NASA WorldWind is an open-source (released under the NOSA license and the Apache 2.0 license)

virtual globe A virtual globe is a three-dimensional (3D) software model or representation of Earth or another world. A virtual globe provides the user with the ability to freely move around in the virtual environment by changing the viewing angle and posit ...

. According to the website (https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/), "WorldWind is an open source virtual globe API. WorldWind allows developers to quickly and easily create interactive visualizations of 3D globe, map and geographical information. Organizations around the world use WorldWind to monitor weather patterns, visualize cities and terrain, track vehicle movement, analyze geospatial data and educate humanity about the Earth." It was first developed by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

in 2003 for use on

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

s and then further developed in concert with the

open source community The open-source-software movement is a movement that supports the use of open-source licenses for some or all software, as part of the broader notion of open collaboration. The open-source movement was started to spread the concept/idea of open ...

since 2004. As of 2017, a web-based version of WorldWind is available online. An Android version is also available. The original version relied on

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

, which ran only on Microsoft Windows. The more recent

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

version, WorldWind Java, is cross platform, a

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific ...

(SDK) aimed at developers and, unlike the old .NET version, not a standalone

application in the style of Google Earth. The WorldWind Java version was awarded NASA Software of the Year in November 2009. The program overlays NASA and

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

satellite imagery,

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing airc ...

, topographic maps,

Keyhole Markup Language Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is an XML notation for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Ke ...

(KML) and

Collada COLLADA (for ''COLLA''borative ''D''esign ''A''ctivity) is an interchange file format for interactive 3D applications. It is managed by the nonprofit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, and has been adopted by ISO as a publicly available ...

files.

Overview

Though widely available since 2003, WorldWind was released with the NASA Open Source Agreement license in 2004. The latest Java-based version (2.1.0), was released in December 2016. As of 2015 a web based version of WorldWind is under development and available online. An Android version is also available. The previous .NET-based version was an application with an extensive suite of plugins. Apart from the Earth there are several worlds:

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

(with the four Galilean moons of Io, Ganymede, Europa and

Callisto Callisto most commonly refers to: *Callisto (mythology), a nymph *Callisto (moon), a moon of Jupiter Callisto may also refer to: Art and entertainment *''Callisto series'', a sequence of novels by Lin Carter *''Callisto'', a novel by Torsten Kro ...

) and SDSS (imagery of stars and galaxies). Users could interact with the selected planet by rotating it, tilting the view, and zooming in and out. Five million place names, political boundaries, latitude/longitude lines, and other data can be displayed. WorldWind.NET provided the ability to browse maps and

geospatial Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also ca ...

data on the internet using the OGC's WMS servers (version 1.4 also uses WFS for downloading place names), import ESRI shapefiles and kml/kmz files. This is an example of how WorldWind allows anyone to deliver their data. Other features of WorldWind.NET included support for .X ( DirectX 3D polygon mesh) models and advanced visual effects such as atmospheric scattering or sun shading. The resolution inside the US is high enough to clearly discern individual buildings, houses, cars (USGS Digital Ortho layer) and even the shadows of people (metropolitan areas in USGS Urban Ortho layer). The resolution outside the US is at least 15 meters per pixel.

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

has allowed WorldWind to incorporate Virtual Earth high resolution data for

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

use. WorldWind uses

digital elevation model A digital elevation model (DEM) or digital surface model (DSM) is a 3D computer graphics representation of elevation data to represent terrain or overlaying objects, commonly of a planet, moon, or asteroid. A "global DEM" refers to a discrete g ...

(DEM) data collected by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM),

National Elevation Dataset The National Elevation Dataset (NED) consists of high precision topography or ground surface elevation data (digital elevation model) for the United States. It was maintained by the USGS and all the data is in the public domain. Since the 3D Eleva ...

(NED) and

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is a Japanese remote sensing instrument onboard the Terra satellite launched by NASA in 1999. It has been collecting data since February 2000. ASTER provides high-reso ...

(ASTER). This means one can view topographic features such as the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions. In addition, WW has

bathymetry Bathymetry (; ) is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors (''seabed topography''), lake floors, or river floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography. The first recorded evidence of water ...

data which allows users to see ocean features, such as

trenches A trench is a type of excavation or in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a wider gully, or ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or pit). In geology, trenches result from erosi ...

and

ridges A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...

, in 3D. Many people using the applications are adding their own data and are making them available through various sources, such as the WorldWind Central or blogs mentioned in the link section below. All images and movies created with WorldWind using Blue Marble, Landsat, or USGS

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

data can be freely modified, re-distributed, and used on web sites, even for commercial purposes.

