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Most Complete Topographical Map of Earth Complete
An anonymous reader writes "Kudos to NASA and the Japanese trade ministry for mapping 99% of the Earth's surface, surpassing their previous effort, with which the new data will be amalgamated. Apparently, the data will be free to download and use."
Anyone know last 1% isn't mapped? Is it just hard to access or is it part of a top secret organization?
A Magic the Gathering Article and Forum Aggregator
As noted by some. This also has been the most detailed fail.
This error message sums it up pretty well:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e4d'
/index.asp, line 3
[Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Too many client tasks.
Acess?! Really?!
________
Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
Apparently, the data will be free to download and use.
You know, it never ceases to amaze me that CNN, BBC, Fox News, everybody who's a major player can't link to the original source of information (and Japan's site). One might find the warehouse inventory search tool (note registration required for ASTER global digital elevation model) interesting to play around with if they are interested in the story.
My work here is dung.
How do these folks break even if the data will be free to download and use? A small nominal charge for use or download would not hurt for sure...or would it?
What are you, some kind of RIAA mobster?
No wonder he's not returning your calls. He can't hear a word your saying on the messages, since your phone is stuck in your rectum.
I think the solution is to just buy a new one. Along with a MacBook Pro and some Apple t-shirts and bumper stickers. Rock on!
Le français vous intéresse?
Actually, the data is stored on write-once media, so they've decided to just go out every Dec 31 and push the continental shelves back to their Jan 1 position.
You know, posting this sort of comment on a geek site, where you're really expected to not only be able to download files and load them into existing programs, but you're also expected to (in extreme cases at least) be able to hack into the ftp site using a whistle made from old Pringles containers and then write the downloader and application file in 6502 assembly, while creating run on sentences in Slashdot, is likely to get somebody to tell you to go back to Digg.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
They break even by people finding profitable uses for it, which then produce tax revenue. Remember, the agencies doing this are US and Japanese government agencies.
Good plan. So once California falls off the edge of the US, we can watch it over and over and over again!
you do realize that those are commercial satellites launched using commercial launch vehicles operated by commercial companies. Yes, the US government does have some say in the matter since they're often (but not always) launched from government owned launch facilities and the data is sensitive in nature; but, these are commercial entities, not owned by NASA or DOD.
Isn't that always true?
You know, posting this sort of comment on a geek site, where you're really expected to not only be able to download files and load them into existing programs, but you're also expected to (in extreme cases at least) be able to hack into the ftp site using a whistle made from old Pringles containers and then write the downloader and application file in 6502 assembly, while creating run on sentences in Slashdot, is likely to get somebody to tell you to go back to Digg.
So, are you finished with it yet, or should I go back to reading Digg?
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
Did anybody else notice that the report of a newsworthy task by U.S. and Japanese agencies was reported by the BBC? Not ABC, NBC, CNN, or any other U.S. based news agency and certainly not by a Japan based agency. It's coverage like this that keeps me going back to the BBC.
My office has been taken over by iPod people.
A completely accurate topographical map of the whole Earth? Including possible locations of military installations, elementary schools and donut shops? That's madness!
You know who would want this kind of information? Terrorists, that's who. If they figure out what the Earth looks like, they might blow it up! Clearly this 'Japan' company is a front for free-lance international terrorists like Hans Gruber, and they must be stopped.
Keep this dangerous terrorist tool off the market before the children are hurt by it! Pass new laws restricting access to this kind of sensitive topographical information. Make it a crime to even talk about possessing a "map", even if it's of a fictional place. Only then can we truly be safe.
... from a nice observation window at The Restaurant at the End of California.
Also did you you forget to post anonymously?
Smidge207 is a troll poster. I believe the real Smidge is Smidge204.
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
What!!!!! YOU had a pringles can to use as a whistle>????? You kids have it EASY now! In MY day, we had nothing but teeth and pursed lips....and now, alas, nothing but pursed lips..
Now....GET OFF MY LAWN
G,D, R
dave mundt
YAB - http://blog.beemandave.com/
This will (well, could) be great for geek hikers like myself; I find the topographical maps available okay, but don't really give one an accurate feel for the lay of the land. Incorporating this map into GPS (or, in the shorter term, some open source mapping software on a PDA-sized device) will be very cool...
Sigh, one of these days I hope to look at the beautiful surroundings nature provides, more than I look at my gadgets I bring with me :) Oh well, navigating/mapping is half the fun of exploring, to me (whether in a car, boat, or on foot).
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I'm okay with that. The raw data is free, but generally useless to the average person without some interpretation.
The only thing stopping someone from making a free alternative to those commercial services is lack of cartography skills.
There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.
I am actually using this data for my thesis project in geology. Actually, I'm really excited to learn about this, as the previously available 90m resolution SRTM data isn't really sufficient for my needs.
The SRTM data is all free to download, if you can figure out their poor interface for selecting the files you need. If it wasn't, there would be a lot fewer people working with it. It is the most important data for the analyses I'm doing, and without it my thesis would be a lot different (you can do similar things with regular topographic maps, but essentially only by making hand measurements). I'm really glad that I haven't done a ton of analyses using the SRTM data - now I will wait until I can get my hands on the new stuff.
