profiling-the-parks-vr

VR version of Profiling the Parks powered by the A-Frame VR framework.

Based on RJ Andrews's vizualization Profiling the Parks, a data-driven, hand drawn exploration of the US National Parks.

Methodology

1. Get digital elevation model (DEM) data for featured National Parks
2. Create an AOI in QGIS or GeoJSON.io
3. Crop the DEM data file to an area of interest (AOI) in QGIS
4. Get visual imagery to use for texture (PlanetScope 3-band scene
   • Merge the imagery in QGIS or using GDAL (gdal_merge, gdal_warp, gdal vrt) if single scene doesn't fill aoi
5. Restart QGIS whenever it crashes
6. Crop the visual imagery to the aoi
7. Save as a jpg/png
8. Use lunapic for crayon/drawing effect

DEM Resources

• NASADEM

DEM Sensors

• ASTER - NASA's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer

DEM Data Sources

• USGS National Map
  • National Map Elevation Data
  • USGS National Map 3DEP Viewer
• USGS Earth Explorer
• NASA EarthData Global Data Explorer
• NASA Reverb | Echo - NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System program next generation Earth science discovery tool

Tutorials & Resources

• Discovering Gale Crater: How we did it
• Terrain building with three.js
  • Converting terrain data to a WebGL-friendly format
• A Gentle Introduction to GDAL

Useful Commands

GDAL

• gdalinfo gdalinfo -mm {FILENAME}
• gdal_translate to ENVI file: gdal_translate -scale 0 2470 0 65535 -ot UInt16 -outsize 200 200 -of ENVI {INPUT.tif} {OUTPUT.bin}
• gdalwarp gdalwarp {INPUT1.tif} {INPUT2.tif} {MERGED.tif}