All about Google Earth: news, features, tips, satellite photos, and applications.

Big News: Myanmar Data | Google Earth 4.3 Released | April Imagery Update

May 09, 2008

Google Earth 3D Model Friday

Himeji Castle in Google EarthIt's been a while since I highlighted 3D models for viewing in Google Earth on a Friday. The Google 3D Warehouse has continued to evolve over the last two years. They now have an excellent way of sharing cool 3D models called "Collections". Anyone can set up a collection and point to various 3D models already in the warehouse. And, you can rate and comment on the ones you like.

Today I'd like to point out an excellent collection of 3D structures, put together by someone called 'scarpimp', which are UNESCO Cultural Heritage sites. Places like the Taj Majal or the Himeji Castle and 50 other UNESCO sites are already in the collection. Many of these buildings are already built in to the 3D Buildings layer of Google Earth. Some, like the Himeji Caslte seen in the screenshot are not well optimized, so they aren't in the 3D Buildings layer. You can find the locations of these UNESCO sites more quickly by just viewing the 3D Warehouse collection. Hopefully this collection will inspire 3D modelers to create more of the other 500 or so UNESCO sites.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

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May 08, 2008

Many Visualizations of Myanmar Disaster for Google Earth

Myanmar Struck by Cyclone Nargis in Google EarthI've been updating my original post with a list of visualizations on the Myanmar disaster for Google Earth showing Cyclone Nargis's path, weather data, and the resulting flooding from satellite photos. Google and other organizations have released all kinds of data in the aftermath of the storm to help people realize the extent of the disaster.

Google has a link for places to send support to Myanmar in their time of need.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:01 AM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2008

Links: NBA Destination, EarthNC 2.0, Geo Education

  • NBA Destination - The National Basketball Association and ESPN have commissioned a Google Earth visualization showing all kinds of NBA and basketball content including 3D models of stadiums, placemarks with trivia and history, and a few little basketball "easter eggs" (Tip: try looking to the east of Mt. Hood, Oregon after loading the KML). You can go to their fancy flash-based web site NBAEarth.com which includes a video introduction, or you can go straight to the KML file . Thanks to Anandaroop Roy, the author of the KML content, for telling me. This is a well done KML file with lots of interesting content.

  • EarthNC 2.0 - EarthNC has celebrated their one year anniversary by releasing version 2.0 of their online and Plus versions of EarthNC electronic charts and other marine data for Google Earth. If you're a boater (particularly in US waters) you should definitely check out this fantastic resource of marine data. EarthNC has some of the best KML, and most thorough, content available for Google Earth. And, their rates are very reasonable, especially compared to other data providers in the marine industry.

  • Google Geo Education - Google has released a new web site to help educators find their geospatial related educational tools and content I'm a little disappointed they don't highlight more examples of Google Earth content. But, they do have some interesting classroom ideas, and on that page they link to a post I did last September with more relevant links for educators.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:48 AM | Comments (2)

May 06, 2008

Win a SpaceNavigator or Pass to Where 2.0 from GearthBlog

Next week, I will be attending the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. If you're planning to go, and you regularly read this blog, please make sure to look for me and let me know you're a GEB reader. I'm planning to give away one free SpaceNavigator for Notebooks on Wednesday May 14th to a random pick from GEB readers who give me their business card while at Where 2.0 (like GEB did last year).

Also, if you want to attend Where 2.0, but the cost is causing you to hesitate, GEB is giving away two free passes to Where 2.0. Leave a comment to this post if you're interested (the comments won't be posted). Ardent Google Earth fans are more likely to get the passes, but tell me why you want to attend Where 2.0 in your comment and include your e-mail address. I'll select the winners by Thursday (May 8th) afternoon.

[UPDATE May 8th: I've selected the two winners of the free passes. There's a chance some of you may still get a free pass from O'Reilly because I suggested the runners up to them. Hope to see you there at Where!]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:00 PM | Comments (1)

Myanmar Cyclone Data in Google Earth

[UPDATED May 9th: Google and other organizations have released many Myanmar visualizations for Google Earth including storm tracks, flooding data, and before/after satellite imagery. This post is being updated with the latest.]

Myanmar Struck by Cyclone Nargis in Google EarthOver the weekend, Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar as a category 4 storm with winds greater than 115 knots. The storms caused terrible flooding as well, and thousands of lives were lost. The UN Institute for Training and Research Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) regularly creates maps to track disaster situations and has released a visualization for Google Earth showing the track and strength of the storm and the extent of flooding which resulted. via Google LatLong Blog.

