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On-Line User Manual

1.0   Introduction

1.1   What is MyEarth

The MyEarth Search and Retrieval Tool enables users to ingest (IE) and search data that is archived in a spatial database (SSE), and then to retrieve the results directly on to a Virtual Globe (VG) Visualization System, such as Google Earth. Users of spatial search and retrieval systems normally define a Region of Interest (ROI) by entering textual information, via a form, which interprets the regional information to return the search results into a list of files {filename, timerange, filetypes available} which match the search criteria provided in the search form. While MyEarth possesses the familiar search entry form, it also allows user interaction with the VG, in terms of manipulating the ROI directly. In addition, a user can specify additional attributes {Day/Night Flag, ShortName, and others as available} to further refine the search. The results sets from a spatial search are then displayed directly in to the VG Visualization System, via content represented in a Keyhole Markup Language (KML) document. Data may be represented at the Earth's surface, but also satellite data, weather and oceanographic data sets, and remote sensing information from ground-based systems and spacecraft. When users specify a ROI which contains rich data sets, the MyEarth Search and Retrieval Tool interprets that search request and extracts the location of those data sets directly from the archive and retrieves browse image representations of the matched data sets for display instantaneously within the VG environment.

MyEarth v1.0 goes further to support search and retrieval of hdf4 and ESRI shapefile content which is visualized in a VG, by means of KML documents (which are dynamically generated at the time of query). The tool not only identifies the spatial extent {maxLat, minLon, minLat, maxLon} of the ROI on the Earth's surface, but allows spatial searches to match a variety of common shapes {linestring, point, MBR, polygon}. As a convenience, any ROI may be saved for future searches. In this way, MyEarth becomes a fully extensible archive, search and retrieval tool for a wide variety of large 4d datasets that may be visualized in a VG.

The next sections of this guide follow. Section 2 helps you get started and discusses the systems requirements, licensing and installation. Section 3 describes the Search and Retrieval Tool, providing a step by step introduction to the main functions and menus, and takes you through the search and advanced search menus, discussing how to set search criteria in each of the attribute selection panels, which are also illustrated in the section. It also discusses the types of data files that MyEarth uses and how to explore and manipulate the retrieved data. Section 4 discusses the functions necessary to perform ingest and archive of user provided data sets. Section 5 discusses how to use MyEarthAdmin, including working with SSE(Spatial Search Engine) and the IE(Ingest Engine).

Figure 1 – The MyEarth™ v1.0 Search and Retrieval Tool on Google Earth™, showing a retrieval of a MODIS data set. User defines the search criteria, in terms of a Region of Interest (ROI) through the search form, or directly via the Google Earth Visualization System which are submitted to a spatial search engine (SSE) which performs the spatial search to retrieve information about the MODIS radiances, and performs a spatial JOIN query to retrieve related browse information from the archive, for display directly with Google Earth.

MyEarth Logo Section 1
Introduction		   Section 2
Getting Started		   Section 3
MyEarth Search and Retrieval Tool		   Section 4
Ingesting Data Sets		   Section 5
Using MyEarthAdmin