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November 30, 2007

Virginia Tech Says Thank You in Google Earth

In response to the global outpouring of support to Virginia Tech in the aftermath of the April 16th shooting at the campus - students, faculty and staff organized a special event. They gathered in the central park area of the campus and spelled out the words "VT Thanks You" and took an aerial photo. They published a web page describing the event (with photos), and it offers a Google Earth file you can download which overlays the image of the message. The file even contains some of the campus buildings in 3D. The event was held on November 17th. They say they timed the event when a satellite was supposed to fly over, so the image could eventually become a part of the Google Earth imagery. Thanks to GEB reader Markus for the tip.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:55 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

News and Links - Out of Beta, Crysis, Our Dumb World, Visual ILS

• Out of Beta - Google Earth 4.2 as of this week is out of beta. There is a new version you can download (version 4.2.0205.5730), but the only documented changes to the program are the version number and that it isn't called beta. Even the release notes are the same. However, if you do download, you will see they have added a new download program for checking for updates and doing the installation - which is based on Google Updater.

• Crysis - OgleEarth highlights the efforts of a 3D map maker for the new first person shooter game Crysis, who has used Google Earth imagery and terrain as a basis for an island he built for the game. Stefan also has some fun playing with a large overhead projector with touch-screen activated Google Earth.

• Out Dumb World - The Onion, a parody news web site, has published a satirical "atlas" of the world called Our Dumb World. You can view a series of placemarks in a Google Maps mashup which give some interesting perspectives on the world. They are currently highlighting France this week, and will presumably highlight other countries as they go along. They have also released Our Dumb World for Google Earth showing the same content.

• Visual ILS - For flight simulator fans, someone named 'skywatcher' at the Google Earth Community has posted an ILS guide for GE. ILS stands for instrument landing system and pilots have an instrument which lets them fly a specific path to the runway when the weather is bad. In Google Earth, the weather is always good, so this has limited utility. But, it is a kind of fun thing to try. His method is a 3D model aligned along the path which you visually use to keep on the path. See a YouTube video of the technique here:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 29, 2007

Google Earth Evolution

Yesterday, TechCrunch writer Duncan Riley got soundly slapped by his readers for posting a story with the headline "Google Earth Heading Towards Extinction?". He said because Google has recently announced some new features for Google Maps, this must mean Google Earth is on "borrowed time". Anyone who actually uses Google Earth and compares it to Google Maps, knows that the beauty and richness of Google Earth is not going to go away any time soon. The 3D capability for looking at the Earth, the abilities to overlay information, and the simple and powerful interface of Google Earth is here to stay. All you have to do is read some of the stories on this blog to see there are many powerful ways to use Google Earth that even Google didn't imagine.

All that being said, I think it is worth noting that Google Maps is evolving more rapidly lately than Google Earth. Google has added a flood of new features and capabilities to the 2D product. But, let's remember it was only a few months ago (late August), that Google added some pretty significant new capabilities to Google Earth: anyone forgetting the new Sky mode, the YouTube layer, or the amazing Flight Simulator mode?

I believe Google will continue to borrow capabilities from Google Earth and incorporate them within the web-based product (Google Maps). In fact, someday I believe the two will merge in some ways. However, as several people pointed out in the comments to the TechCrunch article, it will still require at least a separate plug-in application to run real 3D from within a browser. At least until browsers become 3D. Google Earth's performance in 3D (as amply demonstrated by the Flight Simulator mode), is a big part of the reason why it is a separate application. But, the other important reason is that the interface for browsing information in GE is a different paradigm from the normal web browser. It wasn't long ago that Firefox had fewer downloads than the 250+ million people who have installed Google Earth. A few more killer applications of data for Google Earth could make it so indispensable everyone will have it installed (maybe Mac OSX will start shipping it by default?).

Google Earth will evolve as well. It has already changed dramatically in the several years since it was created. Like any other popular software, it too will continue to change and grow new, and hopfully better, features. Yes, I write about Google Earth every day. But, check out Mount Saint Helens in Google Earth. Viewing features of the world like this in Google Earth is so much better than Google Maps - even with the new 2D relief maps. 'Nuff said.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:53 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

November 28, 2007

Large Hadron Collider Visible in Google Earth

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator and collider located at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, and is scheduled to be open in May of 2008. Large particle accelerators are built in circles to get particles up to very high speeds (near the speed of light). The LHC is nearly 27 km in circumference and is located 50 to 175 meters underground on the border between France and Switzerland. CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. This massive underground structure is difficult to visualize since it is all underground.

Google Earth 3D modeling guru Joey Wade has posted a 3D diagram and models showing the LHC and floated it directly above its actual location so you can see how it looks in Google Earth. Download the LHC model . He has roughly modeled the 3D buildings on the surface so you can get a feel for the underlying structures and how deep they are underground. Zoom in to see the buildings and tilt your view. Joey has included a folder with YouTube videos in placemarks which provide some excellent information about the project. The large deep structure is the new ATLAS particle detector system. Nice work!

