NASA's World Wind

This program, written by NASA, is one of the coolest web-integrated programs I’ve ever seen. You start with a globe of the earth (with REAL data, not simulated), and can zoom in anywhere on the planet to an amazing degree of detail. I almost got vertigo (certainly got goose bumps) when I zoomed with the mouse wheel the first time! In seconds, using the USGS digital ortho map, I’d zoomed in to look at the Glen Canyon dam in Utah.

It’s a must-have if you’re at all geographically curious. However, it takes a lot of horsepower on your PC and a high-speed connection. Highly recommended.


http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there.Virtually visit any place in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps, or along the African Sahara.