Google Earth:A Public Meeting Place for Diverse Earth System Data

Glenn Richard,Stony Brook University

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

What’s good about Google Earth?

1. Easy to use

2. Lots of data

3. Base map always there

4. Large user community

What’s bad about Google Earth?

1. Lacks the analytical ability of a GISTank farm in New Jersey

Some Geometries of GE Data• Placemarks ~ESRI points• Paths ~ESRI polylines• Polygons ~ ESRI polygons• Ground Overlays ~ESRI rasters• Screen Overlays - Usually serves as a legend• Photo Overlays• 3D Models

Eiffel Tower 3D Model created by Google in Google Sketchup

KML – Keyhole Markup Language

<Placemark> <name>Beowawe Power Plant</name> <description><![CDATA[<p>Beowawe Power Plant</p><p><a href="http://geoheat.oit.edu/directuse/all/dup0432.htm">Summary Statistics</a> </p>]]></description> <LookAt> <longitude>-116.6180078756207</longitude> <latitude>40.55517650229375</latitude> <altitude>0</altitude> <range>226.1473943623671</range> <tilt>2.210892478024477e-011</tilt> <heading>0.9500232593827314</heading> <altitudeMode>relativeToGround</altitudeMode> </LookAt> <styleUrl>#msn_geothermal</styleUrl> <Point> <coordinates>-116.6172302139466,40.55490949500392,0</coordinates> </Point> </Placemark>

Placemarks

Geothermal Power Facilities placemarks by GAR

Links to summary statistics from Geo-Heat Center

Helicopter Flight – October 4, 2006

Study of tidal wetlands on South Shore of Long Island

Oblique aerial photos geotagged, using GPS and EXIF time data

GE Pro can read GPX format

Paths

Data from http://www.unr.edu/Geothermal/datalist.html

Quaternary fault data from Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy

Vertical exaggeration of terrain layer set to 3.0

View tilted at 74o from vertical

Polygons

Volcanic Ash Beds:

Georeferenced original map image in ArcGIS

Digitized ash bed boundaries as ESRI shapefile

Opened shapefile in Google Earth, saved it as KMZ

Original map from http://www.solcomhouse.com/yellowstone.htm

Original map

Ground Overlays

Geothermal favorability overlay from the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy

Strain rate Models for Southern California

Map overlays for southern California topography and faults 2.5 million years ago, 1 million years ago, and at present, displayed on Google Earth, using a North American reference frame.

<Document><name>Faults 1,000,000 YBP</name><TimeSpan id=“1,000,000_copy0">

<begin>-1000000</begin><end>-500000</end>

</TimeSpan>…

From “Map Tools for EarthScope Science and Education”

Funded by NSF

Measuring Things

Using the Google Earth ruler to determine the length of the Garlock Fault from its eastern end to Tehachapi (203.50 kilometers), and the displacement of the fault trace that has occurred between 1 million years ago and now in the vicinity of Tehachapi (8.79 kilometers).

Timespan of visibility

Geotagged Photography and Video

Panoramio GigapixlGigapanYouTube

Gigapixl: Half Dome

<Camera> <longitude>-119.563980631603</longitude> <latitude>37.7368192419472</latitude> <altitude>944.111136843754</altitude> <heading>49.3460456808784</heading> <tilt>84.6781418208252</tilt> <roll>-2.30590214406105e-014</roll> <range>3862.06629851875</range></Camera>

Panoramio: Mono Lake Sunrise

YouTube video: Old Faithful

Gigapan <PhotoOverlay>s<PhotoOverlay id="gigapan_7_copy0"> <name>Kaibab Trail (Grand Canyon)</name> <Snippet maxLines="1"><![CDATA[<a href="#gigapan_7">Enter panorama</a>]]></Snippet> <description><![CDATA[<div align="center">

<Camera> <longitude>-112.091274</longitude> <latitude>36.095424</latitude> <altitude>35</altitude> <heading>276</heading> <tilt>90</tilt> <roll>-1</roll> </Camera> <styleUrl>#panoramaStyle</styleUrl> <Icon> <href>http://gigapan.org/getGeTile.php?id=7&amp;l=$[level]&amp;r=$[y]&amp;c=$[x]</href> </Icon> <rotation>-1</rotation> <ViewVolume> <leftFov>-64.2512</leftFov> <rightFov>64.2512</rightFov> <bottomFov>-26</bottomFov> <topFov>16.7751</topFov> <near>69</near> </ViewVolume> <ImagePyramid> <maxWidth>26857</maxWidth> <maxHeight>8940</maxHeight> <gridOrigin>upperLeft</gridOrigin> </ImagePyramid> <Point> <coordinates>-112.091274,36.09542400000001,0</coordinates> </Point> <shape>sphere</shape> </PhotoOverlay>

Gigapan: Kaibab Trail – Grand Canyon

Can rotate the camera’s viewpoint through the scene

gigapan.org

Google Earth Provs

Google Earth Free

Google Earth Pro can open:• GPS Data (GPX format)• ESRI Shapefiles (.shp)

• Also, better print quality for images

From Google Earth Pro, save the .shp or GPX data in KMZ format, so Google Earth Free users can open it

Tours

Start and stop tour through selected object (Folder, for example)

If folder contains a collection of placemarks, user will fly to the specified view for each one, in sequence.

New York Landscape Regions in Google Earth

http://www.bedford.k12.ny.us/flhs/science/geoscience/skluge/dlesege/

Google Earth offers a quick means of obtaining aerial imagery for a GIS.

Can capture images from Google Earth, and use the gridded image to georeference the non-gridded image.

The GridFlax Pond Tidal Marsh, Long Island

Learning about Google Earth: KML Gallery

Hurricane Katrina with Time Data

by Brian Flood

Google Earth Community Forums

Source of ideas and data

Forum for educators

The Geobrowsers Session at AGU 2007:Oral and Interactive Poster Presentations

Look for another Geobrowsers session at AGU 2008

From Declan DePaor: Embedding Collada Models in Geobrowser Visualizations: a Powerful Tool for Geological Research and Teaching

From Jesse D. Varner: Historical Natural Hazards Data in Google Earth

Where should we go from here?

Promote the practice of using Google Earth to foster an integrated Earth system perspective.

Need to:

• Identify useful existing datasets

• Develop new datasets, where needed

• Identify existing “best practices” in education

• Develop new educational materials

• Continue to use other tools