Just for fun, Joey also included a little animation showing two particles in opposite directions going around the collider. After loading the file above, just click on the play button to the right of the time slider to see it in action!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 27, 2007

New Terrain Mode for Google Maps

Google has announced a new mode called Terrain for Google Maps which lets you see relief maps of 3D terrain. This is a very useful mode if you are going hiking, mountain biking, skiing, etc. in rough terrain areas. Or, if you just want to get an idea of the lay of the land when you're looking at the map. They also got rid of the "Hybrid" button which showed roads and labels when you were in Satellite mode. Now, when you click on Satellite, you get a pop-up choice to add "Labels" - which does the same thing as Hybrid did. Check out this new terrain layer for your favorite hilly areas. The detail is quite good in most of the places I've checked. Zoom in closer for more detail.

One of the best features of Google Earth is that it is a 3D virtual globe, not just a 2D map. So, when you tilt your view, the terrain is represented by actual 3D data. So, you can literally see details of the terrain like you were standing/floating there. However, the terrain is only as good as the resolution of the 3D data. Most of the world is represented in Google Earth by data from US Space Shuttle missions at 90 meters resolution. You may not see small hills, boulders, etc. In the US, New Zealand, Canaries, Switzerland, and parts of Canada - Google has added new higher resolution 3D terrain. Most of the new stuff is at 10 meter resolution. In West Virginia it is at 3 meters resolution! Google seems committed to continuing to add more areas of the world with better 3D terrain data. And, they are now adding terrain information to Google Maps as well. The more information the better!

By the way, you can also look at shaded relief maps in Google Earth as an overlay. See the example below. And, you can also overlay USGS topographical maps to Google Earth.

Related:

• High Resolution Terrain Detail Option in Google Earth
• New High Resolution Terrain Western US and Canaries
• Google Earth More Realistic High Resolution Terrain
• New Terrain - July 27
• Shaded-Relief Map for Google Earth

Posted by FrankTaylor at 02:40 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

November 27, 2007

Links: EPA Air Quality, DigitalGlobe, Bolivia Protected Areas

[UPDATE 0920 EST - Initially I was pointing to the wrong air quality EPA file. Story corrected.]

• 

  EPA Air Quality - The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published a Google Earth file which gives a near-real-time report of air quality across the US (an Air Quality Index - AQI). The information comes from a web site callled AirNOW. The data is updated hourly, and you can tell at a glance based on the colors of placemarks where there are problem areas. The file uses network links to continuously update the data while you are watching. You can also keep the network link in your Places folder and turn it on whenever you want to check the AQI. The AirNOW site says that they are working to make the KML file compatible with Virtual Earth and WorldWind which are also supporting KML. [My apologies for not finding the right EPA KML file initially, there is another KML file on air quality from the EPA as well.]

• DigitalGlobe - DigitalGlobe has already commissioned the satellite they launched in September - WorldView-I. According to details from AnyGeo, the satellite company began delivering data to its government customer on November 17, and will start selling data to commercial customers in January 2008. I'm impressed with how quickly they commissioned this satellite. It's possible Google will receive some of the data at the beginning of the year, but I wouldn't expect to see any imagery from the new satellite in Google Earth earlier than April.

• Bolivia Protected Areas - A Google Earth Community member named 'maartenzam' has posted an excellent KML file showing the protected environmental areas in Bolivia (in Spanish). Bolivia has some of the most diverse plant and animal life on Earth in its Amazonian tropical forests. This is an excellent way to learn more about the areas. via María's Spanish Google Earth Blog.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 26, 2007

Arctic Ice Melting Animation in Google Earth

You may have heard in the news this summer about the ice in the arctic having melted to a much vaster extent than in previous years. But, a new update to a Google Earth time animation shows this melting was very dramatic. The National Snow and Ice Data Center has a time animation which shows the extent of ice melting in September of each year since 1979. Download the animation here (491 Kbytes). In Google Earth click on the "play" button on the right of the time slider to watch the animation (it will have to load images for each frame the first time through). You can see the melting gets worse in the last few years, but in 2007 the change was dramatic. They also have an animation showing the daily sea ice concentration summer of 2007 (612 KBytes).

The National Snow and Ice Data Center has some of the best scientific Google Earth content. They are using Google Earth to effectively show the condition of ice, glaciers, and snow around the world.

Related - other scientific visualizations:

• USGS Releases Awesome 1906 Earthquake Documentary Using Google Earth
• Global Volcanoes
• International Polar Year
• Avian Flu Tracker
• Global Paleogeographic Time Animation

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:20 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 24, 2007

Australian Election Results Live in Google Earth

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is covering today's election live using Google Earth. Simply download this network link. The colors represent the parties, and as you zoom in the names of the winning candidate appear. Placemarks contain news stories and video. The maps uses network links to automatically update itself. At this point, the election results are close to completion. But, I'm sure the final results will continue to be shown for some time. The ABC also has an interactive election map (using Google Maps) with more details.

