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to provide as true a representation of the world as is possible, with worldwide coverage up to a very detailed level. When this is the case, the interface often has the option of providing simplified graphical overlays to highlight man-made features, since these are not necessarily obvious from a photographic aerial view. The other issue raised by such detail available is that of security, with some governments having raised concerns about the ease of access to detailed views of sensitive locations such as airports and military bases.
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Another type of virtual globe exists whose aim is not the accurate representation of the planet, but instead a simplified graphical depiction. Most early computerized atlases were of this type and, while displaying less detail, these simplified interfaces are still widespread since they are faster to
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device) and their design varies considerably according to their purpose. Those wishing to portray a visually accurate representation of the Earth often use satellite image servers and are capable not only of rotation but also zooming and sometimes horizon tilting. Very often such virtual globes aim
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that would be a giant globe connected by computers to various databases. This would be used as an educational tool to display large scale global patterns related to topics such as economics, geology, natural resource use, etc.
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or another world. A virtual globe provides the user with the ability to freely move around in the virtual environment by changing the viewing angle and position. Compared to a conventional
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project, which pioneered the concept of using computers to simulate distant physical environments (though the Movie Map's scope was limited to the city of
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for keeping track of all their geospatial data, including maps, architectural plans, weather data, and data from real-time satellite surveillance.
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is a flash based map covering areas in Canada, France, Latvia, Macau, Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States.
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as a "networked virtual representation of the Earth based on satellite images, aerial shots, altitude data and architectural data".
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become accessible for free, many of the latest online virtual globes are built to fetch and display these images. They include:
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In 1993 the German company ART+COM developed a first interactive
Virtual globe, the project Terravision; supported by the
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features an Earth mode with emphasis on data import/export, time-series support and a powerful tour authoring environment.
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and several satellite and aerial image datasets, the first popular virtual globe along with Google Earth. World Wind is
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As well as the availability of satellite imagery, online public domain factual databases such as the
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images) with international road dataset, the first popular virtual globe along with NASA World Wind.
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The use of virtual globe software was widely popularized by (and may have been first described in)
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Mahdavi-Amiri, A.; Alderson, T.; Samavati, S. (2015). "A Survey of
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Earth, a 3D application for viewing, editing and sharing GIS data. Supports
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Virtual globes may be used for study or navigation (by connecting to a
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in 1999. The first widely publicized online virtual globes were
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3D software model or representation of Earth or another world
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is a street view web service for
Central and Eastern Europe.
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Many of the functions of virtual globes were envisioned by
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293:. OpenWebGlobe is free and open-source software (
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377:software) are distant descendants of the
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181:is an India-specific virtual globe.
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524:"R. Buckminster Fuller's Geoscope"
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120:As more and more high-resolution
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853:Human impact on the environment
369:Virtual globes (along with all
682:Climate variability and change
522:Buckminster Fuller Institute.
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498:"ART+COM Studios, Terravision"
444:Terravision (computer program)
112:Comparison of web map services
106:List of virtual globe software
69:Virtual Globe 98, followed by
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1107:Evolution of the Solar System
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325:NTT InterCommunication Center
249:free and open-source software
116:Category:Street view services
858:Evolutionary history of life
422:Macroscope (science concept)
323:Terravision installation at
147:. Retired as of Oct 1, 2017.
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1337:Precession of the equinoxes
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1117:Location in the Universe
1059:Antarctic/Southern Ocean
758:List of sovereign states
471:Computers & Graphics
243:, with data provided by
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552:VirtualGlobes@Benneten
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1317:Earth's gravity field
1312:Earth's energy budget
838:Biogeochemical cycles
763:dependent territories
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1232:Computer cartography
886:Computer cartography
610:Prebiotic atmosphere
434:Planetarium software
267:open-source software
1351:Related disciplines
1029:Geologic time scale
750:Culture and society
605:Atmosphere of Earth
439:Science On a Sphere
301:WorldWide Telescope
1399:Geodesy portal
1249:Geodetic astronomy
1024:Geological history
898:Geodetic astronomy
530:on October 7, 2008
390:Buckminster Fuller
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309:CIA World Factbook
126:aerial photography
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1094:Planetary science
1014:Extremes on Earth
981:Signal processing
122:satellite imagery
36:three-dimensional
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1259:Gravity of Earth
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692:Paleoclimatology
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412:Geovisualization
263:topographic maps
195:and the city of
167:GIS file formats
145:GIS file formats
52:surface of Earth
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383:Aspen, Colorado
379:Aspen Movie Map
375:virtual reality
344:science fiction
340:Neal Stephenson
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259:NASA World Wind
143:and many other
133:ArcGIS Explorer
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201:free software
199:. Earth3D is
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1122:Solar System
1084:Oceanography
1074:Indian Ocean
1064:Arctic Ocean
1004:Age of Earth
956:Geomagnetism
927:
630:Thermosphere
620:Stratosphere
532:. Retrieved
528:the original
517:
506:. Retrieved
501:
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283:OpenWebGlobe
225:DigitalGlobe
221:Google Earth
211:EarthBrowser
165:, and other
119:
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92:
85:(mid-2005).
83:Google Earth
64:
31:
29:
1373:Mathematics
1237:Web mapping
1227:Cartography
881:Cartography
820:Environment
687:Climatology
615:Troposphere
215:Adobe Flash
139:, supports
1439:Categories
1368:Geophysics
1264:Navigation
1211:Geodesists
986:Tomography
971:Seismology
938:Geophysics
913:Navigation
805:Time zones
770:In culture
715:Antarctica
702:Continents
625:Mesosphere
597:Atmosphere
534:2009-05-23
508:2021-10-22
478:: 95–117.
455:References
371:hypermedia
360:Snow Crash
351:Snow Crash
342:'s famous
287:JavaScript
239:, part of
110:See also:
1450:Map types
1358:Astronomy
1322:Geodynamo
1295:phenomena
1293:Physical
1254:Geomatics
1220:Subfields
903:Geomatics
848:Ecosystem
833:Biosphere
795:Etymology
775:Earth Day
725:Australia
635:Exosphere
502:artcom.de
356:metaverse
354:. In the
197:Osnabrück
173:Bing Maps
163:Shapefile
60:buildings
1411:Category
1199:Overview
1150:Category
1102:The Moon
449:Terragen
401:See also
394:Geoscope
40:software
1465:Geodesy
1445:Atlases
1423:Commons
1378:Physics
1363:Geology
1206:History
1192:Geodesy
1140:History
1135:Outline
996:Geology
908:Gravity
873:Geodesy
843:Ecology
659:Climate
640:Weather
428:Orbiter
327:, 1998.
315:History
261:, USGS
231:MapJack
185:Earth3D
67:Encarta
1051:Oceans
1019:Future
863:Nature
785:Symbol
730:Europe
710:Africa
417:Geoweb
289:using
237:Marble
191:, the
179:Bhuvan
151:ArcGIS
828:Biome
810:World
589:Earth
504:. n.d
347:novel
291:WebGL
213:, an
89:Types
71:Cosmi
56:roads
48:globe
44:Earth
38:(3D)
34:is a
1342:Tide
780:Flag
720:Asia
373:and
277:NORC
271:NOSA
253:LGPL
189:USGS
124:and
114:and
58:and
480:doi
385:).
358:in
295:MIT
241:KDE
205:GPL
193:CIA
159:KML
155:WMS
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