Google Earth Blog: September 2008 Archives

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September 30, 2008

Peachtree City Public Information Interactive Map

Yesterday GEB wrote about some Google Earth maps for sharing public information about cities (the fire hydrant story). A regular GEB reader, Joe Wade, sent me an E-mail telling me about an excellent Google Earth plugin interactive map for a city. Peachtree City in Georgia (near Atlanta), has built this Google Earth plugin map which lets you turn on many layers of GIS information. Included are layers for fire hydrants, potholes, police reports, parks, floodzone map, bike trails maps, restaurants, churches, and much more.

I believe the developers of the Peachtree City map probably wanted to use Google Maps, but they have so much data to present they ran into the limitations on data in Google Maps. Google Earth is much better at handling large datasets. Also, the plugin API enables you to build your own interactive interface around the map. They used this so they could present a long list of layers in a friendly fashion. So, this map is an excellent case for using Google Earth API and plugin.

One thing the Peachtree City map doesn't have yet is the ability for people to report issues/problems. Adding the ability for citizens to add complaints for things like potholes would make this an even more useful utility. For an example of how this could be done, look at the Pune, India citizen complaint map.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:30 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 29, 2008

Fire Hydrants in Google Earth

Washington DC is the first city I'm aware of to use Google Earth to report on the status of fire hydrants. The DC Water and Sewer Authority has released a KML network link which reports on both working and non-working hydrants throughout the city. Not only that, but if you see a hydrant which is not working you can report it through the KML file placemarks! While fire hydrants may not be an every day concern for most people, I think this type of public information ought to be easily accessible to citizens of cities all over the world. This is GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for the masses with Google Earth making it easy to visualize and use the data. via DCist

An even better example of this I read about a while back was a city in India which had released a similar file showing potholes. Unfortunately, I didn't find the KML file for this one, but here is a Times of India story on it. (UPDATE: A commenter below provides the link to the potholes interactive map - it uses Google Maps.) I can't think of the number of times I've wished I had a mapping application online so I could report a pothole since I read that. In fact, I may actually write my local county office and suggest they do that. You could even write an iPhone app to make it even easier to report location!

(UPDATE 30-Sept.: GEB reader Joe Wade points to an excellent Google Earth plugin GIS map for Peachtree City, Georgia. This is my new favorite city-wide GIS site. Check it out.)

Some other examples of GIS with Google Earth:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:23 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 26, 2008

Links: A Million Photos, Wii Jogging, Transportation, Argentina Roads, KML Contest, Ryder Cup

A Million Photos - The Panoramio photo layer in Google Earth (and Maps) now has 1 million more photos. Panoramio is working towards more frequent additions of photos uploaded to their service. It's a great free service for sharing geotagged photos. And, it's a great layer for seeing places from another perspective.
Wii Jogging - I saw this story and video by a guy in Japan who is using Street View and a Wii controller to jog through a city. The only problem is that Street View is a series of photos so you get "jerky" motion as you run. It occurs to me someone should use the Earth API and plugin and you could use the Wii to jog through a 3D city and look around as if you were there. You could also have a Street View window open as well.
Transportation Layer - The Transportation layer folder under the Places of Interest layer folder in Google Earth has new icons. They are all light blue and have the same style/color as seen in Google Maps. This layer folder contains things like world-wide airport locations, railroad tracks, ferry routes (in the US), and subyway/tram/bus stops or routes. Very handy layers.
Argentina Roads (Spanish) - Apparently Microsoft has beaten Google by getting some road maps for Argentina. Here's their beta for Argentina Maps.
KML Contest - Google is conducting a KML in Research contest to "spur innovation and creativity in science and engineering". I think this is a great idea. This is part of an educational outreach for science and engineering that also includes a Google Earth Conference to be held in Michigan on October 22nd and 23rd.
Ryder Cup - I missed sharing this while when it happened, but GolfSmack.com created some special content for the Ryder Cup golf competition. Included was a cool KML file that includes 3D trees to add realism to the Ryder Cup golf course.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:30 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 25, 2008

New Virtual Earth with 3D Clouds

The new release of Virtual Earth 3D by Microsoft has very cool realistic 3D clouds. The clouds only appear when you are near the Earth's surface for a localized region. But, they are based on real-time weather conditions for that location. Microsoft is obviously re-using some of their excellent Flight Simulator clouds rendering technology in the latest release of Virtual Earth. There are a lot of other features in the new release, but I was immediately impressed with these new clouds. They are especially awesome if you have a SpaceNavigator (which is supported by VE3D). The clouds are darker when thick, and there are different clouds types (cirrus, cumulus, party cloudy, etc.) according to weather conditions. To check out the new clouds, you have two choices: 1) load the new update for VE3D by going to local.live.com and clicking the 3D button (you should be prompted to load the new version - make sure you restart your browser after installing); or 2) check out his YouTube video I've just made:

I've always been a fan of the later generation cloud visualizations in Flight Simulator. Now Microsoft has brought them to the virtual globe applications. Google Earth's built-in clouds are more useful because you can get a global perspective of real-time weather conditions. But, these clouds in Virtual Earth sure are pretty for local conditions! [UPDATE: for comparison, here is a video showing the clouds in Google Earth 4.3.

One other note: it took a few moments for both the SpaceNavigator to work and for the Clouds to appear the first time I used them (possibly background installations/downloads occurring).

