HR: 12:10h
AN: ED32B-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Potential Uses of EarthSLOT (an Earth Science, Logistics, and Outreach Terrainbase) for Education and Integration in the International Polar Year
AU: * Nolan, M
EM: matt.nolan@uaf.edu
AF: University of Alaska Fairbanks, 455 Duckering Bldg, Fairbanks, AK 99775 United States
AB: EarthSLOT is an internet-based, 3D, interactive terrain and data visualization system that may have many potential uses as an education and integration tool for International Polar Year projects. Recently funded by NSF's Office of Polar Programs for use in the Arctic, the global nature of the application lends itself well for use at both poles and everywhere in between. The application allows one to start with a spinning earth and zoom down to surface level. The highest resolution digital elevation models available provide the necessary 3D topographic perspective and a variety of possible high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery layers add surface realism; resolution can be down to the centimeter level for either type of data, and frequently acquired satellite imagery may be updated automatically as it arrives. Superimposed on this can be nearly any form of vector or annotation layers, such as shapefiles, polygons, point data, and 3D models (still and moving), which can be easily imported from existing GIS applications or spreadsheets. External databases can also be queried and the results served seamlessly. The entire application is served over the internet, and any connection with speeds over 300kps allows one to interactively fly with a minimum of performance lag. EarthSLOT stands for Earth Science, Logistics, and Outreach Terrainbase, targeting the user-groups of scientists, logisticians, and the public. Approved scientific users can add their own vector content to the application on their own, such that they can create their own custom applications featuring their data but using our underlying earth model with a minimum of interaction with us. For example, an oceanographer can add ship tracks or buoy locations to the model with links to data, host the link on his or her own web page, and invite collaborators to view the spatial relationship of their data to underlying bathymetry. Logisticians or program managers interested in understanding the spatial relationships between different projects for the purposes of coordinating or facilitating cost sharing of logistics can add layers that show the locations and timing of their projects. Educators or principle investigators interested in outreach can design and implement custom applications to share the motivation, rationale, and results of their work in a large variety of ways. Each of these applications can be freely-shared or password-protected, depending on their nature, on either project home pages or on a central IPY-EarthSLOT site. Our prototype application can be found on-line at www.earthslot.org. We already have substantial Landsat coverage of the Arctic, and in the near future plan to incorporate high resolution mosaics of Greenland and Antarctica. With modest additional funding, we propose that EarthSLOT could be used a central integration tool for projects related to the International Polar Year.
UR: http://www.earthslot.org
DE: 9315 Arctic region
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting