This is a scratch page containing many of my attempts at gigapixel panoramas.

My spherical panoramas can be found at http://arctic.360cities.net or here in Google Earth (requires latest viewer) http://arctic.360cities.net/ge.kml. You can find a blog about this trip these photos were taken on here. You can find some insights into my views on the scientific value of high resolution panoramic photographs in this interview or in this paper. You can find airphotos here.

Click on the images or text below to see it at full resolution using Microsoft's HDview (you will be prompted to download it and it only works on Windows PCs). A mouse with a scroll wheel is the best way to navigate, but with keyboard only you can use the arrow keys and + and - to zoom in and out, or use a regular mouse and left-click to zoom in and shift-left-click to zoom out.

Note that I consider all of these images to be a shake-down and learning experience for the techniques, most have flaws which cannot be fixed, but I share them because they are still valuable both scientifically and for outreach.

25 July 07 22:30 We camped near this spot at the start of our hike and I really liked the view, especially the way the tundra foothills seemed to be aerodynamically advancing from right to left.
Shooting notes: 7 portrait shots at 170mm, f/5.7, 1/50s, ISO100. Image: 53 megapixels (12615x4202)

26 July 07 13:06 This was my first attempt at a cylindrical high resolution panorama. It's probably my favorite of all of them compositionally, and probably my best aquisition, as I seemed to get the focus and NPP mostly right, leaving only very minor stitching artifacts which I can clean up later. I took this one with future erosion of the bluff due to river migration in mind.
Shooting notes: 64 (2 rows of 32) portrait shots at 50mm, f/13, 1/100s, ISO100. Image: 38.4 megapixels (56320x6834)

28 July 07 20:46 This was my first attempt at a high resolution vegetation survey. The white square is used to count vegetation abudance and type within a 1 m2 area. This image suffers from using autofocus, and numerous places can be found in the forefield where the depth of field is too narrow; there is also a bit of motion blur by using too slow of a shutter speed. This was one of my earliest stitching attempts, and is not at full resolution.
Shooting notes: 174 (6 rows of 29) portrait shots at 52mm, f/6.3, 1/40s, ISO200. Image: 460 megapixels (30720x15000)

29 July 07 13:54 This small grove of willows has a bi-modal height distribution of leaves. The first level is at snow pack height, the second level starts about a ptarmigan's height above that. This was both one of my earliest cylindrical panoramas and stitches. It came out pretty well, but there is still some cleanup to do.
Shooting notes: 23 portrait shots at 36mm, f/13, 1/50s, ISO160. Image: 201 megapixels (41984x4810)

29 July 07 20:31. My approach at this point was to take a low resolution spherical image at each photo site, then select one section of each valley wall to do a higher resolution study. This comprimise allowed us to move more quickly, but still capture a lot of information. The foreground here has some serious autofocus glitches, but the far side of the valley is in pretty good shape, so some cropping and CA correction would turn this into a pretty good image. With a little sharper lens (or a faster shutter speed...) you could almost do lichenometry with this one.
Shooting notes: 54 (6 rows of 9) portrait shots at 150mm, f/11, 1/25s, ISO200. Image: 284 megapixels (12932x21978)

29 July 07 20:52 Obviously we camped here for the night. I took several panoramas from this spot, including the one above this one. I had the idea that in terms of speed and efficiency, a possible approach would be to do a low-resolution fisheye spherical to start with, then pick some regions within the scene to study in more detail. This one turned out OK, but suffers from a few autofocus mishaps and minor stitching errors.
Shooting notes: 20 (4 rows of 5) portrait shots at 150mm, f/11, 1/40s, ISO200. Image: 160 megapixels (11508x14081)

30 July 07 13:57 We stopped here for lunch. I think this will be a neat one to see change over time. The image suffers from the typical problems of using autofocus, but not horribly. Looks like I also forgot to correct for CA before stitching.
Shooting notes: 20 (4 rows of 5) portrait shots at 135mm, f/8, 1/125s, ISO200. Image: 140 megapixels (9980x13711)

31 July 07 08:40. There are a few focus glitches in this one, but its still in good shape overall. Given the contrast in stable vs unstable rock, I think it will be quite easily to identify the rate of landslides here with a comparison image 25 years from now.
Shooting notes: 24 (4 rows of 6) shots at150mm, f/11, 1/60s, ISO200. Image: 200 megapixels (14113x14170)

31 July 07 14:45 We stopped for lunch not far from here, down by the river. I really like this image, but it unfortunately suffers not only from using autofocus but worse from using too slow a shutter speed, resulting in substantial motion blur. If you look closely on the left side, you can find an old weather station from the 1970s, where the blur is readily seen. Still, if you only zoom in half way or so, it's not so noticeable.
Shooting notes: 72 (9 rows of 8) landscape shots at 150mm, f/7.1, 1/50s, ISO100. Image: 0.76 gigapixels (28563x26705)