Posted by FrankTaylor at 02:49 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Singapore Grand Prix Track in 3D

The Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 race begins tomorrow. The race goes right through the Marina Bay Circuit Park. If you've never been there, you can still get a very realistic feel for what the race will be like thanks to Google Earth! As mentioned last summer, the guys at Earth@Sg created a detailed 3D visualization of the race track as well as the surrounding buildings for Google Earth. There are also ways to tour the track built in. You have two ways to view the model:

Singapore Grand Prix in Google Earth - This version loads in Google Earth and gives you instructions for setting up your viewing options in Google Earth so you can pretend you are an F1 race car flying down the race course. Select the "Route Animation" in the Places pane and the choose "Tools->Play Tour" menu option. There is also a time animation allowing 3D cars to move down the race track. You can adjust the speed of the car animations by clicking the little clock to the left of the time slider.
Singapore Grand Prix with Google Earth Plugin - this works in your browser (Windows only at the moment). Simply click the various locations pictured in the viewer to fly to each one.

Be patient, it may take a few moments to load all the 3D buildings and detailed textures. This is an excellent visualization that really gives you a feel for the event. You can also turn on the 3D Buildings layer to add a few more buildings to the area. Earth@sg did a great job with this visualization!

Original story on Singapore F1 Race visualization
Original story on the Earth plugin version

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:35 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 24, 2008

Top 10 Games With Google Earth

Google Earth is more than just a 3D map of the Earth. Between the cool data and the sophisticated interfaces to connect back end servers with Google Earth, it's only natural games have been developed as well. Here are the best games I've seen with Google Earth over the last three years:

Flight Simulator- Google themselves added perhaps the best game as a built-in feature: did you know there's a flight simulator in Google Earth? Read some tips on starting and using the flight simulator, and here is a video for watching it in action.
DND Game - You can actually play a role-playing dungeons and dragons game on top of Google Earth. The game is a multiplayer game in which you go and fight monsters found across the planet. Read more.
Mars Sucks - This game places you in a space ship and you find aliens based on clues and blast them with your big guns. Read more.
Football - This game lets you play an American Football game within Google Earth. Read more.
Milktruck Madness - This one is played with the new Google Earth plugin (Windows only at the moment). It simply lets you drive a milktruck around the Earth. But, it's fun! Read more, try it out here.
Battleship - This was a really cool idea for a game where you would mix going in the real world with a cell phone with Google Earth to play a battleship game. Unfortunately not available to play now. Read more.
Where in the World - Each month, Google puts out a free newsletter which has a puzzle game. They give you a screenshot of a place on Earth, and you have to find where on the Earth it was taken. See a recent example, and you can see all the issues of the newsletter here.
National Geographic Geography Quiz - As part of National Geography Awareness Week, National Geographic made this cool quiz in Google Earth. You can try the quiz here (a local copy, their link is broken at the moment). Read more.
Fun and Games - The Google Earth Community has a whole forum dedicated to games in Google Earth. This is mostly guessing games similar to the newsletter, but it's played in a forum and some of the puzzles are much more sophisticated. Read more.
Geo Whiz - Yet another geography quiz game, this one is more interactive. It also uses the Google Earth plugin (Windows only for now). Check it out.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 23, 2008

McCain Geo-Biography in Google Earth

The folks at BrightGIS have created a geo-biography of Sen. John McCain's early life and military service which you can view in Google Earth. You simply download their McCain KML file , and follow the instructions you'll see inside GE. I like they way they have used placemarks to view the content and navigate between the different locations of McCain's life. There are other techniques for navigating content, but this one works pretty well I think. The file is designed as a political promotion, but is informative and useful and the links for "getting involved" and contributing are not too obtrusive. BrightGIS offers services to build Google Earth/Maps content. You can also view their McCain file in Google Maps, but the GE version is more entertaining.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 22, 2008

Modified Mars Add-on for Google Earth

Google Earth can actually be used to represent other planets and moons. For example, here's a Google Earth add-on for Mars. And, here is an add-on that shows the scale of the planets and moons of our solar system. See links below for more planet add-ons for Google Earth.

Meanwhile, Frans Blok has created a map showing a possible future representation of Mars. Based on inspiration from many science fiction writers, Frans has created a detailed map of what Mars could look like if mankind decided to terraform the planet adding oceans, forests, lakes, rails for transportation, and more. His map is available on his web site modifiedmars.com. Included on the site are a Google Maps-based view of the planet, or you can view his Mars in more detail in Google Earth. In his GE version of Mars (NOTE: 15.9 Mbytes) you can see a 3D model of Phobos and Deimos (moons of Mars), a 3D Clarke space station, clouds, and placemarks of the many locations he's named on the planet. Naturally, a big part of Frans' inspiration came from Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy which is an excellent sci-fi story about terraforming Mars. Creating this map took a lot of work. His web site has a store where you can buy a posters of the map, or t-shirts.

via The Map Room

Google Jupiter - this was a single image of Jupiter I overlayed in GE back in April
Google Saturn - this uses a 3D model for the clouds, also done by 'barnabu'
Mars Add-on for Google Earth
Google Mars in Google Maps
Space Atlas for Google Earth
Jupiter Clouds in Motion

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:45 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 21, 2008

