Globe Display

2.7 Globe Display

The illustration below shows an IDV Globe Display of GFS numerical weather prediction model output of mean sea level pressure (as color-shaded image and contour lines) and 50 m/s wind speed isosurfaces showing the jet streams.

Image 1: Globe Display

In the Globe Display version of the IDV, the displays and maps are projected onto a spherical globe. The globe can be rotated by hand or automatically, along with the usual zooming and time animation of displays on the globe.

To create a Globe View window, use the File->New->View Windows->Globe Display->One Pane menu. This section describes how to make plots of global satellite imagery on the Globe display. The set of steps include:

2.7.0	Choosing Global Satellite Imagery
2.7.1	Displaying the data
2.7.2	Using the display

2.7.0 Choosing Global Satellite Imagery

After starting the Globe version of the IDV, open the Data Source Chooser and click on the Images tab.

Connect to one of the servers listed using RTIMAGES dataset.

From the Image Data Type selector, choose the Mollweide IR/TOPO Composite type.

Click the Add Source button to load the data source.

2.7.1 Displaying the data

Once the data source has been selected, from the Field Selector you can create the display by doing the following:

Select the "Mollweide IR/TOPO Composite" data source in the Data Sources panel.

Select the "Image Sequence" field in the Fields panel.

Select "Image Display" in the Displays panel.

Click the Create Display button to create the display.

2.7.2 Using the display

When the data are displayed, the default view will be from the North pole. You can move the display using the standard IDV zoom, pan and rotate functions. For this exercise try the following:

Use the Viewpoint toolbar or the View->Viewpoint menu to rotate to the West view.

Start the image animation using the Animation Widget.

The Globe display has an extra View->Auto-rotate menu. Check this on to spin the globe along the vertical axis.

Any suitable data with navigation information (latitude, longitude, and altitude) that the IDV can handle can be plotted on the globe display. Review the section on Plots from Gridded Data.

Notes:

Vertical probes and vertical cross sections do not work in this version of the globe display, though you can plot data above the surface in isosurfaces, as illustrated by the jet stream cores shown above.

Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer > Getting Started