Review of Virtual Globes September 2016
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REVIEW OF VIRTUAL GLOBES SEPTEMBER 2016 Jessica Keysers September 2016 Revision History Version Revision Date Reviewer Description of changes 1.0 March 2015 Jessica Keysers First release 2.0 September Jessica Keysers Addition of ArcGIS Earth, PYXIS 2016 WolrdView, glob3mobile, VirtualGeo, OssimPLanet, Norkart, GeoBrowser3D, Kaspersky Cyberthreat, Pokémon GO, and Science On a Sphere globes. Replace term ‘Digital Globe’ with ‘Virtual Globe’ as DigitalGlobe is the name of an existing company. Addition of functionality overview table. Addition of years of release and countries of origin for most globes. Removal of recommendations. Update Frequency Approximately every second year 1 ACCESS AND AVAILABILITY The report is available in PDF format at https://opendigitalearthfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/globe-review-paper_september- 2016.pdf (To be determined) We welcome your comments regarding the readability and usefulness of this report. To provide feedback, please contact [email protected]. CITING THIS REPORT Keysers, J. H. (2016), ‘Review of Virtual Globes September 2016’. Published by the Australia and New Zealand Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information. ISBN (online) 978-0-9943019-0-1 (To be determined) Author: Ms Jessica Keysers COPYRIGHT All material in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence, save for content supplied by third parties, and logos. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence is a standard form licence agreement that allows you to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this publication provided you attribute the work. The full licence terms are available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/legalcode. A summary of the licence terms is available from creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. DISCLAIMER While every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, the CRCSI does not offer any express or implied warranties or representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein. The CRCSI and its employees and agents accept no liability in negligence for the information (or the use of such information) provided in this report. 2 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 1998 Al Gore described his vision for a digital earth (or virtual globe) as a 3D virtual representation of the Earth which would provide access to vast amounts of scientific and cultural information to help untrained people understand the Earth and its natural and human phenomena on-demand, from global to local scales. The International Society for Digital Earth was established in 2006 to further this vision. The International Society for Digital Earth is a non-political, non-governmental and not-for-profit international organization, which principally aims to promote academic exchange, science and technology innovation, education, and international collaboration towards Digital Earth. The vision has been partly realised, with a number of different virtual globes existing today. The Open Digital Earth Foundation (OEDF) was recently established to contribute to the global effort to help fully realise the original vision, and to encourage partnerships in open globe applications to enable the power of globes to be widely shared to help address society’s challenges, including with those nations and communities with lesser access to emerging technologies. This paper provides a preliminary summary of 23 existing unique virtual globe platforms and seven associated visualisation applications, plus four virtual globe visualisation applications that do not qualify as platforms as do not allow users to add any data or make customisations. Information is mostly drawn from the websites of each globe, with limited software testing performed. The paper classifies virtual globes as; platforms and/or visualisation applications, open source or closed source, and public access or restricted access, noting whether they are free or paid. It also summarises whether each globe supports 11 nominated potential user functionalities. It is hoped that in finalising the paper, examples of case study applications and commentary from virtual globe users, developers and experts, will be included. Such inclusion would provide some insight into the reasons globes are created, why certain technologies are chosen, and the benefits the use of globes have to organisations and individuals. This document is intended as a resource for interested end-users to understand the range of globe options available, their functionality and characteristics. The intent is to provide information to users, not to provide analysis or recommendations on which globes best suit particular purposes. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................... 3 2 PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER ................................................................................................................ 6 3 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 6 4 EXISTING VIRTUAL GLOBES OVERVIEW .......................................................................................... 7 5 MAJOR CLOSED SOURCE PLATFORMS & ASSOCIATED VISUALISATION APPLICATIONS ............... 11 5.1 PLATFORM 1: Google Earth .................................................................................................. 11 5.1.1 Queensland (QLD) Globe / QLD G20 Globe .................................................................. 12 5.2 PLATFORM 2: ArcGIS Earth ................................................................................................... 13 5.3 PLATFORM 3: Bing Maps 3D ................................................................................................. 14 5.4 PLATFORM 4: WorldView...................................................................................................... 15 6 MAJOR OPEN SOURCE PLATFORMS & ASSOCIATED VISUALISATION APPLICATIONS................... 16 6.1 PLATFORM 5: Cesium ............................................................................................................ 16 6.1.1 Australian NationalMap ................................................................................................ 17 6.1.2 Bhuvan-3D ..................................................................................................................... 17 6.1.3 QLD Cube Globe ............................................................................................................ 18 6.2 PLATFORM 6: World Wind .................................................................................................... 19 6.2.1 3D Data Viewer ............................................................................................................. 20 6.3 PLATFORM 7: Marble ............................................................................................................ 21 7 OTHER PLATFORMS & VISUALISATION APPLICATIONS ................................................................. 22 7.1 PLATFORM 8: SkylineGlobe ................................................................................................... 22 7.1.1 Army Geospatial Enterprise (AGE) GeoGlobe ............................................................... 22 7.2 PLATFORM 9: EV-Globe......................................................................................................... 22 7.3 PLATFORM 10: SuperMap GIS .............................................................................................. 22 7.4 PLATFORM 11: Digital Earth Science Platform (DESP) .......................................................... 22 7.5 PLATFORM 12: osgEarth ....................................................................................................... 22 7.6 PLATFORM 13: CitySurf Globe .............................................................................................. 22 7.7 PLATFORM 14: Earth3D ........................................................................................................ 22 7.8 PLATFORM 15: EarthBrowser ............................................................................................... 23 7.9 PLATFORM 16: OpenWebGlobe............................................................................................ 23 7.10 PLATFORM 17: Glob3 Mobile ................................................................................................ 23 7.11 PLATFORM 18: WebGL Earth 2 ............................................................................................. 23 7.12 PLATFORM 19: VirtualGeo .................................................................................................... 23 7.13 PLATFORM 20: OssimPlanet ................................................................................................. 23 7.14 PLATFORM 21: Norkart Virtual Globe ................................................................................... 23 7.15 PLATFORM 22: Geobrowser3D ............................................................................................. 23 7.16 PLATFORM 23: WorldWide Telescope .................................................................................. 24 4 7.17 VISUALISATION APPLICATION 24: NASA’S EYES .................................................................... 24 7.18 VISUALISATION APPLICATION 25: Kaspersky Cyberthreat.................................................... 24 7.19 VISUALISATION APPLICATION 26: Pokémon