The Boat Story Continues - Boatyard, Name, Moving

For about a month, after we delivered our new boat from the Bahamas to Beaufort, North Carolina, we were sitting in a boatyard called Jarrett Bay. They are the best facility in North Carolina for hauling out catamarans because they have a huge (wide) lift. As is typical with boat ownership, what starts out as a basic maintenance visit to the boatyard turned into a much bigger than planned visit. Although our St. Francis 50 catamaran is ostensibly brand new - it was a demonstration boat for the builder and has been in the water for a year. We needed to do some basic maintenance like oil changes, props cleaned, and have the bottom re-painted. Not only that, but during the Bahamas passage we had two unexpected issues: 1) the batteries were not holding a charge as expected - although the builder had alerted us that there were issues with the inverter; and 2) the starboard engine had a problem with a water seal on the outboard drive. Several other mostly cosmetic things needed to be dealt with as well. Most of the issues were covered by warranty (including replacing the inverter), but there were delays in getting parts, labor, and getting the work completed. And to really complicate matters, there was tropical storm Hanna. About the time we were going to finish the work, Hanna was headed right for the Beaufort area - so we wisely chose to stay in the yard. But, this caused further delays especially when we wanted to get back in the water. There were many boats put in the boatyard, for protection from Hanna, that had to be put back so we could get out.

Here are a few photos from the adventurous few days described after the fold:

We finally drove down to put the boat back in the water on the 12th of September. Karen (my wife) and I washed the outside of the boat and put provisions for a few days of enjoyment. The boat was finally lifted into the water late in the day. The engine mechanic was on hand to test the engines. We had a couple of issues though that had to be handled, which held us up. We'll go into more detail about this on our boat blog once it is started. But, let me mention one important step that took place.

Our boat was named by the builder since they were using it as a demo boat. But, we had a different name planned for our boat. So, we had to perform a boat renaming ceremony when we put the boat back in the water. This is something that must be handled very carefully as we want the gods to be happy with our vessel as we sail the oceans. Read about the renaming boat ceremony here. Anyway, our boat is named Tahina. We looked long and hard for a name which sounded nice, was unique, and meant something positive. I first came across the word while reading about a new type of palm tree discovered in Madagascar. The word "tahina" means "blessed" or "protected" in the language of Malagasy (the language in Madagascar which is derived from polynesian origins - note the similarity to Tahiti).

After we got our boat in the water, and basic testing completed, we moved Tahina down to the Beaufort town anchorage. It was dark by the time we got down there, but we are familiar with these waters. We had a nice dinner and the temperature outside started cooling off pleasantly. Everything was going well up to this point, until I checked the engines. The starboard engine had indications there was still an issue. We were planning to leave early the next morning to move Tahina to Carolina Beach, North Carolina - these plans were now in jeopardy. Since it was a Friday night, we decided we would head out in the morning and check the engine again.

The next morning, we headed out and ran the problem engine for an hour or so. But, it still had a problem and a warning alarm sounded. So, we decided to abort the trip and head back. At least we were able to sail Tahina on the way back (winds were favorable). We reached the mechanic by phone and they said they would have to investigate further on Monday. So, Karen and I decided we would just enjoy our boat for the weekend. We sailed out to Cape Lookout which is one of my favorite anchorages in the Carolinas. It's well protected, yet it requires a short 8 mile sail in the ocean to reach it. And, you are surrounded by beaches, have a beautiful lighthouse to look at, and lots of wildlife. While we were there we saw many birds, fish, other boaters, and watched porpoises frolicking in the water. On late Sunday afternoon we had a fast sail back (the winds were about 18 knots true from the SW) to the Beaufort anchorage. We were going 10 knots most of the way and had a reef in the sails. On Monday morning we moved Tahina to Town Creek marina so the engine mechanics could check things. They decided they would need to re-haul Tahina to further investigate and arrangements were made to go back to the boatyard later in the day. Karen and I drove back to Raleigh that evening after the haulout.

The next day, the mechanics implemented a solution to the problem and so we were scheduled to go back in the water Wednesday afternoon (Sept. 17). After we drove back down, and re-provisioned the boat, we put Tahina back in the water and after a fuel stop we thoroughly tested the engines for a couple of hours. Things looked much better, so we again took Tahina down to Beaufort town. The next morning we woke up early, and everything was ready for departure. The forecast looked perfect with north winds. We weighed anchor and motored out the inlet and then raised our sails. We had a fantastic sail all the way down to Carolina Beach. In fact, the winds built up at about the half-way point to about 25 knots. But, since we were sailing on a broad reach we were not seeing all of that. In fact, Tahina was surfing on the following seas (waves would push the boat at a much higher speed briefly) and we were hitting speeds in the teens regularly during the middle part of the trip. At one point, we hit 19.7 knots!! As the day wore on, the winds lessened a bit and we finally lowered the sails to motor the final 3 miles. Our trip was 88 nautical miles and we completed it in 9 hours even. And, we had currents against us in both inlets (tide coming in, tide going out) and the gulfstream was hitting us for 1 knot a good portion of the way. Needless to say, we were thrilled with Tahina's performance!

You can view our GPS tracks of this story in Google Earth. Here are the paths for the first attempt to Carolina Beach where we instead went out to Cape Lookout and went back to the boatyard. And, here is the path showing our passage from Beaufort to Carolina Beach. I've also included a few photos and video clips which are in this Picasa Web Album. I have an interesting story to tell about the Carolina Beach Inlet - in particular as it relates to Google Earth (let's just say our GPS track is accurate). But, I'll save that for another post.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 04:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 19, 2008

iPhone Earth Available Free Temporarily - New Features Too

For a limited time, the cool iPhone Earth application called Earthscape is available for free at the iTunes Applications Store. Simply search for "EarthScape" I previously reviewed this Google Earth-like application when it became available for $10 on August 22nd. They have now updated to version 1.1 which includes some cool new features. In particular, you can now take geotagged photos with your iPhone and share them with other iPhone Earth users. It's like melding Panoramio photos with Google Earth all with an iPhone application.

