Milestones

2021

  • November The ARMAP team will present information on the outcomes of the 2021 User Study during the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on December 13.
  • April A Community Awareness Survey is open for feedback to better understand the current state of community awareness of the Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP.)
  • April A user study has been initiated to engage a range of representative users to understand current and potential needs. The objective is to focus our efforts to better meet GIS-related needs for the Arctic Program.
  • April The NSF activities animation and select figures were updated for the map gallery.
  • March The ARMAP/AOV Team presented a poster at the Arctic Science Summit Week.
  • January ARMAP was updated to include real time vessel tracking for IARPC cruises scheduled for 2021. 2020 tracks were backfilled to include PI names, project titles, awards and initiatives.

2020

  • December The ARMAP/AOV Team presented a poster at the 2020 Fall AGU meeting.
  • October Members of the ARMAP/AOV began collaborating with the NSF Research Networking Activities for Sustained Coordinated Observations of Arctic Change (CoObs RNA)
  • July The World Database of Protected Areas was incorporated into ARMAP. Visit the “Layers” listing to view along with additional admin boundaries.
  • June A new feature has been added to the ARMAP Viewer: near real-time ship tracks and positions. Launch the Viewer to see the location of the Polarstern, support vessels for the MOSAiC expedition, the Healy, Sikuliaq, Alaska Knight, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Oden, Akademik Fedorov, and several others — updated every four hours through an AIS subscription with MarineTraffic. Click on a ship’s icon to see details such as status, speed, heading, lat long, etc.
  • June The ARMAP/AOV Team is helping to start up a new collaborative effort, the Polar Observing Assets Working Group (POAwg), under the SAON Committee on Observations and Networks (CON). Bill Manley will be a co-chair, along with Roberta Pirazzini from INTAROS. A core group is currently scoping goals and tasks, and it is expected that the first full meeting will be in September. To learn more, see the POAwg poster presented at AOS 2020 as well as a related white paper.
  • May The number of research projects in the ARMAP Viewer continues to grow, now with more than 3000 projects across multiple agencies, and including awards from the NSF Navigating the New Arctic program.
  • May The team assisted with a session at the EGU General Assembly 2020. Bill Manley was a co-convener of “Arctic Observations: Data Collection, Management, and User Engagement“.
  • May ARMAP and AOV brought back an ISO metadata specialist for 2020. Ted Habermann, with Metadata Game Changers, will bring expertise to again help the team better implement interoperability through use of the ISO 19115 standard for research projects and observing sites.
  • April The ARMAP/AOV Team is working on streamlining and improving the backend databases and workflows. Improvements might not be obvious in the frontend Viewers but will reduce ongoing efforts, increase performance, and enable new functionalities.
  • March The ARMAP/AOV Team presented and participated in the Arctic Observing Summit 2020, with a poster on the apps — as well as a poster and white paper on a new collaborative effort.
  • March The team attended the virtual ESRI Developer Summit, extending skillsets for our graduate student developers.
  • February The team continues to participate in various planning and coordination efforts, including the IARPC Arctic Observing and Arctic Data Subteams, the IASC/SAON Arctic Data Committee, and federated search & semantics working groups.

