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Supplying Locations & Information

 Introduction

Here are some common situations where you have coordinate information and you want to show these on Google Earth.
  • A list of plant names and locations derived from herbarium sheets.
  • A list of waypoints from a GPS and notes about why each waypoint is important.
  • Locations of logistics and study site locations used in planning an expedition.
You can make up a simple file with this information and have it processed for use in Google Earth.

A free, web-based tool (GPS Visualizer) is used to do the conversion of your file to the KML format needed by Google Earth.

 Skill and Behavior Levels


Novice and Advanced Beginner
  • Is unsure about the terms "track" and "waypoints."
  • Is not able to use a GPS or to otherwise obtain sufficiently precise geographic coordinates.
Competent
  • Is familiar with a GPS and routinely collects waypoint information with adequate precision.
  • Understands the value of visualizing waypoint information.
Proficient
  • Uses waypoints in many ways, including planning and visualizing the results of previous expeditions.
  • Stores waypoints in ways that are useful to herself and makes these available to other people as files on the web.
Expert

 GPS Visualizer (a key link between data and Google Earth)

You can create a file for GPS Visualizer either in a spreadsheet program (such as Excel) or a text editor (such as Notepad on a PC).
The examples shown here are very simple.  Visit the GPS Visualizer tutorial page for information on the other capabilities of this great web-based utility.

Getting Started

  • Data are arranged in table with information of the same type in each column.
  • The first entry for each column (i.e., the first row in the table) has a keyword descriptor that identifies the contents of the column.
  • If a table entry includes a comma, the entire entry should be surrounded by double quotation marks (e.g., "B. Jones, Jan 5, 1974").

Types of Information

The following are basic information types.  There are quite a few more types that can be used (such as date/time, elevation, symbol scale, symbol rotation) that are beyond the scope of this discussion.  Again, you should check with te GPS Visualizer tutorial page for information.

Column Name
 Purpose Example Values
 name A short identifying tag that will be shown along side the waypoint
 Trail Head
 desc (or description)
 More extensive information that will appear in a pop-up box when you click on a waypoint.
 0.7 km trail that leads to the Base Camp.  Trail is well marked with blue plastic flagging.
 lat (or latitude)
 The geographic coordinates.  Decimal degrees is probably easiest, but other formats are allowed.
 -11.12394
 long (or longitude)
 Ditto. 166.42291
 symbol The name of a marker to appear at the waypoint.
 circle, square, star
 color The color of the waypoint
 red, yellow, blue, green, white

Example 1: A minimal table.  This will result in a set of connected points (i.e., a track) if you use the default settings.

latitude, longitude
 11.120351, 166.410784
 11.121718, 166.415829
 11.123866, 166.421923
 11.124385, 166.426672
 11.123598, 166.425112
 11.123950, 166.422967
 11.122265, 166.423499

Example 2: More complete information table. These will all be waypoints.

name, desc, latitude, longitude, color, symbol
site 1, look for turtle bones,  11.120351, 166.410784, red, star
landing, safe landing location, 11.121718, 166.415829, green, square
meeting point, store gear,  11.123866, 166.421923, green, square
site 2, suspected site of glass balls,  11.124385, 166.426672, red, star
site 3, check ID of tree, 11.123598, 166.425112, red, circle
Transect start, plant transect 1 start,  11.123950, 166.422967, yellow, square
Transect end, plant transect 1 end, 11.122265, 166.423499, yellow, square

Using Data Files with GPS Visualizer

The GPS Visualizer input menu is shown below.  Note that values from Example 1 (above) have been cut-and-pasted into the "Or paste your data here" window.



  1. Go to the GPS Visualizer web site.
  2. You have several choices on how to get your data into GPS Visualizer.  Either provide a file name or copy and paste information into the form.
  3. Click the "Create KML File" button.
  4. After a short delay, a new window will appear.
  5. Click on the link that looks like the following example
  1210715337-08197-72.253.176.22.kmz

You will have the choice of saving this file or opening Google Earth and viewing your information.

Next Steps

You should note that GPS Visualizer has a lot of options that control how your data are handled.  You should experiment with these in order to make the best possible use of your data.

 Option: Quantitative Data Maps

Google Earth is very flexible in the use of symbols.  As a result, you can create quantitative data maps where a symbol, such as a circle, appears in different sizes to represent different quantitative data values.

GPS Visualizer provides considerable support for creating data visualizations as overlays for Google Earth.

If you are interested, check the GPS Visualizer site that help you "Plot data on a map."

The image below uses both the size and color of dots to represent the relative population density of the Pacific Island nations based on 2004 data.  In Google Earth, you can click on a dot and the name of the country and the population density will appear.  The data used are shown below the plot.



Data used in the above plot are shown below.  The data were assembled from several sources, including merging with a file that allowed translations between the country name and its geographic coordinates.  This was all done in Excel.  The result was a file saved in the CSV (comma separated values) format.

name,lat,long,N
   Fiji Islands,-18,175,45.7530648
   New Caledonia,-21.5,165.5,12.75335792
   Papua New Guinea  ,-6,147,12.30511624
   Solomon Islands,-8,159,16.21783574
   Vanuatu,-16,167,17.70303527
   Federated States of Micronesia,62,-7,160.7703281
   Guam,13.4667,144.7833,307.0240296
   Kiribati,1.4167,173,114.7965475
   Marshall Islands,9,168,306.0773481
   Nauru,-0.5333,166.9167,480.952381
   Northern Mariana Islands,15.2,145.75,165.6050955
   Palau,7.5,134.5,42.41803279
   American Samoa,-14.3333,-170,313
   Cook Islands,-21.2333,-159.7667,59.07172996
   French Polynesia,-15,-140,71.1445612
   Niue ,-19.0333,-169.8667,6.177606178
   Pitcairn Islands    ,46.8333,-56.3333,0
   Samoa,-13.5833,-172.3333,62.24872232
   Tokelau,-9,-172,125
   Tonga,-20,-175,151.2307692
   Tuvalu,-8,178,369.2307692

Note that some of the parameters in GPS Visualizer needed to be adjusted.

Saving KML Files for Other People to Use


Here is a link to how to save KML files using Google Pages