Network Links Archives

June 30, 2009

NASA Doing Robotic Recon with Google Earth

NASA K10 RobotNASA is conducting research from their Ames Research Center in California with a robot called "K10", located in northern Arizona, to simulate tele-operations for exploring the moon. They are using Google Earth extensively for both planning, visualization, and operations. In other words, Google Earth is a visualization tool for telepresence. NASA uses a black and white higher res image of their target area overlayed in GE (maybe the black and white makes it look more like the moon?). They look at the imagery to determine reconnaissance objectives and plan routes. They have developed a planning tool that works interactively with Google Earth (using network links and overlays) to develop and assign tasks for the robot and put placemarks and routes on the map. Then the task plans are sent to the robot. The robot sends back photos to NASA which are also placed in placemarks in Google Earth, and a track of the robots path is also updated continously. You can read more details and see more screenshots at the Robotic Recon web site. I'd like to get my hands on a sample KML file to see what it looks like. There is a large team of engineers involved in the Robotic Recon project, including folks from different NASA centers and several universities. And, the Robotic Recon blog shows lots of screenshots of Google Earth in use.

NASA Robotic Recon with Google Earth

By the way, this story is particularly interesting to me because more than 15 years ago I developed similar tele-presence simulation software at NASA Johnson Space Center to visualize remote-operations over the Internet using a Silicon Graphics workstations. I developed the 3D software for the visualization parts, and the Internet client/server communications. In 1992, while at International Space University in Japan, I used a workstation to control a robot arm NASA had back in Houston over an Internet connection using a crude frame-grab camera (single-frame webcam) to verify position. This is so déjà vu! Part of the reason I was instantly attracted to Google Earth when it first came out, was its similarity to the software I had written. Full circle.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:10 AM | Comments (0)

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June 29, 2009

Tour de France 2009 in Google Earth

Tour de FranceOnce again, Thomas Vergouwen is the first to send GEB the complete tracks for the 2009 Tour de France for viewing in Google Earth. The organizers did not release the full details on the routes of the stages until recently, so it took longer then usual for maps to be created. The race begins this Saturday - July 4th. Thomas describes the situation and provides lots of details on each stage of the race at his web site, and he provides both Google Maps and the Google Earth file on the routes.

Viewing the Tour de France routes in Google Earth is one of my favorite examples of the power of Google Earth. With GE's 3D terrain, you can tilt your view and truly get a feeling of how challenging this race really is - even if you have never been to see it in person. Just load Thomas' file for the 2009 Tour de France in GE . Then, make sure you tilt your view I'm hoping there will be some more real-time tracking this year that will let you watch the position of some of the racers in Google Earth as they go along.

Le Tour de France in Google Earth

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:25 AM | Comments (3)

June 2, 2009

Huge Waste of Energy Visible in Google Earth

Recently I happened upon a thread of posts at the Google Earth Community entitled "The largest waste of energy in history". I was initially skeptical, and still am not convinced yet it is the largest, however this is indeed a serious issue. A by-product of getting oil out of the ground is often a huge amount of toxic natural gasses. These gasses can be harmful to the oil mining process, so the oil manufacturers burn the gasses to get rid of them in a process known as "gas flares". These are usually giant chimneys with scorching flames shooting many meters into the sky and burning toxic gas residues into our atmosphere. It turns out that BILLIONs of cubic meters of natural gas have been burned continuously around the world for decades simply because the oil manufacturers find it easier to just get the oil to make their money. The real travesty is that while trying to get to the oil, the oil industry is burning away huge amounts of energy (and polluting the atmosphere on a gigantic scale), that could be used to help provide energy (instead of using up all the oil!).

Gas Flares in Google Earth

GEC member 'spotter2' began by posting some placemarks where you can see the flares burning in the satellite imagery in Google Earth in the Persian Gulf . But, he later started compiling examples for many countries around the globe. And, he and others have pointed out some other interesting facts.

It turns out the World Bank has an initiative called the "Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership
" to try to find a way to reduce this terrible waste of energy. They have even helped promote some data from NOAA which shows the locations of global gas flares based on night-time satellite imagery. Watch this video:

You can examine this data yourself inside Google Earth with this network link which lets you zoom in on the NOAA data. Once you locate a flare, you can turn off the link and check the underlying satellite imagery to see if you can find the flares yourself.

The best solution would be to put the natural gas to use as another energy source and properly process the energy without damaging our atmosphere (as much). There's a company which was featured in Scientific American called Synfuels which is attempting this.