Add-ons and plugins

WorldWind can be expanded by using one of many add-ons - small extensions that add new functionality to the program.
Possible types of add-ons: * Point layers: simple

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable ...

files displaying placemarks (point of interest) as icons * Trail layers: paths (routes, boundaries) * Line features: XML with a list of points visualized as a line or wall * Polygon features: XML with a list of points visualized as a filled

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two to ...

(flat or

extruded Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex c ...

) * Model features: XML used to load 3D textured meshes * Place names: specific points (such as cities, hills and buildings) that are assigned text labels * Image layers: high resolution imagery for various places in the world * Scripts: files that control camera movement Plugins are small programs written in C#, VB or J# which are loaded and compiled by WorldWind at startup. Plug-in developers can add features to WorldWind without changing the program's source code.

WorldWind Java

The original recipe for WorldWind was restricted to Windows, relying on the .NET libraries and DirectX. A new SDK version has been developed in

with

JOGL Java OpenGL (JOGL) is a wrapper library that allows OpenGL to be used in the Java programming language. It was originally developed by Kenneth Bradley Russell and Christopher John Kline, and was further developed by the Sun Microsystems Game Techn ...

referred to as WorldWind Java. The latest version (2.2.0) was released in August 2020. This new version has an

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

-centric architecture with functionalities 'off-loaded' to modular components, leaving the API at the core. This makes WorldWind itself a plugin, so that it can be used as interchangeably as possible (for example via

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

). This refactoring exercise allows WorldWind to be accessed via a browser as a Java Applet. A preview of the WorldWind Java SDK was released on May 11, 2007 during Sun Microsystem's annual

JavaOne __NOTOC__ JavaOne is an annual conference first organized in 1996 by Sun Microsystems to discuss Java technologies, primarily among Java developers. It was held in San Francisco, California, typically running from a Monday to Thursday in summer ...

conference. Since WWj is an SDK, there is no single application; instead there are any number of applications using WWj, each with different functionalities, created by government agencies and commercial developers from around the world. These applications include simple virtual globe viewers, satellite tracker, GIS platforms, photo editor, F-16 simulator, mission planning software and many more.

Android and the Web

NASA has since released WorldWind Android and Web WorldWind, two SDKs for the

Android OS Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of deve ...

and the JavaScript-based

web app A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

s. Like WWj, there is no single application for the versions.

Tutorials

* NASA WorldWind SDK Tutorial''

This Tutorial was developed by the Institute for Geoinformatics from the

University of Münster The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...

, Germany. It contains tutorials from setting up an Eclipse environment with the WorldWind API to building polygons from

Linked Open Data In computing, linked data (often capitalized as Linked Data) is structured data which is interlinked with other data so it becomes more useful through semantic queries. It builds upon standard Web technologies such as HTTP, RDF and URIs, but r ...

geographic datasets. It contains important tips from beginners to advanced developers.

Forks and clones

* WorldWind Earth is a community that maintains friendly

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tine (structural), tines with which one ...

s of the three current WorldWind SDK releases. They fork provide a release channel for builds based on the latest fixes and features from WebWorldWind's develop branch plus several "cherry-picked" enhancements from the WorldWind community. The WorldWindJS project is available on

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...

and releases are available on NPM. * Geoforge project contains a

of the NASA WorldWind project. Geoforge provides open source software. It leads in a platform that manages geosciences data and uses WorldWind features to provide a display of geo-localised geosciences objects. * Dapple is a

of the NASA WorldWind project, it is an Open Source project created by developers at Geosoft. Dapple is aimed at

geoscience Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four sphere ...

professionals, and has features aimed at them, such as easy addition of WMS servers and a simpler UI very similar to Google Earth's. * SERVIR-VIZ is a customized version of WorldWind developed by IAGT for the SERVIR project. * WW2D was a cross-platform, free and open-source application based on

and OpenGL technologies and can be run on Microsoft Windows,

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

(

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

and

x86-64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging ...

) and Solaris on

SPARC SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system develope ...

. WW2D uses images from WorldWind's servers. ** WW2D Plus One - an update to WW2D providing a 3D view. * Punt was a

of the .NET NASA WorldWind project, and was started by two members of the

free software community The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run the software, to study the software, to modify the software, and to share copies of the s ...

who had made contributions to WorldWind. Punt was based on the code in WorldWind 1.3.2, but its initial release has features not found in WorldWind 1.3.2 or 1.3.3 (such as support for multiple languages). Currently, Punt is only available for Windows, but long-term goals include a desire to move to a cross-platform solution.

Datasets available

Low resolution Blue Marble datasets are included with the initial

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

; as a user zooms into certain areas, additional high resolution data is downloaded from the NASA

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...

s. The size of all currently available data sets is about 4.6

terabytes The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

Earth

Animated data layers

* Scientific Visualization Studio * MODIS *

GLOBE A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model glo ...

