Earth Mapped

mapped.earth is a wonderful interactive global visualization from Aaron Becker. 

Here is an example showing winds and ocean currents along the south coast of Africa.

From the site: “Earth is a live view of the planet’s current conditions: winds, ocean currents, sea temperatures, storms, and the aurora, rendered as an interactive 3D globe over real terrain. The data refreshes itself around the clock — global weather models four times a day, ocean analyses daily, the aurora forecast every hour. Nothing here is a stock animation; every moving ribbon is advected through today’s measured or modeled fields.”

You can watch the globe spin or spin it yourself to pan and zoom to amy area of interest. Here is a Sunday image of the storm that spent the entire weekend and well beyond bearing down on us on the east coast of the USA.

There are many layers you can add. NO₂ is strikingly drawn though it is perhaps just a proxy for population.

Here is the actual population with population spikes showing an inverted terrain - low Himalayas surrounded by high populations.

And a giant dust plume coming off the Sahara.

The best part is watching the wind animations. In this case colored by temperature.

Erin Brockovich’s AI Data Center Map

I recently saw an interview with consumer advocate Erin Brockovich. She put together an interactive data center map to keep track of the data center issues across the United States.

For the screen shot above I unchecked the “Community Reported” red dots as they overwhelm the map. Those are places submitted by concerned residents. From the site “The colored data center pins cover publicly announced, major AI-focused and hyperscale facilities — including projects that were cancelled, blocked or shelved. Each popup lists its source citations. Many smaller or unannounced facilities are not listed, and this is not a registry of every data center in the country. Know of one missing? Report it here.”

You can click a point for details, including the data sources as seen below.

One of the major issues with data centers is how much water they use so one of the options is the use the NOAA’s drought monitor maps as a background layer.

Here is the map with everything showing. The most recent status of data centers shows up at the top. There are more of them under construction than are currently operational.

The noise nearby residents will need to endure is shown in these impact rings.

If you are within a quarter mile the noise is compared to a vacuum cleaner, 0.25 to 0.75 miles a dishwasher, while anything within 1.5 miles is still very audible and possibly disruptive to light sleepers. These noise levels are a 24-hour/7 day reality for those that live nearby. Another map shows places where states and local governments are acting to create bans or cancel some of these projects.

The site contains much more information including news, FAQ’s, photos and statistics presented in an even handed manner. 

Another Day in Ukraine

I got this image off social media-I honestly can’t recall where it came from. It’s originally from Telegram and supposedly* shows just one day of attacks on Ukraine-September 12th, 2026.

*I use the term supposedly because I have no way to verify this map.

Here is one from September 15th via Telegram. 

Translation via Google - “Throughout the day, approximately 150 attack and jet-powered UAVs of various types were deployed to attack the Kyiv, Odesa, Cherkasy, and Kirovohrad regions. In the Kyiv region, warehouses and gas stations were targeted.“

I found an almost identical image to the first one on Dima Lazarchuk’s LinkedIn page with the following words:

“On weekends, some people wake up to birds singing outside their windows, some to the sound of the sea, and some to the rustling of autumn leaves.

In Ukraine, we wake up to the sound of russian drones flying in to kill us, and to the sound of our air defense trying to stop them.

Another weekend survived in Ukraine.

Another reminder to the world that russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is still ongoing.”

The Growth of Los Angeles County

 I don’t know who to give credit for this as there does not appear to be an “About” page, but here is a web site where you can watch a video of the growth of Los Angeles County since 1880.

The full video includes a small amount of text describing the county’s growth. The page allows you to pick from several specific areas, pan and zoom around or enter an address. Remember Pasadena in 1982? Here is part of it.

Here is the entire county in 2026.

You can color code the buildings by decade or by height, though since they are also shown in 3D the height option seems a bit redundant.

Hovering over any block will get you some stats.

Here is a video where you can see the downtown area growing upwards over a few decades.

