Sunday, January 27, 2008

DNR Garmin Field Guide

This is a field guide created for the Fire Department of Long Beach, CA. The goal was to create a quick reference guide to be use in the field. Their request was to make it "Firemen Proof" so the final product is a 4"x7" laminated pocket size flip book. It's water proof, tear resistant and they can even run it over with a fire truck. This guide includes a quick guide on how to use Garmin GPS 60CSx, download the points using DNR Garmin and then creating a KML file to be used in Google Earth.

Read this doc on Scribd: Garmin Field Guide

Teaching Geoscience with Visualizations

This is a great link to more videos on how GPS works and art to Geosciences. I can't even begin to tell you how well this website is put together. Bookmark this site!

If you dig deep into the site you will find visualizations on:

*The difference between geostationary satellites versus polar orbits satellites.
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/collections/GPS.html
*Tsunami Visualizations http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/collections/tsunami.html
*Hurricane Visualization
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/collections/hurricanes.html
*Glacier Physics:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/collections/glacier_physics.html
*Weather and Climate:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/collections/WeathClim.html
Here is their link to their entire collection:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/collections.html



Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Best Software for Garmin Download (and it free too!)

One of the best programs that allows you to download Garmin data to Arc Map or Google Earth is DNR Garmin. A free program developed and maintained by the Department of Natural Resources of Minnesota. I’ve tried many different programs and this is the best by far. This little video walks you through the steps (there no voice over as of yet).

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/extensions/DNRGarmin/DNRGarmin.html



After you have created the KML this video shows you how to load it up on Google Earth.

Friday, January 4, 2008

How Does the Sun Effect GPS?

This is an interesting article on how Sunspots can cause havoc with a GPS signal and everything else electronic.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080104_sunspot.html

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

GPS Movie (Part 1)

Here's a movie created by Trimble. I love it because inside 5 minutes you get the Who, What ,Where and How of GPS.

GIS, GPS and Field Data Collection Extension Course

Happy New Year! On the weekend of February 9 and 10 at CSULB I will be teaching a GIS, GPS and Field Data Collection extension course. We will not be sitting in the classroom discussing theory, on the first day a Garmin unit is handed to each student. We go over how to set up the unit, navigate, collect GPS data and then download the data onto ArcMap and Google Earth. On day two we play with more sophisticated Trimble Units and Trimble's Pathfinder software. If interest check out the link below, more the merrier!

http://www.uces.csulb.edu/Extension/CourseSchedule/ProgramDescription.aspx?FieldID=82&TopicID=187&course_id=12966&course_version=1&menu_id=1