There is some data analysis from the DOE on how much energy is being wasted through gas flares. However, some GEC members have pointed out the data is based on oil industry data which is most likely using the lowest possible theoretical figures in their estimates. It would be interesting to see more scientific studies on what the environmental impact and natural gas energy waste has been through this process.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:40 AM | Comments (8)

June 1, 2009

Links: North Korea, Network Links, National Geographic

  • North Korea - The news about another atomic test in North Korea has prompted some to use Google Earth to help analyze and provide maps on where the testing occurred. See an excellent summary of the recent test and Google Earth maps by Stefan Geens at OgleEarth. Another KML file for Google Earth made big news last week. This one posted by Curtis Melvin is called "North Korea Uncovered " on the Google Earth Community and was featured in a Wall Street Journal article. The file has been downloaded over 45,000 times - and contains a vast amount of placemarks resulting from painstaking analysis of satellite imagery and other information to understand North Korea's infrastructure. I recommend reading the WSJ article to understand the background on what has been accomplished.

  • Network Links Explained - Matt Fox at the Google Earth Library site has written this nice explanation of how Google Earth network links work. This serves as a nice compliment to the more basic overview of GE Network Links written in 2007 here on the GEB. For other basic information about Google Earth - read the "Basics" page here at GEB.

  • National Geographic - Last week I visited the headquarters of the National Geographic Society. National Geographic has long been one of my favorite publishers - and possibly one of the main reasons why I love geography and Google Earth so much. While there, I spoke to Ford Cochran who writes National Gegraphic's "BlogWILD". Ford wrote about one of the Google Earth files I thought he would be interested in seeing: the collection of placemarks which categorizes animals found in the National Geographic Megaflyover images found in Google Earth. Definitely worth checking out... a lot of people don't realize you can see so many animals in the Google Earth aerial imagery.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:34 AM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2009

3D Flight Tracking in Netherlands with Google Earth

One of my favorite KML collections from the early days of Google Earth (way back in 2005 - which is a long time in Internet time), was the real-time flight tracker by FBOweb that lets you watch incoming aircraft for several major airports in the US. I am a bit disappointed they haven't enhanced the tracker very much considering all the new features in Google Earth since 2005. But, it still amazes people when I demonstrate live updating positions of planes in 3D approaching a major airport. (See a list of several cities to follow in this post).

Recently I ran across another real-time flight tracker in the Netherlands for Google Earth. The Geluidsnet web site (in Dutch) lets you watch planes arriving and departing from a few airports through this Google Earth network link (once it loads, click on "Schiphol area" to see the tracks for the last 30 minutes). They display a vertical "fence" below each plane to help visualize the altitude and paths. Orange fences are arriving aircraft, green are departing. The visualization gives a better sense of position and the number of planes when viewed from an angle. If you look closely, you will notice every few seconds the positions (and fences) change. Updating data like this is done using the power of the Google Earth "network link".

3D Fligtht Tracking in Netherlands with Google Earth

You would think the data is coming from aircraft transponders. [UPDATE 1530 ET: And they are! In doing a translation of a page on the Dutch-speaking site, I read how they were taking sound measurements for noise pollution purposes related to aircraft - and interpreted this to mean that was how they were getting the data. But, locals have explained to me the data is in fact coming from transponders.] But, using Google Translate, I read that they are using sophisticated sound measurements and algorithms to record data on aircraft and can determine position, speed, and even aircraft types.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:32 AM | Comments (7)


More entries for this category:

