NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/comp/windows/x/apps/883

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-30 | 15.3 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!imp!fibronics!mark
From: [e-mail] (Mark Sterin)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.apps
Subject: Summary: MAPS of the world
Keywords: maps summary
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 30 Aug 92 08:34:15 GMT
Organization: Fibronics Ltd., Haifa - ISRAEL
Lines: 427


Date: Aug 29, 1992

Hello,

Following is the summary of responses on my request
concerning MAPS of the world.

A lot of thanks to

  Richard Taylor ([e-mail])
  David Spencer ([e-mail])
  Pete Coe ([e-mail])
  Raymond Chui ([e-mail])
  Joshua Yeidel ([e-mail])
  Sanjiv K. Bhatia ([e-mail])

for there summaries and pointers to the particular maps (& map places :-)

================================================================================

1. Summary from   Richard Taylor ([e-mail])

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:  Selene Platt ([e-mail])

> USGS also has the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls South Dakota which is a
> ...
Ask about the Relational World Data Bank II (RWDB2) - it's their latest and
greatest.  There's a packet of info they can send you about it.  The cost was
$320 as of about a year ago.

Here's more info which should make contact a little easier:
        EROS Data Center Customer Services:     [phone] (phone)
                                                [phone] (FAX)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Brian Dealy ([e-mail])


USGS also has the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls South Dakota which
is a repository for a lot of photographic and digital type products
produced by the USGS.  The prices are reasonable from what i've seen.
I think EROS stands for  Earth Resource Observation System and earlier
may have referred to ERTS the early LandSAT name. EROS supported
LANDSAT heavily in the early daze.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jane Littlehales ([e-mail])

Try the CIA World Bank II Database residing at Berkeley, obtained by anonymous
ftp. Its not very easy to handle but it is incredibly detailed and its free!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Richard Taylor ([e-mail])

There is an application called xsat on MIT's export that has 2D vector
data for all the continents.  It may be more data than you want.


================================================================================

2. Message from David Spencer ([e-mail])

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Spencer ([e-mail])


MicroMaps Software
5 South Main Street
Box 757
Lambertville, NJ 08530
USA

phone: [phone]
or:    609.397.1611
fax:   [phone]

They have maps of the world, Europe, Middle East, the US, etc, etc,
etc. in mac-eps, pc-eps, mac-pict, mac-paint and pcx, on mac floppies,
pc floppies and cd. About $50-$100 per set. Many resolutions available
for popular areas. Their eps files are _very_ dense for
high-resolution maps.

These are outline maps with major cities and rivers. I am very pleased
with them. Support is excellent.


================================================================================
3. Message from Pete Coe ([e-mail])

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Pete Coe ([e-mail])


I have a vector map of the world using some kind of projection (no idea which). You are
welcome to have it, but I warn you that it has no political boundaries, or any
indication of latitude/longtitude.  But if you get a better offer, please let me know,
because I would be interested in a PD map with political boundaries and cities.

================================================================================

4. Summary from Raymond Chui ([e-mail])

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tim Telcik ([e-mail])

Speak with Bill Thoen ([e-mail]) regarding your data needs. If
he doesn't have something lying around he should be able to point you to
the necessary site.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Rainer Menes ([e-mail])

I am using an heightmap for the earth. The file is located on
hanauma.stanford.edu. Its called earth_topo_720x360.
Its resolution is 720x360, and the values a float-value 32bits.
If you can't get it there send me a mail.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Eric Haines ([e-mail])

I have a height-field image of the earth which nicely maps to a sphere.  The
catch is that the data is indeed a height field, i.e. black is below sea level
somewhere, white is high mountains, and I forget where the 0 point is located.
The resolution is 720x360, 8 bits, single channel, and I can convert to just
about any resolution and format you'd like.  I can then compress, uuencode, and
send it to you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Veit Zimmermann: [e-mail]

I have three disks flying around here, which are filled with coordinates of
the earth.
...
unfortunatly I have no idea where I got them. But i'll post here one of the
files coming with this package:

