Chen, A., Leptoukh, G., Kempler, S., Nadeau, D. and Zhang, X. 2008. Augmenting the Research Value of Geospatial Data using Google Earth. In: (Ed.) Declan De Paor, Google Earth Science, Journal of the Virtual Explorer, Electronic Edition, ISSN 1441-8142, volume 29, paper 1, doi:10.3809/jvirtex.2008.00194
Augmenting the Research Value of Geospatial Data using Google Earth
Abstract
In order to augment the research and public outreach value of NASA Earth Science data, the Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Center (GES DISC) uses Google Earth as one of its geospatial visualization methods. Google Earth supports both two-dimensional flat data and three-dimensional data which include the vertical dimension in the atmosphere. Possible general solutions to visualizing these kinds of scientific data are proposed and illustrated in details. Several results derived from the GES-DISC Interactive Online Visualization ANd aNalysis Infrastructure (Giovanni) have been rendered in Google Earth. A new method is proposed here using vertical satellite data to render vertical orbit curtains in Google Earth. This capability improves awareness of NASA scientific data among Google Earth users, including the general public. The availability of multiple scientific results in Google Earth enables easy and convenient synergistic research on a virtual platform, advancing collaborative and globalized scientific research.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- NASA GES Satellite Data
- Data organization, serving and visualization in Google Earth
- GES DISC Data Processing
- Processing geospatial vertical data
- Scientific research of synergistic analysis and application in Google Earth
- Related research and discussion
- Conclusions and future work
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- References