Virtual globes for 4D environmental analysis
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Virtual globes for 4D environmental analysis Maria Antonia Brovelli & Giorgio Zamboni
Received: 31 May 2011 / Accepted: 4 June 2012 / Published online: 20 June 2012 # Società Italiana di Fotogrammetria e Topografia (SIFET) 2012
Abstract Virtual globes were initially released as effective and intuitive tools to view satellite and aerial photos directly superimposed on the 3D modeling of the globe. The constant update of increasingly accurate and detailed images and the ability to customize the content through the direct mapping on the globe of any geographically localized phenomenon (physical, environmental, social, etc.) have increased not only the common and popular use of virtual globes but has also offered great opportunities for geographical representation and analysis in science. The paper presents solutions we implemented for environmental purposes; in particular, three different viewers for 4D environmental variables (3D location of the variable at different times) using an open-source virtual globe developed by NASA (NASA World Wind). The third solution presented is the most innovative one and uses a “doxel-based” approach for modeling environmental variable distributions. The choice of World Wind is due to its code openness and hence the possibility for both customizing and extending its functionality. The characteristic of being written in Java makes it a platform-independent program (viewer directly executable on different operation systems) and accessible by simple web-browsers (like applet or via Java Web Start technology). In detail, we present solutions that can be directly implemented using existing software tools and an innovative solution specifically developed.
M. A. Brovelli : G. Zamboni (*) Politecnico di Milano, DIIAR, Como Campus, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy e-mail: [email protected] M. A. Brovelli e-mail: [email protected]
Keywords Virtual globe . GIS . 4D . Doxel
Introduction Currently, many applications allowing the sharing of geographic information through the Internet are available, thanks also to protocols and specifications issued in the last years by standardization organizations like International Standardization Organization Technical Commission 211 and OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium). In spite of the possibility of having both 2D and 3D data, most of the web-clients show these data in a 2D way, with the third-dimension information (e.g., the terrain elevation or the height of a building) indirectly represented by means of contour lines, graduated colors or directly acquired by querying the attributes related to the third-dimensionassociated objects. This limitation can be overcome by using a 3D viewer which greatly improves the expressive power of geographic contextualization, allowing a more effective and immediate interpretation of user’s data. Technological developments in recent years, both hardware and software, made possible the intensive use of 3D modeling within various fields, including that of the geographic information. Among va
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