abdi.so

This morning’s Metro News. It is encouraging that some...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:27:33 -0500

This morning’s Metro News. It is encouraging that some establishments here in NYC have the moral capacity to consider not to do business with countries like Israel.

Should The U.N. Grant Palestine Full Membership? Last...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:26:50 -0500

Should The U.N. Grant Palestine Full Membership?

Last September, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas requested full membership to the United Nations for a state of Palestine.

With negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders at a stalemate, is there another approach that could offer a diplomatic solution for peace?

President Abbas’ request has yet to be decided upon, and it is almost certain to be turned down. But a group of Middle East experts debated that proposal in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate, facing off on the motion “The U.N. Should Admit Palestine As A Full Member State.”

Before the Oxford-style debate, moderated by ABC News’ John Donvan, the audience at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts voted 37 percent in favor of the motion and 30 percent against the motion, with 33 percent undecided.

After the debate, 55 percent of the audience agreed that the U.N. should admit Palestine as a full member state, while 37 percent disagreed — making the side arguing for the motion the winners of the debate; 8 percent of the audience remained undecided.

Download the full transcript of the debate in PDF format

Ibn Battuta is one of history’s great explorers. He set out from...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:51:14 -0500

Ibn Battuta is one of history’s great explorers. He set out from his native Tangier in 1325, when he was just 21. By the time he returned home for good almost 30 years later, he had covered some 120,000 km and nearly every part of the Islamic world. What makes me so astonished is to read about this great scholars account of his visit to the Somali coastal capital Mogadishu in 1331. Here is a quote of his travels to Somalia where he paints a picture of an exotic, vibrant and rich nation which played a vital role in world trade:

Mogadishu is a very large town. The people are merchants and very rich. They own large herds of camels…and also sheep. Here they manufacture the textiles called after the name of the town; these are of superior quality and are exported to Egypt and other places.

Inspirational!

Egypt’s endangered Gazelles taken down by machines guns and...

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:32:00 -0400

Egypt’s endangered Gazelles taken down by machines guns and pick-up trucks. Piece by piece, we’ll kill this planet yet…

“Egypt’s gazelle population has decreased consistently and drastically for the past four decades mainly due to two factors: unregulated hunting practices and habitat destruction. Three species of gazelle used to live across Egypt. The Arabian gazelle is thought to have completely disappeared, as the most recent footprints of this mammal were found in the 1930s in Wadi al-Arish at the border with Israel. The slender-horned gazelle’s population is difficult to estimate, but according to Omar Attum, professor of biology at Indiana University Southeast who closely studies Egypt’s gazelles, the number of slender-horned gazelles is likely no higher than a hundred. “Slender-horned gazelles have low population densities. There have been some records of them in Siwa recently, but I really worry as the revolution in Libya has made weapons more widely available in a very large and porous border area,” he explains, stressing that whenever there is an armed conflict anywhere in the world, wildlife is threatened. Richard Hoath, British naturalist and author of the book, “A Field Guide to the Mammals of Egypt,” explains that the population of slender-horned gazelles is limited to an area southwest of Fayoum. “This gazelle is strictly a desert species; it is able to survive without drinking water its entire life, provided it can feed on desert shrubs and bushes,” he explains animatedly.”

Source: Almasry Alyoum (via climateadaptation)

The figure above is a [very] simple model displaying isostatic...

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:23:00 -0400

The figure above is a [very] simple model displaying isostatic rebound of Greenland if its ice sheet were not present. The Greenland ice sheet (GISh) is 2,500 km north-south, 1,000 km east-west, 3 km thick, and covers almost 2 million square kilometers (or 80% of the island). Because of the weight of GISh, the continental lithosphere is depressed in an elastic motion. If the GISh were to be removed, the lithosphere would rise in reaction. This rebounding process is known as isostasy and in case of ice sheets, glacial rebound.

Underneath any vast ice sheet is a land surface not unlike any other ice-free surface on earth. It has valleys, hills, plains, etc. Therefore, we see that in Greenland the underlying topography, the Bedrock (or simply the Bed), is shaped as a concave, and with the removal of the ice sheet it rises and assumes a less curved form.

PS: Please note that this is purely for visualization purposes and not to be used in scientific analysis.

