The NASA Earth Observations website has dozens of layers of global scientific data formatted for viewing with Google Earth.
The data is grouped into Ocean, Atmosphere, Energy, Land and Life categories. The layers are too numerous to list, but they include:
- Sea Surface Temperature
- Chlorophyll Concentration (MODIS)
- Snow Cover & Sea Ice Extent
- Cloud Water Content (MODIS)
- Total Rainfall (TRMM)
- Water Vapor (MODIS)
- Land Surface Temperature
- Radiation
- Active Fires (MODIS)
- Land Cover Classification (MODIS)
- Permafrost
- Vegetation Index [NDVI] (MODIS)
- Population Density
The layers highlighted in red above have been combined into a single network link, which can be downloaded below the screenshot. This will give you a preview of some of the available data. Visit the NASA Earth Observation website for the other data overlays.
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The Cooperative Institute of Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (CIMSS-SSEC) has created a huge set of weather related overlays that can be viewed in Google Earth.
Their program is focused on tropical cyclones, but they also have a large amount of satellite and other data covering at the regional and global levels. The data available in Google Earth includes:
- Storm tracking and forecast
- Recent satellite imagery
- Sea surface conditions
- Precipitation
- Maximum wind speeds
- Winds aloft analysis (wind shear, vorticity, etc.)
- Satellite animations
- Global Infrared and Water Vapor mosaics
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The group over at Natural Earth have put together a great collection of public domain map data and made it freely available online. There are numerous global datasets provided at several different scales. Bad news is most of the data is provided in SHP file format, which does not import directly into the free version of Google Earth. Good news is I have taken the following 13 map layers and converted them for Google Earth.
- Base Map – Shaded Relief Map
- Oceans and Seas
- Lakes – Major Lakes
- Rivers – Major Rivers
- Reefs
- Geographic Areas – Great Plains, Congo Basin, etc.
- Geographic Points – Mountains, Depressions, etc.
- Geographic Lines – Date Line, Tropic Lines, etc.
- Glaciated Areas
- Countries
- States – States, Provinces, etc.
- Urban Areas
- Cities – Major cities
Each layer can be turned on or off independently allowing you to mix and match the data however best fits your needs. Most of the features have been categorized by size or relative importance. Larger rivers have larger names and thicker lines. Larger cities have larger names and placemarks, etc.
Each layer is activated by a Network Link, which is typically between 1-5 megabytes. When you first enable a layer, it might take a minute to download. Also, slower computers might have a difficult time displaying some of the layers with colored polygons.
Below area few examples of what can be created with the Natural Earth Map Maker.
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