        ...
        If you have found the extensive database of The World
    Digitized  to be useful, the tutorial and source programs
    informative or inspirational, and are glad you didn't have to
    spend hours entering the more than 100,000 co-ordinate points
    of the database yourself, you are invited to send a contribution
    of $25 or whatever this software has meant to you in hours of
    enjoyment and instruction to:

            John B. Allison
            The World Digitized (PC SIG)
            166 Shady Lane
            Apollo, PA 15613
         ...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joe ([e-mail])

I put together a PHIGS+ application that reads the compressed form of the
CIA's World Data Bank II (10meg of lat,long seconds coordinates).  I can
email the PHIGS+ application, while you can ftp the data from
hanauma.standford.edu or from spectrum.xerox.com.

If you're interested, send me email....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rick Yuan ([e-mail])

You probably know already, but there is a stunning "gif" format file, called
"earth.gif" in the SPACE/GIF/ directory in ames.arc.nasa.gov

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Tim ([e-mail])

I have 2D vector data for all the continents of the earch.

I looked at the data I got and it's about 1.5Mb tarred and ucompressed.
However,
if I remember correctly I got the data from a program called xsat which is on
export.lcs.mit.edu in the contrib directory.  The data is 2D vector data broken
up into separate files by continent. You can try to get it there or we if it's
possible I can mail the data to you -- I'm not sure how to mail a binary file.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David A. Curry ([e-mail])
David A.Curry, N9MSW
Purdue University
Engineering Computer Network
1285 Electrical Engineering Building
West Lafayette, IN 47907


This is Version 1.0 of N9MSW XSAT, an X Window System based satellite
tracking program.  XSAT provides the following features:

    - On-screen or PostScript display of maps of each continent, the
      United States, or the world.

    - On-screen or PostScript display of "ground track" information
      placed over the maps, showing the path of the satellite.

    - On-screen or PostScript display of satellite visibility and
      location centered on a particular city.

    - Interactive selection of the city from which to compute satellite
      visibility information.

    - Interactive selection of the satellite to be tracked.

    - Interactive adjustment of simulation parameters such as start and
      stop times, step time, and minimum satellite elevation.
...
lib/map.*
    These are files of line segments (x1,y1) (x2,y2) for drawing the
    maps.  The files in the XSAT distribution are a massaged and
    combined version of the ones distributed by James Peterson of MCC.
    The original source for the data is the CIA World Data Bank, circa
    late 1980's.

...


================================================================================

5. Summary from Joshua Yeidel ([e-mail])

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:  Lee Sailer ([e-mail])

Try the CIA World Map data, available on (really) Larry's Hot Tub--402-
571-4316.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Mark Charette ([e-mail])

On gatekeeper.dec.com (and probably others) is the cia-wdb data in
/pub/graphics/data/cia-wdb.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:  Duane F Marble ([e-mail])

The two CIA databases (World Data Bank I and II) are now quite out of
date (and contain many less than accurate entries). The originals are
not topologically structured and this reduces their utility.

Many geographic information systems (such as ARC/INFO by ESRI) run on
workstations and display these files. ESRI has, I believe, a topologically
structured version available.

The new standard for world cartographic data will be the Digital Chart
of the World. This 1:1M database has been produced from the Defense
Mapping Agency's ONCs and will be available, together with searching
and viewing software, on a number of CD-ROMs later this summer.
--
Duane F. Marble
Department of Geography                Telephone: [phone]
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210                   Fax: [phone]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Bernd Wechner ([e-mail] )

The CIA world data bank is available for anonymous ftp at these sites:

hanauma.stanford.edu               pub/World_Map
spectrum.xerox.com                 pub/map
relay.cs.toronto.edu               doc/geography/CIA_World_Map
nic.funet.fi                       pub/misc/CIA_WorldMap

This is apparently a series if latitude-longitude pairs describing
coastlines, borders, rivers, lakes, islands and the like. It is HUGE,
like 100 MB compressed (reckon 200-500 MB uncompressed, I haven't
tried for lack of disk space). But it does sound good!

There is a small version available, covering as I understand it the
Americas only.