2019

  • December The ARMAP 3D Viewer has been formally launched with refinements such as: custom navigation, multiple high-res. basemaps, and advanced visualization as well as improvements to Help, the Time Slider, near real-time ship tracks, and more. This is a massive step forward for the user experience. Please take a look (by clicking on “Launch Viewer”) and let us know what you think.
  • December The ARMAP/AOV Team presented a poster at the 2019 Fall AGU meeting.
  • November The ARMAP/AOV Team presented at the Third Polar Data Forum and participated in hackathons for semantics and federated search.
  • November The team has recommended formation of an “Interoperable Network Description Working Group”, as described in our white paper for the upcoming Arctic Observing Summit 2020, entitled “Optimizing Arctic Observing Through Interoperable Information Sharing Across Networks”. This new working group might be established under an international coordinating body, the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) initiative. Please let us know if you have any feedback on this as it moves forward.
  • October The ARMAP/AOV Team is exploring options for displaying near real-time ship tracks and positions in the Viewers, through subscriptions for AIS feeds with some additional coding. A particular focus for the near future is to display information for the Polarstern, which is currently locked in Arctic sea ice as part of the MOSAiC expedition.
  • October The team continued web usability testing of the ARMAP 3D beta app, receiving valuable feedback from key users for subsequent improvements.
  • September The ARMAP/AOV Team gave a presentation to numerous NSF Program Officers.
  • September The ARMAP/AOV Team presented at the Arctic Futures 2050 Conference.
  • August The Map Gallery has been updated. Click on the maps, and then download them from the browser, for use in presentations.
  • August A new ARMAP 3D Viewer has been released! This beta app is a massive step forward, with custom navigation, multiple high-resolution basemaps, and advanced visualization – along with improved Search and Filter tools. Try it out (by clicking on “Launch Viewer”) and let us know what you think.
  • August The team has begun web usability testing of the new ARMAP 3D beta app, receiving valuable feedback from key users for subsequent improvements.
  • July The number of projects in the ARMAP Viewer continues to grow, now approaching 3000 projects across multiple agencies.
  • July Based on user feedback, we have added a map layer for 24 stations from the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC), helping broaden AOV with inclusion of this important global initiative.
  • June With help from Synoptec and Jacobs, the team resolved an issue with our web services, reenabling public access to our data through live feeds.
  • June The team gave a presentation to the IARPC Field Operations Working Group, entitled “Apps for Arctic Science Planning: ARMAP & AOV”, giving a sneak peak of the new 3D app, and also summarizing similar portals, as well as the challenges and opportunities for giving such resources a more comprehensive perspective (at both multiagency and international levels) to better assess status, coordinate logistics, find overlap or shared assets, fill gaps, and clarify directions.
  • June An undergraduate in Computer Sciences, Dilan Ramirez, has joined the team as a junior programmer, working on the new ARMAP 3D beta app under the mentorship of lead programmer and MS student, Maurcio Barba.
  • May The team has participated in discussions toward what may become a revitalized Alaska Data Integration Working Group (ADIwg).
  • May Additional ship tracks were added to the Viewer, including 2018 tracks for the Healy, Louis S. St-Laurent, Oden, Sikuliaq, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
  • April The team gave a presentation to the IARPC Arctic Data Subteam, entitled “Metadata Interoperability beyond the Dataset Level – for Networks, Projects, Observing Sites, Etc.”.
  • April The animation of “NSF Arctic Research Activities” was updated to 2004-2018, with additional project locations and cruise tracks.
  • March The ARMAP gateway website was refreshed with a few improvements.
  • February The team has continued to collaborate with spinoff working groups focused on particular challenges for the Arctic Data community, including the Polar Federated Search Working Group (POLDER) and the ADC-IARPC Vocabularies and Semantics Working Group, working toward white papers, completion of “the matrix”, and substantive improvements to information sharing and interoperability.
  • February The team continues to participate in various IARPC teams, particularly the Arctic Observing Systems Subteam and Arctic Data Subteam.
  • January The ARMAP/AOV Team has begun to collaborate with the Toolik Field Station, particularly with their team on GIS and Remote Sensing, toward compatible means of sharing project-level and asset-level metadata. Some of the documentation on interoperability that we’ve released has helped them expand their own databases. They, like other portals and organizations, have begun to access and incorporate information through our public-facing web services. Plans are underway to include more detailed site-level information for the Toolik area in our Viewers.
  • January The project density layer, a “heat map” showing concentrated areas of research activity, is now available for all regional views, and is automatically customized for Search and Filters results. Check it out.

