Geoscience Australia has developed an interactive 3D viewer for three national geophysical datasets; the new Radiometric Map of Australia, the Magnetic Anomaly Map of Australia and the Gravity Anomaly Map of the Australian Region.

The interactive virtual globe is based on NASA's open source World Wind Java Software Development Kit. The application enables users to view and compare the three geophysical datasets at varying scales - from the entire continent to high resolution regional images; along with satellite images, all draped over a digital elevation model. The full dataset for the three maps is approximately 50GB, while the compressed full resolution online dataset is only 3GB and tile serving ensures detailed imagery is downloaded only for the areas viewed.

The objective of the work was to provide users with unprecedented easy and rich access to these three national datasets, to improve the delivery of national data to Geoscience Australia's customers. This presentation will outline the methods used to develop the virtual globe, demonstrate the application and discuss potential future directions for publishing large national datasets in online virtual globes.