GeoWizard on the Internet

Durham Science Center Open House '96

Dr. Michael P. Peterson
Department of Geography / Geology
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Omaha, NE 68182
e-mail: geolib@cwis.unomaha.edu

The Internet

Basic Concepts and Principles

1) Communicating among computers has been a difficult problem since the dawn of the information age.

2) The Internet solves this with simple, public standards:

• One system of wiring: Ethernet (thin, thick, twisted-pair)
• One standard for communication: TCP/IP

3) The idea of the Internet dates back to the days of the Cold War and to networks linked by large, expensive mainframe computers that were vulnerable to attack.

4) The military sought methods of insuring that networks of communication and control would survive attack, even if large numbers of computers were destroyed.

5) The Internet is a decentralized network without a single point of control. Removing computers from the network has no practical effect on its ability to function.

6) But the military now maintains a completely separate system of network communication.

Making Data Communications Easier

Initially, the Internet was not particularly easy to use.

Users had to know what they were looking for and had to do all of the work of transfering and viewing files themselves.

Much effort in recent years has been devoted to making the Internet easier to use.

1) Gopher (text-based viewing), and

2) WAIS (text-based searching), then...

3) The Worldwide Web (WWW, W3)

• Accessed through browsers or viewers (Mosaic, Netscape)
• Is part (or a subset) of the Internet
• Employs a hypertext-based system of linking images, text, sound, and video
• Every page and image has an unique address, its URL
• One picks or creates a homepage for ease of access

4) Java, Active X and beyond...

How to Connect to the Internet

1) Through an educational institution or government agency

• Universities and are almost completely connected
• Two-year and K-12 institutions are in process

2) Through a professional consortium such as Tenet

3) Through a commercial service (America On-Line, CompuServe, etc.)

Maps and the Internet

Maps of the Earth

Map Index

• Index of Maps on the Internet

Scanned Maps

• Index of Scanned Maps
• Africa from Map Library

Earth View Maps

• Earth View Home Page
• Earth View Sunshine
• Map Earth from the Sun
• Map of Earth from the Sun with Clouds

Street Mapping

• MapBlast Locator
• Map of 6700 Dodge, Omaha, Nebraska Zoom #1
• Map of 6700 Dodge, Omaha, Nebraska Zoom #2
• Map of 6700 Dodge, Omaha, Nebraska Zoom #3

The Physical Earth

Volcanoes

• Volcano Home page
• Map of Eruptions

Earthquakes

• Earthquake Home Page
• Earthquakes in the World (last 7 days)
• Map of Earthquakes in the World (last 7 days)
• Better Map of Earthquakes in the World (last 7 days)
• Southern California Earthquakes (last 7 days)

Weather - US

• Latest GOES Enhanced IR Image of US
• Latest GOES Visible Image of US
• Latest Vapor Image of US
• Ohio State Weather Visualizer
• North America Temperature Contours
• US Surface Temperature Composite
• US National Radar Summary
• INTELLICAST: USA Weather
• Forecast Map
• US Radar
• Daily Precipitation Estimate
• High Temperature Forecast
• Low Temperature Forecast
• 24 Hour Forecast

Weather - Nebraska

• GOES Image of Nebraska
• AVHRR Nebraska B&W
• AVHRR Nebraska Color
• Weather Forecast for Nebraska
• Omaha Weather Conditions

Animations

• Animation of Hurricane Andrew (660 KB, MPEG, description)
• Color-enhanced GOES-8 multispectral series (347 KB, MPEG)
• GOES Animation Loop of Nebraska
• fly-through of the Grand Canyon (7.5 MB, QuickTime)
• Weather 3-D animation through the center of the United States (1.1 MB, QuickTime, description).

The Human Earth

Demographic Maps - World and US

• World Per Capita Income
• Thematic Maps - U.S. by State
• US Per Capita Income
• US Percent of Persons in Poverty

Demographic Maps - Nebraska

• CIESIN Interactive Demographic Mapping
• Nebraska Data Selection
• Nebraska Median Family Income 1989
• Nebraska Median Age 1989
• Nebraska Percent Hispanic Population 1989

Animations

• San Francisco Bay area from 1800-1990 (446 KB, MPEG, description),
• Nebraska by county between 1954-1987 (264 KB, QuickTime, description)
• Generalization Cartographic Animation (578 KB, QuickTime, description)
• Omaha Animation of Age Groups (664 KB, QuickTime, description)
• Classification Animation (50 KB, QuickTime, description)
• Classification Animation with Sound (1.4 MB, QuickTime, description)

Election Maps - Omaha

• Omaha Election Home Page