2018

  • December The ARMAP Team presented a poster at the 2018 Fall AGU meeting. View the abstract.
  • December The team participated in the AOS Observing System Implementation and Optimization Working Meeting that immediately preceded the Fall AGU meeting.
  • December A new “heat map” — called “Project Density” — has been added to the Viewer, showing concentration of research activity with a color gradient that varies spatially. You can turn this data layer on or off in the Layers pane, where you can also adjust its transparency. Please let us know if you like it.
  • November The team gave a lightning talk at the Polar Data and Systems Architecture Workshop.
  • November An alert system has been established to detect unexpected server downtime, improving reliability of our web services and Viewer.
  • October The ARMAP Map Gallery page has been updated with fresh images, summary maps that can be easily downloaded for presentations etc. Please let us know if you’d like to see other maps featured there.
  • October The Team continues to contribute to various planning and coordination activities, including the IARPC Arctic Observing and Arctic Data subteams, the IASC/SAON Arctic Data Committee, and related working groups focused on federated search, semantics, and data interoperability, with direct and indirect benefits to ARMAP and AOV.
  • October Our database and Viewer have shifted to new servers for better speed and stability. At no cost to the project, we have moved away from an aging systems architecture to a cloud-based solution offered by the University of Texas El Paso. There will be less effort spent by the Team on server maintenance, and users will benefit from better performance overall.
  • September An article in Nature Ecology & Evolution, which cites ARMAP, highlights the need for strategic inventories such as ARMAP and AOV to better assess gaps and avoid sampling biases in Arctic Observing.
  • September ARMAP projects are now visible in a portal facilitating scientific research in Greenland, Isaaffik. This advance is the result of collaboration and a new partnership for information sharing and interoperability.
  • September The ARMAP Team gave a demo to the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) and will explore options for collaboration.
  • August ARMAP and AOV continue to prepare the next generation of innovators through cyberinfrastructure training for graduate students. Lead developer Ari Kassin, PhD Comp. Sci., will further his career as a GIS Analyst and Database Programmer with the City of El Paso. Mauricio Barba, MSc Elect. & Comp. Eng., has stepped into the lead programming role.
  • August The ARMAP Team has continued to work closely with Isaaffik on interoperability and information exchange.
  • August The ARMAP Team has started collaboration with NEON, with their core field sites now in the Viewer.
  • July The “Observatories and Stations” map layers have been greatly expanded to highlight facilities including YOPP, NEON, LTER, an all encompassing “Arctic Research Stations” layer, and a revamped “US Logistics Hubs” layer.
  • June The ARMAP Team participated in the Arctic Observing Summit 2018.
  • June A new set of overview slides about ARMAP and AOV has been posted to the website. Take a look!
  • June To assist with sharing of project-level information, an ARMAP Data Dictionary has been released on the AOV Interoperability page, with a listing of relevant fields and their definitions, etc. Also, the project-level ISO template XML was updated slightly.
  • May Team member Ted Habermann has published an article in a special issue of the journal Geosciences about metadata interoperability, with a focus on the distributed and hierarchical metadata web services for ARMAP and AOV.
  • May After some app downtime recently, steps have been taken to avoid automated server restarts. Apologies. The Viewer should be more stable now.
  • May The ARMAP Team participated in the Polar Data Planning Summit.
  • May The ARMAP Viewer displays new map layers to assist with logistics and coordination: US Logistics Hubs, Arctic Research Stations, YOPP Supersites, GNET Stations, and GLISN Stations.
  • May The public-facing metadata web service in RESTful ISO 19115-1 format for project locations was updated to include dates in and out for field campaigns, along with other fixes and refinements.
  • May As a contribution toward further data sharing and interoperability within the Arctic data community, an annotated ISO XML template for project-level metadata was released on the AOV Interoperability page.
  • April The ARMAP Team, through Bill Manley, has joined the Polar Federated Search Working Group, which has a goal of improving data discovery and access across multiple data catalogs.  The ARMAP Team continues to collaborate and contribute to various other efforts including IARPC, the IASC/SAON ADC, and more.
  • March The animation of NSF Arctic Research Activities was updated to 2004-2017, with additional project locations and cruise tracks.
  • February The ARMAP Team has begun collaboration with Isaaffik, a tool for facilitating scientific collaboration in Greenland, in particular toward automated exchange of project-level information.
  • January Robbie Score has retired. Thank you for your dedication and innumerable contributions!! Have fun, and we’re jealous! Naomi Whitty has joined the team as our able and fearless coordinator.
  • January The Arctic Logistics Providers page has been updated with four additional resources.

