Google Earth Blog: February 2008 Archives

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February 29, 2008

Collection of Sundials in Google Earth

There's a growing list of collections of places categorized by subject matter and maintained at the Google Earth Community. Recently we looked at the collection of dinosaurs visible in Google Earth. The same guy maintaining that collection, 'felippo' at the Google Earth Community, is also maintaining a collection of placemarks of sundials . The collection already has over 100 locations and many of the placemarks contain a ground-level photo so you can get a better perspective. And, you can also turn on the Geographic Web layer in GE to see if Panoramio photos are available for the sundials.

One of my favorite sundials is the Sundial Bridge in Redding, Ca. There are lots of Panoramio photos of this pedestrian bridge which has a giant spire that also serves as the suspension of the cables for the bridge. Also, I was quick to make sure the small sundial in front of the Flandrau Planetarium in Tucson, Arizona was visible. I had to do an astronomy homework problem to determine how a sundial worked and verify my calculations using this sundial. This was many years ago, but sundial technology hasn't changed very much.

If you know of a sundial not in the collection, head over to the forum thread and post a placemark so Felippo can add it to the collection.

[UPDATE 3-March: Steve Lombardi at Microsoft blogs about this post and takes the Sundial Collection of placemarks and puts it into Virtual Earth so you can also check for Bird's Eye View oblique aerial photography of many of the sundials. These views give you a much better perspective on the shapes of the sundials, and the photos are usually higher resolution as well. Definitely worth checking out if you understand how the Bird's Eye Views work.]

here is a sample of other GE collections written about at GEB:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:45 AM | Comments (1)

February 28, 2008

WorldWide Telescope vs Google Sky

Google Sky was introduced in August 2007 as a part of Google Earth. It takes the idea of a zoomable Earth with high resolution aerial and satellite photography and turns it inside out letting you look at the nighttime sky. But, instead of pictures of the Earth, Google gathered photography from the world's best telescopes and the deepest pictures of the night sky. It's a fantastic application with a rich source of data and built on a foundation of Google Earth technology which many people are comfortable with using.

For the past few weeks, rumors had been building that Microsoft would be releasing a new product called WorldWide Telescope (WWT) which would be "significantly better" than Google's Sky. Robert Scoble stirred the rumor when he said he saw a Microsoft product that "made me cry". TechCrunch later said they guessed it was the new product WorldWide Telescope, which Scoble has now confirmed. (What I'm wondering is if Scoble had ever even seen Google Sky before all this) As TechCrunch predicted, Microsoft did briefly demo the new product at TED this week (see video below). Unfortunately, Microsoft said the product won't be released to the public until sometime this Spring. Microsoft has put up a web page for WWT that shows kids and notable people's reactions to WWT. It's definitely a real PR spin - especially when you consider the product hasn't even been released! So far I'm not impressed with what I've seen of WWT. There was nothing I saw in the demonstration of WWT at TED that Google Sky doesn't already do.

To be fair, watching a 5 minute demonstration isn't a way to make a fair comparison. I have spoken to some folks who have seen WWT up close and asked them how it compares to Google Sky. It is said the interface of WWT is very slick and the graphics perform very well. In demonstrations it could switch databases much more quickly than Sky (but, the demos may not have been with data streaming over the network). Some of the imagery in WWT has been better processed than Sky. Google's Sky has a problem due to it being an extension of Google Earth - the "poles" are not handled well. WWT was not built on the roots of a 3D globe, so it doesn't have this problem. Here are some interesting comments on WWT from Alan Boyle at MSNBC. One thing I haven't seen anyone else mention: WWT doesn't run on anything but Windows. That's right, no Mac OS X, no Linux. And, it has been said WWT will only run on newer computers with faster graphics cards. One of Google Earth/Sky's greatest accomplishments is that it works on a wide range of computers and graphics cards and all three of the major OSes.

The real test will be how well people will be able to annotate and extend WWT. Google Sky has had many people adding content to make it an even better project. Check out this planetary orrey, this real-time horizon, lunar eclipse predictor, and there's a lot more. Already, Sky is available to the millions upon millions of people who have installed Google Earth (over 350 million installations at last count according to Google). Also, comparisons have been made between Sky and Stellarium (an open source planetarium program). I think Stellarium is a very slick and nice program. But, it's more of a complement to Sky, not a direct competition. Stellarium doesn't have the rich database of online server with terabytes of astronomy data like Sky (and like WWT will have). I suspect WWT will have some elements like Stellarium - more planetarium-like features. But, WWT is obviously more of a competition for Sky.

(Keep reading for the TED WWT video and conclusions)

Here is the video of the TED demonstration of WorldWide Telescope:

The three main features the presenter liked the most are things Google Sky already does: 1) lets you experience the universe, 2) let's you tour the universe, and 3) let's you make your own tours. To see this now in Google Sky - bring up Google Earth (Download GE 4.2 here if you don't have it) and hit the "Switch to Sky" button in the upper middle of Google Earth. Try out the various tours you'll see and dive into the universe right now.

Personally, as an astronomer, former planetarium employee, and computer graphics buff, I'm thrilled that Microsoft is going to be introducing even more astronomical data and slick graphics for us to play with for free. But, I think trying to make this as a big media event and part of its competition in the business world with Google is ludicrous.