Googlers in Australia also created an election website a few weeks ago which provides background information on the election with a Google Maps mashup and also YouTube videos on the candidates.

Thanks to an e-mail from Darryl at the ABC for the news on the GE election map.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 21, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the US. So, I'll be taking it easy and enjoying time spent with family, as well as the big meal. Last year I created the world's largest Thanksgiving greeting card. You can check it out in Google Earth. Feel free to share the link with your friends or family. (By the way, if you look closely, you'll see a placemark with a turkey icon. Check out the placemark for a little Thanksgiving trivia.)

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Earth at Night from Rosetta

My friend Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams posted about an interesting photo from the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft whose mission is to approach a comet. Rosetta has a complex trajectory including three Earth and one Mars gravity assist approaches before finally reaching the comet. As it was coming by the Earth recently, it captured a beautiful composite picture of the Earth (from 80 thousand km) showing a thin crescent of daylight and capturing city lights on the dark portion.

Naturally, being a Google Earth fanatic, I immediately thought of comparing the view to GE with the NASA Earth City Lights layer. So, I created a placemark so you can compare the Rosetta photo to Google Earth. Just turn on the layer in GE found now under: "Gallery->NASA->Earth City Lights". Then open this placemark to view the same view as Rosetta in Google Earth. The advantage to viewing the Earth City Lights layer is that you can see the entire Earth, zoom in a bit closer for more detail, and turn on other layers like Roads and Populated Places so you can see which roads and cities the lights belong to. Or click on the thumbnail to see a closer comparison.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 20, 2007

Links: Santa Tracker Dec 1, Location Editing, PhotoOverlay, AntArctic Trek, Virtual Earth Imagery Update

• Santa Tracker Dec 1 - This year when Norad tracks Santa on Christmas Eve, the official application to watch it will be Google Earth. Starting on December 1st, there will be a special countdown to Christmas Eve. Go visit the Santa Tracker site starting December 1 (or check back here at GEB) for details. Last year Google created a 3D game in Google Earth where you had to find Christmas presents somewhere on the Earth for the two weeks leading up to Christmas. They had Santa's North Pole home and his sleigh rendered in 3D, and then the Santa tracker was linked to the Norad data.

• Location Editing - Google has announced an interface in Google Maps so you can correct address location results. So, if you find when you enter an address for your home or a business that the results are inaccurate, you can move the placemark to the correct location. You just need a Google account. Self correcting data...very cool idea. via Google Operating System blog (which includes a better video introduction).

• PhotoOverlay - Stefan Geens at OgleEarth recently took some photos of an archaeological dig in Egypt. The photos were geotagged and then he used some tools to create a panoramic PhotoOverlay and place the other photos in a Google Earth KML. Lots of useful tips and recommended tools. Worth a read if you plan to document a visit somewhere with real style. See the results here .

• Antarctic Trek - A bunch of Norwegian and US scientists are going to traverse a part of the Antarctic continent to the south pole and document climatic variances. They're using a special snow tractor with a trailer containing living quarters and a lab. The cool part (besides the weather) is that they have a KML file you can use to track their progress in Google Earth. See their web site.

• Virtual Earth Imagery - Microsoft continues to acquire and release imagery at a prodigious rate for Virtual Earth. They have just released 33.7 TBytes of new and updated imagery covering many areas and countries. I particularly like the new imagery for tropical islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean. There's also a long list of new cities with Bird's Eye views in the US and Europe. Read the full list of places added or updated. I have to say Microsoft is quickly catching up with Google in the imagery race. And the Bird's Eye view imagery is definitely still unique to Microsoft and quite amazing. And Microsoft also has a decided advantage because they own most (or all?) of the rights to the imagery they are acquiring because they are commissioning their own photography. Whereas Google just acquires the data from many imagery providers with a license limited to use in Google Earth and Maps.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 19, 2007

KFC Logo Stunt Now in Google Earth

Since Google Earth has come out, many companies have considered painting their logos on roofs or doing some kind of publicity stunt where you could see their logo from above. However, the challenge is that you don't know when the photo might make it into Google's imagery database. If you are just trying to do a stunt (put something on the ground), you have to either have a plane fly over, or arrange for it to be there when a satellite is flying over.

A year ago, KFC laid out the "world's largest KFC logo" in the Nevada desert and claimed it was the "first logo visible from space" (see GEB story). Well, it was simply not true they were the first because many companies have logos which have been visible from above for many years and are visible in Google Earth's satellite imagery. But, what is interesting is that KFC actually set up the photo at a time when both GeoEye and DigitalGlobe (the two primary commercial satellite imagery companies) were flying over the location. So, they were able to show first the Geoeye imagery to "prove" their point. During Google's recent imagery update, as pointed out by GoogleSightseeing, the KFC logo is now visible in Google Earth in the base imagery. I did a check, and sure enough the image was taken by DigitalGlobe on November 14, 2006 (just 3 days before the story last year).

