MasterMaps

Norway is a country with huge climate variations between seasons, lowlands and mountains, coastal areas and inland, and between north and south. In the recent years, we have also seen more extreme weather and greater fluctuations in temperature and snow cover. At the same moment of time there might be meters of snow in the mountains, while the trees are blooming by the fjord a few kilometers away. Outdoor activities are popular among citizens and tourists alike, and in Norway you can do typical summer and winter activities all year around. The goal of this blog post is to create a near real time map of the snow cover, where the snow blends into the landscape. The snow map of Jountunheimen we're going to create. As shown on this blog, I like to create maps and 3D visualisations using a wide range of open source tools, combined with various programming techniques. This snow mapping experiment is no exception. Open Source allows me to mix and match the tools and techniques I n...

I've just finalised two tutorials on mapping grid-based statistics. The tutorials are in Norwegian, but the source code is available in English, and should be easy to follow. Tutorial 1: "Grid-based population data" Mapping grid-based population data of Oslo, Norway, using OpenLayers 3 and D3.js . The user can select an area to see the number of inhabitants. Tutorial | Demo | Source Tutorial 2: "Grid-based statistics in 3D" 3D visualisation of grid-based population data of Oslo, Norway, using Three.js and D3.js . Tutorial |  Demo | Source The basemap is from the Norwegian Mapping Authority , and the grid-based population data from Statistics Norway . The tutorials are provided by Project Innovation from GeoForum , a Norwegian non-profit industry organization for individuals and companies/agencies working in mapping, surveying and geographic information. Please notify me if you use these techniques in your own projects! 

There as been a lot of attention about the diminishing Arctic sea ice in recent years. We’re often exposed to images showing the extremes. My goal was to show the changing sea ice month by month , and even day by day . Sea ice is a critical component of our planet because of its influence on the global climate. The sea ice cover in the Arctic in September 2015. The black line is the median extent (1981-2010) for this month. See interactive version . The graph shows the change in sea ice cover for September since 1979, in percent from the mean extent (1981-2010). September 2015 had the fourth lowest extent in the satellite record. See interactive version . The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) provides two great datasets collected by satellite of the Arctic Sea Ice: Sea Ice Index You get the longest time-series using Sea Ice Index, which dates back to November 1978. The dataset is available at 25 km resolution. The images and data are produced in a con...

I’m going freelance over the summer, after 5 great years at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) . It was not an easy decision, but I have to try. I’ll tell more about my plans later.  Please sign up to get notified about my services. Some of the projects I've been working on at NRK: The flexible mapping stack of NRK.no, allowing journalists and digital storytellers to create advanced maps in minutes.  "Kartoteket" - our in-house mapping tool built on top of our mapping stack. Digital storytelling  using NRKs mapping stack and Mapbox.  Digital storytelling  using NRKs mapping stack and Mapbox.  Flood maps using NRKs mapping stack and CartoDB. Radon affected areas in Norway using NRKs mapping stack. Our popular photo maps .  Video map of the long running TV show Norge Rundt. Tracking of " Sommerbåten " along the coast of Norway. Other work.

I'm back in Oslo after my 25 days ski trip across Nordryggen in Norway . It was a great journey, and I would highly recommend doing all or parts of it if you enjoy cross-country skiing. Just be prepared for shifting weather conditions. @thematicmapping @mapperz I thought “cross country” skiing meant ski across the countryside, but you have literally crossed a whole country! — harry_wood (@harry_wood) April 20, 2015 The goal of the trip was also to test my solution for real time satellite tracking, explained in several of my previous blog posts . It worked out really well, and people were able to follow along in the comfort of their sofa. I fastened a Spot Satellite Messenger to the top of my backpack, and left the device in tracking mode while skiing. The device sent my current position every 5 minutes, allowing me to update the map without any mobile coverage. When we arrived at a mountain hut, I pressed the OK button to set up a bed. I also programmed a button t...

In my last blog post , we created a created a 500 km continuous line representing a ski route across Nordryggen in Norway. I need to transfer this route to my Garmin GPS so I can use it for navigation while skiing. How can it be done? Cross-country skiing in Skarvheimen, Norway. Photo: Bjørn Sandvik Open the route in QGIS , right click the layer and select "Save As...". Select " GPS eXchange Format [GPX] " as the format, and "WGS 84" as the coordinate reference system (CRS). I'm also skipping attribute creation as my line only contains coordinates. QGIS saves the line as a GPX route. You can import this route in Garmin BaseCamp  (File -> Import). Give the track a meaningful name. My 500 km route consists of 3867 points, but most Garmin GPS units are only capable of showing 250 points per route. You can get around this limitation by converting the route into a track . Right-click the route in Basecamp and select "Create Track fr...

I’m currently doing my last preparations for a 25 days skiing trip across Nordryggen in Norway. It will of course depend on weather, snow conditions and blisters, but hopefully the conditions will be bearable. Norway has a great network of 500 cabins maintained by the Norwegian Trekking Association . The longest connected cross country skiing track I’ve found is around 500 km, - how to map it? The map we're going to create with QGIS and CartoDB. Data from the Norwegian Mapping Authority . Nordryggen (“the north ridge”) is a fairly new name of the 1,700 km mountain range that runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula. My plan is to ski around 500 km in the southern part of Norway, most of it above the tree line. Cross-country skiing in Jotunheimen. Photo: Bjørn Sandvik You can study the waymarked ski routes on UT.no , or download the data from the Norwegian Mapping Authority if you want to map it yourself.  The dataset is available as a PostGIS dump or in S...