2017

  • December The ARMAP Team presented a poster on both ARMAP and AOV at the 2017 Fall AGU meeting.
  • December The ARMAP Viewer has been improved on several fronts with: a new Favorites tab in the Search pane, making it easier to do popular searches with one click; the ability to vertically resize the Search Results table; tweaks to the layout and presentation; and numerous other refinements to the user experience.
  • October The public-facing metadata web services for project locations – in FGDC as well as ISO 19115-1 and ISO 19115-2 formats — have been updated to include lat-long bounding boxes to enable improved interoperability and capabilities for searching in applications and portals that ingest the services.
  • September The ARMAP Team gave a presentation on both AOV and ARMAP to the IARPC Arctic Research Support and Logistics Working Group.
  • June A new ARMAP Viewer has been formally launched with a clean, fast, and modern interface. This upgrade — based on HTML5, javascript, and hierarchical ISO metadata — includes improved Search and Filter tools, and is mobile friendly while being intuitive and more informative.Try it out, and let us know what you think!
  • May The ARMAP Team has begun collaboration with the NSF Arctic Data Center toward information exchange and improved interoperability.
  • April The animation of “NSF Arctic Research Activities” has been updated to 2004-2016, with additional project locations and cruise tracks.
  • March The ARMAP Team is participating in the revamped IARPC teams for Arctic Data, Arctic Observing Systems, and Environmental Intelligence.
  • February The map layers in ARMAP are now available also in the Arctic-SDI Geoportal as Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Feature Services (WFS).

2016

  • December A new ARMAP Viewer has been released with a clean, fast, and modern interface. This prototype app — based on HTML5, javascript, and hierarchical ISO metadata — includes improved Search and Filter tools, and is mobile friendly while being intuitive and more informative. Try it out, and let us know what you think!
  • December An abstract, poster, and demos were given at the Fall AGU meeting: “Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP): Visualize project-level information for U.S. funded research in the Arctic”.
  • November A new ARMAP Viewer is nearing completion to deliver improvements in functionality with a clean, fast, and modern interface. A prototype will be released before the Fall AGU, and will undergo usability testing prior to formal launch. Using HTML5, javascript, and hierarchical ISO metadata, the new Viewer will be mobile friendly, intuitive, and informative.
  • November The ARMAP Team participated in the Polar Connections Interoperability Workshop, with a talk on the project-data life cycle and overview of data discovery and metadata.
  • October The ARMAP Team continues to participate in coordination through the IARPC Arctic Data Collaboration Team as well as the IASC/SAON Arctic Data Committee.
  • September The ARMAP Team has further collaborated with the PermaData project (involving GTN-P, the Arctic Portal, and NSIDC) toward improved interoperability of information related to permafrost research.
  • September A poster on ARMAP, AOV, and the Project-Data life cycle was presented at SciDataCon 2016.
  • September Collaboration with ADIwg continues toward community adoption of ISO 19115-3.
  • July A presentation on ARMAP and AOV was given to the IARPC Arctic Observing Systems Collaboration Team.
  • April ARMAP has been highlighted as one of 5 Maps that Help Explain the Arctic by GISGeography.
  • March New ship tracks were added to the Viewer.
  • March The website has been refreshed with new milestones, an updated citation, and more.
  • March Project locations in ARMAP continue to be updated on a regular basis.
  • February The animation of “NSF Arctic Research Activities” was updated to 2004-2015, with additional project locations and cruise tracks.
  • January ARMAP continues to train the next generation of Arctic scientists, with a focus on cyberinfrastructure. To date Craig Tweedie has mentored 32 students, most from underrepresented groups. For example, a few recent graduates have moved on to Intel and LANL.

