-------- Original Message -------- Subject: about JOGs of Indonesia Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:54:03 -0800 (PST) From: spatialista 97 <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Thanks very much for all responses to my previous message. =>You do not appear to be aware of your own county's mapping agency: Bakosurtanal, who produce high quality topographic coverage, at various scales, ranging form 1:250 000 to 1:25 000. I had batter explain the conditions in Indonesia first. There are two agencies that release topographic maps here, a civil service agency, Bakosurtanal (Coordinating Agency for Survey and Mapping), and Indonesian army topographic service (Dittop AD). Dittop AD, continues the production of AMS sheets of Indonesia and updates them. But most likely they produce the 1:50,000 scale ones only (while I’m looking for the 1:250,000 scale ones). They also expand the coverage of 1:50,000 scale series to include other areas that were not covered by the older AMS 1:50,000 scale sheets, although not finished yet. But tight procedures and restrictions make it hard for any local civilian to access them. Bakosurtanal produces the topographic maps of Indonesia at various scales (1:1,000,000, 1:250,000, 1:50,000, and 1:25,000). They cooperated with Dittop AD in the production of 1:50,000 series of Sumatra (the western island of Indonesia), and with private mapping companies for ot! her areas. But some areas have not been included in coverage of its 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 series yet. Unfortunately, Bakosurtanal 1:50,000 & 1:25,000 series, except 1:50,000 ones prepared in cooperation with Dittop AD, are bad sources of relief information. Most of its contour drawings don’t match the real relief at corresponding scales. The Dittop AD / AMS 1:50,000 ones have more relatively reliable contours. We can see it by comparing both versions of 1:50,000 scale covering the same areas. It seems that military disciplines have resulted in relatively accurate maps. Mistakes in geographical names positioning can also be found in Bakosurtanal sheets, especially in 1:25,000 ones. Those facts have made me doubt about the reliability of Bakosurtanal mapping products. So I choose to avoid relying on contour lines in their maps. When I heard about JOG (ground) series, I thought that these ones suited the map characteristics I needed. =>There is an issue of copyright and a few other sensitivities that have to be dealt with. =>The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly NIMA, DMA, and AMS) distributed some of the JOG's through our federal depository library program, with restrictions on photocopying, circulation,etc...those restrictions STILL apply to this day. Actually, I knew a little about these series. I even guess that these series were not produced by US and British agencies any more. Having seen some scans of Iraq JOGs and Kalimantan AMS sheets on internet, I thought that there were no copyright issues on these matters. I also hoped that no restrictions applied to JOGs like those applied to any geospatial data produced by Indonesian military agencies. The practice of freedom on information in western democratic countries had made me hope so. I tried to search for them through NGA and NIMA’s web sites, but I didn’t found what I needed. But the existence of Cartographic Users Advisory Council (CUAC) representative for NGA does interest me. Could anyone tell how to contact them? Since I don’t know much about JOGs, I have questions on them. What scales are these maps produced at? 1:250,000 only or not? Does the coverage include all lands of the world? Are the maps still produced today? I downloaded a JPEG file of JOGs of Indonesia index from an internet source. Could anyone share an index of Indonesia AMS sheets? i'm sorry for making other requests/questions. Thanks a lot for the answers. Amran Meteorological and Geophysical Agency Indonesia ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/virus/*http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail/static/protection.html> - Helps protect you from nasty viruses.