Tracking with Street View

Google Maps APRS is a Google Map displaying real-time information collected from the Automatic Position Reporting System Internet network (APRS-IS). APRS is used by amateur (ham) radio operators to transmit real-time position information, weather data, telemetry and messages over the radio.



A vehicle equipped with a GPS receiver, a VHF transmitter or HF transceiver and a tracker can transmit its location, speed and course. Using this Google Map it is possible to search for any vehicle using its APRS call sign.



Google Maps APRS was first featured on Google Maps Mania back in 2009, since when it has added a cool Street View option. If a road vehicle is transmitting its location with APRS you can now use the 'track in Street View' option to get a virtual first-hand view as seen from the vehicle.



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Live Shipping Containers on Google Maps

This Google Map allows you to track in real-time the huge shipping containers of Maersk as they travel around the world.

The position of the ships are displayed live on this Google Map. You can click on any of the ship map markers to view a photograph of the ship and read further details, such as the ship's destination and current speed.

This map presumably uses the Automatic Identification System (AIS), an automated tracking system used on ships to plot real-time positions.

Maersk Fleet - Live Map

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Hydrothermal Vents on Google Maps

This is our second foray into subterranean (or should that be submarine) mapping today. However, whereas Greg's Cable Map maps the world's undersea telecommunications cables, Peter Aldhous' Google Map shows the locations of deep sea vents.

Peter's map displays all known hydrothermal vent fields. The map uses color-coded map markers to show active and inactive vents. The map also shows plate boundaries and exclusive economic zones.

Hydrothermal Vent Fields Map

Via: SmartPlanet

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A Google Map for Sailors

SailorsMap is a Google Map designed to help boat owners find useful places nearby.

Marinas and local stores that may be useful are added to the map on the fly. If your browsing device supports GPS then SailorsMap is automatically positioned at your current location.

As well as displaying nearby points of information, found via Google Maps Search the map, displays the nautical anchorages of Croatia.

sailorsmap.com

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The Data Buoys on Google Maps

National Data Buoy Center Map

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) operates, and maintains a network of data collecting buoys and coastal stations. The stations measure wind speed, direction, and gust; barometric pressure; and air temperature. The NDBC are using Google Maps to show the locations, and to allow you to view the collected data, of NDBC buoys and the buoys of other providers around the world.

The map allows you to filter for stations by program and/or operator. You can choose to view only the stations from a particular program or show only the stations belonging to a particular owner. It is also possible to display or hide the station identification labels on the map by selecting the Show Labels option.

If you click on a center's map marker you can view the most recent data collected. The map also includes an option to share or save the current map view.

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Marine Charts on Google Maps

Marine GeoGarage

GeoGarage Marine, the portal to international marine maps, has added 227 marine charts for the Netherlands.

GeoGarage uses Google Maps to display marine charts from around the world. The site currently provides marine chart overlays from NOAA (US), DHN (Brazil) and Linz (New Zealand). Marine GeoGarage's web interface also gives subscription members access to all private charts from the UKHO (UK), CHS (Canada), SHN (Argentina).

GeoGarage Marine is not only a seamless chart viewer, overlaying charts at different scales on aerial and satellite imagery from Google Maps, but also allows the user to plot waypoints and to prepare navigation routes. These can be saved and uploaded to GPS (in gpx format or directly to Garmin GPS via its Communicator web plugin).

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Bahamas Nautical Charts on Google Maps

GeoGarage Marine

Marine GeoGarage uses the Google Maps API to display about 260 nautical charts for the seas around the Bahamas, the Turks & Caicos islands, Hispaniola and the Caribbean.

The source of the charts comes from Wavey Line Publishing which has been surveying the region for many years. The charts are overlaid above the normal Google Maps tiles and a slide control allows you to adjust the transparency and compare the chart to the map tiles below.

A good example of the accuracy of the charts is the Orange Cay island, which Google Maps does not show, neither in the map view nor in satellite view.

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Arctic Bathymetry Layers on Google Maps

The Ocean Mapping Group

The Ocean Mapping Group of the University of New Brunswick has created a bathymetry map for the Arctic. The map overlays a number of bathymetry layers of the region over the Google Maps base map tiles.

The transparency of the bathymetry layers can be adjusted using a slider control or can be turned on or off via a check box under the 'satellite' button. It is possible to download the data by clicking on any of the layers. If you click on a bathymetry layer an information window opens with a link to download the data.

Via: Le Technology du LAC

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Global Marine Life on Google Maps

OBIS-Seamap

OBIS-Seamap uses Google Maps to show the distribution and the ecology of marine mammals, seabirds and sea turtles across the globe.

It is possible to search and view data on the map for any of one of 324 different species. It is also possible to filter the data shown on the map by taxon group; 'sea bird', 'sea turtle' or 'marine mammal'.

OBIS-Seamap - Online Mapper
Whilst the OBIS-Seamap is hugely impressive enough on its own it is also accompanied by an Online Mapper. The Online Mapper lets you create your own map using multiple species/datasets as well as your own map elements.