Here is a video showing how easy it is to take a photo and upload/view it in Earthscape:

If you've previously bought iPhone Earth, simply go into iTunes and select your Applications folder. Then choose the "Updates available" to find and get the update for iPhone Earth.

I like this idea of simple photo geotagging and sharing. But, I immediately wished they had a way to take a photo I had previously taken with my iPhone and geotagging/sharing it. My office is not something I want to take a picture to test with at the moment. It's in serious need of some cleaning. I noticed you need to turn off the default "Wikipedia" layer in order to see the photo layer in Earthscape. Then you can see photos people have been uploading. I found it amusing a lot of photos right now are of things like a person's foot, their messy room, etc. as they try out the new feature to see how it works. You can also view "Flickr Most Interesting" geotagged photos in Earthscape as well.

I'm really glad to see this kind of application on the iPhone. Mostly because it gives me further hope that Google will do something like Google Earth themselves for the mobile platform. And, I have a cool application to play with in the meantime for my iPhone. I've also been impressed with the work Earthscape has been doing in creating some innovative interfaces for their own virtual globe similar to Google Earth.

Anyway, now is your chance to get Earthscape for free for your iPhone. I recommend checking it out.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:55 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Update on Using GPS for Tracking in Google Earth

Many people have found ways to tie their GPS with Google Earth to show their position in real-time. In fact, Google released built-in features for real-time GPS to the premium Plus/Pro/Enterprise versions of Google Earth starting with a beta version of GE 4 in December 2006. However, Google's real-time GPS support has never been particularly fancy. The best real-time interface I've seen so far has been from Goops Technologies. I really like Goops because they support features supporting all types of travel including planes and boats. However, I wish they had a Mac version too. Thanks to Google Earth working even without an Internet connection, you can have a powerful 3D mapping applications wherever you go.

Recently, Valery Hronusov (who has built many useful Google Earth files and applications) has released a new free real-time GPS tracking application he is calling Navigator. It also only works on Windows, but it has some nice looking features. I tried it with my Garmin 60Cx and it works quite well. It automatically logs your track to a KML file and you can control your zoom level while it tracks. His support for USB interface works very nicely, and they claim it will work with multiple GPSes. He is just getting started, so it doesn't have the polish of Goops. But, Valery has a reputation of implementing lots of innovative features, so maybe Navigator will add some new stuff in the coming weeks or months.

So, if you want real-time GPS tracking with Google Earth. You have yet another method - without resorting to buying the premium versions of Google Earth. At least for personal use. If you need to use Google Earth for commercial applications, you should still buy a Google Earth Pro license.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:35 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

More Detailed Arctic Ice Melting Animation in Google Earth

The ice in the Arctic officially reached the summer minimum on September 12th after a blazing summer in the North. The ice reached the second highest minimum in recorded history just a bit less than 2007 where almost half the ice disappeared off the cap of the world. Read the official post from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The NSIDC has produced a number of excellent animations for Google Earth depicting real-time analysis of the amount of ice on both poles over time. Using a demarcation line of the average ice melt extents over the past few decades as a reference, you can compare the current levels and see just how bad the melting has been the last two years.

The NSIDC has now updated their animations with better coverage and twice the resolution of detail. Try the 30-day animation first. If your computer and video card have plenty of memory, then you can try the 60-day or 90-day animations as well. Once you choose one of the files above, and it loads in Google Earth, put your mouse in the upper center to make the time animation slider appear. Then click the "play" button (triangular arrow like you see on a TV remote) to begin the animation. To speed up the animation, click on the "clock" icon on the left of the slider and adjust the "Animation speed" slider. Each frame of the animation has to load once before you can play the animation quickly. It may take a few moments to load all the frames (especially if you pick the 90-day animation).

Here is a video what one of the animations looks like in Google Earth (this was back in August):

You can find the complete list of available NSIDC Google Earth visualizations here.

Related - other Google Earth scientific visualizations:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sailing Update - Arrgh!

Ahoy! I been busy gettin' our boat ready these 'lo and many past 10 days. It be a pain in the bung hole sometimes gettin' your boat prepared for sailin'. But, yesterday we finally got our new boat outta the yard and sailed her to her new port. We didn't run into any pirates along t' way, arrr, but we had a great sail. Be expecting a Google Earth file showing a map and picshores this weekend, and more! Arrrrrrr!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 17, 2008

Links: Flood Zones, Last Guy, Giants on Earth

Flood Zones in Google Earth - The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has detailed maps showing flood zones around the country. They have an application called "Stay Dry" which provides basic flood hazard map information from FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer for an address. They've created an updated interface which makes it easy to view flood data. Simply download the Stay Dry KML file , then select "View flood hazards" radio button under the Places pane. Then simply zoom your view in Google Earth to an area of interest (below 10,000 feet), and it will show you FEMA flood data.
Last Guy - Sony is coming out with a game called Last Guy which is very familiar feeling to Google Earth users. You basically have a Google Earth-like look-down interface in which monsters attack you and people you gather around you as you wander around a city. Brady Forest at O'Reilly Radar sums it up really nicely and even points out that there have actually been some games done using Google Earth. For example, here are some games with Google Earth written about at GEB: GE Flight Simulator, Mars Sucks, Earth Finding Game, Geography Quiz, Monster Milk Truck, a DND game, and the Football Game.
Giants on Earth - Google Sightseeing on a daily basis treats us with interesting things you can find in Google Earth's imagery. I like the recent one pointing out some giants you can see half-buried in the Earth's surface. Seriously, you can see these from the ground too. Just check out their KML file to see them in Google Earth. If you turn on the Panoramio layer, you can see some ground photos of the one near Washington, DC.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 16, 2008

