What's Old ... Jules Verne Voyager, interactive map tool for the Web

11 Dec 2002 The [Country names] option in the [Features:] menu gives an updated list of country names and territorial claims — and long names now look better as you zoom in. The main reference used was the CIA - The World Factbook 2000 - Appendix F. More individual islands and island groups will be added over time.

3 Dec 2002 SeaWiFS biosphere seasonal images from the SeaWiFS Project have been updated through to Apr/May/Jun 2002; land reflectance seasonal images are updated through to Jul/Aug/Sep 2002. DMSP/OSL "nightlight" images have been upgraded to about 2.5 km resolution.

11 Oct 2002 Finally have diacritical characters working, which will greatly improve the looks of some volcano names, etc. (If you spot a country, city, or other name which is missing a diacritical mark on a character, please let us know and it will be fixed.)

19-20 Sept 2002 A switch to a new interim jules server which uses a new queueing mechanism to hand off the map creation jobs. Hopefully, this will reduce or eliminate the cases where users had no map created. (Sorry, the switch didn't go as smoothly on the 19th as it could have.)

11 June 2002 The Terra satellite/MODIS sensor image composite grid have been added for Earth. (Resolution ~4.9 km/pixel, though this will improve as soon as we get the high resolution TIFF images.)

10 June 2002 Four new grids have been added for Venus, from the Magellan GxDR cdrom datasets: planetary radius (topography), surface emissivity, surface reflectivity, and surface slope. All are at about 4.6 km/pixel resolution (from the sinusoidal GxDR images).

29 May 2002 The areoid (martian geoid) undulations wrt an ellipsoid of revolution (3396x3378.2 km radii) and Malin Science Science Systems's Mars Global Surveyor/Mars Orbiter Camera (MGS/MOC) Wide Angle Geodesy Campaign Mosaic (camera red band shown as a greytone) are now options on Mars.

28 May 2002 SeaWiFS biosphere seasonal images from the SeaWiFS Project have been updated through to Jan/Feb/Mar 2002. Also, SeaWiFS land reflectance 4-km resolution images have been added.

14-16 May 2002 New page layout: jules homepage, original General document has been split into:

About Voyager

Getting Started

Tutorial

Advanced Help

Plus new

Solar System Portal

(e.g. ideas how to use Voyager for comparative planetology). Plus new layout for the [Features:] and other menus for each world, e.g. Earth Features Help. Also the menu items on Earth have been rearranged to collapse GPS related subjects (crustal motion vectors, monument positions) to [GPS/other:].

In an effort to keep What's New new, older items (prior to 19 Dec 2001) have been moved to What's Old.

9 May 2002 The ILP Global Strain Rate Map grids for Earth have been updated. These now reflect the official ILP GSRM version 1.0 released by SUNY Stony Brook, by Bill Holt and Corné Kreemer. See ILP GSRM homepage (click on the Earth portal image) for more information.

26 Apr 2002 The color and greytone elevation scales for Earth have been improved. (Remember to use the [anc] button under the [URL:] menu when color or greytone topography is selected to easily retrieve the scales.)

19 Jan 2002 Update for Earth: [Features:] selection of [Earthquakes] now accesses a 41-year NEIC catalog of over 442000 events from 1961 through mid-Dec 2001.

21 Dec 2001 New additions for Earth: Site motions (horizontal crustal velocities) for GPSVEL 0.1 and 0.2; U. Texas "hotspot" positions.

19 Dec 2001 A specialized version for Earth, developed in cooperation with SUNY Stony Brook for the International Lithosphere Project (ILP) Global Strain Rate Map (GSRM): ILP GSRM. This includes the most of the data sets and model results of the current GSRM, including being able to view horizontal crustal lithosphere velocities in different reference frames. (This was presented to the ILP GSRM Steering Committee at the Fall 2001 AGU, San Francisco, on 12 Dec 2001.) See also the ILP GSRM homepage (click on the Earth portal image) for more information.

6 Oct 2001 The applet buttons [Index] (and its toggle state [Local]), [Up], and [Down] are now only highlighted when they are able to function. For example, [Index] and [Up] become highlighted when you are in on local zoomed map, and then you can either create an index map or go back up the zoom stack by clicking on these buttons. (This is not a change in functionality, but does provide better feedback to the user on which options are available during the interactive operation of Voyager.)

18 Sept 2001 We have switched over to a distributed server model, currently running a 1.5 GHz P4 machine for map creation as a test. The time for creation of zoomed texture underlay grids should be improved by a factor of 2 or more. Please let us know if you encounter any difficulties.