Day in the life of a GIS Analyst

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:05:00 -0400

An abbreviated version of a typical day involving the duties of a GIS Analyst and Developer. Or maybe it’s just me.

Hour 1

Arrive to work before the sun does. Grab some coffee, catch up on email. Peruse the latest ArcUser and ArcNews and look at how easy it all should be.

Hour 2

Crap, all the Arc licenses are in use. Send out mass email to all users asking if someone can free one up. Ok, you have a license. One of your SDE databases is down, a ticket to ESRI has been sent. Use an old slower SDE. Begin running a geoprocessing task on a couple million polygons.

Hour 3

More coffee. Discover some internal web applications are not working because that single SDE is down. Send out email to users notifying of situation. Development IDE of choice crashes or freezes a few times to remind you that you are a bad person.

Hour 4

ArcMap crashes in the middle of editing. Try again, crap, cashed again. Try this one more… forget it, no more editing, just use draw tools to make quick exhibits.

Hour 5

More coffee. Given a PDF map that came from a consultant and asked make changes. That’s it, just a PDF. You do things to make this happen that make you feel dirty.

Hour 6

Lunch time. Ninety-percent of solutions to GIS questions or development issues are found on web sites that are blocked as Social Media or Blogs. Twitter rant (vis smartphone). Check that geoprocessing task is still running.

Hour 7

Rush request for exhibit that needs data on the SDE that is down. That particular dataset can also be found on an external hard drive. The enclosure died last month. Pry open enclosure, rip out hard drive, pop open work pc and manually plug it in to extract the data. Cross your fingers that no one from IT department walks in as the internals of your gutted work machine are exposed.

Hour 8

Seriously reconsidering your life decisions.

Hour 9

Geoprocessing task failed around the 8-hour 5-minute mark with geometry errors. After 40 minutes is still cancelling itself. Go home and drink to forget.

Note: No actual analysis got done, as the failed geoprocessing task squashed that goal.

Source: Rene R.

Two views of this morning’s commute from Queens to...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:18:56 -0400

Two views of this morning’s commute from Queens to Manhattan, taken from one location, beautiful colors on both sides.

NASA and Japan released a significantly improved version of the...

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:36:05 -0400

NASA and Japan released a significantly improved version of the most complete digital topographic map of Earth, produced with detailed measurements from NASA’s Terra spacecraft.

The map, known as a global digital elevation model, was created from images collected by the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, instrument aboard Terra. So-called stereo-pair images are produced by merging two slightly offset two-dimensional images to create the three-dimensional effect of depth. The first version of the map was released by NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in June 2009.

The improved version of the map adds 260,000 additional stereo-pair images to improve coverage. It features improved spatial resolution, increased horizontal and vertical accuracy, more realistic coverage over water bodies and the ability to identify lakes as small as 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) in diameter. The map is available online to users everywhere at no cost.

The ASTER data cover 99 percent of Earth’s landmass and span from 83 degrees north latitude to 83 degrees south. Each elevation measurement point in the data is 98 feet (30 meters) apart.

NASA and METI are jointly contributing the data for the ASTER topographic map to the Group on Earth Observations, an international partnership headquartered at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, for use in its Global Earth Observation System of Systems. This “system of systems” is a collaborative, international effort to share and integrate Earth observation data from many different instruments and systems to help monitor and forecast global environmental changes.

ASTER is one of five instruments launched on Terra in 1999. ASTER acquires images from visible to thermal infrared wavelengths, with spatial resolutions ranging from about 50 to 300 feet (15 to 90 meters). A joint science team from the United States and Japan validates and calibrates the instrument and data products. The U.S. science team is located at JPL.

NASA, METI, Japan’s Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC), and the U.S. Geological Survey validated the data, with support from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other collaborators. The data are distributed by NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., and by ERSDAC in Tokyo.

Users of the new version of the ASTER data products are advised that while improved, the data still contain anomalies and artifacts that will affect its usefulness for certain applications.

Data users can download the ASTER global digital elevation model at:https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/ or http://www.ersdac.or.jp/GDEM/E/4.html .

For more information about ASTER, visit: http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more information on NASA’s Terra mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/terra .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Columbia University’s contribution to the death of...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:01:00 -0400

Columbia University’s contribution to the death of migratory birds in NYC. I found this dead female Black-throated Blue Warbler (Dendroica caerulescens) on September 19th at the base of the university’s Northwest Corner Building at 120th and Broadway.

