ABOVE GOOGLE EARTH: TEACHING AND RESEARCH APPLICATIONS OF GEOBROWSERS IN ATMOSPHERIC AND IONOSPHERIC STUDIES

Geobrowsers such as Google Earth and NASA World Wind have been applied to numerous geological and geophysical studies of the Earth's surface. Typical uses include placemarks, tours, hyperlinks, and maps draped over the digital terrain.

We here present novel applications to the atmosphere and ionosphere, including (i) modeling of research aircraft and spacecraft, (ii) atmospheric data monitoring, and (iii) visualization of large-scale atmospheric and ionospheric structures. Our approach combines Keyhole Markup Language (.kml) with Collada (.dae) modeling technology. Previous models have been static whereas our approach allows animation and dynamic control through Collada layers and scenes, as well as KML timespan tags and network links.

Our KML files have research and teaching applications. The file structure we employ enables teachers to scaffold their students' learning experience. Students can explore concepts with a degree of independence but teachers retain remote control over the data flow to their students' geobrowsers.