The Calypso dance in Google Earth.

Posting at Science is Beauty usually make me find things from pretty diverse topics and eventually I end wasting the time in one or another transversal topic.

Artist Concept of the CALIPSO Satellite
(Wikimedia Commons)

That is this case. I just post in there a nice photo of the "A-train", and then I started to read about CALIPSO, one of the satellites from the A-train constellation.

From it's Nasa page:

The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite provides new insight into the role that clouds and atmospheric aerosols (airborne particles) play in regulating Earth's weather, climate, and air quality.

Just for the original Acronym, it worth a few more research for my part. Quickly I stumbled upon a tool to find the satellite overpass times. This are the results in accordance to Madrid (Lat: 40.3298, Lon: -3.5706) from 11-01-2010 to 12-01-2010:



Optionally the application send you a mail with this table and with a link to a PDF guide. I had some spare time so why not to draw that data in Google Earth? And the process was as next:


1.- When you need to represent some data (few or many) the first step is format them as much as possible, I used Google Docs Spreadsheet, getting:



Now you have a variety of choices to chart these data in a map. If you have not Google Earth Pro, at first instance you won't have availability the import tool and it seems that you will have to input each data one by one. No way, other option could be ask Google an API key, and then use some code to make the task. Or also you can use a small trick, indeed finally it is what I did.

2.- Use a free tool for quick mapping (gpsvisualizer.com). In order to directly export points to a KML format, this one is perfect because you can input a CSV file with four columns (name, description, latitude, longitude), tune the feel and look of the map, and you will get a KML file you can open directly from Google Earth (using an altitude of 690 kilometers above the Earth):

Other quick tool from GPS Visualizer is making directly an SVG, JPEG, or PNG map, obtaining something like this:

Resources:

NASA tool.- http://scool.larc.nasa.gov/en_rover_overpass.html
Output format.- http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/SCOOL/PDF/OverpassGuide02.pdf
Free tool for quick mapping.- http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/
Excel To KML - Display Excel files on Google Earth.- http://www.earthpoint.us/ExcelToKml.aspx#LatitudeLongitude
Converting UTM to Latitude and Longitude (Or Vice Versa).- http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/usefuldata/utmformulas.htm
the Earth Observatory.- http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/CALIPSO/CALIPSO.php
CALIPSO Outreach.- http://calipsooutreach.hamptonu.edu/
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Google Docs Spreadsheet
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