Development of a Web-based visualization platform for climate research using Google Earth

Recently, it has become easier to access climate data from satellites, ground measurements, and models from various data centers. However, searching, accessing, and processing heterogeneous data from different sources are very time-consuming tasks. There is lack of a comprehensive visual platform to acquire distributed and heterogeneous scientific data and to render processed images from a single accessing point for climate studies. This paper documents the design and implementation of a Web-based visual, interoperable, and scalable platform that is able to access climatological fields from models, satellites, and ground stations from a number of data sources using Google Earth (GE) as a common graphical interface. The development is based on the TCP/IP protocol and various data sharing open sources, such as OPeNDAP, GDS, Web Processing Service (WPS), and Web Mapping Service (WMS). The visualization capability of integrating various measurements into GE extends dramatically the awareness and visibility of scientific results. Using embedded geographic information in the GE, the designed system improves our understanding of the relationships of different elements in a four-dimensional domain. The system enables easy and convenient synergistic research on a virtual platform for professionals and the general public, greatly advancing global data sharing and scientific research collaboration. (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.