Virtual globe
A Virtual Globe (English virtual Globe ) or digital globe is a 3D software - model to represent the Earth or other celestial bodies. These three-dimensional models were only created at the end of the 20th century after the graphic display options on the computer became sufficiently powerful.
Depending on the operating function, a virtual globe gives the user the opportunity to move freely in a virtual environment, to control any point on it, to change the viewing angle and to zoom in and out using different scaling . Compared to conventional (real) globes , virtual globes have the advantage that they often allow many different representations of the earth's surface. The display of different map types in a short time sequence or the synthesis of different map levels (roads, bodies of water, land use, etc.) can be freely selected and current data (partly in real time) can be displayed via the Web Map Service (WMS) . As a result, connections between the facts shown on the various maps can appear more understandable to the viewer than when looking at a real globe. Geographical features that can be emphasized are, for example, man-made features or abstract representations, such as population density or key figures of the economy.
Like a conventional globe, a virtual globe is a simplified representation of the real world. However, he can use the zoom function to show much more precise details, provided satellite , aerial images or other remote sensing data are supported by the software. Depending on the resolution and amount of data, the images are either stored locally on the computer (offline) or they are streamed from external servers (online).
At the 1994 ITU conference in Kyoto, the Terravision virtual globe was presented. Microsoft released the Encarta Virtual Globe 98 in 1998 , which was offline for use. The first widespread virtual online globes were the open source software NASA World Wind , a globe that was published under an open source license from mid-2004, and Google Earth from mid-2005 . Several more have been added since then, including some high quality free globes such as Marble .
species
Virtual globes can be used for studying navigation by connecting them to GPS devices. Your software model varies considerably depending on the purpose. If a precise visual representation of the earth's surface is in the foreground, satellite images are very often uploaded from servers and the globe can not only be rotated around the earth's axis, but also zoomed and possibly also rotated horizontally (at right angles to the earth's axis).
Very often such virtual globes are intended to show a realistic image of the earth with a very high resolution. Often there is also the option of a simplified representation of national borders, administrative borders, roads, built-up areas and other man-made geographical features, as these are often not easy to see or cannot be seen on photographic representations of the earth.
Some governments have security concerns when it comes to high-resolution images of the entire surface of the earth, as this also makes details of secret or endangered objects publicly accessible, such as airports, military facilities or nuclear power plants.
Virtual globes are usually displayed in two dimensions on a screen or canvas. To better simulate a conventional globe, the screen can be curved so that the cartographic representation of the earth is shown on a sphere that is projected from the inside (e.g. on display in the Deutsches Museum). The representation on a part of a sphere that protrudes from a wall is also possible.
Another type of virtual globe is not intended to accurately represent the earth's surface, but rather a simplified graphical representation of the earth. The first digital atlases were of this type. They showed fewer details, but were much faster in the early days of computers with their reduced graphics.
Online virtual globes
As more and more high-resolution satellite and aerial photographs are freely available, many of the newer online globes are used to display these images. Examples of virtual globes are:
- NASA World Wind is open source software that includes maps from the United States Geological Survey and satellite and aerial images from various databases. NASA World Wind was the first popular virtual globe alongside Google Earth .
- Geoforge Virtual Globe : Comes from NASA World Wind Virtual Globes. It is integrated into the Geoforge project .
- CitySurf Globe , because of a special structure of the data storage it was very fast. The data was saved in Oracle SDO or PostGIS. He had a flexible authorization model for different user groups
- Bing Maps 3D, its interface runs in Internet Explorer and Firefox, it uses the Nasa Blue Marble Next Generation.
- SkylineGlobe.com, an online 3D globe website connected to the TerraExplorer Client Application via the API. Approx. 10 terabytes of images and altitude data are streamed from freely available satellite and aerial image data. The web interface allows users to view and share native data sources, including SHP and KML files. The project was started in 2006 by Skyline Software Systems as a technology showcase .
- Google Earth includes satellite and aerial photography data sets (including commercial images from DigitalGlobe) with a data set from international roads. Google Earth, together with NASA World Wind, was the first known virtual globe.
- KDE Marble , is part of the K Desktop Environment (KDE). The data come from, among others, OpenStreetMap , Nasa Blue Marble Next Generation. Marble is open source software.
- ArcGIS Explorer is a lightweight client for ArcGIS Server, it supports WMS and many other GIS file formats.
- EarthBrowser is a virtual globe based on Flash / Adobe AIR, with real-time weather forecasts, earthquakes, volcanoes, webcams, etc. a.
- MacKiev's 3D Weather Globe & Atlas, a software with 3D views based on Blue Marble images, with a cloud display that runs almost in real time and weather forecasts from CustomWeather, as well as time zones and day and night views.
- Earth3D is a program that shows the earth in real time 3D view. It uses data from NASA, the USGS, the CIA and the city of Osnabrück. Earth3D is open source software.
- WorldView uses a sophisticated Digital Earth Reference Model to geo data integration from various sources and display.
- Bhuvan is a virtual globe from India.
- National Geographic : The Big 3D Globe
- Microsoft Encarta 2009 Encyclopedia (Atlas)
- Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D and the further development Bing Maps
- ESRI ArcGIS Explorer and ESRI ArcGlobe
- Brockhaus Multimedial Atlas
- Wii globe - weather channel
- 3D World Map 2.0
- 3D Weather Globe & Atlas
- Dapple Earth Explorer
- Open Web Globe ( Memento from April 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), free software, developed by the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland
- Cesium , open source globe
- Diercke Globus Online, commercial software from westermann Verlag specially developed for schools and pupils
- DK 3D World Atlas
- Earth Browser 3.0
- Geoplayer Professional
- Geoplayer Mars
- ossimPlanet
- punt
- Skyline Globe
- Skyline TerraExplorer
- Hipparchus
- GIRFINOR
- Norkart
- Keyhole 2 Enterprise Client
Just like freely available satellite images, online data from databases such as the CIA The World Factbook are often integrated into virtual globes .
literature
- Schweikart, Jürgen, Jonas Pieper and Bennet Schulte (2009): Virtual Globes - Development History and Perspectives. In: Kartographische Nachrichten 03/2009 (59th volume), page 129, Kirschbaum Verlag, Bonn, ISSN 0022-9164
Individual evidence
- ↑ ART + COM: Terravision ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Earth-dots.de: The History of Google Earth - accessed on August 16, 2014
- ↑ Multitouch Solution (2013): Presentation of the multitouch hardware technology for displaying a digital globe protruding from the wall (accessed on June 16, 2013)
- ↑ Virtual globes - history of development and perspectives (screenshots of virtual globes).
