GIS and Remote Sensing Tools, Tips and more ..

Are you wondering on MODIS products' naming convention? Don't worry !!. This is the time to dig out MODIS names. Let's say you have few MODIS products. Nadir BRDF-Adjusted Reflectance  ( NBAR ): MCD43B4.A2000185.h25v03.005.2006299173851.hdf MODIS Land Surface Temperature Products: MOD11A2.A2002241.h12v02.005.2007222102136.hdf MCD43B4 or MOD11A2- MODIS Product Short Name A2000185 or A2002241 - Julian Date of Acquisition (A-YYYYDDD) h25v03 or h12v02- Tile Identifier (Tile location- horizontalXXverticalYY) 005 - Collection Version 2006299173851 or 2007222102136- Julian Date of Production (YYYYDDDHHMMSS) The YYYYDDD of above products equivalent to 2006299 and 2007222, which means Year:2006 Day of Year:299 (OCT 25, 2006) & Year:2007 Day of Year:222(AUG 09,2007) hdf - Data Format (HDF-EOS) Cheers !!

Creating a kmz image overlay  1. Make sure the dataset you are working with has a geographic coordinate system (unprojected) with WGS84 as the datum. If not, you will need to reproject your data. If the coordinate system of your datasets is defined you can change the projection “on-the-fly”. To reproject on-the-fly, go to Layers then Click Properties and specify geographic with WGS84 datum as the coordinate system. However, I recommend reprojecting the actual GIS datasets (shapefiles, grids, etc.) because project-on-the-fly is not always very precise, particularly when dealing with datum transformations. 2. Switch to the layout view. Select a layout that matches the dimensions of your map as closely as possible. To keep the file sizes of your images small, try to leave as little empty space around the edges as possible. Right-click on the layout and select Page and Print Setup to change the layout size. 3. Right-click on the map and select Properties. Go to the Size and Posit...

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken with a special low-light 4K-camera (made in Japan)  by the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from  August to October, 2011. Shooting locations in order of appearance: 1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night 2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night 3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia 4. Aurora Australis south of Australia 5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night 6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean 7. Halfway around the World 8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East 9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East 10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night 11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay 12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night 13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam 14. Views of the Mideast at Night 15....

map.events.register('click', map, function (e) { //alert(map.getExtent().toBBOX()); x1=parseInt(e.xy.x); y1=parseInt(e.xy.y);     var url = layerhost       + "?REQUEST=GetFeatureInfo"       + "&EXCEPTIONS=application/vnd.ogc.se_xml"       + "&BBOX=" + map.getExtent().toBBOX()       + "&X=" + x1       + "&Y=" + y1       + "&INFO_FORMAT=text/html"       + "&QUERY_LAYERS=" + layername       + "&LAYERS="+layername       + "&FEATURE_COUNT=50"       + "&SRS=EPSG:900913"       + "&STYLES="       + "&WIDTH=" + map.size.w       + "&HEIGHT=" + map.size.h;     window.open(url,       "getfeatureinfo",       "location=10,status=10,scrollbars=1,width=600,height=150"     ); ...

Today, I was working on Shapefiles from Australia and Nepal for my biodiversity research. I found DIVA GIS is useful for the scientist and students who can't afford ESRI's ArcGIS suite. DIVA-GIS is particularly useful for mapping and analyzing biodiversity data, such as the distribution of species, or other 'point-distributions'. It reads and write standard data formats such as ESRI shapefiles, so interoperability is not a problem. DIVA-GIS runs on Windows and (with minor effort) on Mac OSX.

A highly ambitious project by Google, Google Earth Engine , will be launch by  the end of 2011. This project is using high resolution images from more than 30 earth observing satellites such as Landsat, MODIS,  IKONOS, QuicBird etc to build global archive of atmospheric corrected data sets.  According to Earth Engine team, these archives will be" available online with tools for scientists, independent researchers, and nations to mine this massive warehouse of data to detect changes, map trends and quantify differences on the earth's surface " in a cloud computing platform.  Currently, this project is in testing phase with limited  access to few groups of partner including CLASlite and IMAZON .  Let us wait and see how far they can go !!!

Community Analyst includes demographic, health, economic, education, and business data variables to help users develop informed strategies for policy creation and critical resource allocation. Decisions such as matching health care clinics to areas with the greatest need or allocating infrastructure funding for maximum community impact can now be made and supported using customizable reports and maps more .