The following is a jpeg image of what the applications looks like once started. A global topography map is displayed in the plot area and data access buttons are displayed in the lower left corner.
How it works:
The application is written using the Java language. The Java applet acts as an interface to our ArcInfo data sets that are kept on the server side. ArcInfo is a Geographic Information System software package from ESRI. Once you make all selections and/or entries and click on the "Submit Request ..." button, a URI is sent within Java to the server, which is received by a CGI script that creates Arc Macro Language (AML) files that are run in ArcInfo. The resultant map is then served back to the client and registered with the application so that users can get latitude longitude information. Once a new map is displayed, you can download a postscript or jpeg versions of the maps within the application.
The projection used in all mapping applications is Equirectangular centered at 30 degree North (or South) latitudes. Equirectangular is a simple projection that allows displaying data sets in both local and global scales.
