Virtual Globes in Science
 

Conference: 1st Annual Virtual Globes Scientific Users Conference
10-12 July 2006
Boulder, CO

The intended goal of this conference is to assess the state-of-the-art in the use of online Virtual Globes in support of earth sciences. ‘Earth sciences’ here should be interpreted broadly as including any aspect of the earth system, whether the focus is on land, oceans, or atmosphere or on physical, chemical or biological processes. Virtual Globes (VGs) in this context includes any online tool which allows the user free-access to see a spinning globe at space level and interactively fly down to surface level with 3D perspective (such tools currently include Google Earth, World Wind, EarthSLOT, GeoFusion, and others).

VGs are quickly becoming the new paradigm in earth science, earth science education and outreach, earth science logistics, and earth science data access. This conference is interested addressing questions such as: How are these tools currently being used in earth sciences? How do they work? How have they changed earth sciences? What needs of earth sciences are currently not being met by the existing tools? What should we expect for the future and what role should we play in it? So here we are interested in not just seeing final products, but also the tips, tricks, and traps that go into building such applications, as well as higher-level perspectives on how these tools may shape the future.

Thus we hope to bring together earth scientists, educators, and related individuals who are currently using or planning to use VGs to support their work, with the intent of facilitating the formation of a community that can serve as a nucleus for support, discussion, promotion, and enhancement of use of VGs in the earth sciences. Part of this community-building effort will be a compilation of applications, websites, tutorials, etc., that can serve as a resource for future developments or earth-science events, such as the upcoming International Polar Year.

The conference will consist of invited one-hour talks providing an overview of many of the available tools, a series of 20 minute presentations by users, and a day of tutorials on how to actually implement these tools for a particular application. The presentations cover many aspects of how VGs are being used to support earth scientists, educators, logisticians, data archivists, program managers, and the public.
 

Convener

Matt Nolan
University of Alaska Fairbanks
matt.nolan(at)uaf.edu