The National Geographic society was established in the year 1888 and since its inception has encouraged the study of geography in students. To promote and inculcate interest in geography, the society has with time adopted new media of propagation. Besides live media, with the proliferating growth of the Internet, it has become easy to reach out to a larger populace.
To accomplish the mission, the organization publishes the National Geographic Magazine, media products such as films and on-line maps and other school products like bulletins, books and atlases. These products are available in various languages and can be accessed by people around the world. The society has lately developed the MapMachine powered by the ESRI, which is one of the leading GIS technologies of the world. The MapMachine of National Geographic comprises of a collection of maps that are easily available on the searchable database. Some of the maps available on-line are listed below:
Interactive Climate Change Map: These maps display the current warming trends, heat waves and sea levels at different places of the world.
Prehistoric Maps and Time Line: These maps depict the planet in the prehistoric times.
Country Profiles: This section includes maps and articles on the different countries of the world.
Aerial imagery and satellite maps of planet Mars are also available at the National Geographic website. The portal has introduced the MapMachine Students Edition which allows the user to search the atlas in three convenient ways. One can select the theme, region or the keyword to search for the available on-line maps.
With a mission of promoting conservation of natural environment by inspiring the people of the world with new and modern media, National Geographic functions as one of the largest non profiting educational institutions of the world. Natural science, archeology and geography are some of the scientific fields of interest of the society.
