new jersey geographer

New Jersey is a great state to be a GIS specialist, consultant, or student. There is a wealth of GIS data available throughout the state, and that massive amount of data is getting easier to use.

The Office of GIS in the State’s OIT department has made available several statewide layers via WMS. If you’re not familiar with WMS, the gist of the service is that a remote server renders a georeferenced image of map that can be used in your GIS software, whether it’s desktop GIS like ESRI‘s ArcMap, or server-side GIS, like TileCache and OpenLayers. Having a WMS service available is an incredible resource. Where the 2007 aerial photographs span several DVDs (just having the 4 MrSID tiles that cover Rowan University requires 23MB of space*), being able to download just the portion of the aerials at the scale you need is wonderful. Coupled with the fact that it renders faster than drawing from tiles over the Rowan network is outright amazing.

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Before Google Earth 5 had come out, I had commented to a few people that the dates for the aerial photos (which used to be displayed in the bottom center of the screen) were way off for New Jersey. The date was reported as 2004, but it was clearly 2007 imagery.

Well, this little problem is now a bigger issue. In browsing the area around Rowan University (where considerable development has occurred in stages between 2002 and 2008), I noticed several places where the “2004″ imagery shows a further progression of development than the (actual) 2006 photography. I’ve prepared a KMZ file with annotated points, highlighting places where the development that is visible in the “2004″ aerials had not yet occurred in 2004.

Considering I had noticed this discrepancy throughtout the State before Google allowed you to transition through the older imagery, I took a look at another location in the State where development is occuring, Newark. Google Earth has 11 different sets of photography available for Newark. The very big problem is that the default imagery is pre-Prudential Center. This is even reflected in Google Maps. The default images in both Maps and Earth is now the “December 30, 2002″ images. Many of the buildings that are in Street View for Newark are not to be found on the aerial photography. The 2002 data is the second-oldest data available, but it’s now the default.

This seems like a pretty big mixup for Google to make. We’ve gone from posting imagery within the same day to reverting back to a 4 to 6 year lag.

Find another place in the State (or elsewhere) where the dates are obviously wrong? Let me know in the comments.

Digital Urban has a writeup of one of the newest, perhaps most exciting feature to be added to Google Earth. Historic aerial photography! For many places around the globe, you now have access to previous aerial photography, as far back as 1950 in some places. I’ll have to take a look into what Google has for New Jersey; are the 1930s aerial photographs available in Google Earth?

“Back in my day, we had to wait years for grainy aerial photographs taken from a biplane.”

CNN has satellite imagery of the crowd gathered on the Mall for today’s inauguration. The images are from GeoEye, who not only have a satellite that can return 42cm imagery, but a pretty cool corporate website to boot.

From the Daily Record:

On Tuesday, just as dusk settles, a dozen hilltops covering 108 miles from Beacon, N.Y., to Princeton will be illuminated with bright spotlights to mark the day 225 years ago when the last British troops boarded ships in New York harbor and sailed away, leaving behind a free nation.

How is this relevant to GIS? The head of the Crossroads of the American Revolution Association is asking Google Earth to take a snapshot of the event.

She said the groups are trying to arrange with Google Earth to snap a photograph of the light show.

I didn’t realize Google was in the photography business. Would beacons look impressive from the air/space anyway?

GeoEye-1, an Earth-imaging satellite that’s been in the news recently due to its agreement with Google to provide the company with half-meter imagery, has sent back its first pictures. The satellite will provide images for Google to use in its Maps and Earth applications, as well as for resale. The first image sent back was of Kutztown University. When in panchromatic mode, the satellite captures an area equivalent to the size of Texas within a day.

With all the recent news about cattle orienting themselves in cardinal directions (and the debate on the story’s veracity) I found it more interesting that the researchers used Google Earth to find oriented photography, instead of say, going out and observing cattle.

“The Last Guy” introduces an even more esoteric use of aerial photography. This zombie/survival action game for the Playstation 3 uses high-res aerials of cities as the playing field.

Microsoft recently posted another episode on Channel 9 dealing with the UltraCam. Three interviews and some in-flight footage of the camera.

Microsoft is starting a new video series on its Channel 9 blog. Focusing on Virtual Earth and the technology behind it, the first episode of Behind the Maps deals with the UltraCam and its UltraMap software.

Virtual Earth is looking to partner with state and local governments to share geospatial data, specifically aerial photography.

From their announcement:

Why should we publish our imagery in VE?

GoVE supports the data sharing goals of many public sector organizations by providing a free publishing service. Through GoVE, your taxpayer-funded information will be provided on a free, open access web site that benefits taxpayers, government officials, your corporate tax base, state and local governments, etc.

You can read more about it at the Virtual Earth blog.