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| Subject: | [gislist] RE: GISList: Cartography and Data Viewer |
| Date: |
08/29/2003 01:25:01 PM |
| From: |
George Percivall |
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Some responses to various things in this thread:
If you want NASA-EOS data via ftp try these sites:
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/datapool/
http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/tutorial/datapool.html
http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/HPDOCS/datapool/
http://nsidc.org/data/data_pool/
The total data available at these sites is on the order of 100 TB
Regarding wms.jpl.nasa.gov: The emphasis of that effort is not on the user
interface, but rather on a mosaic of Landsat images accessable through
OpenGIS WMS. Currently under development is a global mosaic of 8,600
Landsat 7 orthorectified scenes. While under development parts of the
global mosaic can be viewed using a more capable client at:
http://viewer.digitalearth.gov/viewer.cgi?gotocontext=us_landsat7.xml
http://viewer.digitalearth.gov/viewer.cgi?gotocontext=africa.xml
But any client is able to use the server interface at wms.jpl.nasa.gov using
the OpenGIS Web Map Service.
Regards,
George P.
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 13:41:20 -0700
> From: "Dimitri Rotow" <dar@manifold.net>
> Subject: RE: [gislist] RE: GISList: Cartography and Data Viewer
> To: <gislist@lists.geocomm.com>
> Message-ID: <ILECLAJGOMFMJIPEPMEMAEGAGPAA.dar@manifold.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain: charset="us-ascii"
>
snip
> That's actually a very good example of something that bureaucrats have
> created at great expense that is a total loser in the marketplace for naive
> users, all while shafting their natural constituency. Look, just because
> people are not GIS folks doesn't mean they are idiots or that they are
> willing to accept sub-standard user interfaces or poor response. It takes a
> *lot* of effort to create smooth, modern applications suitable for use by
> the masses. To see what I mean, fire up a copy of MapPoint 2002 and compare
> it to the JPL + National Atlas sites you propose above. MapPoint is
> instantaneous, it provides elegant, crisp visuals with a superior user
> interface, it is easy to use and it provides a wealth of info of interest to
> naive users.
>
> The JPL stuff is dog-slow, with an awful user interface and very poor
> quality. For example, when showing the vector layers form the National
> atlas they are rasterized into terrible quality. Plus, you really can't
> overlay things. Go to the JPL site and try to overlay an image with a
> partially-transparent high res raster layer (like temperature or elevation)
> and a really sharp vector layer. Can't do it. You can't even assemble
> layers of ugly stuff. Now, compare that to what can be done with MapPoint
> or with Manifold with items like:
>
> http://www.manifold.net/images/gallery/afghanistan_ortho.png
>
> and you see what I mean.
>
> The JPL example is also particularly annoying because had they simply made
> their library of Landsats available online for download to the natural
> constituency of GIS users who can do something substantial with it, you'd
> have lots of GIS and mapping application entrepreneurs be able to use them
> to create something that is highly effective, cheap, easy to use and
> visually beautiful for consumers. Instead, dragging that stuff out of NASA
> with hammer and tongs costs more in litigation than creating the
> applications in the first place.
>
> Is it possible to create a web site that has a better user interface and
> better quality than what you cite? Sure, but it makes more sense to provide
> the data and let people use many existing, low cost (and at times free)
> tools to do with it what they will.
>
> OK, now let's say I'm User Y, in the kitchen of a home that has still has no
> GIS (I know, they have a phone, a TV, a computer and still no GIS- not even
> a low cost one) and they want to find a site that makes maps available to
> inform the general public about hazards cause they are thinking about buying
> a cheap vacation home which looks suspiciously like it's in a floodplain (I
> don't know, just an example). Well, the maps are available on the Internet
> at http://www.hazardmaps.gov/atlas.php and can be viewed with a typical web
> browser. The user can view maps by hazard theme or create a custom view
> showing areas of hazard overlap. By the way, this site is pretty interesting
> to User Y cause they notice that these folks are accessing 22 "live map
> server"
> with 1555 map layers (pretty efficient).
>
> That depends upon your standards. :-) I trust they' re not using anything
> more expensive than our $245 IMS since that would not be considered a big
> load by our standards... Perhaps they are using ArcIMS, since the site
> locked up a few times in my use of it....
>
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