Someone from the ESA has just let me know about about this nice use of WWJava called EOLi (Earth Observation Link). It is the European Space Agency’s client for Earth Observation Catalogue and Ordering Services.

Using EOLi, you can browse the metadata and preview images of Earth Observation data acquired by the satellites ENVISAT, ERS, Landsat, IKONOS, DMC, ALOS, SPOT, Kompsat, Proba, JERS, IRS, Nimbus, NOAA, SCISAT, SeaStar, Terra/Aqua.

EOLi is a standalone application that can run on Windows, Linux, UNIX and OSX the only requirement is the Java Runtime 1.5.

The EOLi website has detailed help files and tutorials on the use of the application.

Ok, since I found out yesterday about a new Virtual Globe on the loose, one build on Java no less.  I thought I would take a look at it and have some laughs while reading their related web sites (more on that later).  The new globe in question is pTolemy3D (where did they think up that name from?) and like WWJava, it is built with Java/JOGL code.  They claim to be more open source than WWJava is as well (yawn, we have heard this argument back and forth for 4 years now and I can still count the people that complain on one hand).  pTolemy3D is sponsored/supported/developed by Spatialcloud as a viewer for their services.

Looking at their example… well, their embed example does not work for me in FireFox 3.0.6 but I can get it to load in IE7.

I found the control of the web applet to be quite basic.. I could rotate and zoom in and that was all I was able to do.  also when zooming in and out there is a lot of flickering.. too much flickering actually.  I am not sure how they were able to get some of their screen shots.. and I was not able to do anything similar in their example.

patmurris, one of the WWJava devs, did take a quick browse through their source code and here is his comment on the code:

I had a quick look at the source code… and they still have a lot of ground to cover IMO. They may also run into the same pitfalls we encountered like camera ‘jitter’ due to floating point precisions with large numbers, or depth buffer issues when overlaying several terrain mesh on top of each others… but i just had a quick look and i may be wrong – and i’m biased of course .

Now, about some of their claims.. and a comment on slashgeo’s post.  I am not sure how slashgeo came to the idea that their is no real support for it.  What is it anyway?  WWJava, or embeding it into a webpage?  There is support for all of that and a ton of examples on how to do it.. so that is kind of a baseless claim.

Spatialcloud must have the same tunnel vision as Google..  they think that if they have done it, no one else has before them

pTolemy3D is also groundbreaking in being a fully browser-based 3D globe application. While other solutions in the market require installations of executables or special plug-ins, the Viewer will run in any web browser with common Java support.

Well, considering they are the fourth 3D globe in a web page, they are still only the second where no extral plug-in code is needed in the web browser.  So, not really “groundbreaking” to anyone.  I also could not get it to work in FF, so some minor issues still need to be worked out there.

Now back to pTolemy3D’s FAQ..

Why would I use pTolemy3D for my mapping applications instead of NASA’s Worldwind Java or other “open” 3D clients?

NASA’s Worldwind Java is a popular and well constructed 3D globe which has backing in the open-source community. Unfortunately, it is not a truly open-source project; at least not in the way in which open-source Ptolemy3D is instituted. pTolemy3D is committed to keeping the project as a totally open-source project under the guidelines of GPLv3. The government backed Worldwind Java is open but not as open, due to the fact is dictated by the Nasa Open Source license v1.3. Many developers have come to understand this difference, including some of those now working on pTolemy3D. Therefore, if you want full control over your source code, pTolemy3D is the solution you will want to use.

Did all this FUD get shot down back in 2006?  oh well.  There are quite a few users that are developing with WWJava and they do not seem to have any problems with the NOSA license.  Which is still a fair license.  You can develop on the code, you can release your own application using the code.. you can sell a commercial version of your application.

patmurris also comments on this as well:

Although i am not well versed in interpreting the various open source license, i’m wondering why they would go to the trouble of building from scratch another Java globe instead of extending or reworking the already quite mature World Wind Java SDK for the benefits of all. It seems they do resent the NOSA as too constraining…

The FAQ is actually very sparse on actuall information, they are more keen on saying they are better without giving reasons why it would be better.

While it looks like it could be a nice Java based globe, it has a lot of code maturing to do still.

Patrick Murris has an interview posted on his site that he did with Patrick Hogan, the NASA WW Project Manager.  I had done an interview two years back.  This interview focuses on WWJava and gives some insight on WWJava.

And something that has been said over and over since 2005..

3. A common reaction to the World Wind project is to wonder why bother redeveloping something that already exist for free, namely Google Earth or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth?

Google, who bought Keyhole in October of 2004, delivers data that is proprietary and restricts use of its technology essentially to the KML file format. World Wind provides that same ability without any limitation on how one might use the technology. This stimulates business opportunities for a much larger solution domain.

Ok, I will admit it.  The new bathymetric imagery that is in Google Earth is quite nice and a much better improvement over what was there (though they didn’t/couldn’t make it follow the current terrain??).  I leave the reviews to the Google Fanboys I had to fire up WW to compare the two, and this is even an improvement over the BMNG bathymetric view of the globe that WorldWind uses for the default globe.

WorldWind BMNG view, just south of Cuba

Same general location in Google Earth.  There is more detail of the underwater features.

Now, the nice thing about this imagery is that it is NOT just for Google.  Anyone can download the imagery from GEBCO.  And it looks like they will have new imagery soon according to their website.

I can think of two projects that can make immediate use of this imagery, GeoMapApp and Virtual Ocean.  So, time to send some emails and get this imagery on the WorldWind servers.

While Google Earth/Maps users think it is the best thing since burnt toast, WorldWind Java is making headway into a lot more projects.  WorldWind Java related presentations this year include:

• Virtual Ocean
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
• Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory
• Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information
• Joint Center for Intelligent Spatial Computing

Patrick Hogan’s presentations:

• World Wind Java Enabling Technology, Thu 18th Dec 08:00.
• NASA World Wind: A New Mission, Thu 18th Dec 14:55.

Also the European Space Agency will also show a new version of EOLI (Earthnet OnLine Interactive), a client for the Earth Observation, Multi-mission, Catalogue and Ordering Services, using the World Wind SDK.

From Patrick Murris

How this slipped passed the radar’s I do not know.. but it is pretty cool none the less.

$ apt-cache show worldwind
Package: worldwind
Priority: optional
Section: multiverse/science
Installed-Size: 80
Maintainer: Ubuntu MOTU Developers
Original-Maintainer: Sylvestre Ledru
Architecture: all
Version: 0.5.0-1
Depends: libworldwind-java
Filename: pool/multiverse/w/worldwind/worldwind_0.5.0-1_all.deb
Size: 14308
MD5sum: d1dba908d92d42256b6596de159183da
SHA1: e353344d420b70fe37359ecb6b3dd284b66d8d1f
SHA256: b28075ba12e45cd4dbcde239962a4a7d7cf098d6306af0d3bf9d51de0bddde35
Description: 3D Virtual Globe
 World Wind allows any user to zoom from satellite altitude into
 any place on Earth, leveraging high resolution LandSat imagery
 and SRTM elevation data to experience Earth in visually rich 3D,
 just as if they were really there.
Homepage: http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/java/
Bugs: mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com
Origin: Ubuntu

I am not sure who the maintainer is though, the name is not one I can recal seeing in the WorldWind circles.  Could just be someone doing it just because they can.  And here is the related package page on the Ubuntu website.