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Robert Simmon

@rsimmon.bsky.social
6.4K followers 1.3K following 3.1K posts

Data Visualization. Ex-Planet & NASA Earth Observatory. Blue Marble, Earth at Night, color, cartography, occasionally skewed views of Earth. Looking for a job.

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Reposted by Robert Simmon
Mira Rojanasakul @rjnskl.bsky.social · 3h
really appreciating the amount of petty grievance there is in the geographic file format universe switchfromshapefile.org
A big red "no" sign on top of an icon that denotes a shapefile file format.
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Mika McKinnon @mikamckinnon.bsky.social · 5h
Our fault for installing a seismic station at a high school, really. Article: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/srl/arti... Signal from “At risk: Earthquake & Tsunami on the West Coast”
Photograph of a book page with a seismic signal. The rest of the page reads: “1 minute
The characteristic signature of an earthquake - a P wave followed by a higher-amplitude S wave - is clearly missing in the record at the top of this page, collected on January 11, 1996. This recording shows a series of irregular waves interrupted by periods of quiescence. The record came from a seismograph located on the grounds of the Port Alberni High School and was telemetred to the Pacific Geoscience Centre. Based upon his experience and the character of the recording, one of the seismic technicians thought that someone was trying to break into the concrete vault that housed the seismograph. He phoned the Port Alberni RcMP who promised to immediately investigate. A short time later, the technician received a return phone call reporting that a young couple was found in flagrante delicto on the roof of the seismic vault. To our knowledge, this is the world's only seismograph recording of an act of love.