Using the map you can map multiple datasets/species on a single map, upload your own ESRI shapefile(s) to filter the data by your region(s) of interest and overlay Google Earth KML. However an OBIS-Seamap account is required for some of the customisation features.

World Database on Marine Protected Areas

Did you know that only 0.7 of the world's oceans are protected? The WDPA-Marine wants to provide the most comprehensive set of marine protected areas (MPAs) data available. Part of this effort involves a very cool Google Maps mashup that provides information about the less that 1% of protected ocean.

The map uses shaded polygons to highlight protected ocean areas. For each protected area it is possible to select a number of layers showing coral, mangrove, seagrass and saltmarsh locations. The map also includes layers to display Wikipedia articles, photographs and videos of the selected protected area.

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Tracking a Ship Made of Bottles

Plastiki

The Plastiki is a 60-foot catamaran made out of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles.

In March The Plastiki set off from San Francisco with a six-man crew to sail across the Pacific Ocean. The expedition plans to visit several sites of ecological importance before reaching its destination in Sydney, Australia.

You can track the progress of The Plastiki via the Plastiki Control Centre. The control Centre uses Google Maps to show the real-time position of The Plastiki. The map also displays the number of days of the voyage and the number of nautical miles travelled.

The Control Centre also contains information about the current weather, the boat's speed and its current latitude and longitude.

Hat-tip: Living Geography

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A Sailing Calendar on Google Maps

Where Are We Going to Sail?

This Google Maps mashup displays a calendar of upcoming sailing events around the world and shows the location of each event on a map.

You can use the calendar to navigate the map by date. It is possible to quickly navigate to any month, week or year. If you click on an event in the calendar the map will pan to show its location.

You can also browse the events by location. If you click on any of the mapped sailing events the calendar will display the date and time that it is scheduled for.

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The Bridges of Amsterdam

Vaarkaart Amsterdam

Vaarkaart Amsterdam is a Google Map designed to help you navigate the canals of Amsterdam.

The site includes up-to-date information on locks, bridges and sections of canal that are currently shut for construction work or repairs. The map also shows the location of Amsterdam's marinas, gas stations, slipways and charging stations.

Vaarkaart Amsterdam has usefully mapped all the bridges on the canal network. As well as providing Street Views of all the bridges the map shows the bridge heights and the canal depths.

Finally, Vaarkaart Amsterdam has mapped the routes of a number of tours that you can take on its canal system. The tours include routes to see the best of the Western Isles, the Wallen district, the Plantage area and South Amsterdam.

Vaarkaart Amsterdam was created using the Geostart Google Maps creation tool.

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Tracking the Free Gaza Flotilla

The Free Gaza Flotilla

Since August 2008, the Free Gaza Movement has sailed a number of voyages to Gaza. Today the latest voyage was intercepted by the Israeli navy.

The WitnessGAZA website has been tracking the progress of the flotilla as it travels across the Mediterranean Sea using Google Maps. The interception point has been marked on the map with a red map marker.

As well as the Google Map used to track the flotilla the WitnessGAZA website includes embedded videos taken during the voyage.

Update
Tragically when Israeli commandos boarded the Free Gaza Flotilla overnight more than 10 people were killed.

Israel says its soldiers were shot at and attacked with bars and knives.

Audrey Bomse, a spokesperson for the Free Gaza Movement says there was "absolutely no evidence of live fire" from the flotilla.

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Viewing Marine Charts with Google Maps

GeoGarage Marine

GeoGarage Marine is a Google Map that includes a number of marine maps from different international hydrographic services.

The map includes marine chart overlays from NOAA (US), DHN (Brazil) and Linz (New Zealand). Marine GeoGarage's web interface also gives subscription members access to all private charts from the UKHO (UK), CHS (Canada), SHN (Argentina) accessible via some monthly 'Chart Premium' subscription (9.9 €/month).

GeoGarage Marine is not only a seamless chart viewer, overlaying charts at different scales on aerial and satellite imagery from Google Maps, but also allows the user to plot waypoints and to prepare navigation routes. These can be saved and uploaded to GPS (in gpx format or directly to Garmin GPS via its Communicator web plugin).

More than 3,000 marine charts are available on GeoGarage Marine and more are on the way.

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Rowing the Pacific Ocean with Google Maps

Roz Tracker

Roz Savage is currently on the final stage of her solo row across the Pacific Ocean. You can keep up with her progress on this live real-time tracking Google Map.

Roz, a British ocean rower, is attempting to become the first woman to row solo across the Pacific. In 2008 she completed Stage 1, becoming the first woman ever to row solo from California to Hawaii. Currently she is on the final stage of her epic journey.

The map shows Roz's current position with links to her blog, videos and pictures of the journey. You can also view an impressive array of statistics about her journey directly from the map.

