A new dataset called Bedmap2 gives a clearer picture of Antarctica from the ice surface down to the bedrock below. Bedmap2 is a significant improvement on the previous collection of Antarctic data—known as Bedmap. The product was a result of work led by the British Antarctic Survey, where researchers compiled decades worth of geophysical measurements, such as surface elevation measurements from NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite, known as ICESat, and ice thickness data collected by Operation IceBridge.

This article focuses on a unique site selection problem for calculating the demand of a Muslim population for locating religious facilities (mosques) as an example of services that require short walking distance. Geodecision’s senior GIS Analyst Hany A. Hassaballa shares his methodology for identifying a catchment area and determining service level capacity for sites under consideration.

For decades, governments and NGOs have relied on private sector solutions to gather and interpret emergency data for crisis response, but a growing number of them have warmed in recent years to much cheaper "open-source" (OS) technology. IRIN spoke to experts around the world about their search for the most appropriate mix of technology to manage disasters.

In this 30-second pitch, ShaleNavigator provides details about its online mapping tool for to find current permits, well results, lease offers, available property, and pipelines in US Shale oil and gas plays.

The elevator pitch or what some prefer to call the executive pitch is at all times the complete embodiment of the project: its trigger, its concept and its payback. Greg Duffy provides insights that allow you to improve your communication skills, along with suggestions on how to make the "perfect pitch."

If any of you readers work with the OGC and have not seen or heard of the GeoServices REST candidate standard in the past 2 months – where have you been?

MapBox has a straightforward business model: take a good, open source solution; mix in open data and make a better map. It uses OpenStreetMap as a foundation to build open source mapping services that companies like Foursquare and USA Today find very appealing. Directions Magazine asked Zack Pasavento, MapBox media relations manager, where the company is headed.

Current beach closure advisories are based on precipitation and not individual beach conditions. The NASA DEVELOP team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory examined historical Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery of stormwater plumes from the Southern California Bight to investigate the capabilities of SAR to monitor individual stormwater plumes and relate with Enterococci concentrations, to the state water quality standard.

NASA launched the Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite on February 11. Since then, NASA mission engineers and scientists, with USGS collaboration, have been putting the satellite through its paces – steering it into its orbit, focusing the instruments, calibrating the detectors, and collecting test images. Now fully mission-certified, the satellite will be transferred to USGS operational control and renamed Landsat 8.

At Code for America, they are gearing up for the National Day of Civic Hacking; a weekend that galvanizes its ongoing movement to call citizens to action. Code for America wants citizens everywhere to help their cities work better, through technology. Hannah Young laid out ten reasons hacking is good for cities.