AZ TopoGeoSat 3D was developed by Stephen J. Reynolds, Joshua A. Coyan, and Julia K. Johnson, Department of Geological Sciences, Arizona State University. The QuickTime movies were constructed by draping geologic maps, topographic maps, and satellite images over digital topography.
The geologic maps were derived from an Adobe Illustrator file of the 2000 Geologic Map of Arizona published by the Arizona Geological Survey. Thanks to Stephen M. Richard of the Arizona Geological Survey.
The satellite images are LANDSAT thematic mapper images from NASA (https://zulu.ssc.nasa.gov/mrsid/). The satellite images, stored by NASA in the compressed MrSid format, were decompressed using Lizard Tech's free MrSid GeoViewer and saved as GeoTiff files. Using Peter Guth's free program MicroDEM, the GeoTiff files were overlain with 1-degree lat-lon ticks and exported as bitmap files.
The topographic maps are from the USGS series of 1:250,000-scale (1 x 2 degree) quadrangles . Scanned versions of the maps (called Digital Raster Graphics files, or DRG's) were downloaded from the USGS and cropped in Adobe Photoshop. Digital topography files (Digital Elevation Models - DEMs) are also from the USGS and were converted to grayscale images (needed by Bryce) using Peter Guth's free program MicroDEM.
The geologic, topographic, and satellite bitmaps were cropped and stretched in Adobe Photoshop, and then draped over digital topography in Corel Bryce5. Bryce5 generated north-looking 3D perspectives for geologic, topographic, and satellite data of each 1° X 1° quadrangle, and these were combined into a QuickTime VR object movie using VR Worx. The shaded relief map is from Ray Sterner of Johns Hopkins University.
This project was supported by the NSF-funded Hidden Earth Curriculum Project (see below).
A CD-ROM of this site, as well as AZGeo3D, AZTopo3D, and AZSat3D, is available for a nominal cost through Terra Chroma, Inc. (email: publications at terrachroma-inc.com).
If you use these images, feel free to include a link to this site on your web page. If you develop educational exercises using this site, please send a copy to Steve Reynolds, Department of Geological Sciences, ASU, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404 (email: sreynolds at asu.edu).
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© Copyright 2001, 2002, 2003 by Stephen J. Reynolds, Joshua A. Coyan, and Julia K. Johnson. These images can be freely used for educational purposes as long as the source is cited.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (DUE 0127595). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.