[Infowarrior] - How Google Earth Is Changing Science

[Richard Forno]

SPIEGEL ONLINE - August 1, 2006, 12:02 PM
URL: 
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,429525,00.html

The Mapping Revolution
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0.html

How Google Earth Is Changing Science

By Manfred Dworschak

Biologists, epidemiologists and disaster control experts are discovering
Google Earth as a powerful tool in their work. The success of the digital
globe has reawakened interest in computer mapping models.

Erik Born constantly keeps tabs on the whereabouts of his walruses no matter
what part of the Arctic Sea they might decide to visit on a given day. Just
off Greenland's ice-bound coast last spring, the Danish biologists managed
to embed tiny tracking sensors in the animals' blubber. Now, he can follow
his subjects through the four seasons, wherever they might migrate.

Born doesn't even have to leave his own office. Instead, Google Earth's
digital globe rotates on his computer monitor. A position marker on the
screen identifies the position of each walrus.

Google Earth wasn't really intended for scientists. The Google search
engine's extraordinary globe, which is made up of hundreds of thousands of
satellite photos and aerial images, was initially meant as a game for
virtual hobby pilots. Users discovered that it was fun to fly over their own
homes, swing up into space and, within seconds, swoop back down into the
depths of the Grand Canyon. But now the scientific community is discovering
how useful the software is for their own work.

With a single keystroke, biologist Born superimposes colored maps over the
Arctic. The maps show him where the ice sheet is getting thinner and the
direction in which the pieces of floating ice on which walruses like to
catch a ride are drifting. All of the ice data, which comes from satellites
and measuring buoys, is available on the Internet. By loading the data into
the program, Born can detect how global warming is affecting the migratory
behavior of his giant walruses.

And it's not just walruses. Google Earth played an unexpectedly useful role
in the wake of last summer's disastrous flooding in New Orleans following
Hurricane Katrina. Within just a short time after the hurricane struck,
Google Earth had already added 8,000 post-disaster aerial photographs of
flooded areas taken by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency
(NOAA). The images allowed disaster relief workers to scan areas on the
computer and search, for example, for passable roads.

(Geo)Graphically depicted information

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Epidemiologists, meteorologists and urban planners have also discovered the
magic of Google's model of the globe. For them, one of the program's most
attractive features is the ability to graphically depict many different
types of data on the digital planet. They can set position markers for cases
of bird flu or the locations of crimes. The markers have already been used
to label hundred of volcanoes. Clicking on the volcano markers opens a
window containing images and explanatory text and even a Web camera shot of
a smoking crater. Maps, showing data such as population density or ocean
temperatures for example, can be layered over the globe.

It isn't surprising that the virtual globe, available as a free download in
its basic version, has spread like wildfire. After all, it provides a place
to put all the hopelessly scattered information we have collected about our
world. Namely, on the earth itself. The digital globe finally depicts
everything exactly where it belongs.

Computers have long been capable of processing geographic data. There are
powerful, special programs that can create all kinds of colorful maps. And
unlike Google Earth, which can only be used to display data, these programs
-- experts call them geo-information systems, or GIS -- are also useful in
analysis. But operating the programs is also incredibly cumbersome. Their
biggest drawback is that they spit out vast numbers of individual maps
without providing a look at the whole picture -- they don't provide a
digital globe rotating directly in front of the viewer's eyes.

Google Earth's popularity among ordinary users is injecting new life into
the entire industry. "Google Earth offers globally available data in a very
straightforward manner," says Klaus Greve of the Geographic Institute at the
University of Bonn. "It's also very appealing to researchers who were
previously intimidated by real GIS software."

Species distribution on the Web

Greve is working on one of the most ambitious projects in the field of
geographic data. He is part of a global effort currently underway to develop
a vast species database for everything that wiggles, walks and grows on the
earth. Scientists want the database to automatically include information
about the habitats of known plants and animals. The data is derived from the
enormous collections of natural history museums, where millions of samples
-- dried, stuffed or preserved -- are kept in long-term storage.

