Science Archives

May 05, 2008

NASA Time Animation of Ionosphere For Google Earth

Last week, NASA announced the release of an amazing dynamic Google Earth resource which shows time animated condition of the Earth's Ionosphere. The ionosphere is used to bounce radio signals over the horizon for long distance communication. But, when storms occur on the sun's surface they can mess up parts of the ionosphere and disrupt ionosphere-based communications. The new NASA Google Earth data can be used to quickly understand where and when there may be radio communication issues.

See for example their primary network link which shows the current condition of the ionosphere in the form of total electron content. Then, check out an animation of the total electron content for the past 24 hours . You use the time slider to see the animation, but note that it will take a while to load each image overlay which covers the entire Earth. Red means area of strong atmospheric disturbance where communications problems are likely to occur. Blue/dark means communications will be fine. You will notice that the night side of the Earth is the best time for radio communications.

This NASA information not only makes for cool looking Google Earth visualizations, but is very useful to anyone with a profession or need for using short-wave radio (e.g. HAM radio operators, mariners, coast guards, etc.). Airliners are increasingly flying over the arctic regions to take shorter routes, but in this area they can't use satellite communications based on geosynchronous satellites. So, they resort to short wave radio over the poles. If the ionosphere is important to you, check out the full list of GE ionosphere visualizations from NASA here. NASA also has a communications alert and prediction system which uses this data.

NASA has done many other Google Earth visualizations. Here are just a few:

• NASA Earth at Night Layer

• NASA Annual Lightning Flash Map

• NASA Sea Surface Temperature and more

• NASA Earth Day Top Photos

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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April 28, 2008

Links: Science Uses, Compass, GM vs VE, Healthy Planet, and more

• Science Uses - Google Earth has been embraced by scientists in the fields of Paleotology and Archeology before. But, now - according to Anthropology.net - scientists have actually endorsed using GE for science in an academic, peer reviewed journal. Their paper appears in the Journal of Human Evolution in an article entitled: "Google Earth, GIS, and the Great Divide: A new and simple method for sharing paleontological data.”

• Compass - Barry Hunter has created a cool screen overlay to help you get a more accurate compass reading in GE 4.3.

• GM vs VE - Sean Gorman of Fortius One has posted an interesting comparison of KML support between Google Maps and Virtual Earth. The end result? Both have some shortcomings.

• Healthy Planet - Dr. Mark Mulligan, of Kings College in London (who has developed some great Google Earth content) has now formed a new environmental web site called: HealthyPlanet.org. HealthyPlanet.org will help make people aware of areas of the Earth needing environmental attention, and will enable people to volunteer help by becoming “Land Guardians” for a plot of land. Places needing attention will appear in maps using Google Maps or Google Earth. People visiting the site can become "armchair volunteers" by donating money. Donor can also get involved by helping map the areas using tool Dr. Mulligan has developed. Read more about the announcement.

• GPS Map Tool - Leszek has announced a really cool software tool which lets you upload maps or aerial photos to a Garmin handheld as fully viewable charts. They act just like your built-in charts. He's calling it Moagu (Mother of all GPS utilities). Sounds like a fun application, and I plan to give it a try.

• Mineral Resources - Valery Hronusov has been gathering and publishing another huge dataset. This time he is making available placemarks on mineral resources all over the world. You can see the many different KML files on mineral resources for different regions at his GISPlanet blog.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 22, 2008

Google Earth For Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. A time to sit back and think about our wonderful planet, and some of us will be out picking up some trash, or just enjoying nature. For those of you stuck inside due to weather, work, or other reasons - perhaps you might want to spend the day exploring our wonderful planet through the power of Google Earth. Here are a few links of stories from Google Earth Blog (GEB) describing environmental related content available for viewing in Google Earth:

• Basic Tips on Using Google Earth

• Environment Layers - Greenpeace, ARKive (endangered species), Unicef (water and sanitation), UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)

• Rising Sea Levels - Animations showing what would happen if ice melting caused seas to rise too high - e.g. New York City.