For a grad student like me with little to no funding for my research and a tiny paycheck from working as a TA, even a nominal fee to download is prohibitive. Even for someone that DOES have funding, paying for stuff like this is extremely annoying. Despite what journal publishers want you to think, science is about openness and sharing of information. Most scientists freely share their data and work with others - even those that work with proprietary data in industry, if you ask them nicely.
And as others have noted - we already paid for it. It's produced by the government.
Now, here's the best part - there is actually 30m data from the SRTM mission. However, except for North America, only the 90m data is available, because it's restricted - not by NASA, but by the DOD. So with this new data they've apparently side-stepped the DOD. NASA and the USGS do seem like they want to get their data out their and accessible by scientists, despite what the DOD may want. I am working on Thailand, so the 30m SRTM data was restricted, but now I should be able to get this new data at the same resolution.
The previous SRTM data is available completely free to the end-user. I downloaded several gigabytes of it for use in my thesis.
There are commercial vendors who will provide you somewhat better versions of it - with the holes filled, and the individual tiles stitched together. But for someone actually working with the data, that's not really worth much because you can do it yourself in a few minutes.
I'm trying to get the new data right now - I'm still working on my thesis and this will be really great stuff - and it appears it's pretty much the same set-up as before.
Basically, there's no need for cynicism. The people at NASA, USGS, and other government science agencies really do want their data to be free and accessible by anyone.
That's not really an issue with this type of data. Remember, the resolution is 30m. There is nothing geologic (that would show up in this type of data) that moves anywhere close to that on human time scales.
There IS data on movement such as those you list, showing real time (in geologic time anyway) movement of the crust due to tectonics, or other things. It's actually a pretty major field in geology, studying minute changes. InSAR and millimeter-accurate differential GPS are two techniques.
Relatively coarse DEM data like ASTER or SRTM is used for different applications where millimeter accuracy isn't necessary - i.e., most things :)
Additionally, there is enough inaccuracy in the instrumentation used for DEM data like this that doing multiple passes will give you significantly different results - the error is measured in meters. Therefore, any small changes - and earthquakes, volcanoes, and tectonic movements are small changes in the big scheme of things - are completely irrelevant as they'll be averaged out anyway. It should be interesting to make a comparison to previous datasets, though, and I'm sure there are people working on that already.
Of course, I suppose you'd notice in this data if a huge volcanic explosion occurred, like when half of Mt. St. Helens blew off. However, that's exceedingly rare :)
IAAGGS (I am a geology grad student).
Let me correct you:
[quote]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
Long and short scales ...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The long and short scales are two of the several different numerical systems used throughout the world:
Short scale is the English translation of the French term échelle courte.[1] It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000 times the previous term: billion means a thousand millions (109), trillion means a thousand billions (1012), and so on.
Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue. It refers to a system of numeric names in which every new term greater than million is 1,000,000 times the previous term: billion (from bi and million) means a million to the power of two or a million millions (1012), trillion (from tri and million) means a million to the power of three or a million billions (1018), and so on.
Note that the difference between the two scales grows as numbers get larger. Million is the same in both scales, but the long-scale billion (1,000,000,000,000) is a thousand times larger than the short-scale billion (1,000,000,000), the long-scale trillion is a million times larger than the short-scale trillion, and so on.
For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United Kingdom uniformly used the long scale,[2] while the United States of America used the short scale,[2] so that usage of the two systems was often referred to as British and American respectively. In 1974, the government of the UK abandoned the long scale, so that the UK now exclusively applies the short scale interpretation in mass media and official usage.[3][4][5][6] Although some residual usage of the long scale continues in the UK,[7] the phrases British usage and American usage are no longer accurate nor helpful characterizations. The two systems can be a subject of misunderstanding or controversy. Usage changes can evoke resentment in adherents to the older system, while national differences of any kind can acquire jingoistic overtones.[8]
Many countries, including most in continental Europe, use the long scale. There are other numbering systems which are neither long nor short scale such as the Chinese numbering system, the Indian numbering system, the Japanese numbering system, and the Korean numbering system.
[end quote]
Funny story:
My patriarch was raised in South America, once during dinner whilst discussing the US deficit, Walmart's capitalization or a baller's salary, I said something like:
* he has a half billion dollar contract
* the export deficit is 40 billion dollars
* that company is bigger than IBM, General Motors, it's a monter 100+ billion dollar company
He looked flabbergasted, as though he had seen his first UFO, and was incredulous of the amount!
I had a quick insight and I said:
``A United States billion is a thousand million. A US trillion is a million million. OK?''
To which he said:
``Whew! that makes more sense. You were talking real money there, for a minute.''
As a child, an ignorant NYC teacher rebuked me brusquely when I grew confused at the mention of billion and trillion with so few left-hand-of-decimal-place zeros. The guy had never heard of long and short scale systems. What r-e-a-l-l-y confused me was his bad attitude, I was a dumb public school kid, wtf could I possibly know. Now on tangent, when it came to decimal period vs decimal commas, thousand place commas vs thousand place periods (points), I didn't bother to clarify with that lardass. That would have really thrown him. ^.^