Tag: Mapping Marvel

3D scan of Titanic reveals new details of shipwreck

In 2022, deep-sea mapping company Magellan undertook the largest underwater 3D scanning project of its kind to create the first full-size digital scan of the Titanic. The luxury passenger liner sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg, and now rests 12,500 ft below the surface.

Over three weeks, the Magellan team worked around the clock to capture the luxury vessel in unparalleled detail. They used two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) — dubbed Romeo and Juliet — to systematically canvass the site. In total, the ROVs collected 715,000 photos, 4K footage and millions of laser measurements — a total of 16 terabytes of data.

The scan itself was only the beginning. The Magellan team then processed the collected data into a smooth, comprehensive 3D point cloud. Applying new processing techniques to the original Magellan IP and raw data sets provided a new data set with 35% better resolution and accuracy. Each point in the dense point cloud used to generate the model has its unique set of Cartesian coordinates(X,Y, Z), time stamp and texture.

A National Geographic documentary about the project, “Titanic: The Digital Resurrection,” is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. The 90-minute documentary was produced by Atlantic Productions for National Geographic. (Photo: Magellan Limited/Atlantic Productions)

Titanic analyst Parks Stephenson has visited the actual Titanic wreck twice, but the virtual scan revealed
details he never saw before. Aboard a submersible, with its six-inch viewport and limited camera views, details are easily missed. “It’s like being in a dark room and you have a flashlight that’s not very
powerful,” Stephenson told National Geographic. The digital twin gave him an unobstructed, 360° view of every nook and cranny.

The digital twin reconstructs Titanic’s structural collapse in forensic detail. A video rendering of it can be projected to life-size in a warehouse, allowing experts to walk through its final moments. For instance, an open steam valve in the boiler room validates eyewitness accounts that the ship’s engineers remained at their posts for more than two hours after impact, keeping the electricity on and allowing wireless distress signals to be sent. The 35 men may have saved hundreds of lives while sacrificing their own.

Photo: Magellan Limited/Atlantic Productions

The digital scan also helps exonerate First Officer Murdoch, long accused of abandoning his post. The position of a lifeboat davit suggests his crew was preparing a launch moments before the starboard side was engulfed, corroborating Second Officer Charles Lightoller’s testimony that Murdoch was swept away by the sea.

The scans reveal the wreck’s alarming deterioration, with iconic areas collapsing. But the mapping project means the ship is now digitally preserved, along with similar models of historic sites around the world.

Magellan has launched an app built on
the Titanic’s scans, available in Early
Access on the Steam platform. “vROVpilot:
TITANIC” puts users in the pilot seat of
a virtual ROV to explore the wreck and
complete missions to scan its key features.
The experience comprises an accurate
ROV user interface, along with realistic
underwater condition visual effects and
comprehensive sound effects, according to
the developer.
So far, the app is using only the data
on the bow, which is less than 35% of the
full data set. The stern is expected to be
added next, followed by the 15-squaremile debris field, which shows personal
effects such as pocket watches, purses,
gold coins, hair combs, shoes and a
Megalodon-tooth necklace. (Photo: Magellan Limited/Atlantic Productions)

May 30, 2025
How NOAA is digitizing charts of the Erie Canal

Built between 1817 and 1825, the Erie Canal provided a water route from Albany to Buffalo, New York, nearly 363 miles to the west. The Canal connected the Hudson River with the Great Lakes via parts of the Mohawk River, through various land cuts and natural lakes.

Photo: NOAA

Today, NOAA cartographers from the Marine Chart Division are converting paper nautical charts to a digital format and incorporating them into NOAA electronic navigational charts (NOAA ENC). NOAA created its suite of ENCs by digitizing its paper nautical charts. An ENC is a vector database that supports all types of marine navigation. Marine navigators can use the system to see their real- time position in relation to features on a chart.

Marine navigators using NOAA ENC. (Photo: NOAA)

By digitizing the paper Erie Canal charts, NOAA can now provide ENCs for the canal from Albany to Lake Ontario. As part of the digitizing process, NOAA cartographers standardized the chart scales covering the canal, moving away from the 64 irregularly shaped paper charts in chart 14786, New York State Canal System.

1:10,000 SCALE NOAA Custom Chart output near Waterford, New York. (Photo: USGS/NOAA)

The ENC is the primary nautical navigation product of the agency, which is ending the production and maintenance of its traditional paper and raster nautical chart products. The remaining paper charts are only being updated with critical corrections until they are fully canceled. Chart 14786 will be one of the last ones canceled, on Dec. 5, 2024.

Now, marine users are referred to the NOAA Custom Chart Application. It is an online map tool for users to create paper and PDF nautical charts derived from the official NOAA ENC.

July 24, 2024
Modeling Pompeii: A new era of tech-driven collaboration in archaeology

A street in Pompeii shows the structures that were remarkably preserved after Mount Vesuvius covered the city in ash in 79 CE. Everything about Porta Nocera, Region I 14 is being digitized by archaeologists. (Image: Allison Emmerson)

At the edge of Pompeii, along a city gate known as the Porta Nocera, professor Allison Emmerson of Tulane University directs a team of archaeologists. The famous Roman city, frozen in time when Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered it with ash, continues to reveal new insights to archaeologists nearly 275 years after the site was first discovered.