If you watch this YouTube video, you can see the marketing people setting up the KFC logo in the desert. Also, at the very end, you can see a helicopter taking off that I presume was going to do a low aerial fly-by. The only problem is the logo was essentially a banner, and the helicopter blows away a big portion of the logo! It took nearly a year, but the KFC logo is in Google Earth. My hat is off to the marketing team for actually pulling it off.

The folks at Maxim Magazine did something similar putting a giant banner showing a cover of their magazine with Eva Longoria in a bikini. They just took aerial photos, but published their photo as an image overlay to make it visible in Google Earth. Read the story here, and see the link which lets you see it in Google Earth. I think the Maxim story got a lot more attention on the Internet than the KFC logo. I wonder why?

Related stories:

• Original KFC logo story
• Maxim Cover in Google Earth
• Firefox Logo Crop Circle in Google Earth
• Pirates of the Caribbean Island in GE
• Eye in the Sky Advertising

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 16, 2007

Tropical Cyclone Sidr in Google Earth

A deadly tropical cyclone has struck Bangladesh killing over 500 people according to news reports. Tropical Storm Sidr was a category four storm with winds of 130+ knots when it struck on Thursday evening local time.

You can see a high resolution satellite photo in Google Earth showing Tropical Storm Sidr two days ago (before it made landfall). The photo came from the NASA MODIS Terra satellite.

You can also see the track of this storm from the live storm tracking tools like this one from Guiweather.com. Also, you can turn on the new Weather layer in Google Earth to see what's left of the storm's clouds.

See more storm tracking tools and weather data for Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:45 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Armor All Promotion in Google Earth

Received some E-mail from Felix and Andrés of Area6 about a promotion they designed in México for Armor All (the car wax and protection products company). They have produced an Armor All scavenger hunt game using Google Earth. The concept started with the idea of painting the top of a building as a promotion with an Armor All logo, but they realized that you can't predict when such an image would appear in Google Earth. So, they decided to paint logos virtually in Google Earth and make a game out of it. The contest prizes include hot rod cars like a 1973 Mustang, a 1977 Corvette, and a 1976 Dodge Dart.

The game is only available in Spanish. And you need to register with an address from Mexico to get in. The screenshot shows instructions for playing the game (click on the picture to see it larger). It uses network links to determine when you are getting close to one of the locations. You see the words "Frío" or "Caliente" indicating whether you are cold or hot.

The web site also promotes an Armor All Hot Rod Blog with videos of the prize cars being shined up with - you guessed it - Armor All. Thanks to Spanish GEB translator Gerardo for checking out the game.

Other promotions using Google Earth:

• Mazda CX-7 Sweepstakes in GE
• Mission Impossible III
• British Army on Everest
• Adidas FIFA World Soccer Promotion
• Discovery Channel
• King Kong DVD promotion
• Fiat Torino Olympics promotion
• National Geographics

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2007

Links: WSJ Article, Tornado History, Google Sky Exoplanets

• WSJ Article - The Wall Street Journal wrote today about some of the Google Earth Outreach content. The article highlights the Appalachian Voices Mountain Top Removal campaign and a new feature on their web site which determines whether your power company gets their coal from destroyed mountains by giving your zip code. The article highlights Google's GE Outreach program which was announced in New York last June. It also quotes yours truly as saying we should "see an onslaught of new environmental content" thanks to the Outreach program. It takes a while to develop top-quality content and get it ready to be included as a layer in Google Earth. I expected this article to contain an announcement of a new Google Earth layer. But, for some reason its taking longer than I expected for Google to release new Outreach-approved layers.

• Tornado History - Google Earth Community member 'giasen' has produced another cool data visualization. He's tapped into a historical archive of tornado reports in the US for the last several decades. He created time stamped placemarks for each report and categorized them based on the number of fatalities resulting. Download the tornado data here (1.5 Mbytes). Select the folders for the different categories of tornadoes. Use the time slider to watch the animation. Fortunately, most (the green ones) had zero fatalities. And also fortunately, you can observe how there are fewer fatalities over time thanks to better warning systems, better construction, and safety precautions.

• Google Sky Exoplanets - A post today about using Google Sky in the classroom had an interesting reference to a collection of placemarks which show the locations of all the known planets discovered outside our solar system. These come from the web site exoplanets.org which is the California and Carnegie Planet Search project. See the exoplanet collection in Google Sky . To me, having lived most of my life only dreaming there were planets outside our solar system, it is amazing to see how full the sky is of planets already discovered in just the last few years. It's amazing to realize that there are many more planets out there than the stars we see when we look at our night sky.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 14, 2007

Google Offers New Mapping Data for Switzerland

Google has announced a new localized version of Google Maps for Switzerland. As always, the maps include road information and directions. And, there is even public transit information from local transportation providers. This is part of a bigger effort which Google has also announced for European public transit information. The same information is also available in Google Earth. See the screenshot which shows a closeup in Bern, Switzerland with the Transportation layer turned on. A bus stop is selected and clicking on the placemark takes you to a web page showing detailed bus stop information for today's buses.