05 August 07 09:52 This was the first gigapixel image I tried to stitch. Boy did I start with the wrong one. Not only is it huge, but it was quite ornery in stitching. Fortunately, the acquisition itself was very good, among the best, with only a few minor focus issues. The light changed a bit during acquisition, but this is something that can be adjusted when I stitch the final version. This image is only at one quarter resolution. It is a repeat of the oldest known photo of a Brooks Range glacier, you can read about that here.
Shooting notes: 504 (12 rows of 42) portrait shots at 200mm, f/7.1, 1/100s, ISO100. Image: 1.3 gigapixels (48200x26614)

08 August 07 14:36 This is the Hanging Glacier, which used to descend to the level of McCall Glacier 100 hundred years ago. On top of this moraine you can find a hut, built about 1970 on a platform leftover from 1957. This moraine is ice cored and highly unstable, and perhaps one of the most dangerous locations to walk in the area as these rocks are quite loose. This acquisition was pretty good, there were no major focus issues, only a bit of an issue with a cloud that passed in front of the scene during the acquisition. This stitch was a bit ornery, but I was able to get most of it pretty well aligned; I stitched from the bottom row up and got lazy towards the end so the artifacts increase towards the top, but can be eliminated utlimately.
Shooting notes: 264 (8 rows of 33) portrait shots at 150mm, f/18, 1/60s, ISO100. Image: 1.4 gigapixels (65336x20969)

08 August 07 16:41 This image is a repeat of a 1958 shot, which can be seen lying on the ground on the right. At the time of the original image, McCall Glacier was higher than the moraine in the foreground and Hanging Glacier was much further extended. The lake here was created by the moraine on the opposite of it, a few hundred years ago during the last advancing stage of the glacier.
Shooting notes: 31 (3 rows of 10 plus zenith) portrait shots at 18mm, f/13, 1/50s, ISO100. Image: 220 megapixels (21504x10318)

09 Aug 07 12:56 Taken at an old survey monument and old photo site, this image was taken on our way up to the top of Mt Suki on the right, where we had another panorama to repeat. I'm not sure why I didnt complete the upper row, I think because at the time I didnt figure I could stitch the sky and I had already taken too much time setting this one up. I was clearly getting better at this by now, and there are very few acquisition or stitching artifacts, and given the dynamic range of the scene I think was captured pretty well even at 8 bit. The major issue was sensor dust, and I gave up after several hours of editing this out so numerous splotches can still be found. This is also a very interesting image glaciologically, as one can trace the location of former ice patches on the hillsides and how they are shrinking. If you look close, you can find 4 people in this image (not including the top of my head), as well as numerous survey stakes and weather stations.
Shooting notes: 385 (6 rows of 63 plus partial row) portrait shots at 150mm, f/20, 1/60s, ISO100. Image: 2.3 gigapixels (104187x22018)

10 August 07 20:58 I really like this image, even though it suffers from a few stitching issues (which hopefully can be resolved). Most of the rock on the ridge separate the upper and middle cirques was covered by ice 50 years ago and most of the rock now exposed on the mountain at center was covered by ice 30 years ago. If you look at the top of this snow dome on the right side, you can see rock exposed just this summer (you can also see a major stitching glitch just below it...). Numerous survey stakes can also be seen here. The first person to send me screenshots of the 5 that I can see gets a beer.
Shooting notes: 210 (7 rows of 30) portrait shots at 200mm, f/13, 1/100s, ISO100. Image: 1.2 gigapixels (61696x19244)

11 August 07 15:37 This is a repeat of a shot I made a few days earlier, this time without the clouds obscurring Hanging Glacier.
Shooting notes: 34 (3 rows of 11 plus zenith) portrait shots at 18mm, f/20, 1/50s, ISO100. Image: 200 megapixels (21504x9250)

12 August 07 18:35 This was my last gigapixel of the trip. It's a little unfortunate that there are some focus and motion blur issues, but most of it came out pretty well. Mt Hubley used to have much more ice on it, and you can see the process of melt here in action, even near the cornices on top. Our ski-way for fixed wing operations is located directly across the valley here, near the base of Mt Hubley. You can make out several sets of refrozen crevasses here, leftover from icefalls that no longer exist due to thinning ice.
Shooting notes: 133 (7 rows of 19) portrait shots at 150mm, f/11, 1/50s, ISO100. Image: 1.94 gigapixels (60008x32394)