* NRL Real-Time Weather

Image/terrain datasets

Blue Marble ''The Blue Marble'' is an image of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, from a distance of around from the planet's surface. Taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon, it is one of the most reproduced images in history. ...

Next Generation imagery * Landsat 7 imagery ** NLT Landsat ( Visible &

Pseudo The prefix pseudo- (from Greek ψευδής, ''pseudes'', "false") is used to mark something that superficially appears to be (or behaves like) one thing, but is something else. Subject to context, ''pseudo'' may connote coincidence, imitation, ...

Color) **

Geocover Earth Satellite Corporation (EarthSat), an American company, was a pioneer in the commercial use of Earth observation satellites. Founded in 1969, EarthSat was first headquartered in Washington, D.C., and later moved its offices to Bethesda, Mar ...

1990 & 2000 (pseudo; ''1990'' layer was produced from Landsat 4 & 5 images) ** OnEarth (visible & pseudo) ** i-cubed (visible) *

imagery ** Digital Ortho (DOQ - scanned black and white aerial image)s ** Urban Area Ortho (montaged color aerial photography of many major US metropolitan areas) **

Topographic map In modern mapping, a topographic map or topographic sheet is a type of map characterized by large- scale detail and quantitative representation of relief features, usually using contour lines (connecting points of equal elevation), but histori ...

s * Zoomit! imagery (community produced layer) ** LINZ (montaged color aerial photography of New Zealand) ** GSWA (Topographic and geological maps of Western Australia) ** South Africa (colour satellite and aerial imagery) ** US imagery (montaged color aerial photography of many major US metropolitan areas) * SRTM (SRTM30Plus/SRTMv2/USGS NED) terrain data (includes

)

Extraterrestrial datasets

Moon

Clementine A clementine (''Citrus × clementina'') is a tangor, a citrus fruit hybrid between a willowleaf mandarin orange ( ''C.'' × ''deliciosa'') and a sweet orange (''C. × sinensis''), named in honor of Clément Rodier, a French missionary who fir ...

(40xx - Colour, 30xx - Greyscale) * Hypsometric Map

Mars

* MOC (

Mars Global Surveyor ''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) was an American robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through t ...

– Mars Orbiter Camera) * MOLA (MGS – Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter hypsometric map) * THEMIS (

Mars Odyssey ''2001 Mars Odyssey'' is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectro ...

–

Thermal Emission Imaging System The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) is a camera on board the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. It images Mars in the visible and infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in order to determine the thermal properties of the surface and to ...

) * MDIM (

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

– Mars Digital Image Model)

Venus

Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East ...

Imaging Radar (color and grayscale) * Hypsometric Map

Jupiter

* Jupiter * Callisto * Europa * Ganymede * Io

Sloan Digital Sky Survey

= Survey Imagery

= * SDSS Server *

WMAP The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...

Image Server

= Footprint Imagery

= * SDSS Footprint * FIRST (Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm) Footprint

Specifications

Baseline resolutions

* 500 m (Blue Marble Next Generation) * 15 m (Landsat imagery; except for polar areas)

Typical high resolutions

* U.S. ** USGS Digital Ortho: 1 m (grayscale; near full coverage) ** USGS Urban Area Ortho: 0.25 m ** Zoomit!: 0.15 m to 1 m * New Zealand ** Zoomit! (from LINZ data): 2.5 m (color and grayscale) * Western Australia ** Zoomit! (from GSWA): 250K surface geology mosaic, 250K topographic data, Magnetic Intensity, Bouger Gravity * South Africa ** Zoomit!: Spot5 10 m (colour near full coverage), Robben Island 0.5 m, Johannesburg 2.5 m

Altitude resolution

* U.S.: 30 m (1 arcsecond; USGS NED) * Global: 90 m (3 arcseconds; SRTM) * Oceans: 2

arcminute A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The n ...

s and better

Age

* Some USGS aerial images were taken in the early 1990s. * Landsat 7 images are all taken after 1999 (except for Geocover 1990).

References

External links

*
NASA Web WorldWind

NASA WorldWind Java
* https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/android/get-started/ * https://github.com/NASAWorldWind/WorldWindAndroid * https://jitpack.io/p/NASAWorldWind/WorldWindAndroid * https://github.com/WorldWindEarth/WorldWindJava/blob/develop/README.md * https://github.com/WorldWindEarth/WorldWindJava/wiki
WorldWind Android "Community Edition" SDK

NASA WorldWind.NET (legacy)
at

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirroring ...

worldwind.earth
personal projects of Bruce Schubert, a software engineer on the NASA WorldWind team {{Authority control 2004 software Earth sciences graphics software Free software programmed in Java (programming language) Graphic software in meteorology Keyhole Markup Language Internet software for Linux Linux programming tools MacOS programming tools NASA online Planetarium software for Linux Programming tools for Windows Satellite imagery Science education software Virtual globes