Mission GIS Engineer
Move GIS off the desktop and into the browser, real-time, and 3D. Build vector tile pipelines, deliver maps via Leaflet/MapLibre/OpenLayers, draw orbits on a CesiumJS globe, and stream live satellite positions over WebSockets. Capstone: a real-time satellite tracker web app on a 3D globe.
What you'll learn
- Compare Leaflet, MapLibre, and OpenLayers and pick the right one for a use case.
- Build a vector tile pipeline with tippecanoe and serve MBTiles via a tile server.
- Draw orbital tracks on a CesiumJS 3D globe.
- Stream live TLE updates over WebSockets and render moving satellites.
- Run multi-frame change detection over a raster time series.
Prerequisites
Remote Sensing Specialist track or equivalent. Comfortable with web technologies (HTML, JavaScript, basic React).
Tools you'll use
CesiumJS · MapLibre GL JS · tippecanoe · Socket.IO · scikit-image
Weekly curriculum (5 weeks)
- Week 16 Web mapping: Leaflet vs MapLibre vs OpenLayers
- Week 17 Vector tiles with tippecanoe and MBTiles
- Week 18 3D globes: CesiumJS and orbital visualization
- Week 19 Real-time GIS: WebSockets and streaming TLEs
- Week 20 Spatiotemporal change detection (Capstone 4 week) Capstone 4
Why this track matters from Hawaiʻi
Track 4 moves GIS from desktop to browser to 3D globe. You'll build live web maps (Leaflet, MapLibre), generate vector tiles at scale, animate orbits in Cesium, and stream real-time data over WebSockets. The Pacific Disaster Center on Maui runs a platform like this serving 90+ countries. PTWC streams tsunami alerts using this stack. PacIOOS at UH Mānoa publishes Pacific oceanographic data via similar APIs. Track 4 is the technology layer that makes geospatial work feel alive.
Capstone 4: Real-Time Satellite Tracker
Cesium globe + live ISS/Starlink + visible passes + 24h replay.
Build a Cesium-based web application that shows real-time positions of the ISS and a configurable Starlink shell on a 3D globe. The user supplies a latitude/longitude; the app shows the next 5 visible passes (elevation > 30°) at that location. Click any satellite to inspect orbital elements (TLE epoch, inclination, mean motion, period). A time slider lets the user replay the last 24 hours of positions.
Read full capstone brief →/academy/verify/{certId}/. Certificate issuance is included with LaunchDetect Gold ($9.99/month). The entire curriculum is free.