Google Goes to Alaska to Teach Google Earth and more

In response to an invitation from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks (UAF), Google has sent a team of Googlers to Alaska who are passionate about education and whose goal is to make tools like Google Earth more accessible to educators. The Googlers, who are doing this as part of their 20% time, will be conducting a series of workshops at high schools in several remote communities throughout the state. They're going to Barrow, Kotzebue and Nome, meeting with teachers and students and will be blogging along the way. According to their Google Blog post, they will be conducting geography trivia contests, doing some geocaching with GPSes (and viewing the tracks in Google Earth), and build maps using Google Maps. The team also plans to take some GigaPan panoramas. The idea for the outreach tour came from John Bailey at the UAF who also has been one of the driving forces behind the Virtual Globe sessions at the AGU each year. See the press release at the UAF about this tour.

Read more about Google Earth for education at the excellent Google for Educators, Geo Educators site.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Google/NOAA Release Post-Hurricane Ike Aerial Imagery in Google Earth

NOAA has an outfit which flies and takes aerial imagery after hurricanes hit to collect important data about the damage these storms cause. Google first worked with this team after Hurricane Katrina hit and the release of the imagery helped many people in response to the disaster. Now Google has once again worked with NOAA and released a Hurricane Ike Google Earth overlay showing new imagery taken after the storm. You can compare the current Google Earth imagery (from before the storm) with the newer NOAA imagery taken after the storm hit. To do this, select the "Hurricane Ike 2008" folder and drag the slider below the Places pane which changes transparency. You can visit NOAA's Hurricane Ike Response page for more information. Here's a sample comparing before and after:

Hurricane Ike Damage Imagery in Google Earth

There is also similar imagery available for Hurricane Gustav from a few weeks ago.

via GoogleLatLong.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 15, 2008

Links: Math Lessons, Chemical Brothers Video, Radar Loops, Swedish Hires

I've got a report coming about our new sailboat and some places we've gone. And also how I've stayed connected to the net. But, it may have to wait until tomorrow so I can process GPS tracks and photos.

Math Lessons in GE - Tomas Petra has created a number of math lessons and lesson plans for grades 5 and up which all leverage Google Earth as a teaching tool and way to stimulate ideas. From what I've seen so far, there are some excellent ideas in here. Teachers take note!
Chemical Brothers Video - Back in early August GEB mentioned that the music group Chemical Brothers was trying a global video project inviting fans to create videos using Google Earth around their new single "Midnight Madness". They have now released the video which uses a number of animated fly-bys, and other techniques, involving Google Earth. Check it out:

via FaceTheMusik
Radar Loops - 'Randor' at the GEC has rounded up links to the NOAA radar animation loops for various regions in the US for Google Earth into a single collection. Very handy if you want to check realtime radar with animations of the past few minutes. Download the radar animations here .
Swedish Hires - 'Jonas_Y' at the GEC created a network link which lets you automatically overlay in GE high resolution imagery for the country of Sweden from Eniro (major telephone book company of Sweden). This is a great way to get high resolution imagery for places not yet high resolution in GE for Sweden. Download the network link here .

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

September 12, 2008

Amazing Places in Google Earth - Roundup

Google Earth has lots of amazing sights captured in its millions of images of the Earth. GEB is constantly writing about both places to see, and add-ons to make Google Earth do things you never imagined. Here are a few amazing collections of places or add-ons recently in the net news:

PC World Top 10 Amazing Add-ons - this collection was put together by the guys at GoogleSightseeing.com (I was busy when PC World asked me to compile this list, but James and Alex did a great job).
51 Places You Can't See in Google Maps - This collection shows 51 notable locations which were censored by the folks who sent the imagery in to Google. The links in this article all go to Google Maps. But, Google didn't do the censoring themselves. Read more about Google's imagery.
Lenin 100 Years - Someone marked this message with trees as a giant tribute to Lenin. You can see it in Google Earth . See story in the Telegraph. There have been other messages done with trees - see the largest one here.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 10, 2008

Track Hurricane Ike in Google Earth

[UPDATE: Here is the historical path of Hurricane Ike from the Naval Research Laboratory.]

Hurricane Ike is near the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and is forecasted to strike somewhere between Houston and Corpus Christi on September 13th. It could strike as a very strong category 4 storm.

Google Earth is a great tool for checking weather, and especially for tracking hurricanes. You can overlay weather satellite photos, radar, storm tracks, real-time lightning strikes, pressure maps, wind maps, sea surface temperatures, and more. Google Earth Blog (GEB) has pulled together a single file of weather tools that let you track storms and check weather globally inside Google Earth. Download the GEB weather tools and check out the many datasets starting with two different storm tracking tools. You can also read more details about the collection.