  1. Astronomers Use Google Sky to Raise Research Funds - January 12, 2009
  2. Links: Santa Tracker Popular, Volvo Ocean Race, Lost World Discovered, Cold War KML - December 26, 2008
  3. Upgrade to EveryTrail GPS Trails Layer in Google Earth - December 17, 2008
  4. Top 10 Games With Google Earth - September 24, 2008
  5. Update on Using GPS for Tracking in Google Earth - September 19, 2008
  6. Google News Layer for Google Earth Next Week - May 15, 2008
  7. Where 2.0 - Day 1 - May 13, 2008
  8. NASA Time Animation of Ionosphere For Google Earth - May 5, 2008
  9. Space Debris Viewed in Google Earth - April 23, 2008
  10. Links: GE Lesson, GETools, Microsoft KML, 3D Bridges, Royal Australian 3D, EPA Award - April 18, 2008
  11. Links: SR22 Cockpit, Jane Austen, Magnetic Pole, Taiwan GE Bonanza, Tutorial, VE3D on Mac - March 17, 2008
  12. Iditarod 2008 Dog Sled Race Live in Google Earth - March 10, 2008
  13. Super UK Photo Project geograph Turns Three - March 6, 2008
  14. Live Orbit Tracker in Google Earth - March 3, 2008
  15. UK Earthquake - View Data in Google Earth - February 27, 2008
  16. Links: Star Viewer, Green Screen, World Hockey, European Pollution, Golden Shadow - January 29, 2008
  17. New Layer Goodness for Google Earth - January 2008 - January 25, 2008
  18. Links: KML Wrap-up, New Orrery, Zip Scribble, South China Sea - January 23, 2008
  19. Top 10 New Google Earth Features 2007 - December 31, 2007
  20. Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
  21. Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2007 - December 26, 2007
  22. Links: Daily Earth Imagery, Antarctica Photos, Panoramio Searchable, Santa Sleigh - December 18, 2007
  23. AGU Fall Meeting - Day 1 Highlights - December 13, 2007
  24. Earthquake Activity Time Animation - December 12, 2007
  25. Links: Maps Terrain in GE, GPS Trip Planning, Geo Lessons, and more - December 11, 2007
  26. Tropical Cyclone Sidr in Google Earth - November 16, 2007
  27. San Francisco Oil Spill in Google Earth - November 12, 2007
  28. Big Layer Update - Weather Layers in Google Earth - November 8, 2007
  29. Caribbean 1500 Sailing Cup in Google Earth - November 5, 2007
  30. X PRIZE Cup Photos Mapped - November 1, 2007
  31. Trip Status, Links: PhotoOverlay tool, CIA World Factbook, Another BMNG - October 29, 2007
  32. Links: Chinese Cop Catches Crook, Malibu Fire, EveryTrail Update, CIA WorldFactbook, Hungary Weather - October 22, 2007
  33. Improved KML Support for Google Maps - October 17, 2007
  34. 2007 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup - October 8, 2007
  35. Links: Ohio Class Sub, Galactic Delight, Constellation Drawings - October 5, 2007
  36. News Roundup: Poles Overlays, Rocket Garden, Army Topos, Astronomy, Roads - September 20, 2007
  37. Sky News Roundup: New Horizon, SpaceNavigator, Google plans for Sky - September 12, 2007
  38. FlashEarth Mashup with Google Earth 4.2 - August 28, 2007
  39. News Roundup: Peru Earthquake, Virtual Earth Update, Stefan's Alps Hike - August 16, 2007
  40. Best Storm Tracking and Weather Tools for Google Earth - August 15, 2007
  41. Scientific Ocean Drilling Database in Google Earth - August 14, 2007
  42. R/C Planes and Camera Fun with Google Earth - August 12, 2007
  43. Improved International Polar Year Content for Google Earth - July 30, 2007
  44. Population Data for Mexico - July 27, 2007
  45. Energy Production Information for Western US - July 17, 2007
  46. Google Finds Matt in Google Earth - July 11, 2007
  47. 3D Dresden in Google Earth - July 9, 2007
  48. Quasi-global Near real-time Rainfall in Google Earth - July 3, 2007
  49. News RoundUp: Football Game, VesselTracker, Antarctic Bases, Egyptian Digs, 3D Cities Help, Chimps, Gallery - June 12, 2007
  50. ISDE Day 3 Summary - June 8, 2007
  51. News Roundup - France Censors, Flickr, Seabeds, Live tracking - June 4, 2007
  52. Weather and Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth - June 2, 2007
  53. PhotoFlyr - A Google Earth 3D Flying Photo Viewer - May 23, 2007
  54. Watch Weekend Boating Live in Google Earth - May 18, 2007
  55. FlickrVision - And Now for Google Earth - May 15, 2007
  56. 3D Warehouse Map Mashup for Collections - May 4, 2007
  57. Yahoo! Pipes Supports KML - May 3, 2007
  58. Globe Glider Video Demonstration - May 2, 2007
  59. Super Mapping Mashup -> Globe Glider Next Generation - May 1, 2007
