Screenshot of World Wind showing Blue Marble Next Generation layer
|
|
Developer(s) | Ames Research Center (NASA) |
---|---|
Initial release | 2003 |
Stable release | 2.1.0 (December 13, 2016 | )
Preview release | none |
Written in | C#, Java |
Available in | English |
Type | Virtual globe software development kit |
License | NASA Open Source Agreement v1.3 |
Website | worldwind |
World Wind is an open-source (released under the NOSA license) virtual globe first developed by NASA in 2003 for use on personal computers and then further developed in concert with the open source community since 2004. As of 2017 a web based version of World Wind is available online, in addition an Android version is also available.
The original version relied on .NET Framework, which ran only on Microsoft Windows. The more recent Java version, World Wind Java, is cross platform, a software development kit (SDK) aimed at developers and, unlike the old .NET version, not a standalone virtual globe application in the style of Google Earth. The SDK includes a suite of basic demos, available at goworldwind.org. The World Wind Java version was awarded NASA Software of the Year in November 2009. The program overlays NASA and USGS satellite imagery, aerial photography, topographic maps, Keyhole Markup Language (KML) and Collada files.
Though widely available since 2003, World Wind was released with the NASA Open Source Agreement license in 2004. The latest Java-based version (2.1.0), was released in December 2016. As of 2015 a web based version of World Wind is under development and available online. An Android version is also available.