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Spatial Analysis

The 2015 earthquakes caused great damage in Bhakatpur, Nepal. These photos are overlaid on a damage proxy map derived from COSMO-SkyMed satellite data. Colors show increasingly significant change in terrain/building properties (including surface roughness and soil moisture). Red is most severe. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Google/DigitalGlobe/CNES/Astrium/Amy MacDonald/Thornton Tomasetti

Developing Earthquake Damage Maps from Satellite Imagery

February 17, 2016By Elizabeth BornemanSpatial Analysis

Researchers are working on developing remotely sensed maps that may assist locals in assessing damage and managing the aftermath with future earthquakes.

NASA Earth Observatory maps by Joshua Stevens, using data from Sandwell, D. et al. (2014).

Seafloor Mapped Using Measurements of the Earth’s Gravity Field

January 25, 2016By Elizabeth BornemanSpatial Analysis

Researchers have developed a gravity map used to see the sea floor based on Earth’s gravitational field.

GRACE based shallow groundwater drought indicator map for July 7, 2014. Source: NASA.

Using Remote Sensing to Measure the Affect of Drought on Ground Water

July 28, 2014By Caitlin DempseyGIS Data

Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have been experimenting with a new data product to assess groundwater and soil moisture drought indicators. The maps produced are used by the U.S. Drought Monitor and use data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites. In 2002, the GRACE satellites were launched […]

This image is a portion of the first Landsat 8 scene acquired May 12, 2013 (Path 107, Rows 70-71) in Western Australia. Geoscience Australia, a Landsat International Cooperator and a Landsat Science Team Member, produced this enhanced image. Water and land were masked, separately enhanced, and then reassembled. The water patterns are the result of an RGB display of the Landsat 8 red, blue, and ultra-blue bands (bands 4, 2, 1) and the land is shown using SWIR, NIR, and green (bands 6, 5, 3). The resulting image displays impressive sediment and nutrient patterns in the tropical estuary area, and the complex patterns and conditions in the vegetated areas.

First Landsat Spacecraft Launched – Today in Geospatial – July 23

July 22, 2014By Caitlin DempseyGIS Data

On July 23, 1972, the first Landsat spacecraft was launched. At the time it was known as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite and it was the first satellite launched to study the earth’s landmasses. In 1975, the name was changed to Landsat. Since then, this program has been continuously monitoring changes […]

Map showing what the soil moisture conditions around the planet were like in August 2013: dry areas are represented in the brown scale, while wetter areas are in blue and green. Image Credit: NASA Goddard's Science Visualization Studio/T. Schindler

Mapping Soil Moisture from Space

July 21, 2014By Rebecca MaxwellGIS Data

Soil moisture might not be considered a critical factor to the health of our planet but a series of satellite missions are proving otherwise. Scientists recently created maps from NASA’s Aquarius satellite of soil moisture, or the amount of water contained within soil particles, across the globe. These maps have […]

First Images from GPM Microwave Imager: The image shows rain rates across a 550-mile (885 kilometer) wide swath of an extra-tropical cyclone observed off the coast of Japan on March 10, 2014. Red areas indicate heavy rainfall, while yellow and blue indicate less intense rainfall. In the northwest part of the storm in the upper left of the image, the blue areas indicate falling snow.

NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement

April 23, 2014By Rebecca MaxwellGIS Data

Water is essential for life on the Earth, and the supply of this precious liquid is constantly being recycled through energy from the sun. This process is known as the hydrologic cycle, and through it water is continuously exchanged between the land, the atmosphere, and the oceans. Precipitation in its […]

Shipping data from ICOADS US Maury collection. Visualization: Ben Schmidt.

Mapping Ship Logs

January 6, 2014By Caitlin DempseyGIS Data

Ben Schmidt, who is an assistant professor of history at Northeastern University, has mapped out historical shipping routes.

Mapping Our World: Interactive Poster Showing Forty Years of NASA Data

October 11, 2013By Caitlin DempseyGIS Data

Forty years representing over a dozen of Earth observation missions by NASA has led to an invaluable archive of satellite imagery and remote sensing data. These mission have gathered data about the Earth including its atmosphere, vegetation, ice, land surface, salinity levels, geology, and temperature. The highlight the datasets developed by […]

NASA Earth Observations (NEO) – Updated Web Site for GIS Data

September 9, 2013By Caitlin DempseyGIS Data

NASA Earth Observations (NEO) has overhauled the look of its web site: “NASA Earth Observations (NEO), has a new look and we invite you to try it out! Over 50 different global datasets are represented with daily, weekly, and monthly snapshots, and images are available in a variety of formats […]

Global map showing the earth's vegetation from NASA/NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite.

Map of the Earth’s Vegetation

June 20, 2013By Caitlin DempseyGIS Learning

NASA and NOAA have released a map of the earth’s vegetation. The map was created with NDVI data from VIIRS (Visible-Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite) sensor aboard the Suomi NPP (National Polar-orbiting Partnership) satellite.

Using Satellite Imagery to Track Volcanic Ash Clouds

Researchers have developed an algorithm that can distinguish between volcanic and non-volcanic clouds using high-resolution satellite imagery.

Using Machine Learning and Satellite Imagery for Street Address Generation

Researchers from Facebook and MIT Labs have proposed a new methodology that uses machine learning and satellite imagery to generate street addresses in areas of the world where individual buildings don’t have a unique address.

Elements of a Map

Maps are the primary tools by which spatial relationships are visualized. Maps therefore become important documents. There are several key elements that should be included each time a map is created in order to aid the viewer in understanding the communications of that map and to document the source of […]

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