NASA Operation IceBridge Returns to Antarctica

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:29:50 -0400

satellite image acquired October 5, 2011
download large image (5 MB, JPEG)
download GeoTIFF file (42 MB, TIFF)

For the third consecutive October, NASA research aircraft are flying over Antarctica in search of clues about the health and dynamics of the frozen continent’s massive ice sheets and shelves. Part of the NASA-funded IceBridge mission, planes carry instruments to measure the thickness of snow and ice, as well as the shape of the land andseafloor beneath the ice.

On October 5, 2011, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this clear view of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Larsen Ice Shelf, and the sea ice covered waters around the region. The Peninsula stands out as the raised terrain amidst the ice from the lower left to upper middle of the image.

On October 12, 2011, NASA’s DC-8 aircraft flew from Punta Arenas, Chile, across the Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea, and back to Chile—making two 1,700-kilometer transects from east to west across the region. Several early flights in the 2011 campaign will take the team over sea ice near the Antarctic Peninsula before too much of it melts in the southern spring. Scientists are trying to understand why sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere is not following the steady decline of sea ice thickness and extent observed in the Arctic.

Operation IceBridge is designed to continue critical ice sheet measurements for the next few years between the end of the ICESat I mission and the launch of ICESat II in 2016. Researchers make instrumented flights to Greenland and the Arctic each March through May, and over Antarctica each October and November. Many flight lines retrace previous ICESat-1 tracks or future ICESat-2 tracks. Some also align with current observations made by the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite.

The overlapping flight lines and satellite tracks help scientists improve the accuracy of their data. Scientists are concerned about how quickly key glaciers and ice shelves are thinning. Better understanding this type of change is crucial to projecting impacts like sea-level rise.

NASA image provided courtesy of Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response team. Caption by Michael Carlowicz and Patrick Lynch.

Instrument: Aqua - MODIS

Why I Joined the Green Party

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:59:00 -0400

If you follow politics closely like I have for the last 10 years or so, it’s very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day battles between the “conservatives” and the “liberals” that dominate our national media. Did you hear what Nancy Pelosi said today? And the response from John Boehner? To choose a side is only human, and to defend that ideology against all who oppose it is nothing short of a patriotic exercise of one’s First Amendment rights. You have to pick a side, right?

But what if you start to realize that BOTH sides are really one in the same? What do you do when you recognize that BOTH sides are bought and paid for by the corporations that funded their multi-million dollar election campaigns? What happens next when you come to the conclusion that BOTH sides are happy to argue for a position when they think that it will help sway public opinion, but write legislation that only serves to maximize profits for the executive class of America at the expense of We the People?

Read more here.

One of the projects we’re working on here at the...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:17:00 -0400

One of the projects we’re working on here at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is assessing spatial extent of subglacial features under the Greenland ice sheet using airborne geophysics. This is to better understand the dynamics of the ice sheet and to monitor the affects of climate change on its flow.

Goodbye NBII: Budget Cuts Spell the End of the National Biological Information Infrastructure

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:20:00 -0400

The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is being terminated as of Jan. 15, 2012, due to a $3.8 million budget cut. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within the websiteterminated and no longer available. The site’s blog has already been terminated as of last week, and will be removed completely as of Nov. 1.

The NBII fostered a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation’s biological resources. The effort was effective in linking diverse, high-quality biological databases, information products, and analytical tools from partner institutions and contributors in government agencies, academic institutions, non-government organizations, and private industry.

The effort fostered many standards to facilitate online sharing of data and services, including:

FGDC Biological Data Profile standard for describing biological data
Geospatial Interoperability Framework based on ISO standards and OGC specifications.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) for finding the scientific names of species by their popular names or vice-versa.

A number of data portals and tools of a geospatial nature were also compiled here, including:

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Data Access Wizard – tool to facilitate discovery and access to fisheries-related data sets
Gap Analysis Program (GAP) – searchable statewide collection of digital species distribution maps and predictable habitat affinity models
Early Detection, Rapid Assessment, and Rapid Response (EDRR) to Invasive Species – a living catalog of resources for invasive species management
USGS Vegetation Characterization Program Products – Web-enabled information, data, and maps of the vegetation of 280 national Park units across the United States

There has been some indication that some of these resources will be hosted by the Data Observation Network of Earth (DataONE) cyberinfrastructure that serves to meet the needs of science and society with easily discovered Earth observation data, which is made possible through funding from the National Science Foundation.

