Asian Surveying & Mapping
Breaking News
Australia’s Gilmour Space Technologies ready to launch maiden Eris Test flight the nation’s first orbital launch in over 50 years
Gilmour Space Technologies is the leading launch services company...
Korea’s space agency seeks revision of plan to modify next-gen rockets into reusable system
South Korea's aerospace agency said on Thursday that it...
UAE Space Agency Signs Agreement With Technology Innovation Institute to Execute the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt’s Lander Project
In the presence of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin...
Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of a June touchdown
A private lunar lander from Japan is now circling the moon, with...
Indian astronaut to travel soon to ISS as part of ISRO-NASA Mission
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said by 2040, an Indian’s...
China issues regulatory framework to support direct-to-device satellite services
HELSINKI — China has released comprehensive regulations for direct-to-device...
Astranis clinches $115 million Taiwan deal despite satellite setback
TAMPA, Fla. — Astranis has signed a $115 million...
UAE and Egypt Strengthen Space Collaboration with New MoU
In a milestone development for Arab space collaboration, the...
Seoul launches 4th spy satellite to boost North Korea surveillance
South Korea’s military now operates an increasingly integrated cluster...
Indonesia seeks space defense cooperation with Japan’s military
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Defense of Indonesia...

September 16th, 2016
Esri Releases EMUs to Understand the Ocean

REDLANDS, Calif.- Esri, the world leader in smart mapping technology, announced a whole new way of measuring the ocean on September 15, 2016, at the Oceans Conference in Washington, DC. Ecological Marine Units (EMUs) are Esri’s gift to a world whose final unexplored terrain lies beneath its seas.

Esri and USGS collected a series of global measurements representing the ocean’s physical and chemical properties most likely to drive ecosystem responses. From millions of measurements taken, 37 physically and chemically distinct volumetric regions, or EMUs, were statistically derived. EMUs differ from existing maps of marine ecoregions since they are globally comprehensive, data-driven, and 3-D. The primary data source is NOAA’s authoritative World Ocean Atlas.

“Our world’s last unknown great space, the ocean between its surface and its floor, is also one of the last frontiers of mapping,” said Dr. Suzette Kimball, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey. “In light of our long history of making scientific maps at USGS, I am especially proud to report that the USGS has partnered with Esri, NOAA, academia, and several non-profit organizations to produce a new, comprehensive map of the global ocean. The map is presented in the form of volumetric global ecological marine units (EMUs) that, combined, provide a three-dimensional perspective of the ocean’s staggering dimensions and complexity.”

Built by an innovative public-private partnership led by Esri and the USGS, EMUs provide a standardized, rigorous, and ecologically meaningful set of ocean ecosystem units. Therefore, they may be used as a basemap for things like climate change impact studies, biodiversity priority settings, economic and social valuation studies, or marine spatial planning.

“While oceans cover about 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, the impact of climate change on the oceans, apart from sea level rise, has largely been hidden,” said Dr. Kimball. “This easily accessible map will serve as a fresh resource for improving our understanding of the ocean’s structure—its salinity, temperature, oxygen levels, and nutrients—in millions of specific places. This added insight will in turn help us better understand the rapid changes in ocean ecology that are now happening around the world.”

Esri has made the EMUs accessible via the EMU Explorer Web app, and in November will make this geospatial information available to Esri’s ArcGIS platform users as maps in the Living Atlas of the World and as downloadable datasets for open use.

“It’s an exciting time when our abilities to measure ocean phenomena are met by new ways to analyze and model the oceans using GIS,” said Esri program manager for ArcGIS content, Sean Breyer. “The work of marine researchers in mapping the vast areas of our oceans that remain uncharted is vital so that we can understand the future of our oceans.”

To explore Esri’s Ecological Marine Units ArcGIS Online Group to access extra resources, data, and tools, accessible at go.esri.com/pr-emu.

About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. As the market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 350,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

Copyright © 2016 Esri. All rights reserved. Esri, the Esri globe logo, GIS by Esri, Story Map Journal, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners.