All posts by Stefan Geens

Mooting uses for APRSKML

A few weeks ago Ogle Earth linked to APRSKML, which converts amateur radio positioning data into a KML network link for Google Earth. In the meantime, instructions for its use have been fleshed out, and now new geoblogger Ian Turton reports back on some interesting uses for it:

The best bit is that the packets can be picked up and forwarded over the internet for people to view, map and otherwise play with. For example I spent this afternoon watching a tourist light airplane trip over the Florida Keys.

Ian’s considering incorporating APRSKML into a GeoRSS server, which would automate this functionality (if I understand him right:-).

Mapping US population densities, median ages, by county

When it rains, it pours. Juice Analytics publishes a glorious example of the kind of stuff spatial analysis does best — overlays for Google Earth with colors denoting population densities or median ages, county-by-county. Here is NY population densities (I love this):

NYSdens.jpg

Collect all 50 states.

[Update 23:28 UTC: Forgot to mention that male/female ratios are also available.]

Declan Butler, Arc2Earth & H5N1

Nature reporter Declan Butler, who beta-tested Arc2Earth, shows off some of the projects he built using the application. They include the much-lauded avian flu map, which Declan writes will get an update once he’s done with his day job:-)

H5N1 has reached Sweden in the meantime. The birds were found in a very specific area — in an inlet near the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant, conveniently in high res in Google Earth and pre-cordoned off. I’m sure it won’t be the last case, though.

Interview with Arc2Earth’s Brian Flood

arc2earth-logo.gifIn anticipation of the release of Arc2Earth, I asked Brian Flood about his take on KML, Google Earth, the relative strengths and weaknesses of both, Arc2Earth’s features and what’s in store for the future.

Ogle Earth: Just quickly, how did you get involved in GIS and what is your day job?

Brian Flood: I work at Spatial Data Logic (Somerset, NJ), a company I helped start several years ago. We provide workflow and GIS software for local governments throughout the state.

OE: Arc2Earth takes the output of the most popular GIS analytical tool and puts it into the most popular GIS browser. When did you first see this as an obvious market niche in need of filling?

Continue reading Interview with Arc2Earth’s Brian Flood

Arc2Earth goes live

arc2earth-logo.gifYour Google Earth experience is about to become a whole lot richer, because Brian Flood and his team have just released Arc2Earth, a powerful conversion tool linking one of the main cartographic authoring applications, ESRI’s ArcMap, to Google Earth.

TIN_Mountain_GE_Fix2_tn.PNGIf you’re a user of Google Earth, sit back and wait while GIS pros suddenly find it much easier to start publishing all manner of interesting data to Google Earth. If you want to see some eyecandy, check out what Arc2Earth can do, or open up this teaser KMZ file of 3D nodes of Yellowstone Park (turn off “Terrain” in Google Earth for best results, as the source for height data is the same).

a2e_MapExport_1_tn.pngIf you are a GIS pro and use ESRI’s ArcMap, then Arc2Earth is going to make your life a lot easier if you need to publish to a free, widely available geobrowser — Google Earth. Arc2Earth comes in a $99 standard version and a $299 professional version which adds TIN export, the opening of network links and, in the future, publishing to a server. There is also an API in the works.

To find out exactly what each version can do, check out the feature list, or else dive right into the manual.

Next up, an interview with Brian Flood about Arc2Earth.

Geoblogging with Blojsom

Just two weeks ago Ogle Earth ran into the Gombe Chimpanzee Blog, which uses Google Earth as the browser of choice for displaying its location-based entries. This week, a system that lets you do just that automatically, courtesy of Adam Burt: Geo-Blogging.

Geo-Blogging is Mac-only at the moment, and it is built on the open-source Blojsom blogging system, but even so non-Mac non-Blojsom users might want to take a look to see what’s coming.

Adam’s system involves installing a special template that produces a KML version of his blog, to which a Google Earth network link can subscribe. The entire process is a bit more convoluted than that, but he’s got copious screencasts that make it easy to grasp. Adam also has a Flickr set of screenshots.

(Separately, Adam’s application got me to take a closer look at Blojsom as a blogging tool, and I came away impressed.)