Caitlin Dempsey

Caitlin Dempsey is a geographer, writer, and founder and editor of Geography Realm. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Geography from UCLA and a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from San José State University.

For more than two decades, she has written about geography, maps, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, satellite imagery, and environmental science. Her work focuses on making geography accessible to a broad audience through articles, tutorials, and educational resources.

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Map of the Caribbean published in Legatio Babylonica, 1511 by Peter Martyr d'Anghiera. Digitized image from John Carter Brown Library

Earliest Known Map Showing Florida

Caitlin Dempsey

Published in 1511, the first map to show the peninsula of Florida is also a map of other firsts.

Amazon River, modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2019), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO,https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/09/Amazon_River

Satellite Imagery of the Widest River in the World

Caitlin Dempsey

The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission captured this satellite image of the Amazon river that has been processed by the combining of two polarisations into one image.

How to View Animated Satellite Imagery of the California Wildfires

Caitlin Dempsey

Users can quickly make animations of the California wildfires using imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite.

Map of ocean heat content in the upper ocean (from the sea surface to a depth of 700 meters, or 2,300 feet) for 2017 relative to the 1993–2017 baseline. Source: NASA.

Ocean Warming is Driving the Wrong-Way Migration of Some Benthic Species

Caitlin Dempsey

Some benthic species are spawning earlier due to ocean warming.

Satellite imagery showing smoke from the California wildfires on September 2, 2020. Image: the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, public domain.

Smoke from the California Fires Over the Pacific Ocean

Caitlin Dempsey

NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of smoke from the August Complex fire and other fires burning in California as it blows out over the Pacific Ocean.

A clipped view of the north eastern coast area of the United States showing hex bins with blue gradient.

A Look at Where the GISPs Are

Caitlin Dempsey

A recently published study took at look at the geographic, gender, and career characteristics of those that are certified Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Professional (GISP).

Satellite imagery of the northwestern side of La Malinche volcano, Mexico. Image: NASA, public domain

What are Barrancas?

Caitlin Dempsey

One place to find barrancas is at the lower elevations of La Malinche volcano in central Mexico.

Hurricane Laura Made This River Flow Backwards Temporarily

Caitlin Dempsey

When Hurricane Laura came onshore near Texas and Louisiana, its winds were so strong that it pushed the waters of the River Neches backwards for about 12 hours.

Map A shows OpenStreetMap (OSM) building footprints overplayed onto an aerial. Map B shows predicted building footprint by area. The darker purple areas predict a high frequency of building footprints. The yellow overlay are the OSM building footprint layer. Source: Goldblatt, Jones, & Mannix, 2020, CC BY 4.0

Using Open Source Geospatial Tools to Find Missing Building Footprints

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers have developed a methodology that uses remote sensing measurements to predict completeness in coverage of building footprints in OpenStreetMap data.

Researchers have mapped out the ecological quality of tropical forests using satellite data.

Mapping Tropical Forest Quality from Satellite Data

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers have created high resolution maps of tropical forest quality using remotely sensed data from NASA satellites.

Screenshot from the City Guesser geography game.

Guess the City Based on Street Video

Caitlin Dempsey

City Guesser is an online geography game that uses audio and visual street video to provide hints about where in the world the city is located.

A picture of a fine art painting showing a man sitting down at his desk wearing a tan suit and his daughter standing next to him in a white dress.

The Geography Lesson (Portrait of Monsieur G. and His Daughter)

Caitlin Dempsey

The Geography Lesson is a fine art painting by French painter Louis-Léopold Boilly from 1812.

PurpleAir provides crowdsourced air quality measurements.

Track Real-Time Air Pollution With this Crowdsourced Map

Caitlin Dempsey

One way to track air quality at the local level is by visiting PurpleAir, an interactive map that pulls in crowdsourced data.

Screenshot of the OpenTopography map interface.

Find Open Sources of Elevation Data With OpenTopography

Caitlin Dempsey

OpenTopography is a portal that provides access to open sources of topographical datasets and processing tools.

The Atlantic Ocean in Acadia, Maine. Photo: NPS Photo/Kristi Rugg.

How Many Oceans are There in the World?

Caitlin Dempsey

The world is made up of: one global ocean, three major oceans, four historic oceans, and five world oceans.

A 1574 version of Humphrey Llwyd's 1573 map of Wales, Cambriae Typus. Map: National Library of Wales via MediaWiki Commons, public domain.

First Published Map of Wales

Caitlin Dempsey

Humphrey Llwyd developed the first map focused on Wales which was published in 1573.

Self-Guided QGIS Courses

Caitlin Dempsey

These six QGIS courses are available for free self-guided learning.

Google has added near real-time wildfire boundaries to its maps.

Google Adds Near Real-time Wildfire Boundaries to Search and Maps

Caitlin Dempsey

Google pulls data from NOAA's GOES satellites to map out wildfire boundaries.

ECOSTRESS temperature map shows the land surface temperatures throughout Los Angeles County on Aug. 14, 2020. Map: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mapping California’s Heatwave from Space

Caitlin Dempsey

NASA's Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment (ECOSTRESS) has been mapping temperatures across parts of California from space.

Map and graphs showing global distribution of mangrove loss and its drivers. From the study: "(a) The longitudinal distribution of total mangrove loss and the relative contribution of its primary drivers. Different colors represent unique drivers of mangrove loss. (b) The latitudinal distribution of total mangrove loss and the relative contribution of its primary drivers. (c‐g) Global distribution of mangrove loss and associated drivers from 2000 to 2016 at 1°×1° resolution, with the relative contribution (percentage) of primary drivers per continent: (c) North America, (d) South America, (e) Africa, (f) Asia, (g) Australia together with Oceania." Source: Goldberg et el., 2020. CC BY 4.0

Mapping the Causes of Mangrove Loss

Caitlin Dempsey

A joint NASA-USGS initiative has created the first worldwide map of the causes of change in mangrove habitats between 2000 and 2016.

Source: NASA, https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat/gallery/display/saa.html

South Atlantic Anomaly: A Growing Dent in the Earth’s Magnetic Field

Caitlin Dempsey

NASA is tracking a dent in the Earth's magnetic field.

Derecho moving across the Midwest. Image: NOAA, public domain.

Satellite Captures Derecho Moving Across the Midwest

Caitlin Dempsey

The GOES-East satellite captured a derecho over the U.S. Midwest on August 10, 2020.

Free Digital Geography Books

Caitlin Dempsey

Springer has over 60 open access digital geography books.

Yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse (Phyllotis xanthopygus rupestris). Photo: Marcial Quiroga-Carmona

The World’s Highest-Dwelling Mammal Found Atop of the World’s Second-Largest Active Volcano

Caitlin Dempsey

Scientists were able to document that the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse (Phyllotis xanthopygus rupestris) is the world's highest-dwelling mammal.

Blue are areas of high spatial accuracy while orange areas are less spatially accurate.

Esri Debuts New GIS Tools and Apps at the 2020 Annual User Conference

Caitlin Dempsey

The first two plenary sessions contained a lot of demonstrations by Esri staff featuring the new GIS tools and applications launching this year.

Interesting Geography Trivia About Japan

Caitlin Dempsey

Here are some interesting geography facts about Japan.