2015

  • December A poster and demos were given at the Fall AGU meeting: “Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP): Visualize project-level information for U.S. funded research in the Arctic”.
  • October An abstract and poster were presented at the Polar Data Forum II. The poster won first place!
  • October A presentation on ARMAP and AOV was given to the IASC/SAON Arctic Data Committee.
  • September The animation of “NSF Arctic Research Activities 2004-2014” was updated with corrected cruise tracks planned for 2015.
  • September Progress has been made with community-based ISO standards, and with ARMAP’s implementation of hierarchical metadata, such that project-level information is linked to details on data collection sites, and vice versa.
  • August A new ARMAP Viewer is nearing completion to deliver improvements in functionality with a clean, fast, and modern interface. A prototype will be released before the Fall AGU, and will undergo usability testing prior to formal launch. Using HTML5 and javascript, the new Viewer will be mobile friendly, intuitive, and informative.
  • April Our web service for Field Research Projects, available through a customizable REST end point, has been updated to embrace the ISO 19115-2 metadata standard (in addition to FGDC/KML and ISO 19115-1 standards).
  • April We fixed a bug on the Text Search page that prevented the drop-down menus from working properly.
  • April Our publicly available web services — in a variety of open standards for data sharing and reuse — have been shifted to a new server infrastructure for speed and stability. The web services are also now available through ArcGIS Online.
  • March The animation of “NSF Arctic Research Activities 2004-2014” was updated with research locations and cruise tracks planned for 2015.
  • February The animation of “NSF Arctic Research Activities 2004-2014” was updated with additional cruise tracks.
  • January The ARMAP Field Research Projects database has been upgraded — beyond compatibility with FGDC-based metadata standards — with implementation of an ISO metadata standard. A new, public web service (conforming specifically with ISO 19115-1) is now available for improved interoperability and information exchange with other groups at national to international levels.
  • January Collaboration has begun with the NASA Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) toward interoperability and information exchange.

2014

  • December Poster and demos were given at the Fall AGU meeting: “Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP) Showcases Discovery Level Metadata for US Funded Research Projects”.
  • December The ARMAP gateway website at armap.org (this site) has been redesigned for a fresh, modern user experience.
  • December Collaboration has begun with a new SAON/IASC data committee to improve interoperability.
  • November Development is underway for a new gateway website.
  • September The animation of “NSF Arctic Research Activities” was updated to 2004-2014, with additional years and many more cruise tracks.
  • August An ARMAP abstract was submitted for the Fall AGU meeting (IN41C-3667; Thursday, December 18, 08:00 AM – 12:20 PM; Moscone South).
  • May The animation of “NSF Arctic Research Activities” was updated to include project locations and ship tracks for 2013.
  • April Members of the ARMAP Team participated in the Arctic Observing Summit 2014, in Helsinki.
  • April The ARMAP Team completed security compliance for NSF’s Information Assurance Working Group.
  • March Improvements were made to our systems infrastructure for interoperability & streamlined ingesting of web services from other organizations.
  • February New filters were added to the Viewer, and other refinements were made to the user interface.
  • January New project locations and cruise tracks were added to the Viewer.

2013

  • December ARMAP posters and demos given at the Fall AGU meeting (sessions IN23D-1449 and IN33B-1540)
  • December ARMAP now includes ship tracks for numerous scientific cruises in the Arctic, including the Healy, Louis S. St-Laurent, Thomas G. Thompson, and other research vessels.
  • December ARMAP now includes medical facilities across the Arctic (full-service hospitals, those with rotating doctors, and clinics), to aid with search and recovery if need be.
  • December A partner app, the Arctic Observing Viewer (AOV) is moving beyond the prototype stage with a new website and a presentation at the Fall AGU meeting (session IN41C).
  • December CH2M HILL Polar Services (CPS) has a booth at the Fall AGU meeting.
  • November Improvements made to the systems architecture for speed, reliability, and more.
  • October The ARMAP Team continues to collaborate closely with the Alaska Data Integration Working Group (ADIwg) and other groups to improve interoperability and information exchange.

