Earth3D

{{More citations needed|date=March 2009}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Earth3D

| screenshot = earth3d.jpg

| caption = Screenshot of Earth3d running under Linux

| developer = Dominique Andre Gunia

| released ={{start date and age|2004|08}}

| latest release version = 1.0.5 {{start date and age|2006|02|00}}

| programming language = C++, Java

| operating system = Windows 2000, XP & Vista, Mac OS X, Linux

| language = english

| genre = Virtual globe

| license = GPL

| website = {{URL|www.earth3d.org}}

}}

Earth3D was developed as part of a diploma thesis of Dominique Andre Gunia at

Braunschweig University of Technology{{cite web |url=http://sourcepole.ch/assets/2010/9/10/foss4g2010_virtual_globes.pdf |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2011-01-04 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707003012/http://sourcepole.ch/assets/2010/9/10/foss4g2010_virtual_globes.pdf |archivedate=2011-07-07 }} Comparison of Open Source Virtual Globes to display a virtual globe of the earth. It was developed before Google bought Keyhole, Inc and changed their product into Google Earth. Earth3D downloads its data (satellite imagery and height data) from a server while the user navigates around. The data itself is saved in a Quadtree. It uses data from NASA, USGS, the CIA and the city of Osnabrück.

One of the strengths of Earth3D is the capacity of showing meteorological phenomena, like Low-pressure areas, anticyclones, etc. in near-real time.http://www.cuadernalia.net/spip.php?article4255 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723064327/http://www.cuadernalia.net/spip.php?article4255 |date=2011-07-23 }} Earth3D (Visor interactivo 2D, 2.5D y 3D para Andalucía)

The original version of Earth3D was developed using Trolltech's QT framework. Later a version built with Java and JOGL was developed.http://www.earth3d.org/ Welcome to Earth3D But the demand for a Java-based version was very little. This may be because NASA's WorldWind also has an open source Java version. So most people wanted to use a C++ based globe in their applications. That was the reason why a minimalized version, the Earth3dlib was developed. It contains only the most necessary functions to display the earth itself and to add own visualizations to it.

All these three projects can be retrieved from SourceForge's CVS (C++) or Subversion (Java) repository.