Getting Ready to Leave

In anticipation for leaving next week, I have been downloading map data covering Morocco.  In part this supports my research, but it also helps us visualize the landscape where we will be living.  There are three data sets available worldwide that provide helpful data.

• SRTM, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which has 1 arc second (about 30 meters) digital elevations.  This allows a wide range of 2D and 3D displays.
• Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery, satellite imagery with 30 m resolution.  It has multiple bands in the visible and infrared, and can be tuned to agriculture, geology, or other analysis.  You can see things like soccer fields, but not individual buildings or automobiles.
• OSM, Open Street Maps, a crowd mapped data sets with roads and many other features.  Some of the cell phone mapping programs use this data.

This is Rabat with the SRTM elevations and the OSM roads and features.  The topography in the coastal plain does not add much to the map because the landscape is so flat.  If you use this map on your cellphone, its GPS can show your track as you move.

 This is Fes with the SRTM elevations and the OSM roads and features.  It's at a smaller scale than the map of Rabat (covers more area), and the mountains north of the city start to show where the SRTM data really helps understand the terrain.

Landsat imagery, in false color.  The red shows vegetation, and actually depicts reflections in the infrared which we cannot see but which better reveal the terrain features.

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This site (https://microdem.blogspot.com) is also not an official Naval Academy site. The views expressed on this site are entirely those of its author (Peter Guth) and do not represent the views of the Naval Academy, the U.S. Department of then Navy, or any of its partner organizations.