Network Links Archives

June 30, 2009

NASA Doing Robotic Recon with Google Earth

NASA 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.

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

Once 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.

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!).

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".

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)

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More entries for this category:

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

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