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Real-Time Ships in the Gulf of Mexico

Sea-Seek.com

Sae-seek.com, the social sharing site for sailors and boat lovers, has added live real-time ship tracking to their Google Earth browser sailing simulations.

With the sea-seek.com Google Earth browser applications it is possible to sail, fly a helicopter or pilot a submarine at many different locations around the world. The application includes models of other ships plotted at their current real-time positions.

At the moment if you sail around the position of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico you can view a lot of ships that are presumably involved in efforts to cap the well.

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Sea Mountains on Google Maps

SeaMounts Online

Seamounts are undersea peaks in the ocean floor, mountains rising from the bottom of the sea that do not break the water's surface. Since 2001, Seamounts Online has been gathering data on species that have been observed or collected from seamounts to help facilitate research into seamount ecology.

Seamounts Online uses Google Maps to provide an interface for the data gathered by the Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts. The map shows the world's seamounts locations with red map markers. If you click on a seamount map marker an information window opens with links to details, samples, species records and the taxon list for the selected seamount.

I only wish this Google Map had the option to view the data via the Google Earth browser plug-in. It would be really interesting to be able to dive beneath the ocean to view the seamounts, which Google Earth's ocean imagery allows you to do. The site however does provide a KML link, so you can go diving for seamounts directly in Google Earth if you want.

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Real-Time Ship Tracking on Google Maps

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) requires all vessels over 299GT to carry an AIS transponder on board. The transponder transmits data on position, speed and course, among some other static information, such as the vessel’s name, dimensions and voyage details.

Thanks to this AIS data there are now a lot of Google Maps mashups showing the real-time positions of ships around the world.

Here are a few ship tracking maps:

MarineTraffic.com

MarineTraffic.com have produced a Google Map showing real-time information about ship movements throughout the world.

NOAA Fleet Map
Google Map tracking the ships of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Entrance of the Loire Estuary

Live ship tracking in the Loire Estuary, France. Includes a nautical map overlay.

• Live AIS for Boca Raton, Florida
• Portland, Oregon
  
• San Francisco Bay
• Seattle Live Ship Tracker
• Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe
• Live AIS Ship Tracking - Norway
• Live AIS data for Kristiansand
• Live AIS Stockholm
• Northern Baltic (Also Stockholm)
• Bay of Botnia, Sweden/Finland
• Saltdean (English Channel) Live Ship tracking
• Cape Pine Newfoundland

Hat-tip: Magic Instinct

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Google Map Beach Guides

Coast Radar

Coast Radar is a comprehensive global beach guide. Whether you are looking for a beach holiday, a day at the coast, a coastal path walk, tourist attractions or energetic sports activities, this site has all the details.

The site uses a Google Map as one way to find reviews about different beaches around the world. Finding a beach is simple with Coast Radar's map guide. Simply click on a map marker, if the marker is a cluster the map will automatically zoom in. At the lowest level you can retrieve a guide to a beach by clicking its marker.

Good Beach Guide
The Marine Conservation Society's Good Beach Guide is a Google Map mashup being used as part of a campaign for clean seas and beaches in the UK. The Good Beach Guide uses the Geograph API to provide photographs of beaches throughout the British Isles and Ireland.

Clicking on any of the map markers opens an information window containing a photo and a link to the guide for the selected beach.

Wetter

Do you want to know whether you should pack your wet suit before heading for the beach? Wetter is a German website that has a great Google Map that provides not only beach reviews for the whole world but can tell you how cold the water is as well.

The map uses a simple colour coded system to indicate the sea temperature of the world's oceans. The beaches are shown by beach umbrella map markers. Clicking on a map marker opens an information window that displays the current weather and rates the beach in a number of areas, such as 'sand', 'infrastructure' etc.

The site is in German only.

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World Protected Areas on Google Maps

ProtectedPlanet

This beta release of ProtectedPlanet is the latest initiative of the World Database on Protected Areas. ProtectedPlanet lets you view the world's protected areas on one Google Map.

If you click on one of the mapped protected areas then you are taken to a close-up of the selected area, which includes photographs, points of interest in the area and links to related protected areas. Each close-up view also includes links to a Google Map of the area from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (see below).

Global Biodiversity Information Facility

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility is an international organisation that is working to make the world's biodiversity data available anywhere in the world. The GBIF are using Google Maps to allow users to search the world database of biodiversity.

Selecting an area on the map will allow you to view that area's animal and plant species. If you click on the 'view species' button a table will load showing a breakdown of the species and even let you view photographs of the individual animals.

World Database on Marine Protected Areas

Did you know that only 0.7 of the world's oceans are protected? The WDPA-Marine wants to provide the most comprehensive set of marine protected areas (MPAs) data available. Part of this effort involves a very cool Google Maps mashup that provides information about the less that 1% of protected ocean.

The map uses shaded polygons to highlight protected ocean areas. For each protected area it is possible to select a number of layers showing coral, mangrove, seagrass and saltmarsh locations. The map also includes layers to display Wikipedia articles, photographs and videos of the selected protected area.

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