But, the Google Earth content for Switzerland has so much more to offer. Switzerland was the first country to receive high resolution 3D terrain in GE, and the Swiss Alps are totally awesome to view (see a video flying tour of the GE Swiss Alps from a few months ago).

Yet another way to explore the Swiss Alps in GE is using the driving directions. For example, enter "Attinghausen to Silenen" into the Fly To search pane in Google Earth and you will get driving directions. Then select the "Play" button below the directions. You will get a flying tour of the driving directions. If you go to the "Tools->Options" you can adjust your height and tilt so you can see the mountains while touring the directions. Not only that, but if you turn on the Places of Interest layer you will see Google has even added the ski lifts in Google Earth in Switzerland as well. The imagery is high enough resolution that you can see the buildings housing each end of the ski lifts!

Here is a video showing how all this looks in Google Earth:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 13, 2007

Links: Russian Oil Spill, KML Screen Overlay Maker, Android Demo

• Russian Oil Spill - Within days of the San Francisco oil spill, a huge storm struck a huge shipping area in the Kerch Strait between the Azov and Black Seas. Several ships were run aground by the storm, lives were lost, and at least one ship broke in half spilling tens of thousands of gallons of oil in the sea. Already there are reports this could be one of the worst ecological disasters in history (see BBC News story). If you look at the Kerch Strait in Google Earth , you can see many ships in the straight on just a typical day. via Google Earth Community.

• KML Screen Overlay Maker - One of the nicer features in Google Earth for helping illustrate content is the Screen Overlay. This is the feature which can show a map legend, or put a logo on the screen for a particular KML file. But, you can't simply select a menu choice in Google Earth to insert a Screen Overlay. You have to insert the necessary code into the KML manually. At least until now. Leszek Pawlowicz at FreeGeographyTools has developed a Windows application which helps you create a screen overlay for use with your KML content. He has written three blog posts describing the tool and how to use it. Read part 1, part 2, and part 3.

• Android Demo - Last week Google revealed their open source Google phone operating system called Android to the world. A New York Times article discussed features they saw in a demonstration of Android including Google Earth. A bunch of people, including Stefan at OgleEarth were excited to hear about the possibility of Google Earth on a phone. But, I was doubtful - and in fact I contacted the NYT writers and they said they weren't sure it was GE. Now Google has released a demonstration video of Android and it turns out there is a 3D globe application called "Global Time" in the phone software (at 3:55 in the video), but not Google Earth. See Stefan's new analysis. I agree that it is possible Google Earth could be made available on the OS, but until more phones have the necessary 3D performance capability - it won't be commonplace to see GE running on them. However, I do believe Google will have a GE-related application - possibly a scaled-down version of GE - available on Android for those phones which can run it.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 12, 2007

National Geographic Supports Geography Awareness Week

The third week in November is Geography Awareness Week (since Ronald Reagan signed legislation in 1987). Each year since then National Geographic Society has sponsored programs to help educate kids about geography. National Geographic also leads an effort called My Wonderful World to try and expand geographic learning in schools.

Google Earth Quiz Feature

Last week, My Wonderful World published a really cool series of tours for the continent of Asia using Google Earth. Most of the tours guide you with a series of placemarks to learn about different areas of Asia. But, my favorite is the orientation quiz . This uses some very cool new features in the latest KML 2.2 to allow you to have an interactive quiz in Google Earth. You answer a multiple choice question inside a placemark, and it tells you if you are right or wrong depending on which answer you select. This gives you a much more interactive educational feel to Google Earth. Amazing!

[UPDATE 1300: Looks like I'm not the only one to take note of this story - Google just posted a write-up about the quiz and other layers from National Geographic. And, they've posted a special page highlighting Geography Awareness Week content.]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:25 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

San Francisco Oil Spill in Google Earth

The news media is starting to catch on to using Google's map making tools to help illustrate news which has a geospatial context. The California fires last month was the biggest recent example. Now two local news outfits have begun documenting the situation with the San Francisco oil spill by using Google Maps. The San Francisco Chronicle has pictures and video showing the oil spill's consequences. And San Jose's KCBS map has created a map showing the areas affected and the extent of the oil's impact. You can view both of these maps in Google Earth together by clicking on the KML link in each map, or click here and here . I find viewing maps like this in Google Earth to be more informative since with GE you can see the 3D terrain, view multiple maps without too much clutter, and it's faster. Hopefully more news agencies around the world will start catching on and begin using mapping tools to illustrate the news. via Google Lat Long.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:55 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 09, 2007

DOE Energy Efficient Buildings in 3D Google Earth

Google has a talented team of folks in Boulder, Colorado who have quietly been creating hundreds of high quality 3D building models for locations all over the world and adding them into the Google 3D Warehouse. I noticed recently they have been creating a series of buildings which are part of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) High Performance Buildings Database. The 3D models highlight buildings that are using energy-efficient equipment and designs. You can view the collection of over 80 3D building models. Each building has a description, and a link back to the DOE database with all kinds of information about the buildings.

