes during... (read more)

2015-09-30 11:55:57

Mapping BP Oil Spill Response

The dynamic nature of the BP oil spill has been a challenge for a range of communities - from hotel operators to fishermen to local community leaders. NOAA with the EPA, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Department of Interior have developed GeoPlatform.gov/gulfresponse, a site offering a "one-stop shop" for spill response information. The site integrates the latest data the federal responders have about the oil spill's trajectory with fishery area closures, wildlife data and place-based Gulf Coast resources, such as pinpointed locations of oiled shoreline and current positions of deployed research ships, into one customisable interactive map.GeoPlatform.gov/gulfresponse employs the Environmental... (read more)

2010-11-08 03:36:40

Seabed Mapping and Inspection 2016

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2016-01-27 02:38:05

Esri Imaging and Mapping Forum

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2017-05-08 11:12:01

Mapping and Modelling SS Polwell

Originally constructed in the North East of England in 1888, the SS Polwell was used by German forces at the start of World War I. However, early on in the war, the vessel was captured off Gibraltar by the British Admiralty and requisitioned into service as a defensively armed merchant ship. The SS Polwell was torpedoed off the Irish coast by a German submarine in 1918. Now, after resting on the seabed for almost a century, details of this historic shipwreck have been revealed using the latest multibeam sonar technology and CARIS HIPS and SIPS software. On 5 June 1918, the... (read more)

2016-03-03 03:24:42

Post-IPY: Arctic Mapping Continues

Just as the 1957–1958 International Polar Year (IPY) marked the beginning of a decades’ long effort to map and understand the Arctic Ocean, the present IPY, which ended on 1 March 2009, is being followed by a surge of activity. I am honoured to play a small part in this. National Geographic's ‘Arctic Landgrab' article (May 2009, vol. 205, no. 5, pp. 104-121) recently showed the areas north of Alaska surveyed by scientists from the University of New Hampshire's Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM, 1) in support of a future US submission to the UNCLOS. I have... (read more)

2009-12-04 04:14:50

Mapping Inspired by the Imagination

Sand maps were commonly used by Indigenous Australians over their 40,000 year history, to communicate local topography, significant landmarks and the location of water.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Australian National Library in Canberra to view the exhibition ‘Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia’. This exhibition showcased some of the most significant milestones in the history of mapping and discovery of Australia and included Australian Indigenous paintings, a Babylonian clay tablet thought to be the oldest surviving world map, the works of Ptolemy and rare medieval maps. It also explored the development in projections by Mercator and chronicled the expansion of Dutch commercial trading and the voyages of discovery of the Portuguese, Spanish, English and French. Maps have stirred the... (read more)

2014-05-02 02:13:09

Seabed Mapping and Inspection 2013

The annual Seabed Mapping and Inspection conference took place from 6 to 8 February 2013 in Geilo, Norway. The conference had more than 150 participants, and included people working with technology development, survey and inspection in the marine segment of the oil and gas industry. The conference was held in Geilo, a beautiful winter paradise with 39 downhill slopes and 550km cross country tracks, more or less as far away from the ocean as you can get in Norway. With generous lunch breaks allowing for skiing, or just soaking in the spa, the conference had an informal atmosphere combined with a... (read more)

2013-05-22 04:31:31

Efficiencies in Coastal Zone Mapping

Hawk Eye II, the unique airborne laser technology from aerial imaging specialist Blom, is flying high at Ocean Business with a high speed upgrade delivering faster, more efficient data gathering and imaging for shallow water and coastline surveys. The only technology able to capture accurate data simultaneously from both land and seabed terrain, gathering bathymetric, topographic and photographic imagery all in one pass, Hawk Eye LiDAR is already proving a valuable tool for enhancing the feasibility, quality and speed of coastal and nautical mapping, operating at typically 60% of the cost of traditional hydrographic survey methods and with... (read more)

2009-04-01 11:40:36

Mapping Cold Water Coral Reef

In recent trials off Trondheim, Norway, the GeoSwath Plus swath bathymetry and side scan system was used for the first time on a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to map cold water coral reefs. The objective of the survey was to test how effective the GeoSwath was as a ROV mounted sonar for identifying cold-water coral colonies. At 60m deep the Tautra ridge in Trondheim Fjord is home to world’s shallowest known cold-water coral reef, and was an ideal site for initial system trials. The corals seen there usually thrive in much deeper waters. The GeoSwath was deployed on a Minerva... (read more)

2007-02-12 09:24:28