Representing scientific data sets in KML: Methods and challenges

  • Authors:

  • Lisa M. Ballagh;Bruce H. Raup;Ruth E. Duerr;Siri Jodha S. Khalsa;Christopher Helm;Doug Fowler;Amruta Gupte

  • Affiliations:

  • National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, USA;National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, USA;National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, USA;National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, USA;National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, USA and National Renewable Energy Laborato ...;National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, 449 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0449, USA;Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado, 425 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0425, USA

  • Venue:
  • Computers & Geosciences
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Virtual Globes such as Google Earth and NASA World Wind permit users to explore rich imagery and the topography of the Earth. While other online services such as map servers provide ways to view, query, and download geographic information, the public has become captivated with the ability to view the Earth's features virtually. The National Snow and Ice Data Center began to display scientific data on Virtual Globes in 2006. The work continues to evolve with the production of high-quality Keyhole Markup Language (KML) representations of scientific data and an assortment of technical experiments. KML files are interoperable with many Virtual Globe or mapping software packages. This paper discusses the science benefits of Virtual Globes, summarizes KML creation methods, and introduces a guide for selecting tools and methods for authoring KML for use with scientific data sets.