This seismogram was recorded by a seismograph located in a vault on the grounds of the Port Alberni Secondary School on January 11, 1996. The repeated waxing and waning of energy and the lack of distinct P and S wave phases indicate that this event was not an earthquake. It was discovered that its cause was a young couple getting to know one another on the roof of the seismic vault.”
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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 10h
Wednesday El Niño update - The explanation for why SSTs are still at record high levels in the Niño 3.4 region is because of both climate change + El Niño. Far-reaching ENSO teleconnections are more dependent on temperature gradients, & relative SSTs are actually more similar to other strong events.
Line graph time series of daily sea surface temperature anomalies in the Nino3.4 region. Years are shown from 1982 to 2025 in shades of blue to light yellow, and 2026 is shown in red. Climatologically, the largest anomalies are during the boreal winter in terms of magnitude. Data is from OISSTv2.1. Map of September 28, 2026 average sea surface temperature anomalies in the ENSO monitoring regions. Data is from NOAA OISSTv2.1 with anomalies relative to a 1991-2020 baseline.Graphic showing the 2-week change in sea surface temperature anomalies across the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean from September 14, 2026 to September 28, 2026. Data is from NOAA OISSTv2.1Graphic showing the 4-week change in sea surface temperature anomalies across the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean from August 29, 2026 to September 28, 2026. Data is from NOAA OISSTv2.1
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
So discouraging to see a roundup of new visualization packages illustrated with an egregious rainbow palette. 🙃
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Sam Schwarzkopf @sampendu.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If you can spare ~20 min on an online study on perception & #mentalimagery please consider participating: #visionscience #psychscisky #neuroskyence tstbl.co/131-782
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The Map Center @mapcenter.com · 29/09/2026
Truly one of the all time great scale bars
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Alejandro Soto @soto.space · 29/09/2026
For anyone who loves flowers. science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-...
science.nasa.gov
Boom Year for Desert Blooms - NASA Science
Carpets of wildflowers burst from arid, ochre-colored land in Western Australia following winter rains.
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Ankit Panda @nktpnd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
www.nknews.org/pro/north-ko...
nknews.org
North Korea expanding uranium enrichment facility at Yongbyon: Imagery | NK PRO
North Korea has started expanding a uranium enrichment facility at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, according to NK Pro analysis of satellite imagery, following leader Kim Jong Un’s orders to “exponentia...
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Reposted by Robert Simmon
Simeon Schmauß @stim3on.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The JMC image is a stack of four exposures which drastically increased the dynamic range of the image. It wasn't trivial to pull off and the team had to come up with a new commanding strategy to capture the images with short enough interval. I'm glad they had so much patience with my photo ideas :)
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David S. F. Portree @dsfpspacefl1ght.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I think we need a new crewed lunar architecture - one that doesn't depend on Starship/Musk. Here's my favorite proposal from the past. It dates from 1993. LUNOX, international involvement, long traverses, and rapid evolution to an outpost. spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/sei-...
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The dire wolf exhibit at La Brea in Las Angeles (currently closed for renovation) is so great.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Gotta love deep-space probe views of Earth. A genre started by Galileo way back in 1990: science.nasa.gov/photojournal...
science.nasa.gov
Global Images of Earth - NASA Science
Global images of Earth from NASA's Galileo orbiter on December 11, 1999. In each frame, the continent of Antarctica is visible at the bottom of the globe.
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Shayan Sardarizadeh @shayan86.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Enhancing grainy images and videos with generative AI to identify key missing details often produces inaccurate and unreliable results. AI models have no reference as to what missing details in a grainy image/video look like, and often generate those details based on an incorrect guess.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
”licensing images of public-domain works “does not appear to be a present or future revenue scheme with potential for growth, and is actually a financial burden“” cc @attilabatorfy.bsky.social
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
With multiple satellites, the FireSat constellation will be able to detect fires shortly after ignition, and eventually monitor their progress over intervals as short as twenty minutes. This series of images shows the Big Grass fire over 48 hours, as it swept over the grassland of southwestern Idaho
Time series of satellite observations of the Big Grass fire in midwave infrared (top, burgundy) and thermal infrared (bottom, orange). The fire smouldered over a wide area on the first night, burned intensely on a narrow front 12 hours later, and slowly subsided over the course of the next 3 observations.
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Reposted by Robert Simmon
Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Must we still use psychedelic color schemes for hurricane satellite imagery? Here’s two quick alternates to the standard NOAA product (Band 14 — 11.2µm thermal infrared).
Satellite imagery of Hurricane NOLO shown black > blue > green > white. The structure is clear with some contrast in the coldest cloud tops.Satellite imagery of Hurricane NOLO shown black > purple > blue > green > white. The structure is clear with more contrast in the coldest cloud tops.Satellite imagery of Hurricane NOLO shown with grayscale augmented by a saturated rainbow palette. The core of the storm is emphasized over the outer bands. Extreme contrast in the transition between green and red gives the impression of a sharp transition that is not in the data.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Sugar
The platonic ideal of a rock band: guitar, drums, bass, two vocal mics.A stage with white lights and a punk rock band.A purple stage with the bad Sugar on it.Dave Barbe, Malcom Travis, and Bob Mould.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve cc @geographile.bsky.social
An assortment of volcanic rocks on display.Fog, bench, and vegetated ridgeline.Inside of an eroded and quarried volcano, with labyrinth.Fog, path, and microwave transmission tower.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Must we still use psychedelic color schemes for hurricane satellite imagery? Here’s two quick alternates to the standard NOAA product (Band 14 — 11.2µm thermal infrared).
Satellite imagery of Hurricane NOLO shown black > blue > green > white. The structure is clear with some contrast in the coldest cloud tops.Satellite imagery of Hurricane NOLO shown black > purple > blue > green > white. The structure is clear with more contrast in the coldest cloud tops.Satellite imagery of Hurricane NOLO shown with grayscale augmented by a saturated rainbow palette. The core of the storm is emphasized over the outer bands. Extreme contrast in the transition between green and red gives the impression of a sharp transition that is not in the data.
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Reposted by Robert Simmon
Bob Mould @bobmouldmusic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
We’re releasing the last remaining SUGAR tickets for this Saturday at the Warfield in SF. Hometown show for me—can’t wait!
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Re-created versions of Moses Harris’s color wheels (published in 1766!) by the always-delightful @rougeux.bsky.social www.c82.net/natural-colo... #color #dataviz
vintage color wheel of prismatic colors (red, yellow, blue).Vintage color wheel of compound colors (orange, purple, green).
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It’s been a quiet hurricane season in the Atlantic, while the Pacific has been unusually busy — with Hurricane Polo currently raging off Mexico’s west coast. What explains this unusual pattern? El Niño. Read more on @climate.us www.climate.us/news-feature... #climate #weather #hurricane
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New color tool for #dataviz just dropped: Phosphor by @jscarto.bsky.social This is my first crack at a palette, rendered in QGIS with compositing in Illustrator and Photoshop. You can download or modify the color sequence here: www.joshuastevens.net/phosphor/#c=...
Equal area map of Earth centered on the Americas. NDVI (vegetation) is shown in shades of green and beige. Darkest greens are the most heavily vegetated. Very light green and beige is barren rock, sand, or soil. Open ocean is blue, ice is gray, and there are dark gray graticules spaced every 15˚.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Last week, Earth Fire Alliance released first light images from the initial handful of FireSats. A constellation designed to monitor fire, globally, in near real time. earthfirealliance.org/news-article... The data are stunning, with 5 bands measuring 4 different wavelengths.
Three satellite images showing Dubbo, Australia in different wavelengths. The leftmost image is mostly green, revealing vegetation in a shortwave infrared, near infrared, and red light.

