Explore the world with Dapple Earth Explorer
August 21, 2008By now, you’ve probably heard of Google Earth, a web-based program that lets users view satellite images of our planet and see locations all over the world. Well, imagine Google Earth plus access to the massive amount of geoscientific data and information that scientists have discovered about the world, and you’ve got Dapple Earth Explorer.
Dapple is a global data explorer that makes it easy to find and visualize the huge quantities of geoscientific data available on the Internet, including satellite imagery, geology maps, geophysical data, and lots of other earth data. Derived from the NASA World Wind open source project, Dapple is a free, downloadable program that lets you browse graphically rich data from global and corporate spatial servers – Geosoft DAP servers, NASA servers, USGS servers, ArcIMS servers, and lots of others.
Despite how complicated that may sound, Dapple’s interface is easy to use, and lets you access more geoscientifc data than you will ever need (unless, of course, you are a geoscientist). Not only can you take your students on a trip around the word, you can give them a little taste of the world of geoscience, too. Who knows, you might even have some budding geoscientists in your class! -LAUREN FROHNE
