Extended Abstract (976K)9B.7
Visualization of meteorological satellite data in Google Earth
Thomas J. Kleespies, NOAA/NESDIS, Camp Springs, MD
Google Earth is an innovative free browser that permits an explorer or scientist to view a vast collection of aircraft and satellite imagery of the Earth. Like any browser, Google Earth can be programmed by using a markup language, in this case the Keyhole Markup Language (KML). KML permits a user to specify place marks and identifying points on the earth, script tours of selected sites on the earth, and to place image overlays on the earth and the screen. A very powerful feature is the ability to create polygons at altitude which can be extruded to the surface, and even produce three dimensional structures. All of these can be published to the web as long as the user has the Google Earth server software. Several environmental satellite applications of Google Earth have been explored, which include visualization of AMSU inhomogeneous footprints over land and coastlines, visualization of three dimensional atmospheric structure by vertically stacked AMSU fields of view, and animation of hurricane Katrina imagery as viewed from arbitrary perspectives. Of great importance for climate studies, Google Earth permits examination of the validity of the Amazon rainforest and Libyan desert for microwave and visible vicarious calibration sources. These and other applications will be shown in this paper.
Session 9B, Virtual Globe (Continued)
Thursday, 24 January 2008, 3:30 PM-5:30 PM, 207
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