EarthSLOT

Earth Science, Logistics, and Outreach Terrainbases

Home

Fly Now!

3D Engines

Earth Models


Our Mission

Conferences

Contact us

EarthSLOT's coverage of the 2008 Iditarod in 3D

Known as as the Last Great Race, the Iditarod trail is over 1100 miles long, crossing some of the most remote territory in the world. To give a better sense of the terrain and obstacles these hardy dog mushers are facing, we are using virtual globe technologies to allow you fly around the trail with 3D perspective. This Iditarod project is a public service funded by the Arctic Regions Supercomputing Center and the Geographical Information Network of Alaska as a friendly way to support a truly Alaskan event and demonstrate what the latest technology has to offer. Thanks to Will Fisher of GINA to managing the 2008 files and to Brice for supplying the IonEarth hack for real-time GPS data.

Visit our photo gallery and movie gallery to download visualizations you can play on your local computer. TV media can also use these movies for broadcast. Here you can watch movies of what it is like to fly from checkpoint to checkpoint.

To interactively fly over the terrain, you have your choice of two virtual globes. In both cases, you must first install a small application on your computer.

The Google Earth application updates the race statistics every 15 minutes, based on official information from the Iditarod race headquarters. The "CheckPoint" folder is setup as a Tour, such that you can highlight the folder, click on the Play Tour option within Google Earth, and be flown to each checkpoint along the route in 3D to see which mushers are at that checkpoint.

When you are ready to take a break from watching the race, you can learn more about the International Polar Year, which is now half-way over. Thousands of scientists will be continuing to study the Arctic and Antarctic in a coordinated international effort over the next year. Simply click on the link labeled "International Polar Year" witin the Iditarod application, or click here.

If you found this Iditarod service valuable, please let us know.

Copyright notices:

TerraExplorer, TerraExplorer Pro, TerraGate, TerraPhoto, and TerraBuilder are registered trademarks of Skyline Software Inc.

GoogleEarth, GoogleEarth Plus, and GoogleEarth Pro are registered trademarks of Google.

Note: This material is based upon work supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

No warranty: Data is provided "as is," without any warranty whatsoever, including but not limited to any warranty as to performance, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose.

Liability: The entire risk as to the results of the use of this data is assumed by the user. EarthSLOT is not responsible for any interpretation or conclusions made by those who acquire or use it. EarthSLOT shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, compensatory or consequential damages or third-party claims resulting from the use of this data, even if EarthSLOT has been advised of the possibility of such potential loss or damage. In states that do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, this data may not be used.

(c) 2004 Matt Nolan. Please contact us with questions, comments, or compliments.