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Earth Science Visualization

Read the planet, layer by layer.

3D Earth modeling, climate-data visualization, terrain mapping, and the GIS and planetary-science tools that turn raw observation into something you can see, rotate, and understand.

DatumWGS 84 CoverageGlobal LayersTerrain · Climate · GIS
Layer 01 — Surface

3D Earth Tools

Virtual globes and visualization engines for flying the planet, inspecting historical imagery, and building your own renderings of the terrain.

01Google Earth Pro (Free)

The gold standard for virtual globe exploration. Fly anywhere on Earth. Historical imagery going back decades. Measure distances, create tours, export KML. Incredible for education and research.

02NASA Worldview

Real-time satellite imagery of Earth. See fires, hurricanes, smoke plumes, and weather patterns as they happen. Over 1,000 data layers. worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov

03Cesium

Open-source 3D geospatial platform. Build your own Earth visualization applications. Used by government and military. cesium.com

04ArcGIS Earth

Esri's 3D globe for GIS professionals. Import shapefiles, KML, and web services. Terrain analysis, line-of-sight, viewshed. Free for basic use.

Layer 02 — Atmosphere

Climate Visualization

Live dashboards and data portals for temperature anomalies, emissions, ocean state, and the weather systems moving across the globe right now.

01Climate Reanalyzer

University of Maine's real-time climate dashboard. Global temperature anomalies, sea surface temperatures, jet stream. The site climate scientists actually use. climatereanalyzer.org

02NOAA Climate.gov

Official US climate data. Historical records, projections, drought monitor, sea level data. Authoritative and free. climate.gov

03Carbon Map

Interactive visualization of CO2 emissions by country, sector, and time. See who emits what and how it's changed. carbonmap.org

04Windy.com

Beautiful real-time weather visualization. Wind, temperature, precipitation, waves, air quality, radar. The weather app for weather nerds. windy.com

Layer 03 — Crust

GIS Resources

The mapping software and open datasets that let you analyze spatial data, build cartography, and pull high-resolution elevation and imagery for any location.

01QGIS (Free)

The most powerful free GIS software. Create maps, analyze spatial data, manage geodatabases. Rivals ArcGIS for most tasks. Open source. qgis.org

02OpenStreetMap

Wikipedia for maps. Community-built, free to use. Complete street-level data for the world. The base layer for thousands of applications. openstreetmap.org

03USGS National Map

Free US topographic maps, elevation data, hydrography, land cover, and imagery. Download high-resolution data for any location. nationalmap.gov

04Mapbox

Developer platform for custom maps. Beautiful cartography, 3D terrain, satellite imagery. Free tier for developers. Powers maps in thousands of apps. mapbox.com

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