maps

How a satellite actually creates images of the Earth

On February 11, 2013, NASA’s Earth-mapping Landsat 8 satellite was launched into our planet’s orbit. To celebrate a year in space, Landsat team leader David Roy has used imagery acquired by the satellite to create a most unusual composite photograph of the United States: a patchwork of parallel strips, each one 115-miles wide. Image Credit:…

Why did this non-existent town show up on maps of New York?

Up until the 1990s, many maps of New York situated the tiny town of Agloe just north of Roscoe in the Catskill Mountains. The problem? Agloe, New York, was almost entirely fictitious, although it briefly existed on paper. So how does a made-up town end up on a map? Simple: a mapmaker put it there.…

Here’s a map that shows the location of every Disney and Pixar movie

They are home to your favorite stories, your favorite songs, your favorite characters. You know so much about the Disney movies that you grew up with and the Pixar movies you love now but do you know where they’re all located? No worries, this map by artist Eowyn Smith will show you. England sure gets…

Every Bus and Amtrak Route Across the US, Mapped

If you’re in the unenviable position of having to traverse the country by bus or train, you better make sure this map is on your phone. Put together by theAmerican Intercity Bus Riders Association, it shows you all the bus and Amtrak routes that span the United States. Click “enlarge” to embiggen and you’ll find…

The World’s Most Popular Running Routes, Visualized

With the explosion of exercise apps and fitness trackers, more people than ever are recording the routes they run during their workouts. Now, Nathan Yau from Flowing Data has mined some of that data to visualize some of the world’s most popular paths. Taking inspiration from Nikita Barsukov, who mapped running traces in some European…

Here’s a map of the US if every state’s population matched its size

It’s a little unfair that giant states with tiny populations get so much room for such few people. I mean, especially since states on the east coast are living on top of each other in cramped borders. So let’s change that with a fun little thought exercise and a spin on how to look at…

A Subway Map of All the Best Coffee Shops In NYC

Here’s a map that shows you all the best places to get your coffee fix in New York, based on the subway line. How convenient! We could sit here and argue all day on how the map doesn’t list all the different branches of the same shops, or that it leaves out all the great…

The Places in the US With the Most Pleasant Weather, Mapped

Most maps these days tell us how bad the weather is or how climate change is ruining our neighbourhood. So this one, which shows how many pleasant days per year areas of the US get, is a refreshing change. Of course, defining what counts as a “pleasant” day isn’t easy, but Kelly Norton, who made…

How have the temperatures in your city changed over the years? A new interactive map over atNew Scientist called “Your Warming World” can tell you exactly how much, along with an accompanying graph, using data from NASA going all the way back to 1894.

A Map Showing Which U.S. Public Schools Teach Creationism to Kids

This map charts out all the schools receiving public funding that teach creationism — whether they’re public schools or private and charter schools that receive public funding. Slate put together this map, as well as an accompanying state-by-state breakdown, of what’s going on in science classes around the country — and the laws and ordinances…

A Map of State Life Expectancies (And What Country They’re Closest To)

Americans are living longer, healthier lives—79.8 years on average—ranking 35th in the world in terms of life expectancy from birth. But where you live in the United States has a drastic impact on how far over or under the average your personal timeline will be. This illuminating map by the non-profit Measure of America shows…

A Beautiful Map of Global Ocean Currents

A fitting addition to his interactive global windmap, Cameron Beccario‘s interactive map of Earth’s ocean currents takes near-realtime data-mapping to the seas – and the results are mesmerizing. If the previous incarnation of Beccario’s weather-modeling applet bore a passing similarity to NASA’s spellbinding Perpetual Ocean video, this newest version resembles it even more. As with…

See How Climate Change Is Affecting Your Backyard With This Map

Climate change is a very real thing, but how is it affecting the area that you live in? Fortunately—or, perhaps, unfortunately—you can find out using this interactive map. Recently updated by New Scientist to roll in the most recent of NASA’s climate data, the map allows you to pin-point your location and see how temperatures…

A 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the US, Digitally Revamped

Way back in 1932, Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright published an Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States. It was a seminal reference book, containing almost 700 fascinating maps—and now it’s been digitized for you to explore online. The thing is absolutely rammed full of fascinating data, mapped across the US—from…

Which State Will Be Drinking the Most Beer Today?

Americans have already spent an estimated $1 billion stockpiling beer for today’s game. But who’s drinking the most? This series of interactive maps by Esri tabulates crucial data for your Super Bowl Sunday, including which cities have hosted the most Super Bowls and where people are most likely to be spending their hard-earned cash on…

This Map Shows How the Internet Travels Across the World’s Oceans

You may reach the internet via newfangled wireless connection most of the time, but all those ones and zeros cross the oceans the same way old-fashioned telephone connections did: by undersea cables. The map masters at TeleGeography have charted the course the internet takes to cross the seas in 2014, and the result is fascinatingly…

This map of the internet is not just super-detailed, but worth framing

This ridiculously intricate map charts out the hidden geography and scope of the internet, ranging from assigning proportional landmass to the world’s most popular websites, to drawing out the large swaths of free-flowing spam, to creating a color-coded look at the strength of internet surveillance. The map is the work of Martin Vargic, an amateur…

An Interactive Map of What America’s Spies Are Worried About

With eight months of freaking out over the fact that that the NSA is spying on everyone all the time, you can’t help but wonder: Why exactly are we spying again? What are we really worried about? https://gizmodo.com/watch-the-guardian-destroy-the-computers-containing-sno-1513092326 Well, Defense One just made it easy for you with this interactive map of what America’s spies…

How Much Snow It Takes to Cancel School Across the US

There’s been quite a bit of debate recently about the Southern states’ inability to handle what (at least to the North) might barely even qualify as a light dusting. Now, Reddit user atrubetskoy has taken the opportunity to create a fantastic map detailing just how much snow it typically takes to keep kids home. https://gizmodo.com/why-the-south-fell-apart-in-the-snow-1511566912…

A map of ​how much snow it takes to cancel school across the U.S.

How much snow does it take to cancel school in your area? This map takes a look at just how much snow around the country it takes to have a snowday. Redditor atrubetskoy made this map by using a combination of local news reports, a survey, and average snowfall levels from NOAA maps to make…