Installation:

In order to run CHANGE Viewer on your Windows or Macintosh OSX, your computer must meet certain requirements:

• a modern graphics card with an up-to-date driver
• JRE 1.6.0
• at least 2GB RAM
• 30MB available hard disk space
• an internet connection with a speed of at least ____

The most common deployment issue is an out-of-date graphics driver. To get an updated driver, visit your graphics card manufacturer’s web site. This will most likely be either Nvidia, ATI / AMD or Intel. The drivers are typically under a link named “Downloads” or “Support”. If your computer is a laptop, then updated drivers are probably at the laptop manufacturer’s web site rather than the graphics card manufacturer.

Once you launch the CHANGE Viewer from the web link, two dialog boxes will appear[AW2] . The first dialog will confirm that you have chosen to download the Beta_WMSLayerManage[AW3] .jnlp file. Select the “Open With” radio button and choose “Java Web Start Launcher (default)” from the list box and press the OK button.

The next dialog to appear is the Global Climate Change Education Program application’s digital signature dialog. Select the “Run” button. If the application fails to start or the first dialog does not have a “Java Web Start Launcher (default)” choice, then double check that your workstation meets the minimum workstation requirements.

You may wish to create a shortcut on your desktop so that you can launch the CHANGE Viewer directly from your desktop rather than from the webpage. An internet connection is still required for the CHANGE Viewer to operate properly. Every time you launch the CHANGE Viewer from the shortcut, the program will check back with website to see that any new upgrades are installed before the program launches.

Navigation Controls

Becoming comfortable with the navigation controls of CHANGE Viewer is easy and will ensure that you have access to all the resources available.

To move around, zoom or change the perspective, you can use a computer mouse or the buttons in the upper right hand corner of the Map View.

A scale bar is located at the bottom right of the globe. The scale bar changes based on your level of zoom.

Latitude and longitude, Elevation, and Altitude (height above the earth from your view), is provided along the bottom of the window. This information is based on the location of the cursor and changes when the cursor is moved.

CHANGE Viewer Tabs

Map

The Map tab lists all active datasets. For a dataset appear on the Map, it must be checked, or turned on, from the Activity Data or Data Library tabs. Once a dataset is in the Map tab, a legend is displayed below the layer name.

The transparency of each layer can be changed by using the slider bar under the name. The transparency updates once you have moved the slider to the transparency value and released the cursor.

Information about the layer, such as what the layers

Activity Data

The Activity Data tab contains sub-tabs that correspond to the Climate Change and Human Health themes that are addressed in this project. All activities will reference the Activity Data tab for data.

Each CHANGE theme: Food Security, Natural Disasters, Disease, etc., has a tab that contains only the datasets used in the lessons developed under this project. If certain themes have more than one lesson, not all the datasets will be used for a particular activity.

Adding Activity Data to the Map

Select the tab theme that corresponds to the activity of interest. To add a data layer first click on tab of interest and check the box of the data layer you desire.  The data should now load on the globe as a layer on top of the 3D surface.  If the data is not loading immediately red text stating “Downloading” will flash on the bottom right side of the globe.  The data layer will also be added to the Layers tab.   You can add multiple layers on the globe at the same time.  These data layers will be stacked on top of each other in the order that you originally checked them in the Data Library and they will be placed in the Layers tab of the globe window.  Within the Layers tab you can easily turn on and off various layers in order to compare and contrast the data.

Data Library

The Data Library tab contains all spatial datasets related to climate and change and human health used in the CHANGE Project plus additional data hosted by CIESIN and IAGT. The idea of the Data Library is to provide users who wish to expand on the project activities and investigate the relationships between other socio-economic datasets and the climate change data.

Adding Data Library datasets to the Map

In order to add a data layer first click on tab of interest and check the box of the data layer you desire.  The data should now load on the globe as a layer on top of the 3D surface.  If the data is not loading immediately red text stating “Downloading” will flash on the bottom right side of the globe.  The data layer will also be added to the Layers tab.   You can add multiple layers on the globe at the same time.  These data layers will be stacked on top of each other in the order that you originally checked them in the Data Library and they will be placed in the Layers tab of the globe window.  Within the Layers tab you can easily turn on and off various layers in order to compare and contrast the data.

Population Estimation

The Population Estimation Tool provides an estimation of the population and land area based on a polygon you draw on the globe. These estimates are based on the 2005 Gridded Population of the World (GPW) version 3 dataset devel­oped by the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applica­tions Center operated by CIESIN.

To calculate the population and land area, a Population Estimation Polygon (POP) must be drawn around an area of interest.

The Population Estimation Tool will not return population and land area estimates if the polygon drawn is smaller than 50 cells. The area of 50 cells is approximately 730 km². The image to the right provides a reference for what the minimum size of a Population Estimation Polygon.
INSERT GRAPH 1

Calculate Population and Land Area

1. Enter a Name for the polygon that will be created.
2. Click Draw.
3. Click on a location that will be one of the vertices of the polygon. Note: the first point clicked will contain the Latitude and Longitude results returned for the entire polygon. 
4. Continue to click around the area of interest, adding a vertex with each click.
5. Click Calculate once you are satisfied with the polygon created to receive the population estimate and area calculations for the area of interest. A progress bar will appear indicating that the computer is processing.
6. The Population and Land Area results are returned in the table. Note: Population values are returned in scientific notation and will require conversion (e.g. 1.06734E7 to 10,673,400).

Multiple Population Estimation Polygons can be created. To create multiple polygons simply repeat the process described below using a different name.

INSERT GRAPH 2

Change a vertex location while drawing

1. Click Edit to move any vertex.
2. Place the cursor over the vertex that needs moved. Click on the vertex and hold while moving it to a new location.
3. Click Resume when done editing vertex locations.
4. Click Calculate once you are satisfied with the polygon you have created to receive the population estimate and area calculations for the area of interest. A progress bar will appear indicating that the computer is processing.
5. The Population and Land Area results are returned in the table. Note: Population values are returned in scientific notation and will require conversion (e.g. 1.06734E7 to 10,673,400).
6. Click Cancel to delete a polygon while in the drawing phase.
7. This removes all vertices and starts back at step 1 for drawing a polygon.
8. Population Estimation Polygons (POPs) results are listed in the table. As a default, all POPs are selected.
9. Check/Select only the Names of the POPs which should be deleted.
10. Click Remove once you have the POPs selected.

Delete a polygon before calculating

Delete a polygon after calculating

Download Population Estimation Results to a table

The Population Estimation results can be downloaded and saved as a .csv file for a future use or for analysis in another program.

1. Select the records you wish to download. Uncheck any you wish to exclude from downloading.
2. Click Download to save the population estimation results as a .csv file.
3. Locate the directory to save the file.
4. Name the file with a name you will recognize in the future.

You can select which Population Estimation results to download if you have more than one. Those Population Estimation Polygons (POPs) that are checked under Select in the table, will be downloaded. As a default, all POPs are selected. Uncheck those POPs which you do not wish to download.

When opening a .csv file in another program, a warning will come up because the .csv is in a text format and not as a recognized format of the external program. Most programs have a Text Import Wizard. Follow the Text Import Wizard directions. Choose Delimited as the separator. Select Comma as the delimiter. Press Finish to view the Population Estimation Results in a table format.

Viewing Population Estimation Polygons

Population Estimation Polygons (POP) created using the Population Estimation Tool will appear as a layer that can be turned on or off (made visible or not shown) in the Map tab. The Polygons will be listed with the name that was assigned to them when creating the polygons.  Check the box to display a POP.

Additional References

NASA World Wind: http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/manual.html

Population Estimation Service Tool: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/wps.jsp