5 July 2001 More GPS site motion/crustal velocity solution studies have been added, for the eastern Mediterrean, central Asia, western Pacific region, and western USA (Alaska and Oregon), plus more velocity scaling options (x1 = default; x2, x5, x10, x20, and x50). Be sure to look for the new entries in Earth Readme and Information Sources.

16 May 2001 The general image of Mercury is now based on a 32 pixel/degree resolution shaded relief map (based on USGS I-1149, 1979).

7 May 2001 Immediately under [--image overlays--] under the [Features:] menu are four options to select/deselect latitude/longitude lines, a latitude/longitude intersection grid, either with optional labeling, plus an optional distance scale. See General Readme: To add/delete features for more information.

20 Apr 2001 Links to GMT have been updated.

16 Apr 2001 A preliminary addition: labeled longitude/latitude grids; select option [Labeled lon/lat grid] under [Features:] menu (still working of autoselection of colors for different grids, labeling on index map, etc., so don't expect a final version yet)

4 Apr 2001 The MOLA images for Mars have been updated to 32 pixels/degree resolution.

2 Apr 2001 Voyager "version 2" has now been rolled out as the default. Among the changes:

Higher-resolution DEM texture underlays for the Earth (1/100°) and Mars (1/16°)
more geophysical texture underlays for Earth, Mars, Venus, and the Moon (e.g. geoid, gravity, etc.)
more geophysical overlay info for the Earth (e.g. terrestrial impact sites, large igneous province outlines, etc.)
manned and unmanned mission sites on the Moon, Venus, and Mars; selectable under new [Missions:] menu on those world URLs (see also new Missions Readme)
[anc] under [URL:] to bring up ancillary data pages (see 23 Feb 2001 update)
[VSS], [9-P], and [PDS] under [URL:] to bring up other Web sites homepages on the selected world

23 Feb 2001

24 Feb 2001

25 Feb 2001

improved applet behavior, especially with different world URLs on different browser pages (works best with Netscape 4.5 or higher: use Netscape's {< Back} or {Forward >} buttons to return to a different world URL in the exact state you left it); great for comparative planetology!

Also, the GMT engine has been upgraded to version 3.3.6, so we'll be able to add even more capability in the future.

16 Mar 2001 We finally figured how to make Voyager compatible with Netscape 6.0.

25 Feb 2001 With the version 2 applet, under the [URL:] choice menu

[PDS]

will link to Caltech/JPL's Planetary Data System Welcome to the Planets for the selected world (moons don't have their own link, so point to the home world)

24 Feb 2001 With the version 2 applet, under the [URL:] choice menu

[9-P]

will link to Bill Arnett's The Nine Planets for the selected world

23 Feb 2001 With the version 2 applet, the [Save] button now is under the new rightmost [URL:] choice menu, in addition to:

[anc], which may bring up one or more additional Web pages of ancillary information depending on what you have selected
[VSS], link to Calvin Hamilton's Views of the Solar System for the selected world

Links to ancillary information is a relatively new feature of Voyager, with new links continually being added. These may include color keys, links to other homepages, data archives, etc.

2 Feb 2001 Happy Groundhog's Day! Due to a change from version 1 to version 2 of Voyager, the initial texture underlay grid that would show up for the Moon and Mercury have not been correct for a while (due to a change in the way the texture underlay grids are accessed between the version 1 and version 2 applets). This has now been fixed. The version 2 applet also has a [VSS] button on the upper-right, which does a direct access to the primary server for Calvin Hamilton's Views of the Solar System for that world — English version...and just ignore the commercial stuff at the top. It's a handy summary page for ancillary information and additional Web links for each world.)

22 Aug 2000 Various links on the General Readme and What's New pages were wrong. Hopefully, all is well now.

15 May 2000 A bug was accidently introduced on 12 May while working on getting the GMT portion set up for testing with GMT versions post-3.1, which caused 3-byte RGB grids to be interpreted as 1-byte greytone grids. All is well now.

19 Apr 2000 There are now three experimental color grids of ARC Science Simulations' 16-bit version of GTOPO30, Sandwell and Smith bathymetry v6.2, and various polar bathymetry (re-fit to 100 pixels/degree resolution) currently under the [Features:] (applet) menu as

[Exp grid #4]: ocean bathymetry, deepest to shallowest is mapped dark-blue to cyan; continents, coastal to Everest is mapped dark-green->light green->brown->peach->red->lavender->white (except regions below sea level, which are mapped the same as bathymetry), based on a non-linear mapping of elevation to RGB value
[Exp grid #5]: color shaded relief; a non-linear blending of #2 and #5 (a color-intensity version of #3)
[Exp grid #6]: ARC's Face of the Earth ™ for land above sea level with shaded relief, like grid #5 below sea level

