Visualization of NASA Earth science data in Google Earth

Google Earth, as one of most popular geospatial data visualization environment, has been used to augment the research value of Earth science data at NASA Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Service Center. The solutions of how to use Google Earth to facilitate the sharing and interaction of geospatial data are described and summarized in this paper first. Some of solutions are applied to two-dimensional mapped data to render the data into Google Earth via Earth science-specific software and keyhole markup language. A 3D model based innovative method is proposed here to visualize and display the three-dimensional atmospheric vertical profiles derived from A-Train constellation satellites in the form of 3D orbit curtain in Google Earth. This visualization capability extends awareness and visibility of NASA Earth science data to massive Google Earth user groups, including the general public. The availability of many scientific results in Google Earth enables easy and convenient synergistic research, advancing collaborative and globalized scientific research on a virtual platform.