3 Wildfire Maps for Tracking Real-Time Forest Fires
When wildfires burn, satellites (MODIS and VIIRS) track forest fires and deliver warnings to emergency crews. It all goes into real-time active fire maps.
Maps & Cartography
Epic Web Maps – The Maps Hall of Fame
The ultimate list of best maps online. These display state-of-the-art web mapping technology such as live feeds, 3D views and cutting edge visualization.
Geodesy: The Mathematics of “Where”
Geodesy is the field of applied mathematics that studies Earth’s shape, orientation, positions and gravity for the past, present and future.
Scale Bars, Inset Maps and Ratio Text in Cartography
There are several ways to help readers understand map scale and distance. For example, cartographers use scale bars, locator maps, stated and ratio scale.
Latitude, Longitude and Coordinate System Grids
Latitude lines run east-west, are parallel and go from -90 to +90. Longitude lines run north-south, converge at the poles and are from -180 to +180.
Conic Projection: Lambert, Albers and Polyconic
When you place a cone on the Earth and unwrap it, this results in a conic projection. Examples are Albers Equal Area Conic and the Lambert Conformal Conic.
The State Plane Coordinate System (SPCS)
The State Plane Coordinate System divides the United States into 124 zones to locate any point with a high level of accuracy (one part in 10,000).
Map Distortion with Tissot’s Indicatrix
Map distortion is best understood looking at Tissot’s indicatrix. It contains circles and shows how map projections distort shape, size and distances.
Why Are Rhumb Lines (Loxodromes) a Constant Track Direction?
Rhumb lines (or loxodrome) have constant bearings and cross all meridians at the same angle. They are not the shortest distance between 2 points on a sphere
How to Create Flow Maps with Directional Lines
Cartographers use lines to show the movement of phenomenon in flow maps. To show the magnitude, they change the width of flow lines.