14 DAY TRIAL // I've always dreamed about visiting absolutely all places on Earth. I'm aware that this is physically impossible, so I've changed my goal to visiting all countries. I've checked some of them on my list so far, but I'm far from completing it, and it's most probable that I'm not going to be able to take this mission to a good end. But the best part is that I have the chance to use programs that help me explore all places on Terra from the comfort of my own chair.
I've recently had the chance to install and play with Nasa World Wind, which might prove to be quite an alternative to the famous Google Earth.
This is a program that will allow you to zoom in on any place you want on Planet Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, The Moon, plus a Sloan Digital Sky Survey view of earth (which aims to map 25% of the sky).
When opening the program for the first time, I was presented with an image of the Globe in its splendor. It uses Shuttle Radar Topography Mission elevation data and high resolution LandSat imagery, so that you can get the best results in your searches.
Under the covers
NASA World Wind offers an intuitive interface at least that was my case when I've first opened it. You can rotate the Globe by dragging it with your mouse or by simply clicking on a location (and it will automatically move until the clicked point comes to the center). Zooming in is made by double clicking on a location, and zooming out is correspondently made with a double right click.
You also get a useful toolbar on the top portion of the main screen that offers control over the most available of the features for the section.
You can toggle between showing or not place names, boundaries, landmarks, country flags, astrobiology field guide, global clouds, latitude and longitude lines, position information, compass, and more.
Also, the Blue Marble plugin is included, which gives you three different views of Earth's hydrographic map: Blue marble, BMNG (Bathymetry) and BMNG standard.
The movements and zoom transitions are smooth with a natural touch. You can load XML script files, so that things can become more interactive. There are two that come with the installation package: around the equator and display message text.
I particularly like to see the world spinning around the Equator, but what I like the most is to drag it myself and rotate it as much as I want, stop whenever I feel like it.
If you're planning to visit a particular place, and want to find it on the Globe, you can activate the country boundaries, and then search for it within these limits (assuming you know the general area where that country is located), and then zoom in progressively, until you find your destination. Or, there's the possibility of using the featured Place finder that will direct you to that place's exact coordinates and location.
In order to bring you the latest information about all the areas on the Globe, World Wind features the NRL Monterey Real-Time Weather. Also, if you want to be more thorough with your itinerary, you can activate the Rapid Fire Modis function that will show you where and what weather hazards are forecasted (you have to input a time range, and the narrowest, the more precise it will be). You are warned about fires, floods, dust and smoke storms, volcanoes, storms and other hazards. This way, you'll know almost for sure (with the precision of a weather forecast) all information about the place you're going to visit (or just gathering information about).
Also, as a little geography (and history) helper, you get a Scientific Visualization Studio that provides various information, ranging from agriculture to Mount Pinatubo's volcanic eruption animation or color swatch animations during Hurricane Katrina.
If you want to see things that are "out of this world", you can simply choose the Moon, Mars, Jupiter or Venus and zoom in to some alien cities and see whether we're alone or not.
If the 3D satellite images aren't enough for you, and need more documentation about your research, the help menu (when you need assistance you'll be directed to the CIA website, which is very rich in information) will show you every bit of information you need. You will get historical, geographical, demographic, and many more types of information about every country.
It would be "nice" to see the "Find location" feature available for all the other planets (and the Moon) that are included in the program. After all, you are able to buy terrain on the Moon, so why not see where exactly it's placed?
For components besides Earth, you can apply a thermal, shaded relief, or even see what and where exactly spacecrafts have landed until now (and, of course, get further information about each of them from CIA's database).
The good
This is a rich featured program that allows you to see great views of Earth and The Moon, as well as Venus, Mars and Jupiter. The interface you get is smooth, with a good 3D support that supplies realistic images. Not only do you get the chance to see almost every hidden corner on Earth, but you can also get further information about most items, making World Wind a good information source.
The bad
The program consumes quite some resources. Should you run it with the minimal requirements configuration, your system will run a little slower. You need a good Internet connection to load all the satellite images, but for high resolution views this is a must. The installation pack is not the smallest, but for 50 MB it offers plenty.
The truth
The truth is that this NASA World Wind needs some more work until it can be a true rival to Google Earth, but from what I've seen so far, it promises many good things. I also like the fact that I can explore other places rather than just stick to the Earth view, giving me a wider look over things.
Check out the screenshots below to get a glance at the program in action:
