IN44A-01
Geospatial Visualization of Scientific Data Through Keyhole Markup Language
The development of virtual globes has provided a fun and innovative tool for exploring the surface of the
Earth. However, it has been the paralleling maturation of Keyhole Markup Language (KML) that has created
a new medium and perspective through which to visualize scientific datasets. Originally created by Keyhole
Inc., and then acquired by Google in 2004, in 2007 KML was given over to the Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC). It became an OGC international standard on 14 April 2008, and has subsequently been adopted by
all major geobrowser developers (e.g., Google, Microsoft, ESRI, NASA) and many smaller ones (e.g.,
Earthbrowser). By making KML a standard at a relatively young stage in its evolution, developers of the
language are seeking to avoid the issues that plagued the early World Wide Web and development of
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
The popularity and utility of Google Earth, in particular, has been enhanced by KML features such as the
Smithsonian volcano layer and the dynamic weather layers. Through KML, users can view real-time
earthquake locations (USGS), view animations of polar sea-ice coverage (NSIDC), or read about the daily
activities of chimpanzees (Jane Goodall Institute). Perhaps even more powerful is the fact that any users can
create, edit, and share their own KML, with no or relatively little knowledge of manipulating computer code.
We present an overview of the best current scientific uses of KML and a guide to how scientists can learn to
use KML themselves.
http://code.google.com/apis/kml/
IN44A-02
Digital Geologic Mapping and Integration with the Geoweb: The Death Knell for Exclusively Paper Geologic Maps
The combination of traditional methods of geologic mapping with rapidly developing web-based geospatial applications ('the geoweb') and the various collaborative opportunities of web 2.0 have the potential to change the nature, value, and relevance of geologic maps and related field studies. Parallel advances in basic GPS technology, digital photography, and related integrative applications provide practicing geologic mappers with greatly enhanced methods for collecting, visualizing, interpreting, and disseminating geologic information. Even a cursory application of available tools can make field and office work more enriching and efficient; whereas more advanced and systematic applications provide new avenues for collaboration, outreach, and public education. Moreover, they ensure a much broader audience among an immense number of internet savvy end-users with very specific expectations for geospatial data availability. Perplexingly, the geologic community as a whole is not fully exploring this opportunity despite the inevitable revolution in portends. The slow acceptance follows a broad generational trend wherein seasoned professionals are lagging behind geology students and recent graduates in their grasp of and interest in the capabilities of the geoweb and web 2.0 types of applications. Possible explanations for this include: fear of the unknown, fear of learning curve, lack of interest, lack of academic/professional incentive, and (hopefully not) reluctance toward open collaboration. Although some aspects of the expanding geoweb are cloaked in arcane computer code, others are extremely simple to understand and use. A particularly obvious and simple application to enhance any field study is photo geotagging, the digital documentation of the locations of key outcrops, illustrative vistas, and particularly complicated geologic field relations. Viewing geotagged photos in their appropriate context on a virtual globe with high-resolution imagery can be an extremely useful accompaniment to compilation of field mapping efforts. It can also complement published geologic maps by vastly improving their comprehensibility when field photos, and specific notes can be viewed interactively with them. Other useful applications include GPS tracking/documentation of field traverses; invoking multiple geologic layers; 3-D visualizations of terrain and structure; and online collaboration with colleagues via blogs or wikis. Additional steps towards collaborative geologic mapping on the web may also enhance efficient and open sharing of data and ideas. Geologists are well aware that paper geologic maps can convey tremendous amounts of information. Digital geologic maps linked via a virtual globe with field data, diverse imagery, historical photographs, explanatory diagrams, and 3-D models convey a much greater amount of information and can provide a much richer context for comprehension and interpretation. They can also serve as an efficient, entertaining, and potentially compelling mechanism for fostering inspiration in the minds of budding (and aging) geologists.
IN44A-03
A Knowledge Portal and Collaboration Environment for the Earth Sciences
Earth Knowledge is developing a web-based 'Knowledge Portal and Collaboration
Environment' that will serve as the information-technology-based foundation of a
modular Internet-based Earth-Systems Monitoring, Analysis, and Management Tool. This
'Knowledge Portal' is essentially a 'mash-
up' of web-based and client-based tools and services that support on-line
collaboration, community discussion, and broad public dissemination of earth and environmental science
information in a wide-area distributed network.
In contrast to specialized knowledge-management or geographic-information systems developed for long-
term and incremental scientific analysis, this system will exploit familiar software tools using industry standard
protocols, formats, and APIs to discover, process, fuse, and visualize existing environmental datasets using
Google Earth and Google Maps.
An early form of these tools and services is being used by Earth Knowledge to facilitate the investigations
and conversations of scientists, resource managers, and citizen-stakeholders addressing water resource
sustainability issues in the Great Basin region of the desert southwestern United States. These ongoing
projects will serve as use cases for the further development of this information-technology infrastructure.