Come back here in a few months after Microsoft releases theirs, and we'll do a real comparison.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:22 AM | Comments (17)

February 27, 2008

Oscars in Google Earth (1958 - 2008)

This year's winners of Oscars for best actors/actresses was a bit of a news maker. And as usual, there were a few posts about the location in Google Earth of the Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. But, I had also seen a post by 'Sam034' at the GEC who created a file showing all the Oscars for best picture, and best actor/actress since 1958. He's updated the file to include the 2008 winners. The placemarks show the birthplaces of the winners. And, the file includes a placemark for the Kodak Theater as well. It's surprising no one has modeled the theater in 3D for Google Earth yet - not even in the 3D Warehouse.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:31 AM | Comments (1)

UK Earthquake - View Data in Google Earth

There are two ways I usually find out about an earthquake: 1) in news reports on the Internet, and 2) in Google Earth. Either way, I always find the quick look at the USGS real-time earthquake monitoring network link for Google Earth a great way to get an understanding about seismic activity. You can save this in your My Places folder and turn it on whenever you want to see what's happening around the world with earthquakes. Colors indicate how long ago they occurred, and size indicates the strength in magnitudes of the earthquakes. If you click on the placemarks you get links to further information and even additional Google Earth content.

So, last night the UK had a rare strong quake of magnitude 4.7 in north-eastern England near Lincoln. The first place I read about it was a comment to one of my blog posts about the USGS earthquake monitoring tool. Upon visiting the USGS web page about this quake, I found an interesting map. It's a map showing a compilation of community Internet earthquake-intensity reports. Put another way - this is an Internet crowd-sourced earthquake intensity map. I've made an image overlay so you can view this map in Google Earth . At the time I took the screenshot there were nearly 9000 reports. For further GE information on the quake, here is a thread of comments about the quake at the Google Earth Community.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:06 AM | Comments (4)

February 26, 2008

Links: Outreach Showcase, Spreadsheet mapping, Geo Test, KML Lesson Talk

Outreach Showcase - The Google Earth Outreach Showcase is Google's current favorite method of sharing what it considers the best global awareness KML content for Google Earth. New content with particular significance get a special post at the Google Lat Long blog or even the official Google Blog. Today Google posted about the UNEP South China Sea Project which has developed a KML file for Google Earth describing the project (see earlier GEB post). See it in Google Earth here . I wonder if Google will continue using the Global Awareness layer, or will do something else?
Spreadsheet Mapping - Google posted more details about the Spreadsheet mapping tool version 2.0 which is part of the Outreach program. The tool is designed to make it easier for non-developer types to create good-looking KML content. The post mentions that one of the Outreach showcase files was created using the spreadsheet tool - the EDGE of Existence for Mammals which shows placemarks for the 100 most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) mammalians world-wide. See it in Google Earth here .
Geo Test - One of the participants in the GE Outreach program shared how she is making basic geography tests to introduce her biology students to her material using Google Earth. She offered five example questions which you can try yourself. And, the next day Google posted the answers. This is the kind of thing I think makes Google Earth great for learning. Related: try my favorite geography quiz (it's about Asia) done by National Geographic Magazine.
KML Lesson Talk - Last week, Google conducted the first in a series of talks called the Google Geo Developer Series. These talks are intended to help folks looking to develop applications using Google Earth and Maps. The first talk was entitled "Quick and Dirty KML Creation" by Googlers Mano Marks and Pamela Fox. You can watch the entire talk on You Tube. Definitely worth watching if you're looking to learn more about KML development. A very informal hands-on talk with everyone using their laptops to try out lesson material.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:59 AM | Comments (3)

February 25, 2008

NOAA Weather Data in Google Earth

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been gradually making more weather data available through Google Earth. I say "gradually", because NOAA has fantastic weather data and visualization capabilities, but they have only scratched the surface in releasing the data in KML which takes full advantage of Google Earth's capabilities. And, they have not done much to publicize the availability of their KML files. Fortunately, someone at NOAA has put together a new web page showing the KML content available from NOAA sites organized by data types - and it highlights newly available files. Things are definitely improving at NOAA with several new files I haven't seen before. I'm really glad they are growing their support, because they could do a lot more with Google Earth.

My favorite of the new files is "Snow Gages with Labels" . This file shows the condition of snow measuring stations in the Rocky Mountains of the US. The colors of the placemarks indicate the percentage of water content verses the normal levels for each site. Inside the placemarks are the details, and - I like this part - each one includes a photo of the measuring site (too bad it's not a live web cam photo!). Looks like Colorado has a lot more snow than usual this year.

The US forecast network link is kind of handy. You can place it in your My Places and turn it on when you want to do a weather check. Move GE to the area you are interested in and pause. You get a placemark which, when you open it and click on the "forecast" link, you are taken to a NOAA weather page giving you full weather details for that location. It's just a handy way to get to the NOAA data more quickly than having to do a search on their site.

Here are some previous GEB stories on other NOAA data available:

See also: Best Weather and Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth. And don't forget to try the new weather layers built in to Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:25 AM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2008

Links: Michael Jones Talk, Static Maps Mashup, Google Earth Game, Sky Lawsuit, Microsoft Sky

