There’re two programs I like to use when I look at three dimensional cartography today, I use one of two programs; either Google Earth, or NASA World Wind. (Follow the links to download these free programs.) These are both wonderful programs and do an enormous amount, but each is slightly different.
Google Earth does a wonderful job of displaying earth in all of its capacities. It represents all earth systems well, some better than others, but all in all it is an incredibly useful program to do research. NASA’s World Wind gives viewers most of the same information with a few differences. But again, this program has a plethora of information to display to its users.
The main differences between these two programs become quickly apparent to most users. Google Earth is set up to handle a cultural geographic aspect of earth, whereas NASA’s World Wind is set up to view earth from a physical geographic point of view. Some of the basic features of Google Earth include dining stops, roads, sightseeing information, lodging, and transportation. World Wind has tools that allow you to look at current precipitation patterns, wind patterns, pressure heights, and ocean current movement. Each program has a search program to locate specific cities or addresses, but Google Earth’s has much more detailed information and incorporates Google Maps into the process. This makes for a very easy way to plan a trip route and decipher how different places work culturally. Some of the advantages of World Wind besides the metrological earth systems include current cloud cover information, recent and current disasters, (such as dust storms, fires, earth quakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc…) and different projections of use on the three dimensional level. World Wind also has a tool known as Place Finder, which makes use of Yahoo maps to display similar travel and location information compared to Google Earth. Another fun feature utilized by World Wind is some other layers besides Earth. You can cruise around the moon, Jupiter, Mars, and one of Jupiter’s moons. These may not be useful, but they do provide hours of entertainment (for map geeks like me.)
Google Earth does a wonderful job of displaying earth in all of its capacities. It represents all earth systems well, some better than others, but all in all it is an incredibly useful program to do research. NASA’s World Wind gives viewers most of the same information with a few differences. But again, this program has a plethora of information to display to its users.
The main differences between these two programs become quickly apparent to most users. Google Earth is set up to handle a cultural geographic aspect of earth, whereas NASA’s World Wind is set up to view earth from a physical geographic point of view. Some of the basic features of Google Earth include dining stops, roads, sightseeing information, lodging, and transportation. World Wind has tools that allow you to look at current precipitation patterns, wind patterns, pressure heights, and ocean current movement. Each program has a search program to locate specific cities or addresses, but Google Earth’s has much more detailed information and incorporates Google Maps into the process. This makes for a very easy way to plan a trip route and decipher how different places work culturally. Some of the advantages of World Wind besides the metrological earth systems include current cloud cover information, recent and current disasters, (such as dust storms, fires, earth quakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc…) and different projections of use on the three dimensional level. World Wind also has a tool known as Place Finder, which makes use of Yahoo maps to display similar travel and location information compared to Google Earth. Another fun feature utilized by World Wind is some other layers besides Earth. You can cruise around the moon, Jupiter, Mars, and one of Jupiter’s moons. These may not be useful, but they do provide hours of entertainment (for map geeks like me.)
Google Earth
NASA World Wind
If you want to compare these two three dimensional programs to some two dimensional references, you could say that Google Earth runs much like Rand McNally atlases; it shows human cultural activity, where World Wind acts more like the National Geographical atlas, showing earth systems features.
Three dimensional cartographic programs in general are evenly useful and can show a plethora of information and have many different utilities within them. These programs are a recent addition to a vast cartographic library of resources. These programs are all derived from the same information as a flat wall map.
Another type of three dimensional cartography, which in today’s world of technology is commonly overlooked, is globes. Much how Google Earth was derived from a program like Google Maps, (a 2 dimensional program) globes were derived from flat paper maps. Globes are a great way to view our earth, they show viewers many misconceptions made by looking at maps. For example, I know a girl who would swear on her mother’s grave that Alaska was an island just east of Hawaii and just west of Mexico. Sadly these perceptions of our earth do happen, however globes silence many questions people have about how the earth actually is. Globes are the most accurate tangible reference map people can use today, and I believe they are fundamental in human understanding of earth.
So if you need a basic understanding of this grand world of ours; dust off an old globe and spend a few hours perusing its contents. If you need a detailed route on how to get to aunt Sally’s in New York and what to do when you get there and where to stay and eat on the way and what airport to fly out of and intimate directions on all of these things, go to Google Earth. If you want to know what the five hundred mille-bar height of the atmosphere four days ago was and if it’s going to snow this weekend then tryout World Wind. All in all, you can’t go wrong with three dimensional cartography and the myriad of informative doors it opens up.
No comments:
Post a Comment