KML ... Three letters that are changing the future of Broadcast Meteorology

How we display the weather to our audience is rapidly changing. Exciting emerging technologies such as Google Earth and Virtual Earth are giving the broadcast meteorologist new tools of visualization beyond what is offered by the traditional vendors.

Files called kml or Keyhole Markup Language are powerful tools that are readily available on the internet to help the meteorologist be the station scientist. These files contain valuable weather information, as well as other scientific data such as current earthquakes, tsunamis, traffic, drought and flood areas, hurricane model plots, etc.

The CNN Weather Department has been using these tools to greatly enhance their weather presentations. This talk will show some examples of the day to day use of these files, by CNN Weather to relate weather, science, and news stories to viewers. The presentation will also look at other state of the art software, such as Flight Explorer, which plots airplane travel in real-time, and websites used by CNN Weather to help tell the weather story of the day, on both quite weather days, and days when weather is the news. This will also allow the meteorologist to add value to the news department in breaking news situations which may have little or nothing to do with weather.