Google Earth Library

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

KML Content: CIMSS-SSEC

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• AVHRR Satellite Imagery
• Tropical Atlantic Weather Data
• MODIS Today
• Historical Natural Hazards Database
• AWEKAS Weather Map Network

The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor collects cloud and other data from several satellites orbiting the Earth.  The University of Wisconsin has created an archive of AVHRR false color imagery dating back to 2007.  In addition, they have created a network link that updates automatically every day with the most recent satellite imagery.  I believe these are false-color images, but they look spectacular nonetheless.

You can access the individual files from the University of Wisconsin website.  Or you can just open the file beneath the screenshot and have access to all of them in Google Earth via an index that I have created.  The index contains the current image and archives from December 2007 to December 2009.  You will need to go to their website if you want to access archives after December 15, 2009.

KML Content: University of Wisconsin

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• CIMSS Tropical Cyclones
• Tropical Atlantic Weather Data
• MODIS Today
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The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology has numerous global overlays available that can be viewed with Google Earth. These overlays are on WMS servers, which can be a little tricky to set up in Google Earth, so I have done the hard part and all you have to do is download the file below the screenshot to access all of them. This following layers are included:

1990 Land Characteristics – The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) layer covers the continental United States and shows general land characteristics from 1990. This overlay is available in eight different formats (real color, pseudo-color, red band, etc.)

Landsat7 Global Mosaic - The Landsat7 layer covers the entire Earth and shows a mosaic of imagery obtained from the Landsat7 satellite. I believe this imagery was probably obtained in the early 2000’s. This overlay is available in 15 different formats (real color, pseudo-color, Pan Sharpened, red band, thermal band, etc.)

Blue Marble Next Generation Global Mosaic - The Blue Marble layer covers the entire Earth and shows a mosaic of imagery obtained from the MODIS sensor on the Aqua and Terra satellites. I believe this imagery was probably obtained in the mid 2000’s. There are separate mosaics for each month of the year and also various other options, such as the ability to view the mosaics with or without bathymetry shading.

SRTM Reflectance - The SRTM Reflectance layer covers the entire Earth and shows data collected by the Space Shuttle in 2000. This data was used to generate a highly accurate elevation grid of the Earth. There are separate mosaics for each of the four subswaths and and an average. In addition, a 90 meter SRTM Derived Elevation Model is included.

National Elevation Dataset (NED)- The National Elevation Dataset layer covers the continental United States and shows a grey scale elevation map. 30 meter and 90 meter versions of the overlays are provided.

MODIS Dailey Planet - The Dailey Planet layer covers the entire Earth and shows a continuously updated mosaic of imagery obtained from the MODIS sensor on the Aqua and Terra satellites. I believe the age of this imagery is typically less than 24 hours old with the Terra imagery from the morning and Aqua imagery from the afternoon.

Much more information about each of these layers is available at the OnEarth website

Credits Google Earth Library See above descriptions

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• MODIS Today
• MODIS Satellite Gallery
• 3Dsolar Addons
• World Fires in Real Time from FIRMS
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The MODIS sensor on the Aqua and Terra satellites capture amazingly detailed natural color imagery every day from all over the Earth. The imagery is detailed enough that you can easily see cloud formations, snow coverage, smoke from large fires, etc, for the entire US. And the best part is the imagery from these satellites is available in almost real time and is typically online within a few hours of it being captured. There are several MODIS datasets available for viewing within Google Earth.

MODIS Today:

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center has created MODIS Today, a repository of MODIS imagery for the Continental United States that updates every day. In addition to the current MODIS imagery, about 2 years of historical imagery is also available online from the MODIS Today website making it possible to watch storms and other meteorological events as they progress from one day to the next. They have made the imagery available in Google Earth format (just look for the Open in Google Earth link at the top of their web site).

OR……I have created an easy to use index that includes the current (Today’s) imagery and all of the historical imagery (through 12/13/2009), which can be accessed directly from Google Earth. Just download the file below the screenshot to access the imagery via this method. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to updated the new links to the historical imagery every day, but I’ll try to do an update every few months.

The historical imagery is organized by Year and Day of the year. For example, a1.07324 is interpreted as the 324th day of 2007 from the Aqua satellite.

These are very high resolution SuperOverlays. They will increase in resolution as you zoom in, but might take a few seconds to load. Unfortunately, the SuperOverlays are not optimized very well, so they are a bit slower than they need to be. But the image quality is excellent nonetheless.

NASA/JPL OnEarth:

The NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology has created the OnEarth website, which contains numerous global imagery overlays. One of these overlays is the DailyPlanet, which is a continuously updated near real-time overlay of imagery from the MODIS Terra satellite. This overlay covers the entire Earth and is updated as new imagery becomes available from the satellite.

Credits Google Earth Library MODIS Today OnEarth website NASA MODIS Satellites

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The TerraLook Archive contains 1,000’s of satellite images from the Terra and Landsat satellites. Many of the images covering environmentally sensitive areas (South American rainforests, etc.) throughout the Earth have been converted for viewing in Google Earth by Dr. Mark Mulligan of King’s College London.  The images in this collection date from 1972 to 2006.

Simply select the year you are interested in and zoom into one of the areas covered with imagery. The imagery should appear automatically.

Credits Kings College London USGS TerraLook

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