Also, here are a couple of NASA satellite photos of the storm before it struck and as it was over Myanmar . via GEarthHacks and NASA.

Google provided a new KML showing an animation of Cyclone Nargis from the Naval Research Laboratory's satellite imagery. You have to wait for each set of images to load (it takes a minute or two) before the animation plays smoothly. Also, adjust the animation speed for smoother playback (click on the clock icon on the left of the time slider). Google also linked to an NRL KML which shows more details during the timeline of the hurricane. via Google LatLong Blog.

HurricaneMapping.com sent me a Nargis KML which shows the track of the storm along with wind swaths, and details at various stages of the path.

Google has posted a new KML file which shows a variety of before and after Cyclone Nargis imagery of Myanmar. The imagery comes from a variety of sources including NASA, DigitalGlobe, and GeoEye/CRISP Singapore. You can clearly see the tremendous flooding which has caused the worst of the damage and fatalities from this storm.

As an aid to workers in Myanmar, Direct Relief International has released this KML file showing all of the Myanmar Ministry of Health facilities (over 700 sites) using data from the WHO 2002 Global Health Atlas survey. They used the spreadsheet mapper tool to make the collection.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:08 AM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2008

NASA Time Animation of Ionosphere For Google Earth

4D NASA Ionosphere in Google EarthLast week, NASA announced the release of an amazing dynamic Google Earth resource which shows time animated condition of the Earth's Ionosphere. The ionosphere is used to bounce radio signals over the horizon for long distance communication. But, when storms occur on the sun's surface they can mess up parts of the ionosphere and disrupt ionosphere-based communications. The new NASA Google Earth data can be used to quickly understand where and when there may be radio communication issues.

See for example their primary network link which shows the current condition of the ionosphere in the form of total electron content. Then, check out an animation of the total electron content for the past 24 hours . You use the time slider to see the animation, but note that it will take a while to load each image overlay which covers the entire Earth. Red means area of strong atmospheric disturbance where communications problems are likely to occur. Blue/dark means communications will be fine. You will notice that the night side of the Earth is the best time for radio communications.

This NASA information not only makes for cool looking Google Earth visualizations, but is very useful to anyone with a profession or need for using short-wave radio (e.g. HAM radio operators, mariners, coast guards, etc.). Airliners are increasingly flying over the arctic regions to take shorter routes, but in this area they can't use satellite communications based on geosynchronous satellites. So, they resort to short wave radio over the poles. If the ionosphere is important to you, check out the full list of GE ionosphere visualizations from NASA here. NASA also has a communications alert and prediction system which uses this data.

NASA has done many other Google Earth visualizations. Here are just a few:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2008

Links: Night Cities, Educators, VE Imagery, Space Telescopes, Custom Compass

  • Night Cities - Some of the International Space Station crew have been taking night-time photos of cities around the world. NASA has released a number of these night-time images and explain the background on what was involved taking them. Not only that, but they have created KML files showing the location of each photo, and the placemark description includes a photo. See for example this page for the Tokyo photo, and the KML file from that page. I was disappointed at first that they hadn't attempted to overlay them. But, after spending more than an hour trying to align just a couple of photos I gave up myself. NASA hasn't give the position of the space station as a component of the data, so it it is difficult to determine the angle the photos were taken. I had similar problems when I aligned these daytime NASA photos.

  • Educators - Discovered another useful reference for educators looking to use Google Earth. Steve Kluge of Fox Lane High School in Bedford, New York has created this web page that serves as a manual for using Google Earth designed for educators. He also makes it availabe in PDF form. It has suggestions for ways to use GE in the classroom, and basic tips on using Google Earth. See also JuicyGeography by Noel Jenkins in the UK. Noel has been an enthusiastic GE educator since it first came out.

  • VE Imagery - Microsoft has released another huge (22 Terabyte) update to their imagery. Not only normal orthographic aerial imagery, but also a huge new batch of Bird's Eye oblique imagery - in new places like Australia, Greece, and the UK. See the full list here along with some screenshots/links.

  • Space Telescopes - Orbiting Frog has released a KML file for tracking the current positions of some of the more noted space telescopes. He is using his tool previously reported which shows the position of orbiting objects around the Earth.