I also have a postscript map of the world (thanks Mike) which I could
mail to anyone who's interested. It's not great but it's only 100 kb.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Ken Poulton ([e-mail])

Look at alum.wr.usgs.gov:~ftp/pub/map.  This contains a bunch of maps,
some at very high levels of detail, and a program called 'sift' to
extract the data.  This program asks you for the desired region and the
intended display size and then skips features that are too small.  The
owner is [e-mail].

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Joseph M. Geigel ([e-mail])

  There was a very extensive and detailed plotting of the world done
  by the CIA, commonly referred to as WDBII.  It is available from
  NTIS (National Technical Information Service) for about $200 (so
  I'm told).  It is also available via anonymous ftp from:

         hanauma.stanford.edu.

  Be forwarned that this version is huge (12 meg of compressed tar
  files.)

  There is a scaled down version of the WDBII, called MWDBII (Micro
  World Database) suitable for use on a PC.  This version is in the
  Public domain and is contained on 5, 360K 5 1/4" floppies.  The scaling
  was done by:

          Fred Pospeschil
          3108 Jackson St.
          Bellevue, NE 68005
          402-291-0795  (6-9 PM Central)

  and is available via most public domain/shareware vendors.  (Just
  look for MWDBII in your latest Computer Shopper.)  I received mine
  from Gemini Marketing (1-800-346-0139 disk ED143).

  There are a number of commercial packages out there that'll do
  world map plotting.  Many are outragously expensive (~$1000 for
  a PC).  One inexpensive package mentioned to me was one available
  from the Austin Code Works ($20...it may be shareware, but I am not
  certain.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Ken Chin-Purcell ([e-mail]) 612-626-8090

I wrote a quick filter for the CIA database.  To grab it:

ftp pi1.arc.umn.edu   (that's 137.66.130.11)
user: anonymous, passwd: mail address
cd pub
get mfil.shar


>From the README:

Mfil is a quick ditty for decoding the CIA World Bank database.  I
wrote and used mfil to extract boundary data for the Persian Gulf
region.  The processed files were used for a real time simulation of the
Kuwait Smoke Plume.

The database is organized by regional files, with separate files for
coastlines, political boundaries (besides coasts), and rivers.
Within each files there are runs of line segments, with integer
coordinates in degree seconds.  The runs are graded by rank,
with rank one features most prominent.

Mfil produces a series of four byte integers (C longs):

# of runs

(for each run...)
    # of segements
    x, y
    x, y
    ...


For example, to extract the rank one coastlines for the Persian Gulf:

mfil -r 1 -b 47.0x24.0 -t 56.5x31.2 asia.Map/cil.cbd > c1


Remember, x and y are in degree seconds.  It should be easy enough to
read these arrays in (it was for me at least) and use gl() line
routines.  Below is some C code, without error checking, for reading
and drawing the map line using gl.  For real code, please check the
result of fread() and malloc()!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: W.F.Schroeder ([e-mail])

try FTP:

hanauma.stanford.edu                 36.51.0.16       US (CA) -8   1990.05.17
 +Stanford Univ
  Sun; TeX; world-map; astro; cake; graphics (best of comp.graphics archive);
   neptune pics; zhongwen

pub/World_Map

-r-xr-xr-x  1 root     ftp       2000000 Jul 18  1990 Map.tar.Z.1
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root     ftp       2000000 Jul 18  1990 Map.tar.Z.2
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root     ftp       2000000 Jul 18  1990 Map.tar.Z.3
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root     ftp       2000000 Jul 18  1990 Map.tar.Z.4
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root     ftp       1645353 Jul 18  1990 Map.tar.Z.5
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root     ftp       2705037 Jan 23  1990 Map_small.tar.Z
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root     ftp          1875 Nov 20  1990 README


================================================================================

6. Message from Sanjiv K. Bhatia ([e-mail])

I have three gif maps that cover the entire terrain.  I can mail to you if you
like.  They are in gif format.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That's it,

  -- Mark ([e-mail])
--

  Mark Sterin
  [e-mail]
  Fibronics Ltd.
  M.T.M. Industrial Park.
  Haifa, 31905, Israel.
  Fax:   Intl.+972-4-550-266
  Voice: Intl.+972-4-313-645

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.