For more information regarding this transition, refer to the NBII Program Termination page.

Source: Spatial Sustain

Steve Jobs’ Stanford University Commencement Address

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:41:06 -0400

Steve Jobs’ Stanford University Commencement Address

Graphic: What would a Palestinian state look like? As the...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:00:29 -0400

Graphic: What would a Palestinian state look like?
As the Palestinian Authority’s at the UN moves forward, the National Post looks at what a Palestinian state would look like. For a large version of this graphic, download the PDF here.

The Force: Volkswagen. Perhaps the best commercial of the...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:36:00 -0400

The Force: Volkswagen.

Perhaps the best commercial of the season.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2011) — NOAA’s Space Weather...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:18:37 -0400

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2011) — NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center — the nation’s official source of warnings and alerts about space weather and its impacts on Earth — issued a warning for a strong, G3 geomagnetic storm on Earth resulting from a significant explosion from the sun’s corona Saturday morning (Sept. 24, 2011). G-scale solar storms range from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme). Impacts have arrived on Earth, jolting the planet’s magnetic field and triggering strong “geomagnetic storming” in some regions. Saturday’s coronal mass ejection — a burst of charged particles and magnetic field that streamed out from the sun at about five million miles an hour — delivered a glancing blow to the planet. If it had been directed straight at Earth, the geomagnetic storming could have reached “severe” to “extreme” levels.

Geomagnetic storms on Earth can impede the operation of electrical grids and temporarily damage radio and satellite telecommunications. No impacts to the power grid, satellite or other technological systems have yet been reported yet from today’s geomagnetic storm, which could persist for several more hours.

NYC witnessed some some spectacular sunsets during the weekend...

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:19:51 -0400

NYC witnessed some some spectacular sunsets during the weekend of September 24th/25th.

Back in 2006, the WWF helped prepare the first map of coral...

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:37:00 -0400

Back in 2006, the WWF helped prepare the first map of coral habitats in the southeastern Persian Gulf, highlighting some of the most extensive and biologically important coral reefs around the offshore islands and banks of the United Arab Emirate of Abu Dhabi and Qatar’s harbor.

This large scale habitat map [PDF], which is an outcome of the Coral Reef Investigations in Abu Dhabi and Eastern Qatar project, will allow resource managers to assess the quantity and quality of marine resources under their jurisdiction.

Since January 2005, threatened coral habitats of the Persian Gulf have been studied and mapped with a view to developing a comprehensive conservation and management plan for these valuable ecosystems. Alongside, researchers of participating environmental organizations in the UAE and Qatar have received training in both theoretical and practical aspects of project work.

“With the help of this coral reef map, future protection measures will be made much easier,” commented Majid Al Mansouri, Board Member of the Emirates Wildlife Society, an associate organization of WWF in the United Arab Emirates.

The map has been prepared using Landsat satellite imagery. Although ground-truthing was done at over 1,000 points for accuracy control, it is still a preliminary map that requires fine-tuning and approval from government agencies implementing the project in the UAE and Qatar. Higher resolution imagery will be used to map areas of special interest in greater detail.

“The production of this coral reef map is a vital contribution to Gulf biodiversity,” said Ahmed Al Sayegh, CEO, Dolphin Energy, a company that is implementing the Dolphin Gas Project designed to supply natural gas from offshore Qatar to the UAE.

“We will be transporting natural gas within a few months. Now that we know where the corals are located, it will be a vital part of our environment management program that these be protected in every possible way, for the benefit of future generations.”

The GeoNames Geographical Database

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:30:07 -0400

The GeoNames geographical database is available for download free of charge under a creative commons attribution license. It contains over 10 million geographical names and consists of 7.5 million unique features whereof 2.8 million populated places and 5.5 million alternate names. All features are categorized into one out of nine feature classes and further subcategorized into one out of 645 feature codes. (more statistics …).
The data is accessible free of charge through a number of webservices and a daily database export. GeoNames is already serving up to over 20 million web service requests per day.

GeoNames is integrating geographical data such as names of places in various languages, elevation, population and others from various sources. All lat/long coordinates are in WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984). Users may manually edit, correct and add new names using a user friendly wiki interface.