Real-Time Global Data Model for the Digital Earth

A global data model is presented for the digital earth that provides scalability and fast access. It is shown how the same global hierarchical structure can be used for a wide variety, and perhaps all types, of geospatial data. To maximize efficiency, particular types of data can, at prescribed levels of detail, transition from the global model to type-specific data structures and detail management schemes. This framework has been applied successfully to a variety of data including terrain elevations, phototextures and imagery, maps, buildings, moving or flying vehicles, weather, and other data. Further, the framework provides a geospatial visual data mining approach where one can navigate continuously from global overviews to high resolution local views. This paper presents results for several applications.

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