To help you understand what's possible with these weather tools, here is a video demonstration:

There's also an excellent new tool available for Google Earth which lets you follow the hurricane hunters as they fly into the storms and collect data. Check out the story about live hurricane hunter mission data.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:29 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

See Large Hadron Collider in Google Earth

The Large Hadron Collider is in the news today after its first successful test. Below is a Google Earth file which lets you view the LHC in Google Earth with a 3D model suspended above ground so you can see the layout. There is also a diagram of the entire underground ring and even an animation showing two particles colliding.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator and collider located at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. 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 Google Earth File. You must have GE installed. . 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 08:26 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 09, 2008

Details on Sept. 5 Google Earth Imagery Update

Google has released the details on the imagery update found by GEB readers last Friday. However, although Google gives some details in the report - it falls to a "sprinkled around the globe" statement on a lot of the imagery. It doesn't point out that the entire state of West Virginia has new high resolution imagery to go along with the already very high resolution terrain there. The comments from last Friday's GEB post have many other locations listed. I also noticed that there apparently wasn't any new high resolution terrain in this update. Considering we haven't had an update since July, I was hoping for more terrain at least.

Anyway, for convenience, here are Google's details:

Updated Imagery:

Americas:
- USA: Chicago, Houston, Tampa, Nassau County (NY), Westchester County (NY), Rockland County (NY), Putnam County (NY), Rensselaer County, Albany County (NY), Schenectady County (NY), SaratogaCounty (NY), Tompkins County (NY), Schuyler County (NY), Seneca County (NY), Yates County (NY), Steuben County (NY), Allegany County (NY), Cattaraugus County (NY), West Virginia, part of Rhode Island, part of Massachusetts, and part of New Hampshire.
- Canada: Middlesex County (ON)

Europe, Middle East, & Africa:
- France: Paris, Orleans, Cannes, Nice, Saint-Tropaz
- Italy: Torino, Bologna, Ancona, Lucca, Latina, Capraia Island, Stintino, Villasimius, Palermo, Agrigento
- Switzerland: Zurich, Oberhasli, Thun, Emmental-Oberaargau, Basel, St. Gallen
- Monaco: entire country
- Czech Republic: Prague, Ostrava
- Slovakia: entire country

Asia & Oceania:
- Japan: Kobe, Kyoto, Kawasaki, Saitama, Chiba
- Australia: Canberra, Wollongong, The Great Ocean Road

New high resolution satellite imagery: sprinkled around the globe, with heavier concentrations in Canada, Mexico, and China.

New 2.5m base imagery for: Greece, Turkey, and Australia.

See more details on new imagery from GEB readers over the weekend (read the comments too).

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:54 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Google Earth API Demo Gallery

For those of you who want to learn to program your own Google Earth plugin applications, the place to start is the Google Earth API web site. Here you will find links to the Google Earth API Developer Guide, the Google Earth API FAQ, the Google Earth Browser Plugin forum, and a link to the Google Geo Developer Blog.

Monster Milktruck Game in Google Earth Plugin And, most important to today's post, Google has just released a new Google Earth API Demo Gallery. This is a nice quick way to see the many plugin demos Google has produced to show off features of the API. This includes boring ones that show features like "Creating a placemark", and really cool ones like "Monster Milktruck", "3D Driving Directions", and "China Syndrome".

All of this will become even more important in the not too distant future. Google will be releasing new improved versions of the Google Earth API and plugin including support for Mac OS X for the plugin. Hopefully the new API will include support for more built-in Google Earth layers, and more straightforward functions to turn on and off KML content.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 06:55 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 08, 2008

Real-time Satellites in Google Earth

Early last week GEB mentioned the release of a new visualization by Analytic Graphics Inc. which shows the real-time position of 13,000 satellites around the Earth in Google Earth. The author of the collection, Matt Amato, wrote Slashdot which certainly got more attention than my brief post. Matt's collection is certainly worth a look if you haven't seen it. The satellite positions come from a government sponsored database maintained in part by AGI. The positions are updated automatically every 30 seconds. The Google Earth file also shows the names of the satellites, and if you click on the 3D placemarks you can get more details. I'm offering two new ways to view this collection in addition to the official KML file - first, you can watch the YouTube below. And, second you can view it with this Google Earth plugin .

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:08 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Links: Hurricane Ike, GeoEye Launched, Aviation Maps, McClendon in Kansas

Hurricane Ike - Hurricane Ike is hitting Cuba right now, and it is currently forecasted to pass across the Gulf of Mexico and is headed for Houston. Check out Hurricane Ike in Google Earth using storm tracking weather tools.
GeoEye Launched - As mentioned last week, GeoEye satellite launched successfully on Saturday mid-day from Vandenburg AFB in California. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin watched the launch in person. Google has bought the exclusive rights to online viewing of this satellite's imagery. Let's be clear, because other sites are mis-interpreting the facts, the imagery will still be available for sale by GeoEye for other commercial or personal applications. It just means other mapping sites like Microsoft's Virtual Earth won't have access to this imagery. via CNET.
Aviation Maps Update - Matt Fox has made a substantial update to his collection of aviation sectional charts for the US - KML File . He says the data has been merged into one mosaic, and the quality of the scans have been improved. And, other maps and data have been added. Also, as mentioned at the end of July, he has a Google Earth plugin version of the charts which makes it handy.
McClendon in Kansas - Brian McClendon has long been one of the chief engineers behind Google Earth - dating back to Keyhole before Google bought it. He heads up the engineering for the Geo Team now at Google. A little bit of trivia: when Google Earth first came out it defaulted to a view over Lawrence, Kansas. The reason? Because Brian McClendon grew up there. In fact, last week Brian visited Lawrence to speak at a fundraiser for Community Education. He spoke to encourage the education system to use more technology in the classroom. The breakfast lecture helped raise $49,000 for the Lawrence Schools Foundation. Read more at LJWorld.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 05, 2008

Google Earth Imagery Update - September 5, 2008

[UPDATE SEPTEMBER 9th: Google has released the details on this imagery update. But, you may find more information on the locations in this post here.]