2012

  • December New Arctic Observing Viewer launched as a prototype to help with visualization, synthesis, assessment, and decision support for AON data collection activities.
  • December ARMAP and AOV posters and demos given at the Fall AGU meeting (poster session IN41A, 8 AM – 12:20 PM, Thursday Dec. 6, Halls A-C)
  • December CH2M HILL Polar Services (CPS) has a booth at the Fall AGU meeting.
  • November New systems architecture in place to improve speed, reliability, and our ability to provide additional map layers, applications, and web services.
  • October Improvements made to this website, including a new Partners page.
  • April Updated animation available, showing NSF Arctic Research Activities for 2007.
  • April Presentation at the IPY 2012 Conference in Montreal.
  • April ARMAP-generated maps included in NAS report on IPY.
  • March ARMAP now includes projects from 17 agencies beyond NSF (many a part of ADIwg as well as IARPC).
  • March Presentation at the U.S. Arctic Observing Coordination Workshop (AON / SEARCH).
  • January ARMAP publishes REST services in the “full” schema of the Alaska Data Integration Work Group.

2011

  • December Official launch of the new ARMAP 2D with a demo and presentation at the Fall AGU meeting, with new regional views and other improvements.
  • November Peer-reviewed article published in a special issue of Computers & Geosciences: “Development of the Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP): Interoperability challenges and solutions”.
  • September ARMAP 2D now includes satellite imagery, thanks to new circumpolar web services provided by the Geographic Information Network of Alaska (GINA) and AlaskaMapped.
  • August The terrain basemap for ARMAP 2D gains higher resolution with value-added processing of the ETOPO1 DEM’s.
  • August ARMAP abstract submitted to a session on cyberinfrastructure at the AGU Fall Meeting.
  • June ARMAP continues to contribute to the Alaska Data Integration Working Group (ADIwg); briefing paper released to foster coordination and synthesis for interagency project tracking.
  • April Manuscript on the “Development of the Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP): Interoperability challenges and solutions” accepted for a special issue of Computers & Geosciences; the in-press article is available through Elsevier.
  • March Improvements made to the new ARMAP 2D based on user feedback, including a map view for Greenland, placename gazetteers, and the ability to export project information.
  • February Launch of a new ARMAP 2D as beta. User feedback is encouraged.

2010

  • December Demonstration of a new ARMAP 2D at the Fall AGU meeting
  • December Updates to this website, including an improved Web Services page and a new Map Projections page
  • October Development and release of REST services for NSF project database, with improved data access and interoperability
  • October ARMAP 3D updated for ArcGIS Explorer Build 1500
  • October Map gallery updated with new images
  • July UTEP SEL awarded 1 year grant to freely test Amazon Web Services for ARMAP services “in the cloud”
  • July Formal launch of ARMAP 3D for visualization, analysis, and collaboration
  • June ARMAP 3D updated for ArcGIS Explorer Build 1200
  • June Presentation at the IPY Oslo Science Conference
  • May Paper submitted to special issue of Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure and Polar Research
  • April ARMAP continues to help develop interagency project tracking standard
  • March ARMAP 3D updated for ArcGIS Explorer Build 900
  • March Presentation at the State of the Arctic Conference
  • February Demo for the AOOS Data Managenment and Coordination Committee
  • February Presentation at Alaska Surveying and Mapping Conference
  • January Poster presentation at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium

2009

  • December ARMAP helps develop interagency project tracking standard
  • December Demonstration at the AGU Fall Meeting
  • September AON-CADIS Web Map Viewer released
  • August Collaboration on plans for an Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) at the GeoNorth II Conference
  • August Enabled access to scientific datasets in the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD)