Travel the entire universe with NASA's World Wind

Filed in archive Programming on August 28, 2007

How about traveling to the blissful Himalayas or Eiffel Tower without moving an inch from your chair? To me it sounds to be a fantastic idea and all this has been made possible by NASA which has developed open source software called World Wind which enables you to zoom from satellite altitude to any place on earth. Using it one can get a feel of any part of the earth in visually rich 3D form giving you an impression as if you are really out there. Using a combination of Landsat 7 imagery with SRTM dramatic views of Earth can be seen at eye level. World Wind is a Java technology component which one can integrate into their applications.




Since it's available as open source software one can build onto the NASA World Wind Java 3D visualization technology and play an important role in scientific application, business and government use and educational software. If you think that it is a spin off of Google Earth then you are completely wrong since both the software are a bit different and differ in terms of development history, focus and philosophy. One more thing if you thought that World Wind is only limited to planet Earth then have a look as you can use its components and modules for viewing moon and other planets too. Tie up your laces and get ready to roam around the earth and universe with World Wind.