PNG GPS Page Logo

This is Dare's GPS/GIS page.  It provides a place for me to document some of the love I have for mapping and technology. My life-long journey started with 'paper' maps and globes, including a large collection of National Geographic maps, and has now progressed to the point that GPS devices are common in many everyday devices.  Using 'open source' software to manipulate and display geographic data just makes the whole experience so much the better! :)


GPS FUN
 
GPS CONFLUENCE ADVENTURE

GIF confluence logo
 My Dad and I had a very special geo-adventure on August 31/2002, when we visited our nearest confluence to our home city. Check here for details on the visit!
JPG dad and I

GPS GEOCACHING

 I have created my own public 'geocaches' for others to find and enjoy!
geocache logo png

Check here for other geocaches stored around Morden.

Using the great program Maemo Mapper on my Nokia N800 with a Holux GPSlim236 GPS receiver, I was able to upload a test 'gpx' track file to two cool sites:
Maps created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging



GPS DEVICES

Here are most of the GPS devices that I currently own:

GPS INFO

JPEG pic of GPS orbit constellation

Some links to GPS stuff:


GPS POSITION TRACKER MAP
Here is an OpenLayers map showing plotting the location of a GPS on my yard over the last 1000 samples (red 'blotch' in lower center of the map).

This was done by running a gpsd background task on one computer with a Rayming TripNav TN-200 USB GPS 'mouse' connected.  The webserver computer running these webpages then communicates on port 2947 with the gpsd background task, and gpxlogger converts the data stream into GPX (GPS Exchange) format, which then can be processed with javascript displaying an OpenLayers map. 

Notice the 'wobble' illustrating the 10 meter inaccuracy of consumer-level GPS receivers:


For a full-screen view, click here.

MAP INFO

Some links to maps featuring where Dare lives:

Here is a link to the interactive Atlas of Canada positioned on Morden (click for larger image):

JPG Morden topo


REALTIME MAGNETIC DECLINATION FOR MORDEN, MANITOBA

Current text-only magnetic declination (deviation of magnetic north from true north) at the home of Dare, in Morden, Manitoba, Canada:

Embedded Text Document


SOUTHERN MANITOBA DEM MAPS

DEM (Digital Elevation Map) of southern Manitoba using GTOPO 30 arcsecond data (W100N90 found at USGS EROS Data Center) using drawmap software:

 PNG map using Drawmap and gtopo30 data

Using the same drawmap software except using the new Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 30 arcsecond data (W100N90 found at the USGS SRTM ftp site):

PNG SRTM 30 arcsecond

The same GTOPO 30 arcsecond data plotted with the extremely powerful (and complex) Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) package:

JPG Map created using GTOPO30 data

NEW!  Using the special hybrid SRTM30Plus data of the same area:

JPG thumbnail SRTM30Plus

Using the same GMT package, here is the same map plotted using the high resolution Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 3 arcsecond data (N49W097, N49W098, N49W099, N50W097, N50W098, N50W099 found at the USGS SRTM ftp site):

JPG Map created with SRTM data

Notice the dramatic increase in resolution when comparing the GTOPO30 arcsecond data to the SRTM 3 arcsecond data!  Click the images above to view larger versions.

GTOPO/SRTM 30 arcsecond data resolution = 1000 m
SRTM 3 arcsecond data resolution = 90 m
SRTM 1 arcsecond data resolution = 30 m (not available for Canada!)

Special thanks go to Robert Fromm for giving me the tips I needed to get started with SRTM data and the GMT software!

NEW! Here is the same SRTM 3 arcsecond plot again, using newer data and a new version of GMT:

JPG 3 arcsecond

New!  Using CDED (Canadian Digital Elevation Data), I am able to match and exceed the SRTM data that is available for Canada:

CDED 3 arcsecond data resolution = 90 m
CDED 0.75 arcsecond data resolution = 23m

First, here is an image on the same scale as those above, with the 1:250000 data (3 arcsecond/90m):
PNG CDED 1:250000 image
Finally, here is an image on the smaller scale as those above, with the 1:50000 data (0.75 arcsecond/23m).  This is too large to create with my computer, so the image boundaries are smaller than the ones above:

PNG CDED low res

NEW! A zoomed-in area of particular interest i.e. Morden/Winkler area, also with the same 0.75 arcsecond CDED data, this time overlayed with NRN (National Road Network) data also from GeoBase:

PNG morden winkler zoon

OTHER SOUTHERN MANITOBA MAPS
Here are some other maps that I created using GMT:

AZIMUTHAL EQUIDISTANT MAP CENTERED ON MY HOME

 JPG azimuthal equidistant map
 

pscoast -R0/360/-90/90 -JE-98/49/7i -B15g15 -Dc -A1000 -G200 -W0.25p -P 
> GMT_az_equidistant.ps

ORTHOGRAPHIC MAP CENTERED ON MY HOME

 PNG orthographic map

 
pscoast -R0/360/-90/90 -JG-98/49/7i -B15g15 -Dc -A1000 -G200 -W0.25p -P 
> GMT_orthographic.ps

OTHER MAPS
Here is a link to some other webpage maps that I have created on my site:

GPS TIME

2017 New!  Not only are GPS satellites and amazing provider of location information for the world, but their technology relies on highly-accurate on-board Cesium/Rubidium atomic clocks -- and these time sources are freely available to home computer users!

See my Dare's Raspberry Pi Stratum 1 Time Server page for an example of a Raspberry Pi single-board computer that has this technology implemented.  I have had success using both NEO-6M and NEO-7M GPS modules for these projects.

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