Michael Jones Talk - I discovered earlier this week that Michael Jones (who has been the primary Google spokesperson for Google Earth - with the title of Chief Technologist of Google Earth) was speaking in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as part of a distinguished lecture series by RENCI. Michael gave an excellent talk, as usual, which described how tools like Google Earth and Maps have begun improving the way we relate information to geospatial location. This was not a technical talk, and unfortunately there were no hints at forthcoming developments for Google Earth. But, I greatly enjoyed how surprised people in the audience were at the variety of features of Google Earth Michael demonstrated. Many people came up to him afterwards expressing: "I didn't know Google Earth did that." Michael on a couple of occasions pointed people over to me and said they should be reading GEB. :-) Michael was sporting a new title of "Chief Technology Advocate" in the lecture bio. In speaking with him afterwards, he will be expanding his role at Google to not just advocate the Google Earth/Maps products, but for Google as a whole.
Static Maps Mashup - Yesterday Google announced a new API for Google Maps which lets you create "static maps". These are single image snapshots of a map you specify which do not require you to load the javascript application wrapper. They aren't dynamic (you can't zoom/pan the map). But, there are situations where this could be useful. Well, Barry Hunter of Nearby - an accomplished Google Earth developer - quickly implemented a nice little network link hack that lets you generate a Google Maps view in a placemark description for your current view in Google Earth. Try it here . Since placemark descriptions can't use javascript, this new API is a perfect solution for this situation. The only problem is that the API only allows 1000 "calls" per day. So, if too many people try this you may get an error when trying it.
Google Earth Game - Mickey at Google Earth Hacks has announced he is developing a new game for Google Earth. This time its a multi-player role playing dungeon's and dragon kind of game. Currently the game is in closed beta, but I'm on the list. I'll report what I think soon. Mickey says the entire game will be played within Google Earth, so you won't have to load a separate application.
Sky Lawsuit - Last week it came out that Google was being sued by a former contractor who claims he gave the idea of Sky to Google in 2006. Stefan Geens at OgleEarth was quick to point out that the suit appears frivolous since it was obvious Google had started on this much earlier in 2006 than the contractor claimed. One interesting tidbit: during Michael Jones' talk last night he mentioned that he was in Hawaii meeting with astronomers to collect data for the Google Sky project in the fall of 2005. Six months before the contractor began working for Google. Further proof that the suit has no basis.
Microsoft Sky - Speaking of Sky - Microsoft will leave no stone unturned when it comes to continuing its effort to beat Google. Apparently on February 27th, Microsoft will be releasing a program to challenge Google Earth's Sky at showing the heavens to the masses. The program is rumored to be called Microsoft Worldwide Telescope and will use Photosynth-based technology. According to Techcrunch - which revealed the upcoming announcement - the new application will be better than Google Sky. We'll see...

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:25 AM | Comments (7)

February 21, 2008

Superdelegates in Google Earth

In an official Google Blog post, Rick Klau describes a wiki page he developed called Superdelegates.org. This site is mostly interesting if you are following the US Presidential Democratic nomination process. But, it also may be of interest to those of you looking for another way to create Google Earth content. Rick uses MediaWiki and a clever extension called KML Export by Juliano Ravasi to generate a Google Earth file to show geospatial data from the Wiki. The result lets you view a map in Google Earth of the Superdelegates and icons representing whether they support Obama, Clinton, or are undecided at this point.

I do have some advice though: Rick should share a network link which points to his file instead. This way people can save it in their My Places and be able to easily check to see the current status of the Superdelegates. Of course, you could just go back to his site and re-download the file when you want to check, or create your own network link pointing to the file.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:20 AM | Comments (0)

Where 2.0 2008 Conference - Register Early for Discounts

Where 2.0 is a conference all about the geospatial web (or GeoWeb) and the technologies we all are becoming to know an love (like Google Maps and, of course, Google Earth). This year's event will be on May 12-14, and will be held at the San Francisco Airport Marriott for the first time (it had been in San Jose in previous years). This is a great opportunity to meet important players in the development of Where 2.0 technologies. I've attended the previous two years (read some of my summaries here, here, and here) and was able to meet all kinds of interesting people both big industry players, and negeographers and technology innovators galore. I highly recommend this event if you are interested in geospatial technologies.

Check out all the details on the program and sessions at the Where 2.0 web site. And make sure you register before March 23, 2008. There is a substantial discount for registering early. Also, watch for discounts from sponsors.

This year I'm not only attending the event, but I'm also on the Program Committee. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you who read this blog. If you attend, make sure to look me up! Also, make sure you plan on spending a few extra days surrounding this event. Usually there are related events adjacent to Where 2.0. For example, on the weekend after Where 2.0 there is already a Where Camp being planned which will be hosted by Google.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:35 AM | Comments (1)

February 20, 2008

Predict Tonight's Lunar Eclipse with Google Earth

Tonight there will be a total lunar eclipse. A great opportunity for those of you with new digital cameras to try your hand at some basic astrophotography (read some tips on photographing a lunar eclipse). For those in the American continents it should be well above the horizon when the eclipse occurs. Thanks to a some nice work by Michael Kosowsky of HeyWhatsThat.com, you can download a simple KML file that will let you use Google Earth Sky to view when and where tonight's lunar eclipse will occur for your location. Fast, simple, and free! The KML file for Google Sky is simple to load , and it will automatically guess your location on the Earth by guessing the location of your IP address. Make sure you select the "Switch to Sky" mode when Google Earth prompts you. Double click on the "HeyWhat's That.com" placemark to position your view on the moon. Based on your location, you will see the green lines of a "planisphere" which represents your horizon in Google Sky; cardinal points showing north, south, east, west; the positions of the moon and planets; and a special symbol representing the Earth's shadow relative to the position of the moon. Not only that, but the time slider will be visible and you can drag the slider to determine precisely when the eclipse will occur. A full animation of the full sequence of the moon's eclipse. Very cool! When the moon falls within the darker circle of the shadow, the moon is in the total eclipse (as shown in the screenshot). Look at the time below the slider to determine what time it will occur.

Note: if the KML file doesn't properly guess your location (look at the lat/long coordinates shown in the KML that downloads), then use the Advanced Planisphere page at Michael's site to set your position with a map, then select "February lunar eclipse" and hit "Submit". You'll get a new KML with the proper coordinates.

