Musandam Peninsula OM - A Revisit of a Previous Post

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Oman - Landsat ETM+ N-40-25_2000 (1:175,000)

Musandam Peninsula - EVS Precision Map (1-175,000)

Musandam Peninsula - EVS Precision Map with 50-Meter Contour Intervals (1:175,000)

The above EVS Precision map project of the Musandam Peninsula was completed around the first week in September 2008. It was my last mapping "hurrah" before the start of this school year. I remember loving the look of this unusual piece of land calling it a "peninsula of peninulas.

Musandam Peninsula, Oman from Earth Observatory (EO)

It seems that the folks at EO dusted off a 2004 ASTER image of the Musandam Peninsula and posted it to their site today. The peninsula is still lovely to look at!

Enjoy!

The Great Blue Hole Located on Lighthouse Reef, Belize

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Lighthouse Reef and The Great Blue Hole from Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 Satellite

On April 3rd the above image was posted to Earth Observatory's Image of the Day. I read the article with mild interest. I was aware of the these features, cenotes, being found throughout this part of the world. After downloading the 4 MB image of the entire reef, I figured that it would be an excellent island mapping project. I checked out the Landsat ETM+ image and it is cloud free and quite detailed. So, I began to map it.

Lighthouse Reef and the Great Blue Hole - Comparison Landsat to ASTER Images

The small cays that are located on the reef at first glance looked to be fairly simple. They were not! Wanting to do justice to the details shown on the base image, my digitizing was ultimately complex. I worked at scales between 1:25,000 to 1:12,500 for most of my digitizing.

Lighthouse Reef and The Great Blue Hole, Belize - Landsat ETM+ N-16-15_2000 Image (1-220,000)

Lighthouse Reef and The Great Blue Hole, Belize - EVS Precision Map Preliminary (1-220,000)

10-days and about 20-hours later, I am done. All of the layer colors used are my usuals, except for the ocean layer. I went with a darker blue. In my opinion, the deep blue ocean color accents the many shades of blue used in detailing the reef system.

Great Blue Hole from National Geographic

If you are curious about this feature follow the links found throughout this post. Wikipedia also has an informative article about the Great Blue Hole you might find interesting.

From a mapping perspective, I am pleased with my finished product. However, to truely appreciate the amount of detail included on the map one needs to study the vector map. It is really cool! Oh, well...I'm glad it's done. Now on to the north coast of New Britian and more reefs.

Enjoy!

Thoughts - Locating EVS Island Map Projects on Little Worlds

NASA Earth Observatory Image Locator Map

NASA's Earth Observatory is one of my favorite sites. They not only post interesting imagery, but the text explaining the imagery is intelligent, challenging and understandable to the layman. It is a consistently great read. Some time back they revamped their site look and began using an image locator map. I've tried many types of locators for my maps and have not been thrilled with any. Google Maps, which I post to the top of my site, works but not for me. I spend too much time exploring and not enough time making island maps. I had chopped a black and white world map into 3 sections and used the sections when appropriate, but it just didn't work for me. After looking at EO's solution the answer might be to use a copyright free little world map as an island map locator. Two questions remain, Are there any copyright free little world maps available? and Which one will work best for my purposes?

NASA's Little World

I like this little world. The projection works and the color scheme is easy on the eyes. Adding my "island map is here" symbol would work on this map. I have tried to contact the NASA EO webmaster to see if this map is copyright free. To date, the individual has not answered my question. I suspect it is copyright free as almost all of NASA imagery has moved in that direction. Until I get an official answer from an official NASA webmaster, no dice on this map.

Wikimedia Commons Little Grey World

Originally posted as an SVG formatted world map in Wikimedia Commons, this map intrigues me. First it is Pacific centered. That is a major plus for plotting my work as the majority of the islands I map are located in the Pacific Ocean. The Indian Ocean is also well displayed. The Atlantic Ocean has few islands and those that I would map could be made to show up on this little grey world. This map is definitely in the running as my Little World Island Locator Map.

Wikimedia Commons Little Mercator World

Another Pacific centered map that divides the world at the Indian Ocean. I love the color scheme on this map. The yellow land masses show well against the soft blue oceans. The lan/lon grids do not seem to clutter the map. This map could definitely work as my Little world Island Locator Map.

Wikimedia Commons Little Eckert IV World

This little world is my favorite. I like the dusty yellow and blue color scheme. The lat/lon grids are a definite plus. The map is copyright free. I think I'm going to give this little world a try as EVS Islands newest feature, the Little World Island Locator Map.

Enjoy!