In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Internet monitoring company Renesys has graphed server uptime for the east coast during the week of Hurricane Sandy. The blog entry has details, but it is notable that they have divided the map into a grid squares of one tenth of a degree. I like the map, but dark/light would help as would weather animation. Also, some indication of server density in a grid cell would be welcome!

[Disclaimer: I do not work for FlightStats, but I have met some of them.] FlightStats has put up a heat map animation of airport disruptions during Hurricane Sandy. This map does have weather, but I think it could use some shading for day/night. Sometimes the flight data looks a bit like the hurricane data, but I think it's a noble effort to summarize complicated information.

To me, both maps show how interconnected modern society is and how data streams can be used to understand the scope of an event.

A new major version of Google Earth doesn't happen everyday, explore the world with tour guide and 3D imagery in Google Earth 7.

From the announcement: "A few months ago, we announced Google Earth for mobile, which offered new ways to see cities in 3D and a new tour guide feature to help you discover places of interest on the go. Starting today, you can get both of those features on a bigger screen that makes it even easier to explore by downloading Google Earth 7 on your desktop. Check out the comprehensive and accurate tours of more than 11,000 popular sites around the world, including our growing list of cities where new 3D imagery is available."

Other recent Google geonews:

• I'm very happy that we get a better view of natural geography with Google Maps, follow the link for before/after images, but in short, Google Maps now shows us natural geography like forested and mountainous areas when zoomed out - much much nicer. And here's some more information for developers
• Google also released the first batch of post-Sandy imagery to Google Earth (image below)
• You can now add your Photo Sphere images to Google Maps with Android 4.2
• Here's a script to View all of your Google Contacts in Google Earth
• An entirely other topic, Google Earth reveals the secret of Angkor Wat's construction
• Much less funny, Imagery of sectarian destruction In Burma’s Rakhine state now on Google Earth
• APB tells us that Google and Friends Launch Privacy-focused Crowdsourced Image Blurring Service in Germany
• And there's fresh imagery for everyone

Here's a last minute entry on what you'll find about Hurricane Sandy on the geoblogs.

• Yesterday Google published New Crisis Response maps feature preparedness information for Hurricane Sandy, which includes:
  • Location tracking, including the hurricane’s current and forecasted paths, courtesy of the NOAA-National Hurricane Center
  • Public alerts, including evacuation notices, storm warnings, and more, via weather.gov and earthquake.usgs.gov
  • Radar and cloud imagery from weather.com and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
  • Evacuation information and routes
  • Shelters and recovery centers will appear as they become operational
  • Storm footage and storm-related YouTube videos, curated by Storyful
• MapBox offers two different examples of how you can use open source tools and open data from the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) to visualize Hurricane Sandy’s projected path over the next five days
• The ESA also cares about Sandy, NASA's TRMM Satellite Analyzes Hurricane Sandy in 3-D
• The GEB ofers some basic information on viewing Hurricane Sandy in Google Earth and APB offers some more links

It's obviously not the first time we talk about hurricane data and maps. From MapBox:

Here's the recent Google-related geonews in batch mode.

From the official sources:

• For developers, Google shared an entry on managing and visualizing your location based data with Fusion Tables and another one on High Performance KML for Maps and Earth
• Google informs us building outlines now appear in London, Paris, Barcelona, and more
• Google announced Google AdWords Express for local businesses and that Places Pages has been improved
• They shared an entry on Keeping an ‘eye’ on the 2011 Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons
• Google added large geographic features in Google Earth, such as the Alps and the Sahara Desert
• Google has an entry named UNITAR/UNOSAT team up with Google Map Maker to boost impact of community mapping for disaster relief and humanitarian aid
• Google has an entry celebrating Marine Day with Google Earth exploration of the ocean with Japan's Skinkai 6500
• Here's an entry on the evolution of the look of Google Maps from 2009 to 2011
• Google shared an entry on last week's imagery update, with tens of countries getting fresh imagery

From other sources:

• The GEB shares an interesting tool to find out what you are allowed to do with Google Maps and Google Earth, license-wise
• SS mentions that Google and SAP are teaming up for geovisualization of business analytics
• The FGT blog lists Geodetic Tools For Google Earth
• Ogle Earth offers a long entry on South Sudan's northern border discrepancies between Google Earth and other sources
• Another entry on Ogle Earth indicates satellite corroborates accounts of a massacre in Sudan and is visible in Google Earth
• The GEB shared an entry on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu in Google Earth
• Here's an entry on Google Earth in the Classroom with StrateLogica