[aprssig] "The New" WXSVR and Canada

[Gregg Wonderly]

Bill Diaz wrote:
> Gregg,
> 	See below:
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: aprssig-bounces at tapr.org 
>> [mailto:aprssig-bounces at tapr.org] On Behalf Of Gregg Wonderly
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 16:59
>> To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [aprssig] "The New" WXSVR and Canada
>>
>>
>> I didn't see any responses to my earlier inquiry.  Google 
>> Earth provides a 
>> simple to use mechanism that allows all kinds of 
>> geographic/topographic 
>> information to be integrated and over-layed into very 
>> spectacularly useful displays.
>>
>> My APRSKML server (http://aprskml.dev.java.net) shows how the 
>> APRS-IS and TNC 
>> streams of APRS packet data can be overlayed onto anything 
>> else google earth is 
>> displaying.
>>
>> The NWS radar images can be retrieved using the KML formatted 
>> data that the NWS 
>> website provides access to.
> 
> 	The problem I have with the Google radar overlays is how "confused"
> the map colors become when having multiple overlays active at one time.  NWS
> is using an Experimental Google map (Combined Radar and warnings- available
> at most NWS radar site pages) and it suffers from the same problem.  When
> areal watches (colored polygons) are displayed beneath the radar images, the
> colors "bleed" somewhat and the underlying road and city details are
> slightly obscured.  The problem is that you must always overlay images in
> Google Maps.  You cannot underlay them or specify the layer you desire.  It
> is my understanding NWS is looking for alternatives for the combined Radar
> and Warning Google maps.
> 
> 	With UiView and Precision Mapping, we had the ability to choose when
> to underlay the radar image on the map.  This allowed us to draw the
> street/highway layer and the City names over the radar imagery.  
> 
> 	If there is a product that allows use of KML files as underlays or
> to specify when to render the image, then it might be possible to create
> some powerful map displays using user supplied polygons and images.

I use the "translucent" settings on network data sources to provide the right 
level of detail that my eyes can interpret and keep things from being obscured 
if I need to see underneath things.  This is not perfect, but it can be adjusted 
as needed, and you can create multiple links to the same data with different 
levels, put them under a particular branch of the "data source" tree, and then 
just "switch tree branches" to see something different on top.

I think that supporting KML in APRS applications as data sources would be a good 
thing to look at for application developers.  Allowing network sourced data 
would be ideal!  Something using "urls" would be great, like 
"file:/local/file/path" vs "http://remotehost/file/path etc is a powerful 
mechanism for allow integration of data sources.

Gregg Wonderly

Gregg Wonderly