Google Earth for Researchers
An introduction to the many scientific visualization applications emerging in Google Earth.
There are many ways environmental scientists, geographers (human and physical), geologists, biologists, and many other types of scientists can use Google Earth to visualize their research. The number of ways to use GE are many and growing. The benefits of using Google Earth to visualize spatial information is that it is an easy and commonly accepted interface - most internet users, if they haven't already can figure out all of the basic features within a couple of hours. It handles a diversity of spatial information. In GE one can add placemarks (like points in GIS), lines, polygon overlays (like vector in GIS), or raster/image overlays. GE is compatible with many different formats of spatial data. The most popular way of georeferencing data on the web, GeoRSS is easily converted into KML, both of which are usable in GoogleMaps now as well. There are also applications one can download (some of which are free) to convert from shapefile to kml. Raster images can be overlayed as long as one knows their coordinates. Most importantly, GE also includes potential for visualization and analysis in two dimensions where GIS is lacking - elevation and time. Being creative with these functionalities, GE users worldwide have been collaborating to develop tools to visualize important scientific data within GE.
1.) The following is an example of one direction that GE users have taken in recent months:
Hierarchical Representation of Phylogenetic Trees
The above application could be easily extended or adapted to visualize non-scientific tree maps that have a geospatial component — for example, distribution channels for businesses, or the diffusion of technological and cultural ideas.
2.) Next up, we look at a tool that's been developed and is offered on the web for free that allows you to map data in GE. GE Graph is a program that allows users to import kml files (whether polygons or points) and assign a value to them that will be shown in GE. The value can be displayed by the size of the point or icon, by the heigh of extrusion of a polygon, or by the color given to the object. A snapshot of the GE Graph Interface is below.
GE Graph builds amazing kml files with ease. The images below show world population data from 1950.
3.) Once you have your data in kml format, if you then want to add a time animation to the mix, it's not much trouble. In fact, it's only two lines of code placed in the proper headings within each of the kml files. TimeSpan and TimeStamp are two kml tags that allow you to add the time dimension into your GE representation. These tags, and more, can be found on the KML Reference page.
4.) We can look at an example that I don't yet know much about. But if any of you are working with MatLab, someone has developed a tool to convert files from MatLab to KML, so that the data created in MatLab can be displayed in Google Earth.
5.) And there was a recent article written in New Scientist about how scientists are using things like Google Earth to display their research.
6.) Recently, Google has begun a new project called "Google Earth Outreach," a program designed to help non-profits who want to put their information up on the web. They have created a set of tutorials that make it really easy for anyone to learn common kml basics like creating placemarks from a database.
7.) We should also take a look at the Google Earth Users' Environment and Conservation discussion board, which gives a helpful overview of all of the topics users are exploring using GE.
8.) Lastly, the question every geographer has about GE and Google Maps these days is: does it work with shapefiles? There are a few options out there that I know of, and it's probable that more are available. Some people sell downloads, but there are also free conversion tools such as this one here that will allow you to move from .shp to kml. Shape2earth gives you the tools for free for 7 days. There are also tools that allow you to convert from kml to .shp.
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