The second image is midwife infrared, colored dark red to light yellow. At this wavelength the image is a combination of emitted and reflected light, so the image reveals information about landscape composition. Urban areas and bare earth tend to be bright, dense vegetation and water dark.

The third image is thermal infrared, showing temperature from dark orange to light yellow. Vegetation tends to be cool, fields and sparse vegetation warmer.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New color tool for #dataviz just dropped: Phosphor by @jscarto.bsky.social This is my first crack at a palette, rendered in QGIS with compositing in Illustrator and Photoshop. You can download or modify the color sequence here: www.joshuastevens.net/phosphor/#c=...
Equal area map of Earth centered on the Americas. NDVI (vegetation) is shown in shades of green and beige. Darkest greens are the most heavily vegetated. Very light green and beige is barren rock, sand, or soil. Open ocean is blue, ice is gray, and there are dark gray graticules spaced every 15˚.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It’s been a quiet hurricane season in the Atlantic, while the Pacific has been unusually busy — with Hurricane Polo currently raging off Mexico’s west coast. What explains this unusual pattern? El Niño. Read more on @climate.us www.climate.us/news-feature... #climate #weather #hurricane
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Last week, Earth Fire Alliance released first light images from the initial handful of FireSats. A constellation designed to monitor fire, globally, in near real time. earthfirealliance.org/news-article... The data are stunning, with 5 bands measuring 4 different wavelengths.
Three satellite images showing Dubbo, Australia in different wavelengths. The leftmost image is mostly green, revealing vegetation in a shortwave infrared, near infrared, and red light.

The second image is midwife infrared, colored dark red to light yellow. At this wavelength the image is a combination of emitted and reflected light, so the image reveals information about landscape composition. Urban areas and bare earth tend to be bright, dense vegetation and water dark.

