Analysis-enhanced virtual globe for digital earth

Abstract

Virtual globe has been recognized as an appealing technology to support the digital earth. It provides an intuitive and appealing way to visualize geospatial information, and is being used frequently to bring the globe-scale geospatial information to our fingertips. The easy access to virtual globes such as Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and NASA World Wind allows both the general public users and professionals to use them for educational and research purposes. While virtual globes provide a number of functions for geospatial data visualization and annotation, the geospatial analysis functions available in the current virtual globes are limited. This paper addresses an approach to the establishment of an analysis-enhanced virtual globe. The approach is based on the integration of virtual globe and interoperable geoprocessing services. Such an analysis-enhanced virtual globe combines the visualization and communication power of virtual globes with the conventional powerful analysis functions of GIS, thus meeting the analysis demands in digital earth.