The Earth Is Square

Ok, I can let you in on a super secret project I have been working on for the last few months.  We will have in November, our VERY OWN MAGAZINE!

Yep, you heard me right.  The "NASA World Wind Magazine" will hit the shelves in November, be sure to get your copy for only $1.99!

Here is the cover as a teaser:

Looks good, huh?

Go here to pre-order.

Well, school is right around the corner for most children, and some have already started (so I should have posted this three weeks ago). But I thought I would put together a list of World Wind add-ons that would be very usefull for classroom use.

And with no license to worry about, students can use World Wind imagery in their presentations and reports.

And with World Wind you also have imagery for the Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury and the stars with the SSDS imagery.

I will start off this list with ones I have been making and working on, then go from there. I won't go into much about most of them as the page I'll link to has all the information you would need about the add-on.

• Gulf Coast Hypoxia Maps
• NOAA Coastal Risk Maps
• Lightning Intensity Map
• National Hydrology Dataset Demo
• World Wind Science Suite

• NASA Lightning Map
• Crustal Thickness
• National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
• NOAA Coral Reef Watch
• NOAA Great Lakes Data
• NOAA DART (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis)
• Chernobyl
• US Vegetation Growth 1990-2005
• US Forest Coverage Type
• US Arsenic Levels

This is just a small sample of the add-ons available for World Wind.  But these listed are probably the most interesting for use in a class room.

Oi.. the pain and suffering JUST to do a WMS... GE is better HOW???

Anyway, for the Coastal Risk Maps I have also made a KML as this is data that should be available to many people that are in Hurricane Zones.

This is a BETA KML.. first one I have done.  Any feedback, post it in here.

Download

Ok, Ogle Earth brought this up, while interesting.. is miss leading. 

Congratulations NASA World Wind development team — you have just logged your very first official complaint regarding your app's country borders

I mean.. if you read the forum and the IRC logs.. we have thousands of complaints.. 98% of them are between Middle East countries and a small country they don't like a whole lot.  But here is the article Ogle Earth refers too.  And I wouldn't call it "official" as it seems to be just a regional news site.

Now, I am sure that GE also has to deal with these kinds of calls so it is hardly a World Wind only issue.  World Wind uses open data to build it's data, that data can change but most the times the changes are not a "hot potato" issue that needs to be addressed this very second.  This is covered in the FAQ.

Yes, the borders do need to be updated / fixed / improved. And if we serve out the borders AND the placenames not only do fixes get done almost transparently.. it would cut the World Wind install down to almost 6mb in size.

Also, the source and data to World Wind is open to all.. so instead if bitching and moaning, you can fix it.

Though, now that I think on it.. I am going to look into serving the border information into World Wind as soon as my backlog of other data is done.

NOAA Coastal Risk Atlas Add-On for World Wind is ready to go, and in time for the Hurricane season.. I had shown a preview here before.

The Coastal Risk Atlas (CRA) project goals aim at aiding hurricane preparedness efforts by providing the data and methodology necessary to conduct vulnerability assessments for the coastal United States.

Download this World Wind Add-On

Google Earth KML -- BETA

Related Forum Post on this thread

Data used in this add-on:

• Hazard models such as storm surge, maximum winds, and inland flooding to help locate vulnerable areas
• Base layer of evacuation routes and other roadways
• Evacuation Route Road Condition links

Viewable layers in this add-on:

Evacuation Routes Layer:

Coastal Storm Surge Layer:

FEMA Flood Zones Layer:

Wind Envelope Layer:

Evacuation Route overlayed on a Topo map:

With World Wind's 1.4 / 1.3.6's release I will update this add-on to take advantage of the changes to improve this add-on. Also, as the CRA updates it's information, I will update this add-on.

I hate these blasted surveys with all this writing.. I hated essay questions in school.. and I still don't like them now!