Michael also has developed a Google Maps mashup called Cosmic Visibility which uses the Sky data and shows the lunar eclipse with a browser. Click on the link on the left which says "February lunar eclipse" to see the event there. Great work Michael!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:12 AM | Comments (1)

February 19, 2008

New Imagery Update for Google Earth

Got a report from a GEB reader in Spain that there's been an imagery update for Google Earth. The first so far in 2008. I checked, and there certainly appears to be some significant new imagery in Spain. There's a noticeable new area of imagery on the eastern edge of Spain covering Barcelona, which is copyrighted "Institut Cartográfic de Catalunya". This imagery is not particularly high resolution - I would estimate about 1 meter/pixel. Not as good as Digital Globe which is 60 cm/pixel. There is also some new aerial imagery for several towns in Spain - according to the report I got: Valladolid, Leon, burgos, Avila, Segovia, Salamanca, Andalucia, and Cataluña. The imagery for these towns is very good quality, but there is no attribution for who provided the imagery. Much of this imagery is 20 cm / pixel or better resolution....quite good.

Here's the list of areas determined to be updated/added so far (UPDATED 1645 EST):

Spain - Catalonia - including Barcelona; Valladolid, Leon, Burgos, Avila, Segovia, Salamanca, Andalucia, Cataluña, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Pamplona, Vitoria-gasteiz, Córdoba, and Gijon
England - Kent, Norfolk
France - Tours
Brazil - São Paulo
USA
- Ohio, US - New state-wide coverage
- Connecticut, US - New state-wide coverage
- Portland, Oregon, US
- Deleware, US - Updated imagery
- Nevada, US - Some new areas
- New Jersey, US - Many areas updated
- Louisiana, US - Many areas updated
- California, US - Areas east of LA have been updated, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo
- Philadelphia, PA, US - The entire metro area
- Salt Lake City Area, UT, US - City and surrounding area (including ski mountains - now summertime)
- Denver, CO, US
- Virginia, US - Norfolk, Newport News
- Hawaii, US - Mona Kea (observatory now visible), Maui, Kauai
- New York, US - Eastern part of Long Island updated
- Massachusetts, US - Parts of Boston/Cambridge updated
Canada - Woodstock, Ontario; Vancouver (suburbs, not city)
Norway - Oslo
Iceland - Reykjavik
Russia - Parts of St. Petersburg
Belgium - Pascal says some images around Brussels have been reprocessed, but otherwise the same imagery. See his post.
Denmark - Roskilde
Azores - Terceira (the whole island), São Miguel (the whole island)
Australia - Sydney and surrounding areas (large area to northeast)
Romania - Bucharest
New Zealand - Auckland
South Africa - Remote areas have new high resolution from Cnes/Spot Image

[UPDATE 20-FEB Google has posted the full details at the bottom of this post. It looks like GEB readers found at least 80% of the new imagery. Thanks for all the help everyone!]

Usually with an imagery update for Google Earth there are many other areas around the world added. So, please report here if you find other areas with new imagery. Thanks to those of you who have already reported in with new locations. For those of you wondering, I'm cross checking with Google Maps by simply clicking on the "View in Google Maps" icon in Google Earth. The Google Maps imagery database hasn't been updated with the new imagery yet.

I'll update this post as I get the details. Also, if you are reading this with an RSS reader, you should go directly to this post to get the latest update as readers usually don't re-load the post when updates are made.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:38 AM | Comments (76)

February 18, 2008

See Guys Putting Up Sign on Luxor Hotel & Casino

A few months ago, Google updated the imagery for the Las Vegas imagery. It is still very high resolution, although I think the quality is a bit less than the previous set (see previous release story). Still, the resolution is very good - I'd guess between 4-5 inches per pixel (previously it was reported the imagery was 3 inch resolution, and the sun angle seemed better - closer to noon). You can still see very fine details such as car types, and even people and their shadows.

It used to be that on the side of the Luxor Hotel and Casino (which is a huge pyramid-shaped building with a scale-model of the Sphynx in the front) you could see an ad for "Hair Spray" on the front of the building (see bigger version of old photo). I'm sure the ads on the Luxor change from month to month. Looking at the Luxor now , there is only a portion of a new ad from Motorola on the building. Looking even closer you can actually see two guys rolling out a new ad from Motorola. Amazing!

Now, can anyone tell me why in the older photo the building appeared to have gold-mirrored glass and you could see reflection of trees and buildings - but, now it looks all black? Is it just the sun angle? Or, did they change the glass siding? One other note about the Luxor, turn on the "3D Buildings" layer to see a 3D model of the Luxor including the Sphynx, and many other Las Vegas hotels and casino buildings. [UPDATE: From the comments - see the Virtual Earth Bird's Eye view of the Hair Spray ad - you can see the building looks black here too. It must be sun angle, and possibly photo processing in the older GE imagery that caused the gold look.]

By the way, since the new imagery is more recent, there are even more hotels present in the imagery. With one noticeable exception: The Stardust Hotel and Casino was demolished on March 13, 2007. The new imagery shows it is no longer there and new construction has already started. Watch a video of the implosion (which in Las Vegas style was done at night and included a fireworks show before the building was imploded).

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:50 AM | Comments (5)

February 15, 2008

Miami Post - Links: Mapper Tool, GE Game, KML Wishlist

I'm in Miami for a couple of nice days of warm weather - and to attend the Miami Boat Show. On a Google Earth note, I met up yesterday with Virgil of EarthNC.com at his booth where he is selling his really nice vector and raster nautical charts data for use with Google Earth. He even has a package with a GPS for real time chart plotting, and some tools for showing weather data with GE as well. So, if you're a boater you should check it out.

