Robert Simmon
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rsimmon.bsky.social
Robert Simmon
@rsimmon.bsky.social
5.5K followers 1.1K following 1.9K posts
Data Visualization. Ex-Planet & NASA Earth Observatory. Blue Marble, Earth at Night, color, cartography, occasionally skewed views of Earth. Looking for a job.
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rsimmon.bsky.social
Spectacular clouds tonight!
Pink clouds rising above houses and overhead wires.
November 15, 2025 at 12:57 AM
rsimmon.bsky.social
The coffee is “The Women’s Initiative” from Zocalo.
Full coffee mug with the “boy holding binoculars” album art from Rush’s Power Windows.
November 14, 2025 at 3:26 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
One under-appreciated limitation of rainbow color maps—even improved versions like Turbo—is that they become even more distorted when printed. And RGB documents are often converted to CMYK, even for display on the web.

📊🎨 #dataviz #color
Figure from a scientific publication with a rainbow color palette converted from RGB (for digital display) to CMYK (for print). CMYK’s limited color palette further distorts an already-flawed palette, particularly blue-green shades. Comparison of Turbo and Jet palettes in both RGB and CMYK. Turbo is nearly linear in RGB color space, but has significant nonlinearities in CMYK (especially at the transition from blue to green and green to orange). Jet is highly nonlinear in both RGB and CMYK color spaces, but the areas of worst distortion shift.
November 13, 2025 at 6:42 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
The Planet satellite image I made for the Autódromo José Carlos Pace (Interlagos) is still being used by Wikipedia!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interla...
Satellite image showing the 15 turns of the Interlagos F1 track in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
November 9, 2025 at 9:52 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
TIL (via @mapsbyw.com ): @jscarto.bsky.social made a global basemap with NASA data: visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/14719...
Global map featuring subdued greens and light yellows representing land cover on the land surface, and subtle blue shading for bathymetry in the oceans.
November 7, 2025 at 6:33 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Somehow I missed this BlackSky satellite image of Petra (as seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). From www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Semi-oblique satellite image swing the Petra archeological site nestled in a canyon in Jordan.
November 5, 2025 at 7:14 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Hurricane #Melissa update: imagery from dawn until about 2:00 pm local time, when the eye was squarely over Jamaica. At landfall sustained winds were about 185 mph, making Melissa one of the strongest hurricanes ever.
October 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
12 hours of Hurricane #Melissa, one frame every minute. 🛰️🗺️
October 28, 2025 at 1:22 AM
rsimmon.bsky.social
In the past quarter-century we’ve transformed large swaths of the Earth’s surface. Here’s a handful of high-res Planet satellite images (all at the same scale) showing the imprint of coal on the landscape, from mine to power plant. From: medium.com/planet-stori...
Satellite image of an open-pit coal mine in Queensland, Australia. Satellite image of piles of black coal awaiting export from Australia. Satellite image of a Chinese port showing two freighters & blue-roofed buildings. Satellite image of a newly-constructed power plant with two cooling towers in China.
October 27, 2025 at 5:08 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Dry Falls from Above: Interpreting Washington's Iconic Floodscape
dancoecarto.com & @joelgombiner.bsky.social

www.flickr.com/photos/wasta...

#NACIS2025
Bird’s eye view of Dry Falls in Washington State, a remnant of catastrophic flooding in the wake of the Ice Age.
October 17, 2025 at 9:09 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
“Elements of Topographic Drawing”

archive.org/details/in.e...
Line drawings of vegetation and water symbols.
October 17, 2025 at 8:59 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
GREAT MARSH
Leveraging USGS’s high-resolution elevation data to depict Massachusetts’ Great Marsh reveals the historic & destructive ditching of the expansive salt marsh. The barrier beach/dune complex of Plum Island and the high-energy estuary’s deposition patterns provide context. 24” x 28”. 2022.
Map of the Great Marsh, Massachusetts showing marsh, beach, and near shore bathymetry.
October 17, 2025 at 8:48 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
jasperzhou.myportfolio.com/presentations
3 ways to visualize glacier loss.
October 17, 2025 at 7:45 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
A Slice Of North America
@moriartymaps.com

wapo.st/4nVvIgy

#NACIS2025
Stylized map of Mazatlan, Mexico showing the North American landfall of the 2024 total solar eclipse.
October 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Interactive 3D display driven by ArcGIS online: udel.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant...
3D view of layered aquifers in southern Delaware.
October 17, 2025 at 6:52 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
How the Giants Stack Up
Two-page spread from the October 2025 National Geographic showing the world’s highest mountains by different metrics.
October 17, 2025 at 6:40 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Detailed village maps & chilly 🥶 winter maps added to the 2nd edition!
Large-scale map of the Old Faithful area in Yellowstone National Park, along with info on points of interest. Winter map of Yellowstone, showing facilities and roads that are open in the snowier months.
October 17, 2025 at 6:18 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Photo of V1 “doodlebug” launching from Peenemünde on the German coast of the North Sea.
Black and white aerial photograph showing a V1 flying bomb as it launched.
October 17, 2025 at 2:01 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Sky High: Uncovering the legacy of women in aerial photography
Raechel Portelli ggis.illinois.edu/directory/pr...

www.abebooks.com/first-editio...

#NACIS2025
Cover of "Our Country from the Air”. Book title and silhouette of a 2-engine propellor aircraft in silver print on a navy blue background.
October 17, 2025 at 1:51 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Remote sensing is hard! Sun angle and shadow effect NDVI measurements, leading to incorrect assessments of forest loss.
Three images showing how a decrease in NDVI may not reflect tree health, but environmental conditions like sun angle and shadows.
October 17, 2025 at 1:31 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Elevation change in a fully 3D view!

kydgi.github.io/pz-nacis-2025/
Map showing decrease (red) and increase (blue) in elevation on the University of Kentucky campus. The baseball field in the center of the image was graded between LIDAR collections, resulting in a decrease in elevation. Neighboring trees have grown slightly.
October 17, 2025 at 1:22 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Neon map of Kentucky

#mapsinthewild
#NACIS2025
October 16, 2025 at 9:58 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Panel on the state of freelance mapping.

freelancemaps.org

#NACIS2025
Graph of hourly rate for freelance mapmaking (hovered around 55–65 dollars/hour from 2018 to 2025) Demographics is 2% non-binary, 78% man, 21% woman. 90% have a degree or certificate associated with GIS and/or cartography.
October 16, 2025 at 6:12 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Cartography Guidelines for Global Conservation

Chris Bruce www.linkedin.com/in/chris-bru...
Alicea Halsted www.linkedin.com/in/aliceahal...

Map design at TNC is informed by the organization's style guide which harmonizes work between hundreds of cartographers and designers.

#nacis2025
Map of forest cover in Borneo created by The Nature Conservancy. More intact forest remains in Borneo vs. neighboring Malaysia, with the largest extent of remain gin forest in the interior or the island/country.
October 16, 2025 at 3:19 PM
rsimmon.bsky.social
Spatial data (scans from augmented reality games) concentrated in urban areas in the Global North.

nianticlabs.com/news/largege...
Web mercator heatmap of image scans obtained from Pokémon Go. Higher density is yellow, lower is red, unscanned areas are black. The highest density of scans is in urban areas of the global north, particularly Europe.
October 16, 2025 at 1:47 PM