Andrew Zolnai Blog: More beautiful maps in current affairs

Andrew Zolnai Blog: More beautiful maps in current affairs: "As I'm off for two weeks you get next week's posting today! Following last week's blogpost on Esri's beautiful ocean base map, I painted over it (to use their simile) Goddard Earth Sciences' stunning near-real-time global sensor data for:

• false colour imagery and dust cover for the last week
• carbon monoxide and SO2 measure up- and down-current for the last three days

At the Icelandic volcanic eruption last year, posted these on giscloud.com and desktop ArcGIS Explorer. I noted then that ArcGIS Explorer Online didn't consume web mapping services (WMS) - it is still so, even though arcgis.com is supposed to consume OGC WMS that NASA used, stay tuned on Esri's response to my support call - so I layer-packaged it and posted it on arcgis.com.

As they say in Australia, 'isn't that a beaut'? And keep coming back to refresh the map, this is as good as it gets: near real time data updated on a rolling basis for the last 3 - 7 days (watch here for updates and notices). I'm naturally interested in dust storms in the Middle-East (or haboobs as they they call them in the US West too), so I got the map above : all calm on the eastern front, it was humidity not dust in the Arabian Gulf yesterday! The photo below shows what it looked like in Kuwait City over Easter.

You can also post other layers, or even go fetch other data as Goddard updates its services. Since this is all live web data, it's a perfect fit for a web map that automatically updated as you post it or refresh it, don't you think? I'll let you know as soon as I get it working on ArcGIS Online. As they say, 'don't touch that dial... we'll be back shortly!'.

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