  60. Dynamic Map Showing AIM Chatters in Google Earth - April 30, 2007
  61. News Roundup: Tour de France, Tasmania Logging, Somalia, GE-Sharing, More Biking - April 23, 2007
  62. The Google Earth Network Link - April 19, 2007
  63. Continuous Flow of New 3D Buildings - April 17, 2007
  64. Google Earth Classified Ads by Safarri - March 26, 2007
  65. News Roundup - Fixes for Windows Vista, Airshows, FBOWeb update, Photos with Search - March 19, 2007
  66. Dig a Hole Through Google Earth - March 16, 2007
  67. gCensus - US Census Data for Google Earth - March 14, 2007
  68. Skype + Unype = Multi-User Google Earth - March 10, 2007
  69. Topographical Maps and Other Goodies for Google Earth - March 6, 2007
  70. News Roundup: KML Standardization, Cruise ship tracker, IGiGLE, 3D Printing - March 3, 2007
  71. New Real-time Traffic in Google Maps for USA - February 28, 2007
  72. Planes in Flight Hobby - February 13, 2007
  73. Using Satellite Photos to Document Human Rights Violations - February 7, 2007
  74. Google Street Maps Overlay for Google Earth - February 2, 2007
  75. High Res Photos from an Aerial Drone in Google Earth - January 26, 2007
  76. Track Cruise Ships in 3D in Google Earth - January 22, 2007
  77. Daily NASA MODIS Satellite Imagery for Google Earth - January 20, 2007
  78. NOAA Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) Weather Feed for Google Earth - January 13, 2007
  79. Shaded Relief Map of US Terrain in Google Earth - January 12, 2007
  80. Upper Green Valley Environmental Issues Illustrated with Google Earth - January 10, 2007
  81. New Layers - Yelp Reviews, Textured 3D Buildings, Brazilian Roads, and more - January 7, 2007
  82. Watch Remote Control Plane with Camera Capturing Real-time Images for Google Earth - January 5, 2007
  83. Using GPS in Real-time with Google Earth - January 2, 2007
  84. Play "Mars Sucks" Game in Google Earth - December 29, 2006
  85. Multilingual Wikipedia Project Linking to Google Earth - December 28, 2006
  86. Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Google Earth - December 27, 2006
  87. Amazing Implementation of Marine Charts for Google Earth - December 21, 2006
  88. Avian Flu Tracker Updated - December 12, 2006
  89. NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab Publishes Google Earth Content - December 8, 2006
  90. Plazes.com Does Google Earth - Social Network - December 6, 2006
  91. Beautiful Blue Marble and Clouds Add-on for Google Earth - November 16, 2006
  92. CBS News Does Google Earth - November 9, 2006
  93. Earth on Fire - November 4, 2006
  94. Route du Rhum - Live Sailing Race in Google Earth - November 1, 2006
  95. News Roundup - Animated 3D, EmerGeo, Altered Oceans, Virtual Airlines - October 29, 2006
  96. National Weather Service Releases Radar Loops for Google Earth - October 26, 2006
  97. Global Paleogeographic Time Animation - October 16, 2006
  98. Watch UK Autumn Leaves Changing Colour - October 13, 2006
  99. Space Atlas for Google Earth - October 10, 2006
  100. More Space Content for Google Earth from Wirefly X PRIZE Cup - October 8, 2006
  101. RoboGEO 5 Released - Geotag Photos with Google Earth - September 27, 2006
  102. Google Earth Las Vegas - September 22, 2006
  103. Roundup - Pillows, redtrails, earthpoint, Robogeo 5, libferris, virtual land rush - September 20, 2006
  104. Anousheh Ansari Blasts off to Space - September 18, 2006
  105. Track Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Lane in Google Earth - September 16, 2006
  106. New Storms - Track Hurricane Gordon, Typhoon Shanshan - September 13, 2006
  107. CBS News Does Google Earth - Missing Last Step - September 8, 2006
  108. Track Tropical Storm Florence in Google Earth - September 6, 2006
  109. News Roundup - RoboGeo, PhotoModeler, Trippermap, EditGrid - September 5, 2006
  110. Global Clouds with Altitude for GE 4 - September 3, 2006
  111. British Airways Uses Google Earth to Improve Online Sales - September 1, 2006
  112. Track Hurricane Ernesto in Google Earth - August 27, 2006
  113. World's Largest Cosmic Ray Detector Shown in Google Earth - August 16, 2006
  114. Homemade Network of Real-time Lightning Data - See it in Google Earth - August 9, 2006
  115. Three Flickr Photo Browsing Tools for Google Earth - August 3, 2006
  116. Tropical Storm Chris - August 1, 2006
