Stephane_Coutu
Tourist
Reged: 08/15/06
Posts: 15
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Sorry for the cross-posting, but this will be of interest to 3D model builders.
A collaboration of scientists from 19 countries is constructing the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, the world's largest cosmic-ray detector. This covers an area 3000 km^2 in Mendoza Province, Argentina, and aims to detect the highest energy particles in the Universe through their interaction products in the atmosphere (cascades of billions of high-energy particles traveling at nearly the speed of light). A kmz file is provided with the location of the components of the Observatory, and by following this Web link, you can get more information on the project as well as download some 3D models done with SketchUp of Observatory structures viewable with Google Earth 4.
Note on 8/28/2006: The 3D models (~10 MB) have been updated and expanded, and screenshots are added below.
Stephane Coutu Associate Professor of Physics Penn State University
Edited by Stephane_Coutu (08/28/06 09:58 AM)
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Gerardo64
World Explorer
Reged: 09/07/05
Posts: 1226
Loc: Argentina
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Hi Stephane
This is a great post, very informative. Thanks for sharing..
--------------------
Clic Aquí.
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troiscarres
Tourist
Reged: 06/24/06
Posts: 36
Loc: Paris / France
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merci pour ce post,
c'est étrange mais quand je zoom les objets s'éloignent c'est d'autant plus beau..
J'avais entendu parlé de cet observatoire qui observe les rayons cosmiques... Cela fait penser à l'art environemental des années soixante dix.
Stéphane Trois Carrés
-------------------- This is the beta test of a larger experience of online 3D projects of Scifi places and artistic, architectural speculation.
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Stephane_Coutu
Tourist
Reged: 08/15/06
Posts: 15
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L'eloignement apparent des objets lors du zoom est un artifice du a l'utilisation de marqueurs (placemarks) qui gardent leurs dimensions absolues sur l'ecran durant le zoom. Si j'avais utilise plutot des images aux dimensions reelles des objets (par exemple les cuves distribuees sur les pampas), ces objets auraient ete invisibles sauf aux plus grands zooms.
En passant, l'observatoire a ete nomme en l'honneur de Pierre Auger, grand physicien francais ayant ete le premier a identifier les gerbes atmospheriques, et recipiendaire du prix Nobel de physique.
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Stephane_Coutu
Tourist
Reged: 08/15/06
Posts: 15
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Gracias Gerardo;
Since you appear to live in Argentina, you may be interested in the fact that the Google Earth maps available at the highest resolution in the pampas area seem to be off by perhaps 50 m or so. We have carefully surveyed the position of our detectors in the field, and where the photos show actual deployed detectors (e.g. if you zoom in on tank "Oscar") you will notice that our placemarks are shifted from the location shown on the photo. This is because the photo used as a background image is off...
Saludos,
Stephane
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troiscarres
Tourist
Reged: 06/24/06
Posts: 36
Loc: Paris / France
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Il y a eu un article sympathique dans ciel et espace sur cet observatoire voici quelques mois. Avez vous une procédure systématiques pour placer votre placemarks, un script par exemple, ou avez vous dû tout faire à la main un par un.
bonne journée
Stéphane
-------------------- This is the beta test of a larger experience of online 3D projects of Scifi places and artistic, architectural speculation.
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Frank4
Master Blogger
Reged: 07/10/05
Posts: 1019
Loc: Cary, North Carolina, USA
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Stephane, I really enjoyed this post as well. I studied physics and astronomy at the University of Arizona, and although I ultimately ended up working at NASA in 3D simulation, I still want to learn more about the universe. I've written about your placemark collection, and the 3D models you created, at the Google Earth Blog. Read the story here.
-------------------- Frank Taylor - Author of Google Earth Blog (also available in Spanish)
All about Google Earth news, features, tips, technologies, and applications.
(If you have story ideas, please send me a private message.)
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Stephane_Coutu
Tourist
Reged: 08/15/06
Posts: 15
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Avec 1600 placemarks a placer (ou a peu pres), j'ai ecrit un script plutot que de tout faire a la main, en utilisant notre banque de donnees avec positions donnees en (easting,northing) que j'ai du convertir en (latitude,longitude)... Puisque kml est un langage semblable a html ou tout est en caracteres ascii, il est assez simple de faire le fichier automatiquement.
Stephane
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Stephane_Coutu
Tourist
Reged: 08/15/06
Posts: 15
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Hi Frank;
Nice blog entry, thanks! I see from your screenshot that you use the buggy version of Google Earth 4.0.1693 (if you use Google Earth 4; there is a similar problem with Google Earth 3). Because of this, the colors of .gif placemarks are messed up. The Auger surface detector tanks should be sand colored rather than sky blue... Strangely enough this seems to affect only the rendering of .gif files: .jpg's are unaffected. The bug was introduced when they went from Google Earth 4.0.1565 to 4.0.1693 , and unfortunately Google Earth no longer links the 4.0.1565 installation file. I had kept a copy which I am temporarily making available for download at http://www.phys.psu.edu/~coutu/GoogleEarthWin.exe (I will remove this link once they fix the bug). One has to uninstall first the current buggy version prior to installing the old version. The newer version must have fixed something else, but I'll be darned if I can figure out what (it seems to work just as well as version 4.0.1693, and of course better in terms of rendering colors).
Cheers,
Stephane
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Stephane_Coutu
Tourist
Reged: 08/15/06
Posts: 15
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I have updated and expanded the 3D building models for the Auger Observatory. A screenshot appears below. All models are included in this kmz file (about 10 MB). More information on this Google Earth model is available at this Web link, and more information on the Auger project itself is at http://www.auger.org/ .
Stephane Coutu Associate Professor of Physics Penn State University
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