Following the broad uptake of these technologies by scientists and end-users, alternative technologies for virtual globes have been developed that are faster for displaying of very large data sets (e.g., for detailed 3D textured city models ), work well on hand-held devices, and can function entirely within a web-browser. Virtual globes have changed the way we interact with spatial data, largely due to the popularity of Google Earth and NASA World Wind. These advances also create new problems to solve-how can scientists efficiently share and communicate these data sets with each other, and with non-specialists, to maximise the public benefit of the large efforts undertaken in creating these data sets? Today, scientists have vast quantities of data at their disposal to pursue new theories of the Earth system-the Earth’s surface is continuously monitored by satellites, geological sampling from land and sea is being assembled into community databases, geophysical imaging probes present-day deep Earth structure, and supercomputing resources power dynamic simulations of the physical processes shaping the world around us, over timescales up to hundreds of millions of years. More than 100 years ago, Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of continental drift by establishing previously unrecognised associations between geological and fossil data from widely dispersed continents, and fitting together the bathymetric outlines of these continents defined within maps of the Earth. Geoscience relies heavily on the visualization of geospatial data, helping us to make fundamental new inferences about the Earth around us, and how it has evolved. The globes put the on-the-fly visualization of massive data sets at the fingertips of end-users to stimulate teaching and learning and novel avenues of inquiry. These space-time globes include tectonic reconstructions of the Earth’s gravity and magnetic fields, and several models of long-wavelength surface dynamic topography through time, including the interactive plotting of vertical motion histories at selected locations. The portal is specifically designed to visualize models of the Earth through geological time. The portal also features globes portraying seafloor geology and a global data set of marine magnetic anomaly identifications. The globes include a visualization of a high-resolution global digital elevation model and the vertical gradient of the global gravity field, highlighting small-scale seafloor fabric such as abyssal hills, fracture zones and seamounts in unprecedented detail. The globes use WebGL for hardware-accelerated graphics and are cross-platform and cross-browser compatible with complete camera control. The portal allows fast interactive visualization of global geophysical and geological data sets, draped over digital terrain models. The GPlates Portal () is a gateway to a series of virtual globes based on the Cesium Javascript library. Here, we describe our efforts to bring to life our studies of the Earth system, both at present day and through deep geological time. These innovations open up new avenues for how scientists communicate and share data and ideas with each other and with the general public. Department of Commerce, Contact: Stefan Maus, SRTL15 Plus topography,, Owner: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Contact: David Sandwell, Seafloor lithology grid,, Owner: The University of Sydney, Contact: Adriana Dutkiewicz, Plate reconstructions used to reconstruct the gravity and magnetic grids,, Owner: The University of Sydney, Contact: Dietmar Müller, Dynamic topography grids,, Owner: The University of Sydney, Contact: Nicolas Flament, Magnetic anomaly identifications,, Owner: Numerous authors of papers listed on web site above, Contact: Maria Seton, pace of scientific discovery is being transformed by the availability of ‘big data’ and open access, open source software tools. Summary: Gravity grid,, Owner: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Contact: David Sandwell, Magnetic grid,, Owner: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Links to all relevant sites can be found on the web pages for the individual virtual globes on the GPlates Portal at. The data displayed on the virtual globes are all published and freely available, but at a number of different internet sites.
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