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View Full Version : World Wind - World View

Tom
6th Apr 2005, 03:03 pm
See a truly amazing piece open source world viewer programme from NASA (http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/). Phil: please could you put in on a DS machine and then put a note on the wall telling the students to have a look. It takes a little time to install the software but its worth it.
David
6th Apr 2005, 03:18 pm
Tom, I'm not entirely sure how useful this is but it's a fantastic toy. What is amazing is the time it has taken to arrive on the desktop. When I was doing my BSc in Geography, 22 years ago, people were getting very excited about Landsat and I took a specialist course in Remote Sensing. Landsat images had only been available for a few years at that time and promised great things for the future.

So it's come to this - billions of pounds of investment so that the masses can view 3D images of the Earth's surface. ;)
Phil
8th Apr 2005, 10:39 am
ok, I've put this on a couple of DS machines. It is nice to play with but the UK arial views aren't as high quality as City Viewer so I'm not sure how much use it would be to the Landscapers. That said, it's still a interesting resource - have you tried the feature where you can play back dramatic events of the earth as satellite images? Aral sea drying up, great big chunk of antarctica breaking off, etc.
Tom
8th Apr 2005, 11:10 am
Thank you - I have not tried the features - but you certainly make them sound juicey. I agree its not too useful but...
James
8th Apr 2005, 04:55 pm
Am I the only one who found it cumbersome, slow and a little dull? Perhaps I'm not using it correctly but to zoom in from space to an aerial photo that is of poor quality does not get me going. The photos on Multimap are better!
Phil
17th Apr 2005, 02:10 pm
I see Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/) have expanded their service to include satellite imagery too, now. Really good for US coverage (better than world wind), pretty poor for everywhere else at the moment
Tom
17th Apr 2005, 07:20 pm
Seems rather expensive but the resolution offered (1') is astounding. I wonder what Cities Revealed/Longman Geoinformation think about this competition.
Phil
30th Jun 2005, 09:48 am
Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/) is the latest of the map / satellite imaging offering from Google.

Tom? David? do you think the resolution is at the point where we can ditch CityViewer?

http://www.eds.gre.ac.uk/temp/googlemap.jpg
Tom
30th Jun 2005, 11:38 am
It is a FABULOUS application. But the resolution is not as good as City Viewer, yet.