Can you spot the differences between these two images?
These are satellite images of Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier. The left was taken in summer 1984, and the right was from summer 2023. Snow and ice are blue in these false-colour images, which blend infrared and visible wavelengths to differentiate areas of ice, rock and vegetation. They are available at NASA Earth Observatory, just one of the free online map resources showcased at our Guide to Digital / Online Mapping Products.
Interested in learning more about an area of Australia’s geology, environment or infrastructure? There are a variety of Australian maps available, for example National Map, an online mapping tool that allows you to create your own maps of Australia’s diverse regions, combining datasets of interest to you to tailor the map to your needs. You can also view changes to the landscape over time. Other Australian resources include Nearmap, which contains high quality aerial photo maps of Australian cities and some regional areas, updated regularly.
If you’re looking for local maps, explore the resources available under Brisbane maps. These include land, property and assets information about local Brisbane areas, neighborhood and infrastructure plan maps, and Brisbane city flood awareness maps, which use computer models to indicate possible future flood extents.
Historical mapping tools such as Decolonising Historical Maps provide information on trading paths and Songlines, land use patterns and languages of Indigenous Australian cultures.
Venture further afield and explore the universe with our compilation of Astronomical maps. You can view the Hubble Skymap, and learn more about galaxies, stars, nebulae and planets, or TheSkylive, which allows you to enter your location to view a map of constellations and objects visible on any given night. You can also view the universe in three dimensions at The Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
There are a range of other maps to discover including Geological maps, Climate Maps, Ecological Maps, and Oceanographic maps.
We have also compiled a range of freely available mapping software you can download to use on your desktop or device.
