I was asked create a little google map showing the location of Polar bears. I've been given the location data in lat-long format.
For each bear I've been given a file containing the following headings:
Date Time Year Julianday Hour Minute Activity Temperature Latitude Longitude
The intention was to show the migration of these bears over time - so I'd take the date, take the time, take the lat / long and animate a google map (straight ahead javascript + googlemaps api stuff - got it working... easy).
However, I've now been asked to show the movement of arctic ice as well as bears.... Google maps doesn't have a North Pole... and while I've managed to overlay some ice, it just looks like a big white blob which didn't render out properly due to the lack of North Pole.
I've been asked to use data found here http://nsidc.org/data/masie/.
I need to find a way to take the nsidc data, and take the polar bear data and combine them to form a series of png files.
Once I have the png files I can animate them.... vistor hits 'play' and all the files play back to show the bears and ice moving over time. The play stuff is easy... I just don't know how I am to create these files...
To compound things, I've also been asked to include shipping data (also supplied in lat lon format)
Normally I'd do lots and lots of reading to try and figure stuff out- however, I've been given 3 days to do this... I've tried a few things...downloaded "QGis" and pulling in the data - but nothing appears. I don't have a clue.
How do I / where do I begin?
Sorry - this is the worst, most vague question ever....