Here's a few Google Earth links of interest:

Mapper Tool - The Spreadsheet Mapper 2.0 is a tool Google developed to help people develop KML in a easier fashion. This tool is available as part of the handy tutorials on creating Google Earth content from Google Earth Outreach.
GE Game - A new war game is available which uses Google Earth. You practice doing bombing runs where the view of Google Earth's satellite and aerial photos serves as the "intel" of supposedly real-time information. The game is called Covert Warfare, and is by a Spanish outfit called Clandestine Works. Definitely worth a look. via OgleEarth. Here's a video showing how it looks:
KML Wishlist - The KML user forums supported by Google include a forum post which contains a wishlist of new features for KML. Any member of the forum can edit the list and add their support for current wishes, and/or add new items.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:30 AM | Comments (2)

February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day in Google Earth

In honor of this special day, I'm sharing some placemarks of romantic note. First, we have this heart-shaped lake which was the subject of a contest in the February Sightseer Newsletter. Someone located this heart-shaped lake shortly after the newsletter went out, and posted the location at Google Earth Hacks. Not only that, but Mickey (who runs Google Earth Hacks) put together a collection of heart shaped things you can see in GE, and created this YouTube video of hearts in Google Earth:

The February Sightseer also shared a collection of marriage proposals that people have painted, drawn, or otherwise laid out for viewing from above which have been captured in GE's satellite or aerial photos.

And, if that's not enough, Google Maps Mania last year put together a collection of useful Valentine's Day maps mashups you might want to look at. My favorite is GeoGreeting.com which let's you type out a short message which is then spelled out with unique shapes from the Earth that looks like the letters from your message. Useful for any occasion, not just Valentine's Day. Here's a message from Google Earth Blog...

Posted by FrankTaylor at 6:30 AM | Comments (2)

February 13, 2008

Big Update to Google Earth Outreach

The Google Earth Outreach program was announced last June in a media-filled room at the NewYork Google Offices (which I attended). The purpose of Outreach is to provide assistance to a variety of non-profit organizations to illustrate their causes using Google Earth. But, it's not just about the tool, it's also about the platform of millions of users combined with Google's brand to gain greater visibility to their campaigns. The Outreach program in the last few months has provided a number of very useful tutorials and highlighted some of the organizations making the best use of the Google Earth platform to date. These tools are in most cases very useful to anyone developing Google Earth content.

Last night, the Google Earth Outreach team announced some big updates to their site including:

Getting Started Guide - new guide to help get started creating visualizations with Google Maps or Earth (or both).
Case Studies Updated - New case studies describing how various organizations are using Google Maps/Earth. News ones: "Ecology of the Ancient Bristlecone Pines", "EDGE of Existence". And updated ones: "Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging (NAIL)", and "Appalachian Voices Mountain Top Removal Campaign" (note: see the story about RJK Jr. blogging on the official Google Blog about this - also last night).
Spreadsheet Mapping Tool 2.0 - a new version of this tool has been released which can create useful KML files from spreadsheets.
Colloborate on Your Maps - this new tutorial has been added.

To help illustrate the organizations wanting to get involved with Google Earth Outreach, they have added a map on the main page. You can add your organization to the map. I'm really glad to see these updates to the site. The Outreach program also highlights a number of Google Earth visualizations you should see. Check out the Outreach Showcase on Environmental Science, Current Affairs, and Public Health. By the way, qualifying non-profit US organizations can get Google Earth Pro grants as well.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:25 AM | Comments (0)

RFK Jr. Blogs Google Earth Mountain Top Removal Presentation

In the official Google Blog, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. writes a blog post about the travesty of mountain top removal coal mining which is right now doing irrevocable damage to the environment in the Appalachian mountains. Most people would never drive up into these remote mountains to see the damage the mining has caused (which is one reason why the mining industry has gotten this far). But, thanks to Google Earth you can see the damage in its satellite and aerial photos. RFK highlights the Google Earth visualizations created by a non-profit in Appalachia which lets you see a memorial to destroyed mountains. Furthermore, the same organization has created a tool which lets you see whether energy you are using at your US house is connected in some way to the coal mining in Appalachia. Simply enter your zip code, and it will show you connections your energy sources have to the mountains on a Google Map. And you also get a link to view a 3D version in Google Earth.

Those of you who are regular readers of GEB, know that I've featured this campaign to end mountain top removal several times (see here, here, and here). The Mountain Top Removal memorial data is actually available in the "Global Awareness" layer folder if you turn on "Appalachian Mountaintop Removal" layer. This excellent visualization is a favorite example of the power of Google Earth visualization and is highlighted by the Google Earth Outreach program.

I think it is excellent that Google has helped give some much needed increased visibility to this important campaign. It is simply horrifying to me to realize the type of environmental damage that the coal industry has been allowed to get away with for years in these mountains simply because people couldn't easily see what they were doing. The US government has a lot to answer to its citizens over this, because there is no way they were not aware of the damage that was being caused.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:50 AM | Comments (1)

February 12, 2008

Twelve New Cities With Google Street View Available

[UPDATE: Ok...according to Google - there are 12 new cities in the collection (they counted the Raleigh area as 3 cities). Originally, I said only six. I've updated the list below.]

Google has not announced it yet, but there are some new cities with Street View photos available in Google Maps. These new cities are not listed on their list of covered cities:

Albany and Schenectady, NY
Boise, ID
Juneau, AK
Kansas City, MO
Manchester, NH
Milwaukee, WI
Research Triangle Park (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), NC
San Antonio, TX
Salt Lake City, UT

Some of the new cities (like the Raleigh one) actually cover a large area with multiple towns/cities. Click here to see a map of all the available Street View cities.