This 'Knowledge Portal' will accelerate the deployment of Earth-
system data and information into an operational knowledge management system that may be used by
decision-makers concerned with stewardship of water resources in the American Desert Southwest.
http://www.earthknowledge.net
IN44A-04
Authoring Tours of Geospatial Data With KML and Google Earth
As virtual globes become widely adopted by the general public, the use of geospatial data has expanded greatly. With the popularization of Google Earth and other platforms, GIS systems have become virtual reality platforms. Using these platforms, a casual user can easily explore the world, browse massive data-sets, create powerful 3D visualizations, and share those visualizations with millions of people using the KML language. This technology has raised the bar for professionals and academics alike. It is now expected that studies and projects will be accompanied by compelling, high-quality visualizations. In this new landscape, a presentation of geospatial data can be the most effective form of advertisement for a project: engaging both the general public and the scientific community in a unified interactive experience. On the other hand, merely dumping a dataset into a virtual globe can be a disorienting, alienating experience for many users. To create an effective, far-reaching presentation, an author must take care to make their data approachable to a wide variety of users with varying knowledge of the subject matter, expertise in virtual globes, and attention spans. To that end, we present techniques for creating self-guided interactive tours of data represented in KML and visualized in Google Earth. Using these methods, we provide the ability to move the camera through the world while dynamically varying the content, style, and visibility of the displayed data. Such tours can automatically guide users through massive, complex datasets: engaging a broad user-base, and conveying subtle concepts that aren't immediately apparent when viewing the raw data. To the casual user these techniques result in an extremely compelling experience similar to watching video. Unlike video though, these techniques maintain the rich interactive environment provided by the virtual globe, allowing users to explore the data in detail and to add other data sources to the presentation.
IN44A-05
How Would You Move Mount Fuji - And Why Would You Want To?
According to author William Poundstone, "How Would You Move Mt Fuji?" typifies the kind of question that corporations such as Microsoft are wont to ask job applicants in order to test their lateral thinking skills. One answer (albeit not one that would necessarily secure a job at Microsoft) is: "With Google Earth and a Macintosh or PC." The answer to the more profound follow-up question "Why Would You Want To?" is hinted at by one of the great quotations of earth science, namely Charles Lyell's proposition that "The Present Is Key to the Past." Google Earth is a phenomenally powerful tool for visualizing today's earth, ocean, and atmosphere. With the aid of Google SketchUp, that visualization can be extended to reconstruct the past using relocated samples of present-day landscapes and environments as models of paleo-DEM and paleogeography. Volcanoes are particularly useful models because their self similar growth can be simulated by changing KML altitude tags within a timespan, but numerous other landforms and geologic structures serve as useful keys to the past. Examples range in scale from glaciers and fault scarps to island arcs and mountain ranges. The ability to generate a paleo-terrain model in Google Earth brings us one step closer to a truly four- dimensional, interactive geological map of the world throughout time.
IN44A-06
Geo-Web Usability
There are many wonderful examples of scientific content designed to be viewed in Google Earth that have been released since the appearance of this tool. However, there is also a great deal of published content that has not been designed well, "geo-web usability" has been ignored. In this paper we will examine content from the last year and consider the history of web usability in order to suggest best practices of how to present scientific data in Google Earth and other Virtual Globes.
IN44A-07
Visual Stratigraphic Correlation and Anaglyph 3-D Visualizations Using GigaPan Imagery: Examples from Western Kansas
GigaPan images of outcrop, quarry, and roadcut exposures have been captured and are being used to test the efficacy of a novel visual comparison technique in addressing issues of stratigraphic correlation of sub- units within the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation in Rooks, Ellis, Gove, and Trego Counties in northwest Kansas. Through the use of side-by-side implementations of the web-based GigaPan Flash viewer, distinctive individual layers and stratigraphic sequences can be matched in a highly intuitive visual manner. Incorporating adequate quantitative measures of scale is a challenge that remains to be solved before high precision correlation can be done with GigaPan imagery, however semi-quantitative and qualitative preliminary results suggest that this device may become a powerful research tool. Application of the visual correlation technique to the teaching of stratigraphic correlation concepts in the classroom offers a novel and interactive way for students to experience the joy of discovery in a virtual field environment. A method for creating anaglyph GigaPan images with the current GigaPan robot will also be described; the resulting images represent another way to significantly enhance classroom-based virtual field experiences.
IN44A-08
Google Earth 101
For the Spring 2008 semester the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Geography Department developed a
new 3-credit course entitled "Exploring the Virtual Earth". The goal of the course was to introduce students to
neogeography tools such as Virtual Globes, Google SketchUp and Second Life, and demonstrating how
these applications can be used to visualize geoscience datasets. The classes were a combination of lectures,
demonstrations and practical exercises, with a particular emphasis on teaching students to author Keyhole
Markup Language (KML) files. The assessment of grades included scores based on attendance, KML
exercises, a SketchUp modeling project and exams. In addition, all students had to create and present a
KML-based project, preferably using their own original geospatial data where available. Some of the more
successful students even presented this work to the university community and invited guests at a one-day
workshop "KML in the North". By AGU's Fall 2008 meeting, the course will have be taught again, with a
syllabus that has been refined based on feedback from students in the Spring. We present the positive and
negative lessons learnt, and other insights garnered from a year of teaching this original and unique course.
http://earth.images.alaska.edu/geog493/