  117. New Tsunami Hits Southern Java Indonesia - July 17 - July 17, 2006
  118. News Roundup - July 15, 2006
  119. Bus Live Tracking at USC - Research Project - July 14, 2006
  120. Tour de France Live Tracking Enhancements - July 12, 2006
  121. Traffic Cameras for Quebec/Montreal, Canada in Google Earth - July 10, 2006
  122. FSEarth 3.0 - MS Flight Simulator and Google Earth - July 8, 2006
  123. Magnalox Provides Live Tracking Interface for Google Earth - July 7, 2006
  124. Tour de France by Google - July 6, 2006
  125. Weather and Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth - July 3, 2006
  126. Live Tracking of Tour de France in Google Earth - July 2, 2006
  127. Tour de France 2006 Starts Tomorrow - June 30, 2006
  128. Aeronautical Information System - June 26, 2006
  129. Project Thin Ice - Expedition to North Pole in Google Earth - June 7, 2006
  130. FIFA World Cup Football Stadiums in 3D - June 3, 2006
  131. Avian Flu Outbreak Map Update - Human Cases in Indonesia - June 1, 2006
  132. Near Real-time Severe Weather Data for the US from NOAA - May 31, 2006
  133. Unicycling for College Money - Track Max in Google Earth - May 28, 2006
  134. Tour de France 2006 in Google Earth - May 25, 2006
  135. Integrating Calendar Events to Location in Google Earth - May 23, 2006
  136. See More Recent Aerial Photos in Google Earth - May 22, 2006
  137. Decrease in Avian Flu Spread During Last Month - May 19, 2006
  138. Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 in Google Earth - May 18, 2006
  139. Mount Merapi Volcano in Google Earth - May 15, 2006
  140. Real-time Stream Flow Sensor Net in Google Earth - May 14, 2006
  141. Win a Mazda CX-7 in a Sweepstakes Contest in Google Earth - May 1, 2006
  142. Near Real-time Ocean/Weather Data - April 28, 2006
  143. Seattle 911 Live in Google Earth - April 18, 2006
  144. NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Adds Google Earth Data - April 13, 2006
  145. Wikipedia for Google Earth and WikiSearch Tool - April 11, 2006
  146. Follow Volvo Ocean Race Leg 5 - April 3, 2006
  147. Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in Google Earth - March 29, 2006
  148. Enhanced Avian Flu Outbreak Tracker - March 27, 2006
  149. Real-Time Sensor Net in Google Earth - March 23, 2006
  150. GlobalFlyer Attempting Third World Record - March 15, 2006
  151. Bed and Breakfast Locations in Google Earth - March 6, 2006
  152. GolfNation.org - Courses in Google Earth - March 3, 2006
  153. Emotion Map in Google Earth - February 21, 2006
  154. Follow Steve Fossett/Global Flyer in Google Earth - February 9, 2006
  155. Pilot World-wide Weather in Google Earth - February 8, 2006
  156. Earthquake Monitoring - February 7, 2006
  157. Real-time Shuttle Bus Tracking in Google Earth - February 1, 2006
  158. Arctic and Antarctic Ice Floes in Google Earth - January 25, 2006
  159. Real Estate for Google Earth by Re/Max - Again! - January 14, 2006
  160. Aurora Viewing Map in Google Earth - January 5, 2006
  161. Globe Glider - Integrated Maps within Google Earth - January 3, 2006
  162. Locations for Amusement Parks/Roller Coasters in Google Earth - December 9, 2005
  163. Near Real-time Flight Tracking in Google Earth - December 2, 2005
  164. EarthBooker - 80,000 Hotels in Google Earth - November 7, 2005
  165. Geocaching.com Uses Random Approximate Coordinates in Google Earth - November 1, 2005
  166. Meteor Craters on Earth - October 18, 2005
  167. The Ants Go Marching One by One - October 1, 2005
  168. UK Autumn Leaves Changing Colour - September 30, 2005
  169. Owners of Geocaching.com Stifle Innovation - September 24, 2005
  170. Placeopedia Links Google Earth to WikiPedia - September 21, 2005
  171. Storm Tracking Tools - Hurricanes Rita/Phillipe - September 20, 2005
  172. Dynamic Clock - Big Ben - September 16, 2005
  173. Much Improved Method for Viewing Katrina Damage Imagery - September 8, 2005
  174. Up To Date Katrina Damage Imagery - September 5, 2005
  175. City of Portland GIS Adds 3D Buildings - September 3, 2005
  176. Real Estate Done Google Earth Style - August 29, 2005
  177. Hurricanes/Tropical Data - August 26, 2005
  178. City of Portland GIS - August 25, 2005
  179. Geosnapper.com Photos - August 19, 2005
  180. Geotagged Flickr photos on the fly... - August 3, 2005
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