For example, you can read about the Big Horn shopping center in Colorado which uses extensive daylighting and natural ventilation cooling systems to lower energy demand. The center has a roof-integrated photovoltaic solar power system, the largest commercial solar array in the state, and sells unused electricity back to the utility company. And you can look at the nicely made 3D building in Google Earth. Look for the Google Earth 4 "Download" link for each model to check each one out. Or, you can download the collection network link which shows all 3D models across the US for the DOE collection and click on the placemarks to select building models. To see other 3D models created by the Google 3D team, click here.

[UPDATE: A KML file was created to highlight these energy efficient buildings developed for the DOE. via the Google Earth Gallery.]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Links: Google at the Pump, Sigdoarjo Mud Flow, Boxing Champs, California Fire Costs, New Trees

• Google at the Pump - This rarely happens any more, but a couple of days ago I actually heard some Google news on our local TV station before reading about it on the Internet. Google is working with Greensboro, North Carolina-based Gilbarco Veeder-Root to include an Internet display in gasoline pumps across the US where drivers can search Google Maps to get directions and print them out before they leave the pump. I was amazed to hear my neighbors talking about how they had heard about the gas pump maps and were suddenly more fascinated about Google Earth and the work I do with this blog. via WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

• Sigdoarjo Mud Flow - GoogleSightseeing wrote an interesting story about the Sigdoarjo mud flow in East Java, Indonesia. This mud flow was initiated by drilling for gas which accidentally reached a high-pressured volcanic mud flow in the summer of 2006. A huge amount of mud has been oozing out ever since (read more at Wikipedia). The DigitalGlobe satellite photo in Google Earth (taken on the 17th of November 2006) shows how a large portion of the town already appeared to have a new lake of mud - several houses and structures can be seen buried in it. Despite efforts to contain the flow (retaining walls, dams, etc.) the mud has more than doubled in size in the last year. The National University of Singapore highlighted a Ikonos satellite image taken on October 20th (just over two weeks ago). If you load this KML file they created you can see the image overlayed in Google Earth. After loading, use the slider beneath the Places pane to add transparency so you can compare the November 2006 shot to two weeks ago.

• Boxing Champs - The Google blog posted a story of how some Googlers helped work an event seeking to boost Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics by creating an innovative application of Google Earth. They created a Google Earth collection of world-wide boxing champions and made it available through a huge interactive touch screen on a wall at the event. The application apparently was a big hit...

• California Fire Costs - Google Earth Community member 'giasen' has created some more 3D bar charts in Google Earth. This time he illustrates the damage caused by the fires in California - the colors show the number of houses effected in each region (red is the most with 100+ houses damaged). And the height is equal to 100 meters per house effected. See giasen's world oil consumption graphs from earlier this year.

• New Trees - NEWtrees is a joint initiative by WWF Indonesia, Nokia and Equinox Publishing to replant trees in Sebangau National Forest in Central Kalimantan. They have announced they are using Nokia N95 phones (with built-in GPS) to mark the location, and take pictures, of new trees being planted where trees have been either illegally cut down or burned. The first location was marked in a ceremony on November 7th. Nokia is sponsoring the first 100,000 tree plantings. See the map here.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 08, 2007

Big Layer Update - Weather Layers in Google Earth

Google has made some big changes to the layers! First the layers have been re-organized substantially. You may have to hunt a bit to find things under new folders. For example: Featured Content is now Gallery, Populated Places falls under Borders and Labels, the many layers describing stores, geographic features, sports venues etc. are now under Places of Interest. I suggest you play around by opening folders and trying out layers to learn the new organization. Click on the "+" and "-" boxes to open and close the folders. The new organization is an improvement, but I still think a new interface for layers is needed.

The big new content layer is the new Weather layer. This is something I've wanted to see since the beginning. Right now, the new weather layer contains three sub layers: Clouds, Radar, and Conditions and Forecasts.

There's also an Information link which provides a good summary of the sources of the data and how to use them. Most of the data in this release seems to be managed by Weather.com - although the clouds come from the Naval Research Labs' Marine Meteorology Division. Note: the radar data provided by Weather.com is only for the US at this time.

Make sure to click on the "Information" link, because in the upper right you find two links which let you download time animations for the clouds and radar respectively. An information bubble for each network link loaded in your Temporary Places explains how to use the time animations.

I'm really glad to see the new weather layer. The clouds layer from the Navy Research Lab in Monterrey looks quite good. It is updated hourly. For many other stories about weather-related KML files, check out the GEB Weather category. Also check the best GE storm tracking tools post for lots of other useful weather tools.