  • Custom Compass - Gerardo has posted a really nice compass modification for Google Earth which adds a compass rose (adding E, S, W, and other cardinal points). Borrowing on the idea from Barry Hunter, Gerardo's version is more versatile. However, this requires you to modify the default image by replacing an image in the Google Earth directory. This way the compass turns with your view just like you would expect. Read his post for details.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:20 AM | Comments (5)

May 01, 2008

Incremental Update to Google Earth 4.3.7204.0836 (beta)

Google has released an update to the 4.3 beta released two weeks ago which fixes some bugs (no new features that I see). This is still a beta version, so Google probably has more things they plan to fix before finalizing 4.3. You can download it through the Google Earth Download page, or if you haven't downloaded 4.3 before, you can use GEB's download Google Earth page. Thanks to Frederic for the tip that this was now available.

Here are some of the things they fixed in this incremental release (still waiting for official release notes):

  • MAC only- Whenever balloon has enough text to require a vertical scroll bar, the horizontal scroll bar shows up as well. Even though the horizontal text are not wide enough.
  • Bottom margin of balloon is too big.
  • Balloons sometime do not render image when clicked repeatedly.
  • Sometime balloon does not open in Vista machine.
  • "to here"/"from here" does not work in newly created placemark.
  • Navigation from camera views (above horizon) is broken.
  • Crash at exiting sky mode.

By the way, if you are looking to report a problem you're having with GE 4.3, or you want to go back to GE 4.2, read this excellent post at the GE Community by 'Noisette'. Or just go to the Google Earth support forum.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:38 AM | Comments (3)

April 30, 2008

Rumor-mill: Google Ocean in the Works

According to CNET, Google is working on a new product rumored to be called "Google Ocean". Apparently Google invited a bunch of oceanography experts last December to discuss creating a 3D oceanographic map. And now, rumors are flying on what might result.

Ever since Google Earth was released in 2005, many people have wondered why the ocean floors seen in relief color were not in 3D. According to posts by some of its developers, part of the reason had to do the 3D model of GE not allowing sub-surface rendering. There have been rumors for a long time Google was planning to add 3D to the oceans and allow sub-surface rendering for Google Earth. So, would this new ocean-viewing capibility mean another new version of Google Earth? Google Earth 4.3 was just released two weeks ago - it seems unlikely we'd see something else new right away. Or is the capability to render ocean floors already built in to 4.3 and they just need to turn on new servers to make the oceans 3D? Or, will we have to wait several months before Google Ocean is released?

There are three approaches to making Google Ocean. First, as suggested above: modifying Google Earth's base terrain model to support ocean floor 3D data. This would be the best approach in my opinion. Keep it all in one application. Second, Google Ocean could be a different dataset like Google Sky where you switch to a different mode - connecting to a different server - still using the Google Earth application. Or, third, Google Ocean could be a whole new application. Hmm....

Google Earth's capability to overlay images and placemark data has already enabled oceanographers and other scientists to add many useful layers of information about our world's oceans. Here are just a few examples of useful marine visualizations for Google Earth:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:43 AM | Comments (7)

Different Ways to Map Symbols in Google Earth

Population Graph in Google EarthBjørn Sandvik writes the thematicmapping blog, and for the past few days he's been making a series of posts showing many different ways to use KML to map proportional symbols in Google Earth. The series is well worth reading, and provides plenty of KML examples, so I'm going to post links to each post below with a brief summary. He also has screenshots in the posts. The example here shows population distribution using the Google Chart API where the symbols are sized according to each countries population, and the charts show the distribution according to age. Try it in Google Earth. Here's a summary of the series of posts:

  • Making Proportional Symbols in KML - using the placemark icon element to make proportional symbols

  • Using Google Charts with KML - This innovative KML approach can also be used in Google Maps and Virtual Earth (although the placemark icons don't scale in those mapping applications).

  • Drawing Regular Polygons in KML - He points to a PHP application for generating geometric shapes in KML automatically, and then scaling for proportional symbols like circles or squares.

  • Drawing 3D Bars in KML - I've seen this method used the most for these types of maps (see links below).

  • Proportional Collada 3D Objects in KML - This method could probably be the most fun. Grabbing 3D models from 3D Warehouse and scaling them. He shows an example with a symbolic 3D human for the population graph. Cool!

Here are some previous posts showing some tools and other symbol maps/graphs in Google Earth:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:42 AM | Comments (1)

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