NASA World Wind Open Source 3D Visualization Platform

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NASA World WindOpen Source3D Visualization
Platform

• Use Of World Wind in Higher Education
• Virtual Globes Symposium
• January 19, 2007
• Presenter Chad D. Zimmerman

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Who Is Chad Zimmerman?

• Involved since October 2004
• Develop add-ons for World Wind
• Developed the Earthquake Plug-Ins
• Develop user tours and walkthroughs of World Wind
• Interact with governmental and educational groups
  to help bring their data into World Wind
• Founding board member of the Free Earth Foundation

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What Is The Free Earth Foundation?

• The Free Earth Foundation (FEF) is a non-profit
  organization formed by seven core volunteers from
  the NASA World Wind community
• FEF works toward bringing free GIS data and
  imagery together into one central location
• FEF mentored five college students for the Google
  Summer of Code to work on World Wind related
  projects

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NASA World Wind

• Open source 3D geospatial visualization tool
• 24/7 access to NASA and any other data
• Integrates multiple data sources simultaneously
  and seamlessly
• Windows .Net version released September 2004
• Java version planned release, January 3, 2007

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3D Visualization Technology

• NASA World Wind public domain imagery is License
  Free and can be used in print and video.
• Microsoft Virtual Earth imagery is also available
  but only for non-commercial use!
• NASA World Wind has already been used for two
  documentaries on the History Channel.
• Confirmed sightings of NASA World Wind in movies.
• Open API architecture provides for a fully
  configurable client
• Unlimited extension via plug-ins
• Easy addition of data via XML

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New Features In v1.4

• Improved KML Support
• Shapefile Support
• Added WFS Improved WMS Support
• Line and Polygon Feature Support
• Integrated Web Browser
• Improved Layer Transparency

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Image Layers

• Blue Marble Next Generation
• NASA LandSat
• USGS Imagery
• ZoomIt! Data
• Imagery is processed and hosted by the Free Earth
  Foundation
• New data always being processed and added
• Other Planetary / Space Imagery
• SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey)
• Moon Detailed Imagery
• Mars Detailed Imagery
• Venus (revealed!)
• Jupiter (and some moons!)

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Higher Education

• Used by Geologists and Archeologist for
  pre-planning of field work
• California University of Pennsylvania held
  workshops for their education majors on using
  World Wind
• Students built lessons based on the Pennsylvania
  Geography, Science, or Math Standards and awarded
  scholarships
• Funded by Pennsylvania Space Grant
• The San Diego Rendezvous Science Center is
  sponsoring World Wind lectures to advance science
  in the class room

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Education Topics

• Biology Weather
• Naval Research Labs (weather)
• GLOBE (daily data for past ten years up until
  February 2005)
• Forest Cover / Forest Cover Lost
• Migration patterns, birds, turtles, and whales,
  etc.
• Human origins and migration pattern
• Geography
• Boundaries
• Identify countries
• Locate cities / capitals
• See connecting waterways
• Identify and follow road systems
• Overlay topographical maps

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More Education Topics

• Geology
• Earthquakes
• Locate landslides and lahars
• Volcanic activity
• Plate Tectonics
• Astronomy
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Locate meteorite impacts
• View other worlds
• Planetary Geology
• History
• Lewis and Clark Crossing America
• Caesar crossing the Rubicon, etc.
• Travels of Alexander the Great
• Where Stanley said Dr. Livingstone, I presume

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Expanding NASA World Wind

• Creating Add-Ons
• Created using XML syntax
• Can add imagery, data, placemarkers, lines,
  shapes or models
• Creating Plug-Ins
• Can use any Microsoft .Net language
• Plug-Ins are compiled at run time when World Wind
  starts (slows down startup time)
• Can expand on World Winds usefulness without
  changing underlining code
• World Wind can use most Google Earth KMLs

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Getting Help With NASA World Wind

• Mailing List
• worldwind-developer_at_worldwindcentral.com
• Message Boards
• http//forum.worldwindcentral.com/
• IRC Channel
• worldwind on freenode.net
• World Wind Central Wiki
• http//www.worldwindcentral.com/

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Reference Links

• http//worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
• http//www.earthissquare.com/WorldWind/
• http//www.worldwindcentral.com/
• http//www.freeearthfoundation.com/
• http//www.worldwindclassroom.com/
• http//quest.arc.nasa.gov/vft/