I'm happy because I live in the Raleigh Area. I've already deduced that my house was photographed by Google's StreetView car around the end of August at about 7 AM. This is corroborated by a blog post in August where someone saw one of the cars. Of course, I would really be happy if Street View worked inside Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 1:35 PM | Comments (21)

February 11, 2008

Win a Wii/iPod Touch - Google Earth/SketchUp Contest

Google has announced another 3D model your campus contest. This time, after the outcry (also this) last year, the contest is International (not just North America). Details on the contest are at the official contest web page. The contest is open to students of higher education worldwide (see rules). According to the site, the contest participants "...earn lasting online glory and, for the winners, an Apple iPod Touch, a Nintendo Wii Console, and a Google t-shirt and hat."

The contest is to submit 3D models, created with Google SketchUp of the buildings in your campus, to the 3D Warehouse. The models need to be placed in the proper location in Google Earth using SketchUp. The ones who do the best job of following the rules and recommended practices (see the contest site for details) will win.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 6:00 PM | Comments (0)

New Stats for Google Earth - Over 350 Million Downloads

One of the original Google Earth developers (with the Keyhole team), Chikai Ohazama, has revealed some new statistics on Google Earth at the Lat Long blog. He says Google earth has "...been downloaded over 350 million times by people from around the world." Actually, based on stats I've heard from Google it's actually 350 million "activations" (which would mean unique installs). So the downloads may be a much larger number given the number of updates to GE over the last 2.5 years. Here is a summary of statistics mentioned from the post:

350+ Million
13 languages
more than a third of the world's land surface in high resolution imagery
half of the world's population in high res

Posted by FrankTaylor at 3:35 PM | Comments (3)

Wikiloc - GPS Tracks Site

Wikiloc is a free web site which lets you share your favorite GPS tracks through a Google Maps mashup or through Google Earth. Its focus is on trails - and it shows the elevation profile as a graph with every track. Tracks can also have photos and video clips associated with them. Wikiloc won a Google Maps mashup contest in Spain in 2006, and continues to make nice improvements. The site's author, Jordi Remot, wrote me this weekend to say he has reached 10,000 uploaded GPS tracks. So far most of the users are in Europe, but he has very good multi-lingual support, so hopefully he'll get more users from even more countries.

What I particularly like is that Wikiloc provides good Google Earth integration as well. You can view any GPS track you see on the site also with Google Earth. And, at the top of the web pages is a link to "discover GPS trails " with Google Earth. This is a well done GE KML file which uses regions to pull in more tracks as you zoom into a specific location. It not only shows the icons, but also provides a sample of tracks right away. Placemark icons indicate the types of tracks (hiking, biking, skiing), and if you click on a placemark you get an option to display that GPS track, or view more info at the web site. The placemarks also show the elevation profile.

One other thing I like is that in the Google Maps mashups, Wikiloc also shows the Panoramio photo layer so you can see photos from other people for locations your viewing. Of course, you can also turn on this layer in Google Earth. It's a handy way to get more perspective for a particular trail/location.

There are dozens of sites out there where you can upload your GPS track and share it with others. The best ones include ways for you to view in Google Maps and Google Earth, provide statistics about your GPS data, embed your map in a mashup on your own site, or annotate your data with other information like photos or videos. One of my favorites is Magnalox (see an example where I used it) because it has some of the broadest range of mapping features out there. Here's a list of just a few sites and tools for GPS tracks I've written about:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:44 AM | Comments (4)

February 8, 2008

F-16 Cockpit Add-on For Google Earth Flight Sim

Here is a quick and easy add-on to make the flight simulator in Google Earth a lot more fun! My friend Gerardo Paz of Buenos Aires, came up with the idea to add an F-16 cockpit image overlay to Google Earth so you can get a more realistic feel to flying the simulator. If you haven't used the Google Earth flight simulator yet, make sure to read these handy GE Flight Simulator tips.

F16 cockpit for Google Earth Flight Simulator

Want to try this out? Simply load this F-16 Cockpit Add-on . Make sure you make the Google Earth window as large as possible for the best effect (if your screen is low-res, you'll have to wait for Gerardo to make a smaller one). Follow the tips above, or if you are already a GE flight sim expert, move to a location where you want to fly and just hit "CTRL-A" or "Tools->Enter Flight Simulator" (if you don't see this option, read the tips). Make sure you are using the F-16 and not the SR-22 aircraft. I just love the way this feels...I'm a pilot and flight simulator fan, but it's still amazing to me to see it in Google Earth. :-)

Gerardo added some transparency to the HUD and the computer display screen below. This helps add more realism and also helps when you try to land with the overlay turned on. Great ideas! If I have time later today, I'll make a video of this. Gerardo and I have already talked about some other things that could be done with this. See the post thread to make comments directly to Gerardo.

By the way, part of the inspiration for this came from the astronaut mode I wrote about in December. Check it out too.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:41 AM | Comments (16)

About Google Earth Imagery

You would be surprised how many people initially think Google Earth will show imagery in real-time. Or, that surely it will only be a day old. I guess part of this thinking comes from watching the weather satellite photos which are only a few hours old, or live weather radar. But, the problems of getting high resolution imagery are very challenging. Weather satellites are at geosynchronous orbits (36,000 km). High resolution satellites (like those operated by DigitalGlobe) operate just a few hundred kilometers above the Earth. This means they only see a small part of the Earth with their camera as they orbit over. They typically go around the Earth every 90 minutes, but only cover about 1% of the Earth on each pass (you can see strips of imagery if you look at the imagery in Google Earth) - most of that is water. Not only that, but imagery for Google Earth is only going to be good if the sun is at a high angle when the satellite goes over (fewer shadows), when there are no clouds, and as little haze/pollution as possible. Believe it or not, the times when these factors all come together are pretty rare.