Guide to Running While Female in Phoenix

Described as a “an absurd guide to the regular wish-it-wasn’t-so paranoia of running as a woman in the city“, the Guide to Running While Female in Central Phoenix shows what to look out for along running routes in central Phoenix.

This map is produced by Steady Hand Maps. Jen Urso is an accidental cartographer, more of an artist who was asked to make a map. She has since made many very attractive hand drawn maps including the one above. The legend is simple, three symbols for where you can safely run in a sports bra (it gets extremely hot there), where you will get cat calls and places you should only run in the daytime.

Here is a zoomed in area. It gives some detail for those of us who don’t have to think about this stuff when going out in public.

Urso in her blog post begins with this quote; “I thought it was a funny and obvious map of my experience as a woman runner. The thing that shocked me the most was how shocking it ended up being…to men.“ She concludes with “My map, in its absurdity, points out that this is not and should not be normal or acceptable. We want to go outside, alone, and feel strong and capable. We just want to run.“

If you want to dig deeper, you can listen to her interview on the Phoenix NPR station or watch one on FOX-10.

For more maps by Jen Urso, you can browse through her map showcase here. Here is an example she did for a dance studio in St. Louis.

Light Reading-Summer, 2026

 Here are a few maps that have been sitting on my desktop for no reason other than I enjoy looking at them. Maybe you will too.

The USA according to someone at NACIS (circa 2020)

This map appeared at a NACIS (North American Cartographic Information Society) meeting many years ago. I don’t recall who made it but I like the randomness. Of course, these sites are probably not random to the author. Feel free to claim ownership if you made this.

Leimert Park and Southern California, 1927 

-via Wikipedia

The street names have changed and the park has shrunk but I love this perspective with the dark hills looming above and the almost glassy texture of the empty (as shown) areas in between. 

The Amazon Tributaries

Also from Wikipedia - I was reading about a place in Bolivia (like everyone in America does) and got interested in which way the water goes (like everyone in America does). A search brought up this map that does a great job of showing all the major tributaries of the Amazon. Unfortunately it also shows the Orinoco adding some confusion.

The Paraguay-Bolivia-Brazil Tripoint

Wikipedia yet again. I just love the impressionistic look of this. A bunch of soft color strokes instead of hard lines. Nice font too.

El Chepe Railroad

I saw a television program about this railroad - an engineering marvel of its time. Originally the Kansas City Mexico and Orient Railroad, it was worked on for about 80 years and completed in 1961. Some of the switchbacks required to get through Copper Canyon look amazing and I love this mainly for the curlicue in that area. I have the impression this picture was taken from a map inside the train but I’m not sure. Source. 

Map from the Mattapan Trolley

While on the subject of trains, I took a bike ride recently along the path that parallels the route of the Mattapan Trolley in Boston. I love the retro looking map on the train cars. Here is how it looks in motion.

Which Billionaire Could Buy Your City?

From that radical socialist website Redfin. This map is from 2014 and therefore way out of date. It reflects quaint era when trillionaires did not exist. At this point in our wealth disparity many of these people could probably buy entire states. It’s so old that Elon Musk doesn’t even make an appearance. FYI “buying” your city means they can afford to buy every house in that city. Makes you feel sorry for Phil Knight, merely getting Falls Church. Anyway despite being so out of date it still makes a great point and I would love to see an update featuring today’s oligarchs. 

Story Map of Ireland

A few weeks ago while on vacation I put together a jigsaw puzzle titled “Story Map of Ireland” Here it is fully assembled on our rental cottage’s deck,

and some detail pieces.

Story maps have become a popular computer visualization tool. Usually they involve scrolling through interactive digital content to convey information in a narrative sequence. Back in 1935 without today’s technology here’s what a “story map” looked like.

From the National Library of Ireland. “Map of Ireland, surrounded by decorative interlace at edges - the border design and title decorations are adapted from illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells and Book of Macdurnan.“

Image above via the New York Review of Books Reader’s Catalog. You can view the entire map here.