Within a building long believed to be a home around 2,000 years ago, the team unearthed a different story — one unraveling traces of economics, urban design, and social life among an elite and a lower class. To tell the story, Emmerson and her team have created a location-aware digital twin of the excavation site, which incorporates 2D maps, smart maps, and 3D models. The team is also able to share live data via a fully digital workflow using iPad Pros and Apple Pencils.

Revolutionary documentation with mobile app workflows

The latest geographic information system (GIS) technology allows Emmerson’s team to digitize everything they unearth at Porta Nocera, Region I Insula 14 as part of the Pompeii I.14 Project run by Tulane.

The team first used UAV imagery, terrestrial photography, and a technique called structure-from-motion photogrammetry to create a base map and 3D base model of the site. They then used tablets loaded with GIS apps to layer data over that 3D base model.

Leading the GIS data collection workflow is professor Alex Elvis Badillo, cohead of the project’s digital data initiatives team. Badillo said the archeologists use GIS documentation on the iPad Pro to record and explore data in layers to avoid information destruction.

Using ArcGIS Survey123, the team can share data on-site and implement paperless workflows. That data can also be linked to digital ArcGIS Dashboards to keep track of progress and foster collaboration during the excavation.

Interpreting the dig site

Emmerson and her team determined that the structure they initially uncovered was used for commercial activity such as shopping and dining, often identified with the lower classes at the time. Meanwhile, an elite residence was located right next door and the two buildings shared resources.

Lidar (light detection and ranging) uses laser light to densely sample the surface of the Pompeii I.14 site, producing highly accurate x,y,z measurements that provide the foundation for the digital twin. (Image: Allison Emmerson)

The Pompeii I.14 Project is ongoing. Once it is complete, the data will be incorporated into a larger digital twin from the Pompeii Bibliography and Mapping Project (2017) led by Eric Poehler, an associate professor of Classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It will also be added to Pompeii’s central archaeology database and be available to policymakers, educators, archaeologists, and the public.

Researchers hope that a new understanding of the economic and social life of an ancient city such as Pompeii can not only inform us about the past but also help us create a better future.

UAV imagery draped over the lidar data provides a photorealistic surrogate of the Pompeii I.14 Project site, which serves as the centerpiece for project data collection. (Image: Allison Emmerson)

This story originally appeared on Esri Blog.

January 26, 2024
Aftermath of the Türkiye Earthquakes

Image: Judy Dillon/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

The Mw 7.8 and Mw 7.5 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Sequence struck near Nurdağı, Türkiye, on Feb. 6. It collapsed several buildings and has claimed more than 50,000 lives. The impact of the initial earthquakes was very severe, but to make matters worse, later in February, a Mw 6.4 tremor struck near Antakya, a city near Türkiye’s border with Syria. This created further damage to infrastructure and claimed more victims.

Image: Screenshot of video from NBC News

The Specifics

The United States Geological Survey reports that the earthquake resulted from strike-slip faulting at shallow depths. The earthquake sequence displaced numerous fault segments within the East Anatolian Fault zone. Early estimates indicate about 185 miles of fault length ruptured. Parts of the North Anatolian Fault shifted 10 feet, while segments of the East Anatolian Fault slid more than 30 feet.

Historic Site Suffers

Gaziantep Castle dates back to the second millennium B.C. It has been used in many capacities throughout history, and more recently, stood as a museum for visitors to learn about its rich history. The castle was reduced to rubble in the earthquake. Other historical sites that sustained damage include the Yeni Mosque and the ancient city of Aleppo in Syria.

Image: Screenshot of CNN video

Earth Opens Up

The earthquake destroyed cities all over Türkiye and northern Syria, but they are not the only areas that suffered dramatic effects. A verdant olive grove in Tepehan, Hatay Province, Türkiye, was completely divided when the ground split, creating a 984-foot-long valley in the middle of the grove. The valley is more than 130 feet deep and has created issues for the 7,000 people that inhabit the area.

April 25, 2023
Mapping Marvel: Off the Beaten Path

Paris Austin, head of product – New Technology for OxTS, tries out the new backpack at historic Minster Lovell Hall. (Image: OxTS)

More than 400,000 sites in the United Kingdom are on its historical registries. English Heritage site Minster Lovell Hall is located in Oxfordshire, also the home county of inertial navigation company OxTS. The picturesque ruins of Minster Lovell Hall, a 15th-century manor house, include the hall, a tower and a nearby dovecote.

The hall was built in the 1430s by William, Baron of Lovell and Holand — one of the richest men in England. It was later home to Francis, Viscount Lovell, a close ally of Richard III. After changing hands several times, the hall was abandoned and eventually demolished in the 18th century, leaving the extensive remains that stand today.

