[meteorite-list] Using GIS for Meteorite Hunting and Study

[Del Waterbury]

One huge difference between Google Earth and all the other GIS software packages I've seen so far (except a few) is the fact that I don't have to fork out 5,000+ dollars to use it... Google Earth only costs me 20 bucks a year.

Don't get me wrong because I'd love to use the high end GIS software (especially since I use high end CAD software at work), but that's a very steep price to pay just to plot out coordinates of my finds. 

Del


--- On Thu, 6/26/08, McCartney Taylor <mccartney at blackbearddata.com> wrote:

> From: McCartney Taylor <mccartney at blackbearddata.com>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Using GIS for Meteorite Hunting and Study
> To: "MeteoriteList" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Date: Thursday, June 26, 2008, 2:56 PM
> I, too, am a GIS person. Since Land ownership & GIS has
> just been
> brought up, I have to take this one step farther and
> mention good & free
> GIS packages.
> 
> Someone just brought up ESRI as a GIS progam, and I would
> like to
> discourage people from using it.  ESRI gives you piecemeal
> crippled
> software that you'll have to pay licenses for each
> piece you enable.
> While there base 'hook' product is free, you can
> quickly spend $2500
> getting the 'Basic GIS' which is just decent GIS
> (ArcGIS $1500 and
> ArcView $950).  Then the extensions can cost $12,500 to
> bring you up to
> a complete GIS system that gives you map webpublishing and
> db
> interoperability.  All of that is about the same as what
> GRASS does, but
> its free.
> 
> There are some excellent Open Source GIS programs currently
> available.
> You can download these for free and have them running
> within the hour.
> Quantum can quickly import your GPS data.  Both of these
> run under
> Windows or Linux.
> 
> Quantum GIS --  Young, small, and runs fast on old
> machines. Think of
> this as a 'dune buggy' of GIS.  Use this one first,
> if you're new to
> GIS.
> http://qgis.org/
> 
> GRASS GIS -- Mature, stable, powerful, but very complex. 
> Good for 3D
> and 4D plotting.  Like if you wanted to plot a strewnfield
> thru a
> mountainous area then do a time lapse flyby. Think of this
> as a diesel
> MAC truck of GIS.
> http://grass.itc.it/
> 
> There are a couple of other Open Source GIS packages, but
> they are
> immature and not ready yet, IMHO.
> 
> On getting the basemap to use as your main layer,
> here's a starting
> point.
> 
> http://www.gismonitor.com/data/index.php
> http://seamless.usgs.gov/
> 
> 
> Steps to take once you have your program and basemaps.
> 1. Load basemap into GIS
> 2. Load GPS finds into GIS.
> 3. Make sure you have all data layers on the same
> projection (like
> NAD83)
> 4. Draw polygons of area searched!  Important to know where
> you've been.
> 5. Draw polygons of area you are ALLOWED to search. 
> Important to know
> where you can't go.
> 6. Plot points of where meteorites where found.  High
> Confidence Data
> gets a special symbol.
> 7. Plot point of historically found meteorites that you
> have low
> confidence of where you think they were found.  You could
> even draw
> small circle polygons to represent the 'fuzzy' find
> location.
> 8. Draw Line of best guess of upper limit of Main fall
> axis.
> 9. Draw line of best guess of lower limit of Main fall
> axis.  The space
> in between is your best greatest statistical chance of
> finding more.
> 
> -mt
> IMCA 2760
> 
> copyright 2008 - I reserve all rights to put some of this
> in my upcoming
> book.
> 
> 
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