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August 29, 2008
Track Hurricane Gustav in Google Earth
Hurricane Gustav looks like it is headed for the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Google Earth is a great tool for checking weather, and especially for tracking hurricanes. You can overlay weather satellite photos, radar, storm tracks, real-time lightning strikes, pressure maps, wind maps, sea surface temperatures, and more. Google Earth Blog (GEB) has written about many of the tools available in the past. Not only that, but we have pulled together a single network link 
that lets you get access to many of the tools in once convenient package. Download the GEB weather tools and check out the many datasets starting with two different storm tracking tools. You can also read more details about the collection.
To help you understand what's possible with these weather tools, here is a video demonstration:
There's also an excellent new tool available for Google Earth which lets you follow the hurricane hunters as they fly into the storms and collect data. Check out the story about live hurricane hunter mission data.
Posted by FrankTaylor at August 29, 2008 07:01 PM
Comments
Posted by: Joe at August 29, 2008 07:55 PM
Sorry, the KML file crashes GE, latest version, as soon as I click on the box.
Mike
Posted by: Michael Drury at August 30, 2008 12:30 AM
Michael,
The weather tools file has a LOT of image overlays. You should never turn on the entire collection. You should open the folders and only turn on one item at a time. Some of the folders have several sub-folders as well. If you experiment, you should become familiar with which parts of each tool you can use safely.
Posted by: Frank Taylor at August 30, 2008 07:33 AM
The programmers at San Diego State CalIT2 lab have put together an animated KML of wind velocities for Hurricane Gustav. Open up the folders and choose a scene. Click on 'Play' on the timeline to se the animation.
http://atmos.ucsd.edu/kml/forecaster-latest.kml
Posted by: Brian Hamlin at August 31, 2008 09:29 PM
Nicely done, it took two tries to make it work. Had a could not open error the first time.
There is a lot of data available, but I do have a question, do the webcam icons actually link?
Posted by: Ryan (KCOQNB) at September 1, 2008 10:50 AM
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Here's one more place where you can view track
and various types of satellite imagery (vis, ir,
microwave, scatterometer, radar) for all active
tropical cyclones:
http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.html
Click on the orange "KML" button
for the storm that you are interested in. Click on any hurricane placemarks to bring up the data selection box.
The "Information" button in your "Places" panel has more information in text and a PDF users guide.