You can even see two different years at once. Here, the Rhine River in 1983
and 1999.
FACHHOCHSCHULE MAINZ / Google Earth
You can even see two different years at once. Here, the Rhine River in 1983
and 1999.
The database will also include the location and time of the find for almost
a hundred million objects, data now being scanned and compiled. "For the
first time, this will allow us to develop maps showing the global
distribution of species," says Greve. "Google Earth can then be used to
display their locations."

The program, though, can't do everything. Experts need special software to
analyze the data more closely and embark, for example, on excursions into
biospheres of the past. To study the spread of the grasshopper warbler and
purse-web spider before the Industrial Revolution, for example, a data
traveler would simply pull up the desired time window. "This allows us to
discover how human beings have affected the environment in which they live,"
says Greve.

Some of the most avid users of the new geography programs are
epidemiologists, who use them to track the spread of disease, and disaster
control experts, who often have to make quick decisions over deployment of
personnel and resources. Both groups need to be able to readily combine all
kinds of data, something for which Google Earth has only limited capacity.

Calculations for entire ecosystems

Consistency has also been a problem. "There is currently no open standard
that everyone understands," says geo computer scientist Alexander Zipf of
Mainz Technical University. But Zipf's team is working on the problem. Their
first aim is to develop software that's just as useful for tracking
catastrophic floods as reactor accidents. The objective is a constantly
updated situation map that includes all of the data rescue and disaster
relief teams need. Meteorologists will provide weather data, geologists the
data on the flow of ground water in a given area and the Federal Radiation
Protection Office the data collected by radioactivity sensors.

Only if the data from all sources fit together can the geo-programs utilize
their true strength: computing. If necessary, they can even perform
calculations for entire ecosystems.

A team of researchers armed with all manner of sensory equipment and
measuring devices is currently traveling in Inner Mongolia, where
desertification threatens to destroy vast areas of pastureland. When sheep
and goats eat away all the vegetation, the topsoil becomes hard and brittle
and is eventually blown away by the wind.

The question scientists want to answer is how many grazing animals the
environment can support without being destroyed. To do so, they monitor the
movement of dust and measure moisture and methane levels in the soil for
different types of vegetation and climate. The computer takes the data
derived from smaller areas and performs projections for comparable larger
areas, creating models that can be used to simulate the long-term effects of
pastural agriculture. But the scientists have to be careful not to become
too enthralled with the images themselves. "The software produces these
wonderfully colorful maps," says Lutz Breuer, an ecologist in the German
city of Giessen who is also involved in the project. "It's tempting to
interpret the maps in ways that aren't even supported by the data."

Google Earth has become wildly popular. Some have even begun making designs
on the ground to greet users -- like this one in Germany.
DPA
Google Earth has become wildly popular. Some have even begun making designs
on the ground to greet users -- like this one in Germany.
Google Earth's globe would be far too basic for these types of environmental
models. But the company has already announced coming improvements. The
company apparently figures that the more the scientific community uses
digital maps in its work, the more attractive the tool becomes for the
general public.

Google Earth, live

This kind of thinking has also given new impetus to the established makers
of GIS programs. The California-based firm Esri, a market leader in the
field, plans to launch a completely revised version of its ArcGIS program in
a few weeks. The new version will also feature a virtual globe accessible
through the Internet.

"It allows you to fly around wherever you wish, just like with Google
Earth," says Jack Dangermond, the CEO of Esri. "But we've also built in all
kinds of tools for researchers." For example, before embarking on a virtual
flight over Seattle, the program can incorporate data, such as regional
ground water distribution statistics, into its map images.

Skyline, a US firm, has announced a new planet model that's also capable of
processing moving images. The model, Skylineglobe, almost seamlessly inserts
live video images into its panoramic views from space, offering a novel
experience to the cyber traveler. As one flies over a soccer stadium, for
example, an aerial view opens up of a match currently underway. A camera
mounted on the roof of the stadium delivers the images, while the program
automatically adjusts the camera angle.

Life gradually begins appearing on the globe, allowing users to observe
their own planet in full swing. Although the technology is currently limited
to traffic cameras and a few gimmicks, it does show the direction digital
globes are taking: The point is not just to display more and more data in
refined abstractions. At the same time, the artificial globe is becoming
less and less complicated. One day, so goes the prediction, it will be
identical with the world it depicts.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

 
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