By the way, thanks to Volker at Magnalox.net for the tip on the new layer update - he has been monitoring his new Caribbean 1500 Sailing Cup, so he was quick to notice the new weather layer.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:49 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack

November 07, 2007

Defense Earmarks in Google Earth

The Sunlight Foundation uses Internet technology to help share information about what the elected officials in US Congress are doing with tax payer dollars. Yesterday, USA Today wrote a story about how Sunlight Foundation is using Google Earth to show how Congress is using special directed spending (known as "earmarks") to send money to projects in their voting areas. They created a Google Earth file with placemarks showing the locations of contracts which fall into this category. Even Google's geo team thought this was interesting.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:20 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

November 06, 2007

Links: GE on Phones?, PhotoOverlay Tutorial, EarthNC Update, Time Embedder Tool

• GE on Phones? - OgleEarth gets excited based on a remark made in a NYT article regarding the new Google phone operating system called Android. The remark says that Google's chief engineer of Android Andy Rubin showed Google Earth running in a demonstration on Android. This is certainly theoretically possible since Android is based on Linux which GE supports. However, I have my doubts that many (if any) phones in the near-term will have the necessary horsepower (especially on the 3D side) to be able to run GE reliably. And, of course, there's the issue of bandwidth. It's not clear yet whether this was just a mistake on the part of the NYT article (seeing perhaps Google Maps and calling it Earth). I've sent a query to find out if its true. [UPDATE 1400 EST: I haven't gotten a confirmation of what is shown yet. However. it is true that bandwidth for mobile devices is much faster in some countries than where I live. Evidence is pointing to the likelihood that Google is intending to release at least a version of Google Earth which works on the new Android platform. I still believe the typical mobile device won't perform very well with Google Earth - at least the full application. But, within a few years that is likely to not be as much of an issue.]

• PhotoOverlay Tutorial - GELessons has published a nice tutorial on using Digital Urban's new PhotoOverlay tool to create superoverlay high-resolution PhotoOverlay images.

• EarthNC Update - EarthNC has announced an update to their fantastic nautical charts collection for Google Earth. The nearly 700 charts cover the waters in and around the US, Bahamas, and Virgin Islands. See earlier review at GEB.

• Time Embedder Tool - Leszek of FreeGeographyTools has developed a tool for embedding time stamps for a KML file so you can use the time slider for KML files that need it. He has a two-part tutorial on using his new tool. This could be handy for those who don't have the patience (or another programmatic method) to add the time stamps manually to a KML file.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 05, 2007

Caribbean 1500 Sailing Cup in Google Earth

The Caribbean 1500 Cup is held each year to provide an opportunity for sailors looking to make the blue water trip from the US East Coast to the Caribbean for the winter the opportunity to do it in an organized manner. The Cruising Rally Association provides advice, pre-trip checkouts, weather routing, and communications to help make the lengthy journey safer. And, you get to meet lots of other sailors and have some parties after you arrive.

This year, they have position trackers on board most of the boats with updates coming every four hours. They recruited Magnalox.net to help organize position reporting using Google Maps and Google Earth. View the Caribbean 1500 in Google Earth. For Google Earth, Magnalox not only shows the current position and track, but using the time slider you can see the relative positions along the way. Turn on the different folders for the different groups of boats (Rally Classes and Cruising Classes). Also, there are weather layers which show wind, weather, and wave conditions. Also provided is the rhumb line (shortest route) as well as range markers for distances from the destination. It will take several days for the boats to reach the destination, and they just started yesterday.
So check the network link over the next few days to see who is winning. Nice work Magnalox!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Five Million Photos in Google Earth

Panoramio is the photo repository web site Google acquired back in May of this year. Panoramio lets people use Google Maps or Google Earth to view the locations of photos uploaded to the site. Since Google started helping Panoramio by showing them in the Geographic Web layer of Google Earth, the site has exploded in growth.

The Panoramio blog recently announced there are now over 5 million photos in their repository. Two million of the photos are viewable in the Geographic Web layer. Panoramio has a team of people who make sure photos are approved before they go in the GW layer. You can view all 5 million of the photos using the Panoramio Google Earth network link . The network link shows you a subset of the photos according to your current view. As you zoom in to a location you'll see more of the photos for that specific location.

You can also view the photos in Google Maps like a layer by using the Panoramio My Maps gadget. The same technique of viewing photos based on your current view is used with the gadget. According to a Panoramio blog post, Google Maps now does a better job of showing lots of picture icons.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 02, 2007

Google Earth Christmas Gift: 15% Discount on SpaceNavigator

About a year ago, 3DConnexion released the best gadget you can buy for Google Earth: The SpaceNavigator. I still enthusiastically recommend this 3D mouse as a gift to your favorite Google Earth fan. In fact, everyone I know who has one of these loves using it. Right now, 3DConnexion is offering a 15% discount off the normal $59 price for SpaceNavigator PE to Sightseer readers (<- subscribe) if you buy before November 16th at their online store. Plus, the SpaceNavigator works great with other 3D applications like Google SketchUp, NASA Worldwind, Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D, and many other 3D applications.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 02:18 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Links: Virtual Globes at AGU, Your Town in 3D, MGD Monitor Layer

• Geobrowsers at AGU - The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has its annual fall meeting in San Francisco. This year the fall meeting is on December 10-14. Like last year, there will be a special series of presentations focused on using virtual globes (or "Geobrowsers") like Google Earth for science. Here is a schedule of the many presentations which will be referencing the use of virtual globes. Yours truly will be presenting on using "Google Earth for the Advancement of Science". See you there!