Google has quietly pushed out a new imagery update finally. The last real imagery update was in July (not counting the smaller one for Beijing for the Olympics). I'm still trying to determine the updated areas. If you find some new imagery (the easiest way to tell is to compare the imagery with Google Maps which doesn't have the update yet - click the Google Maps button above the imagery in Google Earth). Here's the list so far (UPDATED Sept 6, 1345 EDT):

Houston, Texas
State of West Virginia
Western half of Turkeyhas medium resolution Spot Image satellite coverage for the whole country
Areas of Australia also have new medium resolution Spot Image
Metropolitan area of Chicago - excluding downtown (thanks Patrick!)
Barcelona, Spain (Roy) - Barcelona unconfirmed - I see no new stuff compared to Google Maps
Madrid, Spain
Paris, France (Roy)
Cannes, Antibes, Nice, St. Tropez, Orleans, and Monaco - French Riviera area (Martin)
East Massachusetts (Roy)
Westchester County and Albany, NY (Roy)
Prague, Cz (Iñigo)
Near Toronto, Quebec City, part of Ontario (including Belleville, Prince Edward County) - Canada (Iñigo, AKB, Philip)
Palermo, Turin - Italy (Iñigo)
Zurich, Switzerland (Iñigo)
Greek Islands - including Kythnos, Gyaros, Syros, Polyaigos, Milos, and more
Greece - Most of Greece now has at least medium resolution Spot Image
Slovakia - entire country has new high res imagery (gulo)
Cartagena (southwest), Spain (Martin)
Manitoba (southeast), Canada (fengshui)
Near Chiang Khong, Near Three Pagodas Pass, Thailand (Pete)
Luang Prabang, Laos (Pete)
Near Hanoi, Vietnam
Phillipines - lots of areas - see comment by Eugene Villar
Kobe, Kyoto, Japan (Munden)
Southwest Montreal, Canada - lots of areas in southern Canada
Northern border of Mexico - several GeoEye strips - e.g. see southwest of El Paso
Lisbon, Portugal

(Reload this post to get the latest list)

Posted by FrankTaylor at 06:09 PM | Comments (55) | TrackBack

Google Earth News Roundup

While I've been running around this week preparing my boat for a possible strike from a tropical storm, Google has been busy making several posts this week on Google Earth on the Google LatLong Blog. This week there have ve been a number of Google Earth focused posts. Here are some highlights:

Virtual Globes at AGU - For the last two years I've attended the American Geophysical Union fall session in San Francisco because they've held special sessions focused on using Virtual Globes for science applications (see my reports for 2006, and 2007). These sessions have been largely dominated by Google Earth applications since GE is the most popular tool for geospatial visualizations by the masses. This post is a call for abstracts for upcoming 2008 sessions and refers to a post at the Geo Developer Blog with more details.
New Georgian Data - This one really isn't about Google Earth. Google took some flack recently for not having map data in Georgia (when the country was being attacked by Russia). Google has now added new map data, and lots of photos of the area are available through the Panoramio layer. The road data isn't yet available in GE, but the photo data is (try searching for "Tbilisi" - if you search for "Georgia" you'll probably go to the US state).
Hurricane Gustav Satellite Photos - Google has provided this story about how NOAA has already flown missions to gather aerial photos of the aftermath to Hurricane Gustav in the Mississippi Delta region. There is also a KML layer which lets you view the imagery. Fortunately, Gustav was not nearly as destructive as Katrina. During Katrina, Google put an enormous effort to help NOAA process aerial imagery quickly and make it available through Google Earth. This was really helpful to both disaster responders and people who had evacuated who wanted to determine the state of their homes and property after the storm. The post also describes healthcare information available from Direct Relief.
UNEP Layer Update - The Global Awareness layer folder contains a layer called "UNEP: Atlas of our Changing Environment". This layer was introduced in September 2006. Google has now updated the layer and now showcases 187 sites around the world where the environment has been altered mostly by human development and destruction. You can compare older satellite photos to current photos and see things like the destruction of Amazon Forests, urban growth around national parks, melting glaciers, and more. Turn on the layer and zoom in to find the UNEP placemarks. Open the placemarks and read for more details including links to load image overlays to compare photos.
Postcards from Google Earth - Google has posted some tips on how to take cool views you see in Google Earth and use the built-in features to either send an image of that scene or the captured position (generate a placemark for that view) and E-mail it to a friend. This is a great tip for sharing what you see in Google Earth quickly and easily.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:52 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Google Earth Hurricane Tracking Layer

Google has just added a new sub-layer to the Weather layer called "Hurricane Season 2008". This layer contains position and forecasted paths for currently active Atlantic Hurricanes according to the US National Hurricane Center. There's an Information placemark which explains the symbols, and you can click on placemarks for storm positions to get basic storm information such as name, strength, and time. You can use the other weather sub-layers to show real-time satellite imagery of world-wide clouds, radar data for the US and parts of Europe, and temperature/weather forecast data.

