minarik@stolaf.UUCP (William G. Minarik) (06/01/84)
I have finally got the time to make a summary of the replies
to my query on electronically stored terain maps.
Thank you all for your responses --they helped greatly!
Bill Minarik
ihnp4!stolaf!minarik
Here is my original request:
29-Mar-84
I am looking for maps of terrain that are on electronic media
and that can be transferred to UNIX and plotted. One source may be the
U.S. Geological Survey --the letter has been written. Does anyone know
if the USGS has their maps stored electronically? If so, can they be
obtained at a reasonable cost, and what form are they stored in?
I need Tektronics 4010 code, ASCII ordered points, or a program to
convert to them. Is there electronic LANDSAT data available?
Any other sources? I am looking for maps that contain at least the
water bodies. Contours, elevations, roads, vegetation, and other information
would also be useful.
And here is the information sent to me:
29 Mar 84
From: ihnp4!utah-cs!jwp (John JW-Peterson)
NASA and the Weather Service are good places to check.
There was an article in BYTE ages ago about computer drawn maps of the globe.
31-Mar-84
From: chip@dartvax.UUCP (Brig )
The latest "Cray Channels" magazine (v6, #1) has an article on work
at Lawrence Livermore with detailed terrain info. They're working
on a fast-resonse system in case of radioactive leaks, strangely
enough. They mention 2 data bases: Defense Mapping Agency, resolution
of 65 meters; and a modified version of same, resolution 500 m.
They produce very pretty ray-traced 3-d views of the terrain using
(naturally) a Cray machine.
The authors are Patrick Weidhaas and Hoyt Walker.
2 Apr 84
From: ihnp4!ihuxj!sitzmann (Gary Sitzmann)
The National Security Agency gave a talk on their map making system at
UniForum in Washington back in January. The person who gave the talk
was James Wilson. They had it running on a VAX 11/780 using
DI-3000 and were switching the package to Apollos. I don't remember
where they got the data from. Someone asked about the availability
of the package and he said to talk to him afterward.
It had the world in the database and could draw state,country
boundaries and rivers. I don't know if it had contours though.
2 Apr 84
From: ihnp4!ihu1g!bcr
The National Research Council of Canada maintains a
significant body of geographical data in machine-readable
form. At least some of the information is from LANDSAT
photos.
2-Apr-84
From: uw-beaver!uw-june!cwc
A friend of mine works for a company called Geosystems,
who allegedly have lots of terrain data and related sorts
of stuff. Their address:
GeoSystems Software
Box 3406
Bellevue WA 98009
(206) 881-9770
4 Apr 84
From: ihnp4!utcsrgv!dciem!martin (Martin Tuori)
A source is the World Data Bank, available to all from
NTIS (National Technical Information Service, USA), U.S. Dept. of Commerce,
Springfield, VA 22161 (or contact your local technical library).
3 Apr 84
From: decvax!mcnc!akt
If you look in the federal government phone book, (availible at
your reference librarian. ask for Washington, D.C. version.)
under Dept. of Commerce, you should find the agency that can answer
your question. I believe it is NOAA, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
4-Apr-84
From: sdcsvax!sdccsu3!rusty
The USGS have a variety of different types. One type is essentially like a
topo with only contour elevation lines (these are called "digital
elevation models"). the other types are like topos but without the
contour elevation lines; i.e. roads, railroads, buildings, rivers,
lakes, city/county/state/etc. boundaries, etc.
The address of the main office is
National Cartographic Information Center
U. S. Geological Survey
507 National Center
Reston, Virginia 22092
(703) 860-6045
There are regional offices; you should ask these folks for the local
NCIC. when you talk to the people at the local NCIC you will need to
get them to send you the ``user's guides'' that explain the format that
the tapes are written in; i recieved five separate items (zerox copies).
13 Apr 1984
From: ihnp4!seismo!hao!hplabsc!faunt
All of the LANDsat info is available in electronic form from the
EROS Data Center is Souix Falls SD. Since the info is transmitted to
the ground by radio.....
DOD has lots of maps in electronic format, but they may not be available
to the public. Try the Defense Mapping Agency in DC.
17 Apr 84
From: utzoo!utcsrgv!krys (Krys Warchol)
I believe that LANDSAT data may be obtained on
mag-tape -- 1 image per tape. I'm not sure where you can
get these tapes -- possibly the Ontario (Canada?) Centre
for Remote Sensing or the equivalent in the States.
the image itself is given in terms of pixels & from what
I remember of the description in a remote sensing course
I took last term, it seemed as if it would be a relatively
straightforward task to determine the colour of each pixel
or reconstruct the image.
16-Apr-84
From: tektronix!tekig!petel (Pete Lancashire)
I once had a 'product announcement' from the CIA (serious) that
their map data base was/is available on a cost only basis. If I remember
correctly it is the largest geographical database in the world. It
was something like a half dozen 10.5" magtapes in size (Don't
remember if that was 800 or 1600 BPI).
An addition by:
From: hao!cires!nbires!opus!rcd (Dick Dunn)
18-Apr-84
The CIA data was reputed to be voluminous but people have complained that
it was not accurate. I have heard allegations that it was built up from a
smallish number of data points using interpolation but that the
interpolation was either not well done or tried to get too much out of the
data. Smaller databases for maps (continental outlines, in particular) are
available and are adequate for a lot of purposes.