Once the imagery is taken, it takes time to process the data by a commercial provider like DigitalGlobe before it is available to customers. Google is one of these customers. Google has to evaluate the new imagery against the current imagery to determine whether the new is better than the current. I assume they are trying to automate as much of this as possible. But, for important areas with large populations the process most likely involves people. This necessarily takes quite a bit of time - especially when you think about the quantities of land mass of the Earth. Once an image is selected, it has to be processed into the format and coordinate system of Google Earth's databases. Then it has to go through a quality control process and fed into a processing system before it gets distributed to the live Google Earth database servers. This is one reason why you usually do not find any imagery younger than about 6 months in Google Earth. And why updates only happen about once every 60 days.

Not all the imagery in Google Earth comes from satellites. A lot of the imagery comes from aerial photographers mostly in airplanes with special high resolution cameras. Some of the imagery even comes from kites and balloons. Google acquires imagery from a variety of providers. Some of the imagery is given to Google by city or state governments. The age of the imagery varies greatly, but most of the high resolution imagery is between 6 months and 5 years of age. Again, because the imagery comes from a variety of sources, the process to get this imagery into Google Earth is complex and involves a great deal of time and effort.

Another reason why you don't find imagery that is newer is that it can cost a great deal of money to acquire quality aerial imagery. The companies who spend this money need a way to recover their costs. More recent imagery is more valuable than older imagery. As a result, these companies are reluctant to have their newest imagery available for free for anyone to view in Google Earth. Read the agreements for Google Earth before you try to use its imagery for business applications (more information). You can't sell or use the imagery from Google Earth for business purposes without permission.

However, near real-time imagery of Earth is available in Google Earth! "What?! After all that you are saying it is available?" you ask. Sure, first there's the new Clouds layer. Found under the new Weather layer folder. The clouds are actually taken from weather satellites and are a global picture of the clouds as recent as 3 hours old. Ok, so that's not the kind of imagery you meant.

NASA has a layer they call DailyPlanet which shows the entire Earth at a medium resolution (about 250 meter resolution per pixel). You can view DailyPlanet in Google Earth . The imagery is taken by the MODIS Terra satellite and is processed as quickly as possible and shows the entire Earth between 6 - 12 hours old. The imagery is continuously updating. When you download the network link above you see the Earth with clouds. Clouds may not line up properly because the satellite has to make multiple passes to get a full picture and the images have to be spliced together. As you zoom in, you will see higher resolution imagery load - up to a point (since this is medium resolution imagery). Remember the fires in California last October? You could have watched the smoke visible from space with this layer (except the layer just became available in December). You can see dust storms, large fires, volcanoes, haze conditions, droughts, floods, and - of course - clouds. Right now, this layer from NASA is the most recent, highest resolution imagery of the Earth continuously updating available to the general public.

Anyway, I hope this article helps provide a better understanding of the imagery in Google Earth and how it all works. This is a high-level overview and is based on my own observations and opinions. Feel free to comment below.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:26 AM | Comments (34)

February 7, 2008

YouTube Layer in Google Earth Updating Daily

Back in June, Google added the ability to map the location of a video to YouTube. A month later, Google added the ability to show video clips within Google Earth placemarks. Then in October, Google released a YouTube layer in Google Earth to show placemarks of mapped YouTube videos. You find this layer under the layer pane inside the Gallery layer folder (its alphabetical, so YouTube is at the bottom). This layer has been growing in size since October, and for the past few weeks it apparently has been updating on a daily basis. I confirmed that the video I did on the dinosaur Street View shot was in the YouTube layer yesterday. So, if you map your YouTube video when you upload it, check back a day or so later to see it in the Google Earth layer.

By the way, since the YouTube layer represents videos mapped by people all over the world, I think it should be part of the Geographic Web layer which also has geotagged photos from Panoramio, geotagged articles from Wikipedia, and the best of placemarks from the Google Earth Community.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:35 AM | Comments (6)

Cool US Flights Visualization in Google Earth

James Stafford has posted another flight visualization collection for Google Earth which uses a really cool KML technique. This time he shows the US domestic flight routes from an FAA database for October 2007 (over 13,000 flights). After loading his file (2MB), when you move your mouse over a placemarks for an airport it immediately shows flight lines from that airport to destinations within the US. If you click and hold your middle mouse button on a placemark you can pan and tilt your view and see how the lines connecting airports are represented by nice parabolas. If you have a SpaceNavigator 3D mouse, you can really zoom around and get a look. To show off this file and these techniques, I've made a short little video clip:

James said he was concerned how GE would perform with over 13,000 flights represented. But, GE seems to handle them well. Read more at James' Barnabu blog.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:30 AM | Comments (0)

February 5, 2008

Powers of 10 in Google Earth

Richard Treves of Google Earth Design posted today about a movie called "Powers of 10" created by Charles and Ray Eames for IBM which illustrated the scale of our universe from the macro to the micro scale. It was a great idea and their video was a brilliant design which is just as powerful seen today as it was when it was created in 1977 (link to YouTube version). The movie zooms out from a couple in a picnic at a park in Chicago to the outer edges of the universe, then zooms back to sub-atomic particles.

Richard decided to at least show a subset of the powers of 10 in Google Earth. You can't zoom much beyond the Earth in GE, and you can only zoom in to a level where you can see the size of the people in the picnic. Richard said the actual location of the scene from the movie has been changed - so he overlayed an image of the park and the people from the movie. He shows outlines of the powers of 10 with placemarks for each level just like in the movie. You can zoom in and out to get the effect. Check it out! Even though its a subset, it still has the same effect - except that you can perform this in 3D all over the Earth of course!