• Your Town in 3D - Google describes how a small town in Tennessee has started a project to model their town in 3D. Google has even donated Google Earth Pro and SketchUp Pro licenses and is providing training to help locals do the work. Of course, the goal is to put all their buildings in the 3D Warehouse so they can appear in Google Earth. Google is encouraging other towns to do the same.

• MGD Monitor Layer - Google is working with the United Nations and Cisco to provide a system to track the status of many countries towards meeting a set of goals called the Millennium Development Goals which address poverty, AIDS/HIV, and other related problems in developing countries. The new MDGMonitor.org web site includes a prominent link to a Google Earth layer which is a collection of placemarks showing the status of each country. Each placemark contains good information summarizing the status of each country with links to more information.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:05 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Planets Layer in Sky Updated

When Google Earth 4.2 came out with the new Sky mode on August 22, they included two layers called "The Moon" and "The Planets". These layers use the time slider to show you the positions of the moon and planets in the night sky. The only problem is that the layers only included three months worth of prediction. So, on October 22 they no longer showed future data. Google realized the problem and posted a new update at the end of the month. Google mentioned that they are working on a way to automatically keep the layers updated. Don't forget the nice add-on which shows a top-down view of the solar system while playing the time loop.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 01, 2007

X PRIZE Cup Photos Mapped

Those of you who read GEB regularly know I went to New Mexico this past weekend for the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup 2007. This is a wonderful air and space show where both planes and rockets are seen both on the ground and in the air. The X PRIZE Cup (XPC) was held this year at the Holloman Air Force Base, and was really well organized (I was fortunate to meet the CO General Dave Goldfein, and he definitely made this a smoothly run event). Google had a booth showing off Google Earth features, and the Google Lunar X Prize was prominently promoted. Part of the XPC is to exhibit lots of cool space things, this year they again invited over 6000 kids from schools all around New Mexico and Texas, and they also hold a number of contests related to space technologies. The big contest was for the Northrum Grumman $3 Million Lunar Lander Challenge. Armadillo Aerospace was the only contestant to qualify to attempt the required launches - but, they unfortunately just barely missed the first stage of the prize (only seven seconds short). See photos from other contestants by CNET.

I've uploaded a bunch of photos of the exhibits, planes in flight, one of the Armadillo flights (the one which tipped over at the end), and pictures of the kids and other people attending. The photos were geotagged using Google Earth with Picasa, then uploaded to a PicasaWeb Album which automatically creates a Google Map (turn on satellite view) of the photos, as well as a KML file suitable for viewing the photos in GE . PicasaWeb also lets you embed a slideshow of your photos on a web site - like this:

I flew a Cessna 182 out to New Mexico and landed in Las Cruces. Last week I released the GPS track of the flight out, and now you can also view the return trip in GE . On a related note, Joost Schreve of EveryTrail took my GPS track from the flight out and posted it using his mapping tool. There are a number of GPS track mapping tools out there with different features for displaying your tracks. Lots more coverage on the X PRIZE Cup by Space.com.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Links: Mac Leopard, Earthquakes, 3D Warehouse, MODIS SuperOverlays

• Mac Leopard - Google informs Mac users that the new Mac OS X version called Leopard requires you to use Google Earth version 4.2 or greater. Earlier versions won't work.

• 

  Earthquakes - Google has hired a lot of people from many places around the world. A lot of them in California got to experience their first earthquake this week. First I noticed a blog post by Ed Parsons (who used to work for Ordinance Survey in the UK) who describes his first Earthquake and how he immediately looked for it with the USGS's earthquake monitoring tool in Google Earth. Then Geo Googler Lior Ron does a post at the Lat Long blog with some Google Maps and other tips on watching for earthquakes - also mentioning the USGS KML files. I personally keep the USGS network link in my Places folder handy to turn on any time I see news about earthquakes.

• 3D Warehouse - SketchUp blog announces that the 3D Warehouse is now available in 13 languages. The 3DWH is now available in eight new languages, including Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, traditional Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Polish, and Russian. The product was already available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, which brings our count up to thirteen. This also means the recent update to 3DWH which allows you to quickly grab 3D models should now work in these languages.

• MODIS SuperOverlays - Google Earth Community member 'Forkboy2' has posted an excellent collection super high resolution satellite photo overlays. The images are hand-selected from NASA's MODIS Rapid Response System which has two satellites which are continuously taking photos as they orbit the Earth. 'Forkboy2' has processed 200 of the highest resolution images through SuperOverlay so you can view the full resolution in GE. You can view them in GE with this nicely done network link so you can view the images practically. Click on the label links in the Places folder to get some details on each image.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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