14 Apr 2000 There are now three experimental greytone grids of ARC Science Simulations' 16-bit version of GTOPO30, Sandwell and Smith bathymetry v6.2, and various polar bathymetry (re-fit to 100 pixels/degree resolution) currently under the [Features:] (applet) menu as

[Exp grid #1]: ocean bathymetry, deepest to shallowest is mapped black to white; continents, coastal to Everest is mapped black to white (except regions below sea level, which are mapped the same as bathymetry), based on a non-linear mapping of elevation to greytone level
[Exp grid #2]: shaded relief, constructed using GMT, with illumination from 300° clockwise from north (roughly WNW); really a roughness map
[Exp grid #3]: a non-linear blending of #1 and #2, which brings out both the elevation and shaded relief characteristics

28 Mar 2000 Two experimental greytone grids of ARC Science Simulations' 16-bit version of GTOPO30, Sandwell and Smith bathymetry v6.2, and various polar bathymetry (re-fit to 100 pixels/degree resolution) currently under the [Features:] (applet) menu as [Exp grid #1] and [Exp grid #2]. For both: ocean bathymetry, deepest to shallowest is mapped black to white; continents, coastal to Everest is mapped black to white (except regions below sea level, which are mapped the same as bathymetry). Grid #1 uses a linear mapping, grid #2 uses a non-linear mapping.

22 Mar 2000 A higher resolution grid (~1/14°) was found at the JPL image archive for Venus, still from Magellan synthetic aperture radar composites with color enhancement based on Soviet Venera 13 and 14 surface images. Also, a grey-tone version in now available in the [Features:] (applet) menu, also at ~1/14° resolution.

17 Mar 2000 Three more worlds (well, one world and two worldlets) to explore: Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. (Remember: you might have to do a <Shift> (keyboard) {Reload} (browser) to reload the Voyager applet when changing from world to world to reset the widgets.)

7 Feb 2000 Addition of GPS monuments for NASA's Solid Earth Natural Hazards (SENH) program.

8 Dec 1999 A total overhaul for the map tool, now renamed the Jules Verne Voyager, including:

new Web page design
more features for Earth, including ARC Science Simulations' Face of the Earth ™ (natural surface colors of the Earth, pole-to-pole, cloud-cover eliminated, snow-cover minimized, 100 pixels/degree resolution)
improved zoom and pan algorithm
capability for adding other planetary bodies
direct URL to specify a zoomed-in map directly
new server (450-MHz dual-Pentium Xeon)

We hope you enjoy it.

27 Oct 1999 Partial recovery from our disk failure in Jan 1999, and migration to compiling with Java 1.2 (though still using the original AWT event model) and using GMT version 3.1. Some enhancements (mostly bug fixes) that were done in Oct 1998 still have not been re-done.

21 Sept 1998 A logic bug prevented topography (color or grey-tone) to be added to any zoom map using the [Redraw] button on the applet. (Zooming from the level 0 map with with topography already on was OK.) This has been fixed.

14 Aug 1998 Monument positions of the GPS permanent stations for the Western Canada Deformation Array (WCDA) were added.

5 June 1998 Topography for the entire world in now available. We have switched from the ETOPO5 digital map to DS759.2, which is still at 5' resolution but fixes various problems that are present in ETOPO5. At the present time, the topography can be viewed as

a color varying map: dark blue in deep ocean to cyan just below sea level, green just above sea level, through yellow, orange, red, grey, brown, white at the highest elevations.
a grey tone map: slope only

Both versions of the topography are illuminated by a light source from the local west.

At the present time, topography is only displayed on the level 0 Plate Carrée and the local Lambert zoom maps, and is absent from the index maps. These are some benchmark times for map preparation with topography (on our 180 MHz Pentium Pro server):

Africa, color topography: ~35 sec of CPU time
Australia, color topography: ~35 sec of CPU time
area including a pole from Plate Carrée, color topography: ~75 sec of CPU time

The rest of the delay is transfer time from our server to your browser.

29 May 1998 The positions of the U.S. ASOS MET stations were added.

8 May 1998 GPS monument positions were added for CDDIS, NGS/CORS, SCEC, SOPAC, BARD, PANGA. For more information, see Information Sources: GPS monuments.

25 March 1998 The NUVEL 1 model for the tectonic plates of the Earth were added, and are drawn in cyan. These will appear by default, but can be removed by going to the applet [Features:] menu and clicking on [Tectonic Plates], or by hitting the keyboard <F1> key.

Comments, questions, problems about Jules Verne Voyager? Send mail to Lou Estey
(lou

unavco.org)