The Weather layer was first added last fall. Each sub-layer added shows good basic information with good visual quality. The clouds layer is the best I've seen available in terms of visual representation, and how close to real-time it is from the satellites (It is updated at least hourly).

This new Hurricane Season layer provides basic storm tracking information. There is no storm track history, alternative satellite image overlays, computer model prediction paths, etc. But, there are lots of weather tools available for Google Earth to provide more detail when you're interested in a particular storm or other weather data. However, I am disappointed Google did not deploy this layer to cover tropical storms world-wide. Especially when other GE storm tracking tools which have been available for years with global coverage. via GoogleLatLong

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 04, 2008

Storm Preparations

If anyone is wondering why I'm not writing lots of posts today, its because I'm down in Beaufort, North Carolina making sure our new boat is as prepared as it can be for the approaching storm - Hanna. Naturally, we buy a new boat, and a storm heads straight for it! Fortunately, our boat was already hauled out for some maintenance, and is sitting on the ground in a boat yard. Being out of the water eliminates a lot of possible damage in a storm. But, there are still risks from wind damage (flying debris, things breaking loose), or from lightning strikes. Wish us luck!

See here for the latest on Tropical Storm Hanna in Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:46 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 03, 2008

Links: Google Chrome, Spot Image, Gulf Impact

Just some GE-related news observations in this roundup. No, Google Earth content - see the next post for some content.

Google Chrome - Mickey at DigitalEarthBlog discovered that the new Google Chrome browser does not support the Google Earth API plugin. But, he gets word from Google that it doesn't support it yet, but will soon.
Spot Image - Spot Image, which already provides broad swaths of medium resolution satellite imagery in Google Earth for several countries, has announced in a press release that they have become a Google Earth Enterprise Partner. Apparently the plan is to allow customers to visualize their imagery datasets with Google Earth Enterprise which lets them create imagery datasets in custom Google Earth databases. Spot Image intends to market these services primarily to Government, Oil & Gas, insurance and the real estate industries.
Gulf Impact - A couple of years ago, Brian Timoney of the Timoney Group created a web site which illustrated the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on oil production while going through the Gulf of Mexico. The tool used GIS techniques to produce KML visualizations for Google Earth. See the GEB story here. Brian has now completely revamped the Gulf Impact site and is instead using Virtual Earth for his visualizations instead of Google Earth. I would think he would want to support KML and offer options to view the results in multiple mapping platforms (including VE, Google Maps, Earth API plugin, and Google Earth). But, maybe there are reasons why he stuck with one platform.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:09 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

September 02, 2008

Links: Google Satellite, Hurricane data, Real-time Satellites, GEC Layers?

Google Satellite - Google has made an exclusive arrangement with GeoEye that Google will be the exclusive online mapping firm for imagery from their new satellite - which is scheduled to launch this week (on September 4th). This follows a similar arrangement Google has had with DigitalGlobe, another satellite company, for years now. Not only that, as part of the deal, Google's logo is being flown on the side of the rocket. The new satellite is capable of up to .41 meter resolution, but by law Google will be limited to .5 meter/pixel resolution. This is still VERY good resolution, and a bit better than DigitalGlobe's typical .6 meter imagery. It will probably be a few weeks or more before the new GeoEye satellite is operational, and a few weeks beyond that before Google processes any of the new imagery for the Google Earth/Maps databases. via CNET, and DigitalEarthBlog.
Hurricane data - Google announced a layer added to the Weather layer folder for Hurricane Gustav early yesterday showing a forecast track, web cams, and linked to other weather data available for Google Earth. In particular, they pointed to another nice storm tracking tool from the Naval Research Laboratory. The KML file for Gustav from the NRL has more data if you open the placemarks of the track (my favorite are the visible satellite photo links which actually provide high resolution satellite overlays). See more storms from NRL (look for the orange KML links). Look for the link at the top of the GEB home page for more links to storm tracking tools for Google Earth.
Real-time Satellites - Got an E-mail from an engineer named Matt Amato at Analytic Graphics, Inc. who has produced an excellent network link which shows in Google Earth the real-time positions of all ~13,000 satellites tracked by US Strategic Command around the Earth. AGI processes the satellite data and this KML makes it easy to visualize all at once. Check out this really cool KML file showing all the satellites . I may have to write this one up separately later.
GEC Layers? - Over the weekend, I got several complaints from folks who noticed that the Gallery->Google Earth Community layers folder has lost all the sub-layers which differentiated the types of data from the GEC. Some were actually glad because it actually seemed to speed up their Google Earth experience. However, it appears to me a lot of the data has just gone missing. Was this an accidental removal? Or is Google actually eliminating a lot of useful placemarks by many members of the GEC?

Posted by FrankTaylor at 06:00 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 01, 2008

Track Hurricane Hanna in Google Earth

[UPDATED 5PM EST] With Hurricane Gustav still bashing Lousianna, we now have Hurricane Hanna over the Bahamas. Hurricane Hanna is likely to hit the George/South Carolina coastal areas by Friday - now expected to be a category 2 storm when it strikes (up from category 1 earlier today). Google Earth is a great tool for checking weather, and especially for tracking hurricanes. You can overlay weather satellite photos, radar, storm tracks, real-time lightning strikes, pressure maps, wind maps, sea surface temperatures, and more. Google Earth Blog (GEB) has written about many of the tools available in the past. Here is a set of weather tools in a single network link that lets you get access to great weather data in one convenient package. Check out the many datasets starting with two different storm tracking tools. You can also read more details about the collection.