The third image is thermal infrared, showing temperature from dark orange to light yellow. Vegetation tends to be cool, fields and sparse vegetation warmer.
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Reposted by Robert Simmon
RJ Andrews @infowetrust.com · 24/09/2026
We wanted a staircase that could disappear. It needed four walls, rigid steps, and room for extravagant maps. Then it had to collapse flat and ship in an envelope. My latest for Chartography: www.chartography.net/p/a-world-of...
chartography.net
A World of Maps, Folded Flat
Turning the David Rumsey Map Center’s spectacular stairwell into a pop-up book.
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Climate.us @climate.us · 23/09/2026
Arctic sea ice likely reached its 2026 minimum on Sept. 12, tying for the 10th lowest in the satellite record. The long-term decline is clear, even though the trend has flattened since 2007. Scientists are studying why—and what it means. More: www.climate.us/news-feature... #ClimateWeekNYC
climate.us
Arctic sea ice 2026 summer minimum extent tied for 10th lowest
Arctic sea ice likely reached its annual minimum extent on September 12, 2026. At 4.60 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles), the 2026 minimum extent is statistically tied for tenth lo...
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I love the detail on some of these, even shadows!
Identification card for a Nachi-class cruiser. It features detailed drawings of the top and side of the ship, plus information on its guns and armor.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
“The plan is to put these data centers into what is called a sun-synchronous orbit, which means that Earth never passes between the satellites and the Sun.” Hmm … sun-synchronous orbits simply pass over the equator at the same time of day every orbit. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...
nytimes.com
Can Tech Companies Like Google Really Put Data Centers in Space? (Gift Article)
Google is preparing to launch a satellite that can run its A.I. technologies from the heavens. But this is just a first step.
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 24/09/2026
Breaking News: Google is planning to launch an experimental satellite into orbit in Big Tech’s first move toward A.I. data centers in space.
nyti.ms
Google Is Sending an A.I. Data Center to Outer Space
Next Thursday, Google is sending an experimental satellite into orbit that will have enough computing power to answer simple A.I. queries from space.
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Robbi Bishop-Taylor 🛰️🌏 @satellitesci.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's been a long time in the making, but our new #opensource paper has just been published in Remote Sensing of Environment! 🛰️🎉 "Time and tide: Mapping the changing 3D shape of Australia's dynamic intertidal zone using time series satellite data" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Scientific figure showing DEA Intertidal outputs
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Rush is a Band @rushisaband.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
www.instagram.com/p/Ddo2MZ3JRJp/
instagram.com
CBC Music on Instagram: "We asked @chilipeppers’ @chadsmithofficial to blind rank 5 @rush songs ahead of the premiere of the new documentary that pays tribute to Rush’s late drummer, Neil Peart. Neil...
12K likes, 173 comments - cbc_music on September 23, 2026: "We asked @chilipeppers’ @chadsmithofficial to blind rank 5 @rush songs ahead of the premiere of the new documentary that pays tribute to Rus...
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Very cool #dataviz touch
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John Wiseman @lemonodor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
??
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Daniel Schildt @autiomaa.org · 24/09/2026
Looking for a job at the moment. Previous experience with interface and interaction design, front-end development, software engineering, graphic design, photography, live audio engineering, etc. Living in Jyväskylä, Finland. Remote work preferred.
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Space Telescope Science Institute @stsci.edu · 23/09/2026
OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is seeking a Principal AWS Cloud Cybersecurity Automation & Systems (CACS) Engineer to join our team supporting NASA flagship space telescope missions that are transforming our understanding of the universe: bit.ly/4hajDmP
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
mood: youtu.be/w434qhNJMdw?...
youtu.be
Jean-Michel Jarre - Magnetic Fields, Pt. 2
YouTube video by JeanMichelJarreVEVO
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Happy fall (or spring, depending)!
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Huub Eggen @huubeggen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Aurora over Canada, imaged by astronaut Anil Menon from space station #ISS on 8 September 2026, from over southeastern Ontario, between Sudbury and North Bay, looking north. Original eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos... @daveatcogs.bsky.social
The image shows a large field of green aurora, with green, red and purple streamers over the curved horizon of Earth. In th distance a small band of light from the Sun, which was very low below the horizon, is visible. In that direction the purple streamers show up, a common feature when sunlight shines on aurora. Sometimes aurora even turns blue in those circumstances. In the upper part of the image the blackness of space is visible, with the Moon at upper right.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Happy fall (or spring, depending)!
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I should probably post this once a year or so. @visualisingdata.com on visualizing the many types of zero. #dataviz youtu.be/JqzAuqNPYVM?...
youtu.be
Andy Kirk - The Design of Nothing: Null, Zero, Blank
YouTube video by BocoupLLC
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Are y’all tired of me critiquing the rainbow palette? ’cause there’s currently a major cyclone just off the Pacific coast of Central America and the visualization is … not great.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Maps of magnetic fields!
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I think this breaks the record for smallest #earthquake I’ve ever felt: M1.4 about 1.5 miles from my house. earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...
earthquake.usgs.gov
The Earthquake Event Page application supports most recent browsers, view supported browsers. Or, try our Real-time Notifications, Feeds, and Web Services.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
My local bakery/cafe, in addition to excellent espresso, has excellent taste in music. The Postal Service followed by Silversun Pickups! 🎸🤘
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Information is Beautiful @infobeautiful.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
% of world population with colour-blindness: Deuteranomaly (green-weak) 4.6% Deuteranopia (green-blind) 1.3% Protoanomaly (red-weak) 1% Protanopia (red-blind) 1% Tritanopia (blue-blind) ~rare This condition affects 1 in 12 men, 1 in 200 women, so more than 350m worldwide. 1 in 22 people.
Four images of tomatoes showing how different types of color blindness affect vision: normal, deuteranomaly, protanopia, and tritanopia. Each image displays varied tomato colors and sizes.
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Alejandro Soto @soto.space · 18/09/2026
This slowly moving disaster is getting terrifying. science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-...
science.nasa.gov
Lake Powell Drops to Record-Low Levels - NASA Science
Snow drought and unusually warm temperatures in the Colorado Basin in 2026 helped drive down reservoir water storage in the U.S. West.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Here’s the best view of an aurora I’ve ever seen (and that includes watching a solar storm from a Fairbanks snow bank).
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