The magnificent Rijkswaterstaat Lidar data of the entire Dutch coast, from 1996 to present, has been added to OpenEarth. The 5m resolution data can be seen in Google Earth or downloaded as data via the netCDF/OPeNDAP protocol directly into your application.
Scientific Visualization in Google Earth with OpenEarth
July 22nd, 2010 Randall HandGoto comments Leave a comment
http://images.vizworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/jarkus.jpgA group called 'OpenEarth' is pitching the idea of using Google Earth as a visualization platform for climate and watershed models by creating open-source tools and models to convert your simulation results into Google Earth's KML format.OpenEarth is the open source initiative to archive, host and disseminate Data, Models and Tools for marine & coastal scientist and engineers. It aims to remedy the above-described inefficiencies by providing a project-superseding approach.
I've personally seen this trend growing as several researchers I know have begun integrating KML as a native simulation output, and creating web-portals and the like to allow live in-situ visualization of running simulations via Google Earth. The possibilities are huge, if only they can overcome the problems with the high poly counts and large simulation sizes.
from: http://www.vizworld.com/2010/07/scientific-visualization-google-earth-openearth/