After boarding an airplane after the National Science Teachers Association’s annual convention, I recorded the position of the aircraft as it flew along on my GPS receiver. I held the GPS at the window, and before we landed, I saved the positions it automatically gathered as a track. (Make sure that before trying this, you check the airline’s policy about GPS use and that, if allowed, you wait until after you hear the “electronic devices allowed” announcement.)

Back in the office, I connected the GPS to my laptop, uploaded the track, and saved it as a point shapefile using the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Garmin tool (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/extensions/DNRGarmin/DNRGarmin.html). I then accessed ArcGIS Explorer (http://www.esri.com/arcgisexplorer), changed to the streets globe, and added the GPS track shapefile. I gave each point the “air field” symbol. I collected 422 points during the 90 minutes that the GPS was on, but even so, I was able to quickly determine what my originating city and destination city, below. What were these two cities?

I frequently quiz myself about the names of the towns, reservoirs, rivers, mountains, and highways that I see out the window. Sometimes I take a road atlas with me to check my answers. I can also check my guesses in ArcGIS Explorer. For example, I noticed that the airplane flew directly over Manhattan, Kansas, home of Kansas State University. I could clearly see the Konza Prairie hills and the floodplain formed by the confluence of the Kansas River and the Big Blue River, below.

I accessed File and “Resource Center” to add the physical features on topographic maps as a layer to produce the above view. Next, I added a satellite image layer and “flew” west along the airline’s path. Despite the fact that I had to power down the GPS when I heard the “turn off all electronic devices” announcement on the airplane, using the satellite image, I could clearly visualize my approach to Denver, just north of Limon, Colorado, below.

What data would you like to map and analyze?

- Joseph Kerski, ESRI Education Manager