Week Ending October 10, 2008

USGS Rolla Science Information & Library Services representative Keith Brady was featured in an article about the Rolla Center offering GPS classes to the public in the Oct 9 edition of the Rolla Daily News.

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Week Ending September 26, 2008

Emergency-Response Image Maps: The NGTOC has finished 3,250 orthoimage maps along the Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts. Coverage is from Brownsville, Texas to the northern boundary of the state of Delaware, two counties deep from the coast. The entire area of the State of Florida was covered (over 1140 quadrangles) due to its susceptibility to tropical storms.

These quadrangle maps are provisional products; work on a product standard, and systems to create products compliant with that standard, is ongoing. Because they are provisional and experimental, the products vary, but most have these characteristics:

• PDF format, most with GeoPDF and layered GeoPDF extensions.
• Standard 7.5-minute cell coverage, with traditional layout and map collar
• Orthoimage background, most with road and geographic names added to enhance the image
• Full 1,000-meter UTM grid conforming to the U.S. National Grid standard
• File sizes are typically 20-30 Mb per quadrangle

In July the NGTOC set up an emergency-response FTP site to give State and local agencies access to the data. The site currently hosts all completed maps, grouped by State, along with quad listings and location diagrams.

In advance of Hurricane Gustav, both NGTOC offices assembled and shipped over two hundred orthoimage quadrangles to the Louisiana state liaison on DVD. To finish coverage of the expected landfall area, the graphics team generated 120 quadrangles over a period of only four days, working extended work days and Saturday. By the following Tuesday, these data were staged on the emergency response FTP site. USGS State liaisons in Louisiana and other Gulf States distributed copies to State emergency operations coordinators and first response organizations.

In the wake of Hurricane Ike, 24 additional quadrangles in Texas were created at the request of local authorities.

The map download site is linked from the EROS Emergency Operations page at http://eoportal.cr.usgs.gov/EO/library.php, under "Provisional Digital Orthoimage Maps for Emergency Use." Contact Jerry Wagner or Chuck Matthys for access information. (Jerry Wagner, Rolla, MO 573-308-3764, Chuck Matthys, Denver, CO 303-202-4447)

Ohio Hydrography Conference: USGS National Geospatial Technical Operations Center representative Hank Nelson provided a presentation on the National Map Hydrography, National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) and the stewardship program for NHD. Now that high-resolution NHD is complete for Ohio (and the Nation), enhancement, maintenance, and expanded use of Ohio NHD is a major goal for the Ohio Hydrography Framework Task Force as part of the NSDI and the Ohio Geographically Referenced Information Program (OGRIP). (Hank Nelson, Denver, CO 303-202-4448)

The implementation of the US National Grid (USNG) by the USGS The National Map was referenced in a September 26 article published in Geospatial Solutions magazine.

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