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Create a KML that shows animal trajectories (viewable on Google Earth Pro)

create_trajectories_kml.Rd

This function creates a KML file while can be loaded into Google Earth Pro to view trajectories of a group over time.

Usage

create_trajectories_kml(
  lons,
  lats,
  timestamps,
  id_codes,
  t0,
  tf,
  output_file_path,
  step = 1,
  cols = NULL,
  icons = NULL,
  fixed_locs = NULL,
  fixed_locs_icons = NULL,
  calls = NULL,
  calls_icons = NULL
)

Arguments

lons

N x n_times matrix giving longitude coordinates of each individual over time

lats

N x n_times matrix giving latitutde coordinates of each individual over time

timestamps

vector of timestamps (assumed to be in UTC) of length n_times

id_codes

vector of character string specifying id codes of each animal to be plotted

t0

time index at which to start

tf

time index at which to end

output_file_path

full path to the output file as a character string (must end in .kml)

step

time resolution (in time steps)

cols

vector of length N giving colors for each individual, e.g. 'ffed8031' (first two elements give transparency, last 6 are color specified in hex). If NULL, trajectories will be white.

icons

vector of length N specifying icons (further information below)

fixed_locs

data frame with lon and lat coordinates of fixed locations to label (e.g. dens) - must have columns 'names','lon','lat'

calls

data frame with columns ind_idx,time_idx,call_type, and time

calls_icons

vector of length equal to the number of call types specifying which icons will be used for displaying calls

Value

Creates and saves a kml to the specified output_file_path which can be loaded into Google Earth to view animated trajectories

Additional details on icon and line color specification

You can specify icons by giving a vector of filenames (character strings) pointing to images on your computer (e.g. png works). Icons should be contained in the same folder where the KMLs will be output, so that Google Earth Pro will be able to read them in when you load the KMLs. If this argument is set to NULL, the code will instead use built-in blue markers from Google Earth. However, these are unfortunately ugly.

You can specify the colors of lines using a hex format where the first two digits give the transparency (ff = fully opaque) and the last 6 digits give the color in RGB. Unlike in R, a '#' should not be used before the color, and the transparency goes first rather than last. For example 'ffff0000' specifies opaque red.

Author

Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin

NOT YET CODE REVIEWED