Efficient global data model for the digital earth

A global data model is presented for the digital earth that provides fast access. It is shown how the same global hierarchical structure can be used for a wide variety of geospatial data and how to organize the specific geospatial data. In order to maximize efficiency, particular caching and paging mechanism have been used. Some types of data can, at prescribed levels of detail, transition from the global model to type-specific data structures and detail management schemes will be introduced. This framework has been applied successfully to a variety of data including terrain elevations, imagery, maps, buildings, clouds, and other data. Further, the framework provides a visual navigation approach where one can navigate continuously from global overviews to high resolution local views. This paper presents results for several applications.