Exploring real-world uses of Google Earth

Submitted by Debra Damron
Phone: (907) 450-8662
06/21/07

A free seminar introducing the features and capabilities of Google Earth to the general public will take place Tuesday, June 26, at 1 p.m. in room 010 of the West Ridge Research Building by John Bailey, a postdoctoral fellow with the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center. Bailey will focus on demonstrating interesting real-world uses of Google Earth, which has helped bring capabilities for geographic information systems (GIS) to mainstream computer users.

The Google Earth markup language KML has emerged as a standard for creating visual, navigable environments for geospatial navigation. Attendees will see examples of state-of-the-art use of Google Earth, and learn about how to make their own data appear in Google Earth.

Bailey’s presentation "Using Google Earth and KML for Data Presentation and Navigation"? is part of a weekly summer science seminars hosted at UAF by ARSC every Tuesday at 1 p.m., except July 3, through July 31. Scientists and researchers who are using the highly sophisticated and exceptionally fast computational abilities at ARSC are presenting the weekly seminars to demonstrate how computer and information-based technologies are applied to solving real world problems.

UAF’s supercomputing center has aided in the development of 3-D computer models of tsunamis, space weather and volcanic eruptions, which have helped provide accurate and timely emergency response information to the public. Other projects focus on computer modeling of the ocean to detect shrinking polar ice caps or monitor fluctuations of fish, bird and marine mammals. For more information, contact ARSC Chief Scientist Grey Newby at newby@arsc.edu.