By the way, the "Powers of 10" movie was a part of the inspiration that led to the development of Keyhole which later became Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:46 PM | Comments (3)

Links: SpaceNavigator Contest, Excel to KML, Google Geo Talk, Crysis

SpaceNavigator Contest - Mickey at Google Earth Hacks has announced a contest in anticipation of the 10 millionth download of GE content from the site. The contest is to guess the date/time when the 10 millionth download will occur. The two closest guessers will when a SpaceNavigator! Check out the announcement for details.
Excel to KML - Bill Clark, who nearly two years ago developed some great real estate tools with Google Earth for Earthpoint, has recently released a handy web utility for uploading simple spreadsheets to have them converted into KML files. Try out the Excel to KML utility here. The web page contains all the instructions you need to get it going.
Google Geo Talk - Google has announced a couple of interesting upcoming geo-related functions. 1) they will be hosting the "WhereCamp" on May 17th, 18th in conjunction with Where 2.0 2008. 2) They are starting a Google Geo Developer Series of lectures with the first being on Feb. 20th in Mountain View with a lecture on creating KML. See details on the series at this web page. The message hints that there will be other lectures in the coming months in different Google locations so we won't all have to travel to California to see everything. Last year there was a big Google Developer Day held simultaneously in many Google offices around the world (and with live web casts and post-lecture videos). In 2006, there was the first Google Geo Developer Day which was a big success.
Crysis - DigtialUrban reports they have figured out how to import Google 3D Warehouse models into the popular new 3D shooter game Crysis. Read the details and see a video.
Street View Update - In my post yesterday about different ways we could view Street View in Google Earth, someone pointed out I forgot to mention PhotoOverlay as probably the best method for viewing Street View in Google Earth (if it were available). Barry Hunter came up with an example KML showing the same dinosaur case I used. I updated the post yesterday about this as well.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:15 AM | Comments (1)

February 4, 2008

Using Street View in Google Earth

[UPDATED March 2009

With millions of new people finding out about Street View (thanks to more countries like the UK, Netherlands, Spain, and France getting Street View), it's time to post a "How To" on using Street View in Google Earth. Street View in Google Earth is a more 3D-like experience than Google Maps. The Google Maps implementation of Street View is in some ways handier - such as the use of Street View with directions, or the ability to embed Street Views on a web site like this:

But, Google Earth has its advantages with Street View as well.

So, how do you use Street View in Google Earth? This "How To" video gives you a good overview of how Street View works and looks in Google Earth:

For those of you who prefer written instructions:

The first thing you'll need to do is look for the Street View layer on the lower left of Google Earth and turn it on by clicking the little box to the left. Then look for the gold camera icons as you zoom into a street location of interest. If you single-click the left mouse button on a Street View camera icon, you get a placemark that shows the photo. Click the link there to enter the Street View image. Or, double-click to fly straight in.

Street View in Google Earth uses the special Photo Viewer tool which lets you pan around the inside of a 3D projected photo. Street View images are spherical panoramas allowing you to look around 360 degrees side-to-side and up-down. You can even see the spherical Street View photos as you zoom in close over a street. With Google Earth, you can adjust the transparency of the images and compare the background 3D terrain or 3D buildings (if available) and see that the Street View photos match the surrounding area. You can also turn on other layers such as the Geographic Web (including photos), Roads, Dining, Lodging, etc. to get more information on an area.

So, get out there and explore the millions of Street View images already available in several countries: US, France, Spain, Japan, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:31 AM | Comments (9)

Dinosaurs Once Again Walk the Earth

Did you know you can see dinosaurs in Google Earth? Just a few months after GE first came out, someone spotted a satellite photo with dinosaurs (you can clearly see their shadows) walking our modern-day planet right next to a manufacturing plant near Alpha, New Jersey! And, now someone has recently started putting together a collection of placemarks showing dinosaurs known to be visible on the planet around the world. There are already about 3 dozen locations in the US and Europe, and in many of the locations you can actually see the dinosaurs in the satellite/aerial photography. Make sure you turn on the Geographic Web layer while looking at some of the dinosaur locations. You will sometimes find links to photos and/or more information about the location.

Not too surprisingly, most of the locations are near science museums. And of course, these dinosaurs are all pretty much fixed in position - since most are made of steel, concrete, plastic, or wood. By the way, if you know of a dinosaur visible to the sky which isn't in the collection, you should help 'Felippo' out and post it to the thread at the Google Earth Community. Surely there are some in other parts of the world than the US and Europe?

In 2006, GEB had a story about some of these same dinosaurs, and provided more information on the ones at Alpha, New Jersey. By the way, you can also see a caveman between the two dinosaurs if you look closely there.

NOTE: see follow-on post regarding using Street View to look at at least one of these dinosaurs.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:15 AM | Comments (2)

February 2, 2008

Real-Time Google Earth GPS Tracking - via Bus

Stefan Geens of OgleEarth writes about his experience using software to make his Nokia N95 into a blue-tooth enabled GPS and connect it to his Macbook Pro running Google Earth. He had a wireless 3G modem for Internet access so he was able to track in Google Earth in real-time as he was driving on a bus in Sweden. He's got a picture in his post showing his computer running GE from inside the bus.

Google Earth can be a great 3D navigation tool when connected to a GPS. One concern a lot of people have when thinking of doing this is Internet connectivity for Google Earth. But, you can actually use Google Earth when it doesn't have connectivity - it will show what's currently stored in your cache. Read more about using Google Earth offline. So, you just make sure to load up imagery for an area you plan to travel, and you can still use Google Earth whether or not you have a connection.

Last summer I used Google Earth on a sailing trip with a GPS and charting software (GE charts from EarthNC) as an experiment in sailing navigation. It worked quite well. Read about how it was done here. Also, here is a story about my first experiment using a GPS with Google Earth in a car.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:53 AM | Comments (4)