Nordpil

Polarportal 2015

The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat published a new website and portal presenting Swedish polar research in November 2015. The main interface is an interactive map interface presenting the Arctic and Antarctica. Nordpil was assigned the task of assembling a database of GIS data for the polar regions, including both the Arctic and Antarctica. From this database a background map was prepared using TileMill and MapBox.

The database was primarily based on the Natural Earth dataset collection and the data was projected, reviewed and edited using QGis and ESRI ArcGIS. Additional data was pulled in for the digital elevation model, from the Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010 (GMTED2010) dataset and International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) dataset. For Antarctica data was also downloaded from the Antarctic Digital Database Version 6.0 (ADD). Sea-ice extent data was acquired from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

The background elevation was further edited in Adobe Photoshop, with styling inputs from project participants from the Bror Rudi agency.

The map data was styled using CartoCSS in TileMill and then uploaded to the MapBox service.

Nordpil also assisted in some of the preparations required for implementing the map interface using JavaScript and the MapBox Leaflet library.