The GeoGarage launches a B2B online webmapping service for nautical charts with a new API

The Marine GeoGarage has launched a business-to-business online mapping service with worldwide nautical charts with a new API (Application Programming Interface), which is already in use by a number of public and private-sector organizations.

The API provides immediate online access to the most complete and highest quality nautical raster map data coming directly from the major international Hydrographic Offices.

It offers single-source access to premium map data at a variety of scales from the GeoGarage Cloud Computing solution through its tile mapping service (TMS).
The GeoGarage hosts all map data, which saves significant time and costs as organizations avoid the need to store and manage the data in-house.

Map data is presented in a seamless mode and is more cost effective and easier to use, as time-consuming translations to different data formats are not required.

Built on industry standards, the GeoGarage works across all browsers and operating systems.
It may be used in conjunction with or to supplement existing web-based map viewing applications built around Google Maps, Microsoft Bing or OpenLayers applications for example.

The new GeoGarage service can be used across a range of maritime business sectors with a variety of applications, mainly by software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for managing marine vessels or robots tracking (via AIS or satellite).

example of Marine GeoGarage widget
(Voiles et Voiliers)

"The creation of the B2B service responds to the growing demand of our customers who wish to develop an integrated webmapping solution benefiting from official and regularly updated nautical charts.
The GeoGarage provides a custom API for customers interested in accessing our marine map layers and integrating them into their own products.
We make it easy for customers to quickly and easily integrate our nautical layers onto a new or existing Google Map.
With just a few lines of code you get all the GeoGarage functionality without all the setup hassle.
We provide a convenient and reliable service that has helped our partners enhance the value of their sites.".

 More than 9000 nautical charts accessible through the API

With the GeoGarage, nautical mapping enters in the area of dematerialization : the platform has the vocation to be the largest broadcaster for nautical maps.
Through data licenses from official worldwide Hydrographic Services, GeoGarage combines all the georeferenced charts from USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Island, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Bahamas.
Other countries are being studied.

Features:

• Over 9,000 Nautical Charts
• Javascript API Interface
• Built-in chart and navigation user controls
• Full access to Google Maps API
• Highly customizable map

Pricing :

Pricing is set through some monthly subscriptions according to desired geographical coverage.

Contact us to discuss your needs. 

Interactive map of the Arctic

www.intothearctic.gp
is a digital, interactive map
just launched by Greenpeace
with the North Pole at its centre.

From Greenpeace

The map features a number of static and dynamic layers that visualise the beauty of the Arctic, the threats it faces and our struggle to protect it.
The Arctic is under pressure from oil companies seeking to exploit its resources.

They see the melting of the sea ice not as a warning, but as a business opportunity.

Take a journey into the Arctic and explore for yourself its natural wonders, the threat of the encroaching oil industry, and follow the struggle to Save the Arctic.

Join the North Pole Expedition and follow the team as they make their way to the pole, with frequent, near-live, updates of their position and a geoblog of all the tweets, blogs, pictures and videos.

 Mercator Septentrionalium Terrarum (1595)
first state Mercator’s map of the North Polar regions

 zoomable map

Links :

• Mercator polar : Mercator Septentrionalium Terrarum

Image of the week : Great Blue Hole in the Belize Barrier Reef

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

From ESA

The Lighthouse Atoll in the Belize Barrier Reef is featured in this image acquired by Japan’s ALOS satellite.
In the upper-central part of the image, an underwater sinkhole known as the Great Blue Hole appears as a dark blue circle.

Surrounded by the shallow waters of the coral reef, the Great Blue Hole measures over 300 m in diameter and about 123 m deep.
Formed when the sea level was much lower, rain and chemical weathering eroded the exposed terrain.
Water later filled the hole and covered the area when the sea level rose at the end of the ice age.

Also visible in the image are two coral islands – green with vegetation – called cayes.
The larger to the west is Long Caye, and the smaller Half Moon Caye is to the east.

As part of the Belize National Parks, the Half Moon Caye Natural Monument was the country’s first protected area.
The almost 40 sq km island is an important breeding area for the seabird, the Red-footed Booby.

The greater Belize Barrier Reef has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, but in 2009 it was put on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
The reef provides a significant habitat for threatened species, including marine turtles, manatees and the American marine crocodile.

The Advanced Land Observing Satellite captured this image on 29 March 2011 with its Advanced Visible and Near Infrared Radiometer, which is designed to chart land cover and vegetation in visible and near-infrared spectral bands, at a ground resolution of 10 m.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Climate clues found in ancient underwater caves

Oracle team USA AC72: boat 2, all signals go

Patience is a virtue for ORACLE TEAM USA who, after two anxious days, finally get the green light to commence sailing trials on their new AC72.

All systems were go, and "17" quickly took to flight during her maiden voyage on San Francisco Bay.

Oracle AC72 boat 1 : fun on foils

Hear from the ORACLE TEAM USA crew what it's like to fly their AC72 "17" on foils, sometimes at speeds of over 40 knots, and experience the sensational acceleration from onboard.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog :  Flying sailing : Oracle Team USA AC72 - Progress and Evolution

Coelacanth genes mapped, "Living Fossil" evolved slowly

A coelacanth poses for its portrait in South Africa's Sodwana Bay.
Photograph by Laurent Ballesta, National Geographic

From NationalGeographic

In the deep sea, slow and steady wins the race—and that proverb is reflected in the genes of the coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), a new study says.

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

Following the discovery of coelacanths in Jesser Canyon caves off Sodwana Bay, Kwazulu-Natal, in October 2000, the diver and naturalist Laurent Ballesta, accompanied by a team of deep-sea divers, is looking -120 meters below the surface- for 'gombessa' this peaceful 2 m long giant, thought to be extinct for 70 million years and rediscovered alive in 1938.

When the study authors sequenced the ancient fish's genome, they found that its genes have been evolving more slowly than the genes of the other fish or terrestrial vertebrates they looked at, including sharks, chickens, and lungfish.
(Also see "Coelacanths Can Live Past 100, Don't Show Age?")

Coelacanth is considered the greatest zoological discovery of the twentieth century:
- It has characteristics representative of the transtition of fishes to the first early land vertebrates with four legs
- It is, with its lobe-like fins and primitive lung, a living and unexpected relic of the sea some 370 million years ago.

photo : Laurent Ballesta

In the paper, published April 18 in the journal Nature, the researchers speculate that the coelacanth's relatively unchanged deep-sea habitat, and an apparent lack of predation over thousands to millions of years, means this ancient fish didn't need to change much to survive.
(See more pictures of deep-sea creatures.)

"Living Fossil" Fish Revealed

Coelacanths live as deep as 2,300 feet (700 meters) below the sea surface, and can reach 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length.

Often referred to as a "living fossil," the coelacanth looks remarkably similar to its fossil relatives from 300 million years ago.
(See more pictures of this ancient-looking fish.)

 360 million year old fossil found in Australia

Scientists had thought the coelacanth (pronounced SEE-la-kanth) had gone extinct about 65 to 70 million years ago until a researcher stumbled on a freshly caught specimen off the coast of South Africa in 1938.

And since its discovery, about 300 individuals have been recorded in two areas in the world—near the Comoros Islands (map) off the eastern coast of Africa and in the waters near Sulawesi, Indonesia (map).

A second living species of coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, was also discovered in 1997 off the coast of Indonesia.
(Related: "New Species: 'Rebel' Coelacanth Stalked Ancient Seas.")

Links :

• Gombessa project
• GeoGarage blog : The man who swims with coelacanths