GIS Update

["D. Cooper Stevenson" <cstevens@gencom.us>]

Dear All,

I have worked on diligently on the GIS side of things. Here's a few
quick points:

  1) We are not after satellite photos, we are after "Digital Elevation
Models."

  1a) The entire globe is freely available as a DEM

  2) Because the data is in a raster format (as apposed to a regular
image file),  I believe it is quite possible to automate the creation of
new maps and smaller scale views of those maps

  3) If you don't have GRASS to manipulate the images (and don't want to
fuss with compiling it), don't worry about it: there are live GRASS
CD's; just pop on in and boot to GRASS on Linux: 
  http://grass.baylor.edu//demo.html

  4) The next Xconq game may take place on Mars. Yes, DEM data available
for Mars.

  5) If you want to read a good overview article on this, you may find
an interesting article entitled, "Global dataset of bathymetry and
topography" (PDF) (Not as nerdy as it sounds):

  http://grass.baylor.edu//newsletter/GRASSNews_vol1.pdf

To sum up, I've been like a bull in a china shop, trying anything and
everything. I believe I've honed my technique significantly. I hope to
have a tutorial and preliminary output soon.


Best,


Coop

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| Cooper Stevenson        | Em:  cooper@gencom.us            |
| GenCom                  | Ph:  541.924.9434                |
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