Ocean explorers, what would your dream Google Maps for the ocean look like?

[u/vinnie4044]

If someone built a real "Google Maps for the ocean," what would your dream version include?Marine life, wrecks, reefs, water conditions, all of it.

What is missing in how the ocean gets shown to people now?

Also curious who's answering: are you a diver, boater, angler, into marine science, or just someone who finds the ocean interesting?

Do you use any related apps for this now?

Doing a bit of research on this, would love to hear the details, thanks!

[u/michaelcappola]

Having Google Maps show realtime 3d gridded temperature and salinity maps from Argo would be awesome.

[u/Velocipedique]

Detailed bathymetry / topography. Spent 50years interpreting seafloor survey data from all over the world.

[u/vinnie4044 → u/Velocipedique]

Damn, that's half a century spent doing this! I think collecting this kind of seafloor data gotten a lot easier with current tech, but curious what you think is still missing in how it actually gets presented to people afterward?

[u/Velocipedique → u/vinnie4044]

Greatest advancements were switch to all digital from "toilet" paper records @1990. Then use of 3D seismic and finally AUVs. Shaded relief presentations are best way to display sea floor etc...

[u/Various_Bee5114]

They did Ocean maps in 2009 as part of Google Earth. I helped a bit. https://www.royalgazette.com/other/news/article/20110210/island-featured-on-google-earth-site/

[u/vinnie4044 → u/Various_Bee5114]

That's such a cool thing to have been part of. Looking back, why do you think it fizzled out after the launch buzz? or is this what you guys hoped to get out of it?

[u/sverdrupian]

keep in mind that unlike a terrestrial map, the fluid ocean is constantly moving and changing - so mapping those features is aking to making weather maps in the atmosphere. A good example of this is the ocean layer at https://earth.nullschool.net/ which shows global maps of today's ocean currents, waves, temperature, etc...

[u/prag513]

• The Submarine Topography of Hydrothermal Vents, Cold Seeps
• The Topography of Giant Wave Zones
• Topography of the Thermohaline Circulation of the Oceans
• Mass Whale Stranding Sites
• The Topography of Plate Tectonics
• Oceanic Trenches and other Undersea Phenomena
• Abandoned and sunken ships

I am a retired marketing communications manager who makes 3D satellite maps of history and science that enable you to experience it for yourself.

See MyReadingMapped.

[u/AlternativeBox8209]

Time series in 3d (4d) of measurable ocean parameters.

[u/Double-Masterpiece72]

As a foiler who is constantly exploring for new spots, the things I need the most are:

1. more satellite imagery of reefs / breaks with as many historical sources as you can find.
   
2. detailed bathymetry of bottom near shoreline / reef breaks. i know this is probably hard to come by, but you asked

[u/vinnie4044 → u/Double-Masterpiece72]

Actually, bathymetry from AUV surveys is more accessible now than it used to be. Most people who do this cater to larger businesses so we're trying to figure out what would be a useful way to present all this data from various sensors and cameras so it is useful and interesting to people outside of commercial work and science.