Maps are not what they used to be. With web technology users can now create their own maps interactively. The Australian Antarctic Data Centre is serving interactive maps of Australian Antarctic stations and nearby areas as well as Heard Island and Macquarie Island. There are also maps of the whole of Antarctica, respectively showing territorial claims and presenting the spatial coverage of remotely sensed data held by the AAD, including aerial photography and satellite images.
Using just a web browser, anyone can pan across an area and zoom in or out to view features of interest at the desired scale. Feature attributes, such as coordinates, the name of a feature, the height of a contour or the date of an aerial photograph can also be queried. Such customised maps can then be printed from the user’s computer.
A series of interactive maps was developed in support of environmental management of the abandoned Wilkes station. Photographs of many map features may be viewed using a hotlink tool — simply click on the feature and the associated image will be displayed. The Atlas Cove interactive map displays survey data from the 2000–01 season and includes photographs taken at the site of the old station.
Try it! The Data Centre’s interactive maps can be accessed from: [resource no longer available].
Editor’s Note: Since this article was written the interactive maps described above have been superseded by the dedicated Australian Antarctic Data Centre's site, which is a tool that lets you discover, review and download, and map data captured by the Australian Antarctic Program. The discovery of data via a spatial search, or the mapping of the results of a search, both utilise an interactive map background.
Australian Antarctic Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Division