Network Links

Arctic and Antarctic Ice Floes in Google Earth

January 25, 2006

Last week I was contacted by some scientists (credited below) who had some interesting data for Google Earth showing the movement of ice floes in the northern Arctic region showing satellite photos, motion tracks and vectors, and more. They also informed me they were getting ready to release some data for the Antarctic region as well. Well, today they informed me both are now available and new web pages describing them as well. (By the way, OgleEarth reported on the Arctic data last week). Here’s the full story…
Near real-time data of ice floes in the Arctic region are being made available thanks to efforts by scientists at Ørsted DTU (Technical University of Denmark) which is participating in a project called DAMOCLES sponsored by a European Commission. Project DAMOCLES is an integrated ice-atmosphere-ocean monitoring and forecasting system designed for observing, understanding and quantifying climate changes in the Arctic. The team at DTU have had a Java application for viewing the ice floes for some time, but recently released a Google Earth network link for looking at the ice floes and the data showing their movement. The data comes in part from the European Space Agency’s environmental satellite called ENVISAT ASAR, and from devices attached to the ice which broadcast their position. Here is the web page describing the different data sets and the link to the Google Earth file. Very interesting data!
The Antarctic Google Earth network link is even more interesting. Here they have included details on the overall development of ice in the Antarctic, details on the sea-ice conditions as well as iceberg locations, satellite photos of the ice, locations of drift buoys, locations of selected research vessels, and locations of a selection of more than 120 Antarctic research stations and bases. Full details are available from this web page, which is part of the International Polar View project.
I was first contacted by…

Real Estate for Google Earth by Re/Max – Again!

January 14, 2006

Real estate applications are probably one of the most obvious uses for Google Earth. Combining house listings with actual location information and viewing the satellite or aerial photographs of the property and nearby amenities is just the beginning. Just a few months after Google Earth was released last June, I wrote about a serious real estate application which was done for Re/Max for listings in the State of Colorado, USA. Now, Re/Max in Quebec, Canada has also done their own network link for Google Earth showing real estate listings in Quebec (NOTE: many of the listings’ descriptions are only in French).
You can go to their web site (English version) to download the network link, or you can download the network link here .
Once you download the network link, zoom into Quebec and…

Aurora Viewing Map in Google Earth

January 5, 2006

A few months ago, a Google Earth Community member called ‘Core5’ proposed an idea for showing maps using data produced by NOAA which can show the areas where viewing aurora might be likely. Core5 wanted to present those maps in Google Earth. It took a while, but he finally got in touch with the NOAA people who produced the data, and they helped implement maps in the GE format (KML). Core5 recently posted this automatically updating Aurora viewing map at the GEC. NOAA has developed a preliminary “user guide” which you can read here (the file is not officially published yet).
From the NOAA site, the data is described briefly as this:

Nature Updates Avian Flu Outbreak Map

January 5, 2006

A few months ago Declan Butler, a Senior Reporter for Nature Magazine, began publishing work he was doing to provide data on the Avian Flu outbreak using Google Earth. Declan has continued to work on the data, and recently announced an update on his blog. The update includes a greatly improved look and even more recent data on the outbreak of avian flu. As you would expect from a Senior Reporter of a scientific magazine, Declan includes details on the data, how he compiled the data, and issues with presenting the data within the Google Earth file. He also provides details on how he implemented the Google Earth KML, and credits suggestions given to him which helped him improve the data presented.
[EDIT 1245pm EST: The article which…

Globe Glider – Integrated Maps within Google Earth

January 3, 2006

[UPDATE May 2007: Read about the new version of Globe Glider and see a video of it in action.]

Every once in a while, someone does something truly groundbreaking with Google Earth. Globe Glider is an awesome new application which integrates web mapping within Google Earth. The application is used within Google Earth as a network link. When you install the application, you must have IE 6 installed (sorry Mac users), and you must enable scripting for it to work. You also need the most recent version of GE. This is all explained in the simple three-step installation instructions at globeglider.net.

Globe Glider allows you to:

See an interactive Google Maps within GE, the map can be zoomed using the scroll-wheel on your mouse just like GE
Search for locations, click on links to nearby cities, or click on the map or GE for a new location
When you move to a new location, the map and GE re-align themselves
Globe Glider lets you get more information on a new location from several sources: Answers.com, GeoURL, a custom Guide, or Hotels
You can save Favorite locations
You can also create overlay maps for the current view using either Topo maps, or Google Maps

The author…