Category Archives: Hydro/Marine
Hydro Insights
This visualization is of the high volume of commercial shipping activity into and out of ports rimming the Pacific Ocean. The data were analyzed using Esri’s new GIS Tools for Hadoop toolkit. Visualization by Mansour Raad, Esri. Available online at coolmaps.esri.com/BigData/ShippingGlobe with any browser running WebGL. Part 1: Uncharted Depths Editor’s Note: xyHt is honored to...
Quantum Navigation
Above: The Royal Navy submarine HMS Astute. Credit: LA(Phot) Paul Halliwell/MOD. Will freezing sub-atomic particles one day supplant GPS as the primary navigation technology? Many of the most accurate measurement devices, including atomic clocks, work by observing how atoms transfer between individual quantum states. The longer the atomic transition can be observed, the more precisely it...
Epiphany on the Bow
Above: Shannon Hoy on the bow of the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer as she crossed through the Bransfield Strait in 2011. Photo by A. Margolin. A student’s journey from marine biologist to ocean mapper. Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to work in ocean sciences. From when I was a child splashing in the tidal...
Capturing More with Shallow-water Multibeam
Interferometric sonars are providing a new tool for the hydrographic surveyor in shallow to medium-depth water applications. As we begin to return to normalcy after the deepest recession of most of our lifetimes, many ports, coastal authorities, and inland waterways are starting to look at infrastructure projects that have been kept on hold, and they...
Mapping the Scottish Seabed
Six companies collaborate on a project to bury fiber optic cables under the Scottish seabed, stitching segments using hydrography, bathymetry, and surveying. On land, surveyors face challenges due to rough terrain, human activity, weather, and more. Usually, however, the ground beneath their tripods doesn’t move, they can physically occupy positions, and the air between them...
Robot Revolution
Clearpath Robotics CEO Matt Rendall discusses unmanned systems, land survey, and robotic industry trends. The robot revolution is hitting a big milestone. Robotic use is expanding beyond research activities, aerial applications, and industrial manipulators through a new kind of deployment: the service robot. These robots are autonomous, they’re geospatially aware, and they can manipulate...