A new version of ArcGIS Explorer has just been released—ArcGIS Explorer 480. Besides downloading the application and beginning to play with it, the fastest way to discover what’s under the hood of AGX 480 is to read the “What’s New” write-up at the Resource Center. There are extensive additions and improvements—new tasks, data updates, enhanced functionality, and more.

I decided to give it a spin and was not disappointed. Here’s a shot of a quick project I produced highlighting a portion of Captain James Cook’s 2nd voyage, 1772-1775.

So what’s going on; what’s new/different here?

1. I began by adding the new lat/lon graticule. This modification is found in the “Tools” menu > “Options” > “Units.” Nice to be able to quickly get location bearings.

2. I added some local data—a point shape file of part of Cook’s track. The data ultimately came from the CLIWOC database, which provides track data from ship’s logs for the period 1750-1850. (NOTE: The Cook SHP was derived from a sample CLIWOC geodatabase available from Andrew Zolnai. Thanks, Andrew!)
Symbolizing the ship locations brought out the new point symbol possibilities and the new category groupings. I found what I needed in the “Transportation” category but also discovered a “Marine” category which includes a handy icon for an upcoming blog posting on a doomed French explorer, La Perouse.

3.I wanted to add a picture of the HMS Resolution and so used the “Identify” task to tag a single ship log location. While the “Identify” is not new, I found its action to be improved in tagging point data. I converted the selection to a point result and added the image via the result properties.

4. Cook and company left from Plymouth Sound in England. I wanted its location noted and so added the new “GeoNames Search” task from the Resource Center. A quick search netted the observation above.

5.Cook’s voyage spanned the globe and I wanted to link to some authoritative content that would be constantly available wherever I might navigate and not have the added baggage of a Web browser UI and frame in my window. Using the new “Quick Content” task, I inserted a URL link to sea exploration researcher, John Robson’s write-up on this expedition.

…and this is just the start of learning what else can be done with the new ArcGIS Explorer.

- Geroge Dailey, ESRI Education Manager