Development of an Integrated Software Platform for Global Mapping and Analysis

Geographic information science and technology is playing an increasingly important role in studies of global change and earth system science.To meet the demands of surface information collection,data management,spatial analysis and applications at the global scale,new software based on 3D coordinate systems is urgently needed. This paper introduces an integrated software platform for remote sensing and geographic information system based on Google Earth: Global Mapper(GM) and Global Analyst(GA).Besides the powerful spatial data browsing functions of Google Earth,this platform can be used for global surface information extraction and collection,database construction,map overlay,image processing,visualization,and spherical geospatial analysis.This platform complements the defects of traditional 2D based software,and changes the ways of data collection and management,which can better serve the global change and earth system science community.