That's a great picture.
Bob,
I just tried that web site and if you take the ascii data and add the the rows and columns numbers to the top of a file, it will load into AC3D as a .pf file.
Don't bother with the current field_import plugin if you want to do a big model though - it's very (very) slow. I've made a faster one which you can find here:
field import plugin 1.2
This is for Windows AC3D. If anyone wants the source code for this, let me know.
Here's a sample that I just made from data generated by noaa.gov:
After loading the .pf file, I scaled the height and changed the color of the sea.
Andy