Shipping Lanes Across the Globe

This interactive map shows how our "stuff" gets moved around the world by shipping containers. It may take a few seconds longer to load on a mobile device due to the complexity of the map. Be sure to check out the build up of ships at the Panama Canal, Suez Canal, Gibraltar, Singapore, and Malaysia. These trade routes are critical to global commerce and makes you think about what would happen if one was threatened or closed off. I blogged about a situation like this last year with the build up of ice on the Great Lakes of the United States. US and Canadian vessels had to clear lanes so that container ships could continue on with their goods.

Source: Kiln and the UCL Energy Institute (UCL EI)
Link: Ship Map

Building a Routing or Road Network from a Road Layer

Do you know where this is?

I route school buses using GIS for a school district in Utah. Over the last year I have been using public road data as a source for our routing network. The process of converting the road layer to a routing network took a couple weeks but has saved us from buying the data privately. Public data isn't perfect and I have had to fix numerous errors but I have sent those fixes to the source (AGRC) which will build a more accurate dataset for everyone. I wrote step by step instructions on how to create a routing or road network from AGRC road centerline data and it was recently published on a blog post on their website. If you have any questions please let me know!



Source: AGRC
Links: AGRC Blog Post, Instructions (PDF)

False Color Imagery

Here is an example of false color imagery, can you see how the Indian pictograph stands out a little more when viewed with a false color filter? Different colors are simply being defined differently, but it is a tool remote sensing specialist use to help identify patterns or features that we may not otherwise have noticed. 

Pictograph was created about 1000 AD by Fremont Indians in N Utah

Lake Shasta Water Levels Rising

The drought in California has been drying up reservoirs across the state over the last few years. This year was predicted to have a large El Nino effect this winter and spring, but it has not produced as much as hoped. Until earlier this month it had been a typical, almost average winter with snow levels averaging around 90% across the state of California. Over the last few weeks several rain and snow storms have passed through Northern California helping Lake Shasta rise to 86% capacity with over 1.8 million acre-feet of water pouring in since the middle of January. El Nino has been very kind to Northern California as of late and we hope it will continue! Check out the slider below to see the difference between water levels at Lake Shasta from last August and its current condition.

Sources: California Dept of Water Resources Data Exchange Center
Imagery: Landsat 8 via Google Earth Engine

Antares Explosion

Antares Explosion in GIF form

View post on imgur.com

Can you believe it's already been a year and a half since this happened?

Eclipse Caught on Tape

We have posted about this before, but the Japanese Meteorological Agency has a satellite in a Geostationary orbit that is parked over Japan and Australia. It takes some pretty cool images. Here is what it caught yesterday, this video may be useful to show those who have a hard time understanding why only a few people on earth get to see a solar eclipse each time it happens.

This isn't a high-res video unlike our previous post, but I hope you enjoy anyway! The US also has a NOAA weather satellite they launched last year that takes similar pictures. The DSCOVR satellite is in a sun-synchronous orbit and will probably show us a similar view, but those images are posted 3-4 days after they are taken, so we have to wait a little longer for them. 

European Space Agency showing Salt Lake City some remote sensing love

As a local to the Wasatch Front I spend a lot of time sailing, birding, and floating on the Great Salt Lake. As a Remote Sensing Specialist I also regularly use Sentinel imagery to study our earth. Sentinel is the ESA equivalent to Landsat. I am currently working on a project that highlights the health hazards of an expanding dry lake bed from the potential dust storms. As the lake gets lower the more dry lake bed is exposed and more dust is kicked up into the air. It is to the benefit of the people of the Wasatch Front to keep that lake wet. I love this video because it highlights just a few of my favorite things. Check it out for some info on the features and history of the Great Salt Lake, the Salt Lake Valley, as well as showing off Sentinel's impressive imagery.

If you are interested in learning more about the Great Salt Lake, here is a whitepaper published by Utah State University last week about the challenges posed by diverting flow to the GSL and the hazards associated with lower Great Salt Lake.

And if that isn't enough and you want to learn even more about the GSL, let me know, I have enough research to keep you busy for days.