(Image: OxTS)

The buildings are grouped around a central courtyard in a plan characteristic of a late medieval manor house. For OxTS, the site proved suitable for testing its prototype backpack. The site features dense tree canopies on one side, tight doorways, narrow views of the sky, and plenty of height to test the angled mounting of the survey-focused lidar for when GNSS is denied. Open-sky areas allowed the OxTS team to return to real-time kinematic (RTK) surveying before moving on to another section of the site.

Reconstruction drawing of Minster Lovell Hall as it might have appeared in the 15th century, by artist Alan Sorrell. (Image: English Heritage)

The prototype backpack is based on the OxTS setup for vehicles but was created to enable quick data collection without a car. It is equipped with two Hesai lidar sensors, a new OxTS prototype inertial navigation system and an antenna. The team can connect it to a laptop for configuration and to optimize lever arms and the boresight. Once post-processed with OxTS Georeferencer software, the point cloud below was produced.

OxTS designed the backpack to meet a growing need for localization and georeferencing in both GNSS-denied areas and those that cannot be reached by car, including the construction, environmental, conservation and heritage industries.

January 26, 2023
CalEnviroScreen helps fight pollution with justice

An interactive map sheds light on which California communities are disproportionately burdened by pollution

Image: OEHHA

CalEnviroScreen was built by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), part of the California Environmental Protection Agency. In it, pollution and population data combine to shed light on which communities bear the brunt of environmental and health hazards. Addressing this inequality is known as environmental justice.

“It is both a map and a way to think about the power of maps, in this case facilitating a geographic approach to realize the goals of environmental justice,” explained Stephen Gay, Equity & Social Justice blogger for Esri.

Using modern geographic information system (GIS) technology, CalEnviroScreen ranks and color codes California’s more than 8,000 census tracts to reflect vulnerability to pollution. The formula behind CalEnviroScreen considers the presence of various types of pollution, the prevalence of health problems that can be worsened by pollution, and population data.

The main map shown here illustrates the combined Pollution Burden scores, made up of indicators from the Exposures and Environmental Effects components of the CalEnviroScreen model. In addition to an overall score, CalEnviroScreen provides map-building tools to isolate 21 specific datasets.

Communities with a heavy pollution burden often experience high poverty that makes them more vulnerable to pollution’s effects. Pollution data includes cleanup sites, water quality (such as groundwater contamination, lead exposure, pesticide runoff) and air quality (including traffic exhaust, ozone, particulate matter). Deleterious health effects include asthma, heart disease, low birth weight and more.

The map itself is only the most visible manifestation of CalEnviroScreen, which CalEPA said is a screening methodology “to help identify California communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution.”

July 26, 2022
Mapping Marvel: Lost cities found

Photo: Mlenny/iStock/Getty Images Plus

GPS and airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) have revolutionized archaeology. In just a little more than a decade, dozens of previously hidden cities and settlements have been discovered under heavy tree canopy and in other terrain. Many of the sites are in difficult-to-access areas, such as high atop mountains, in vast deserts, or enclosed in thick, nearly impenetrable foliage. Many were only the stuff of legend.

Others are right under our feet. In 2018, early settlements were uncovered in New England, including now-abandoned walls, roads and building foundations.

With the development of lidar, archaeologists gained perhaps their most powerful tool since carbon dating. Lidar began as a million-dollar classified technology. Now lidar units are small enough to attach to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Lidar devices send more than 100,000 laser pulses to the ground every second and use their return times to calculate precise elevation data that allow researchers to build three-dimensional maps of a landscape, while GPS receivers provide its coordinates. Lidar fly-overs have revealed ancient cities, temples, causeways, irrigation systems and other structures, which are then ground-truthed by excavation teams.

“Lidar has completely changed the way we survey ancient Maya cities and what we can know about them, and it is a thousand times better than [what we used] before,” Francisco Estrada-Belli told GPS World. Estrada-Belli is a research professor at Tulane University’s Middle American Research Institute.

The application of lidar to archaeology began in 2009, when NASA sponsored a remote-sensing project that showed lidar’s usefulness below the forest canopy. The project revealed the surprisingly vast scope of Caracol, the largest Mayan archaeological site in Belize. Urban Caracol maintained a population of more than 100,000 people with an immense agricultural field system and elaborate city planning.

Since then, lidar has been used the world over to uncover buried secrets from early Roman fortifications in Italy to landscape changes from World War I. Just this August, lidar unearthed sobering evidence of a massacre by Nazi Germany in Poland during World War II.

Image: F. Estada-Belli/Pacunam Lidar InitiativePhoto:

A landmark project in Guatemala illustrates the benefits of lidar. The ancient city of Tikal was one of the best-mapped regions of the Mayan world, but the Pacunam Lidar Initiative quintupled the amount of mapping done in 50 years in a single summer, with 61,000 structures found in an 810-square-mile area invisible to the naked eye because of overgrown vegetation. What experts had mistaken for unusable swampland, for instance, had actually been farmland, crisscrossed with canals. The area may have been home to a population of up to 10 million people. Results were published in Science in 2018.

October 1, 2021