• EPA Air Quality Report - US Environmental Protection Agency's air quality report for Google Earth - called AirNOW

• International Polar Year - Collection of content for Google Earth about the Earth's poles, and science projects ongoing to study the arctic environment. Part of the International Polar Year project.

• Sea Ice Melting - Dramatic animation of data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center showing ice extents from 1979 through March of 2008 on both poles. See other GE data from NSIDC.

• Google Earth Outreach Showcase - See environmental and science content for Google Earth.

• Amazon Indians Using Google Earth - Primitive indians learn to use GPS and Google Earth to help protect their rainforest - true story!

• Upper Green Valley - Issues of gas drilling impacting the environment in one location

• Neighborhood Fights Logging With Google Earth - Neighbors in Santa Cruz, California successfully stop a logging plan by using Google Earth. Read the full story.

• Blue Marble Add-On - This file lets you view a prettier image of the Earth from NASA for Google Earth. It shows the view of the Earth from space, with or without clouds, based on the current month. The clouds are closer to real time - updated every 15 minutes. The picture of the Earth and clouds disappear automatically as you get closer so you can see GE's built in satellite imagery without interference.

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

April 18, 2008

Links: GE Lesson, GETools, Microsoft KML, 3D Bridges, Royal Australian 3D, EPA Award

• Stonehenge GE Lesson - Noel Jenkins has released another well-prepared school lesson which involves Google Earth - this one is about Stonehenge. via Noel's JuicyGeography blog.

• GETools - Brian Flood - author of the excellent Arc2Earth tools for GIS folks, is working on some new tools for working with Google Earth. He's working to turn the tools into a product which he's calling GETools. He has been developing various ways to interact with Google Earth through its little-known API (which also hasn't seen a lot of development by Google). Based on some demonstration videos he has released, the tools will enable some pretty cool functions. My favorite is the implementation allowing draggable directions to work inside Google Earth (I believe he's leveraging the Google Maps API to perform the same function in Google Earth - which Google hasn't done themselves!). I'm looking forward to seeing these tools released Brian!

• Microsoft Maps KML Better Than Google Maps - KML was recently approved as an international standard by OGC. But, KML is already reaching wide acceptance in the geospatial visualization world. In fact, it appears Microsoft's implementation for KML in their 2D version of Virtual Earth is better than Google Maps' implementaiton of KML. And, it's true. I've tested it myself. Google Maps does not show large KML files with lots of vector data. But, Microsoft's recent update to Virtual Earth handles them just fine. Google thinks this is a good thing because they are excited to see KML reach broader implementations.

• 3D Bridges - Gerardo Paz of Buenos Aires, Argentina (who translates GEB to Spanish) is also a 3D modeler, and he has posted some excellent 3D models of bridges in Argentina. Notice how he has even edited the underlying imagery to remove the aerial photo of the bridges while replacing them with 3D. You can see all four bridges here in GE. Here's a collection of other bridges found in 3D Warehouse.

• Royal Australian 3D - The Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) has released a layer featuring hundreds of unique buildings and structures in Australia. This is similar to the layer for GE released last year by the American Institute of Architects. In the RAIA layer , each placemark contains photos and details of each site and links to more information. In addition, they have modeled 60 of their favorite structures and uploaded them to the Google 3D Warehouse, so you can easily choose and download them for viewing in Google Earth. I do wish their layer of placemarks highlighted the locations with the 3D models with a different placemark icon and provided a link in the placemarks to download the models. In fact, I sent that as a suggestion. See the Google post about this new content, and the RAIA web page.

• EPA Award - The US Environmental Protection Agency has given an environmental award to Terradex for its development of a Google Earth network link called AirWatch that dynamically shows air quality for the US (and the UK, China, and Mexico City - see post). This work inspired the development of the EPA's AirNow application for Google Earth. See details from Google about the award announcement.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 11, 2008

Links: GE/SketchUp Classes, Sea Ice Update, Bergen Terrain, Waldo

• Google Earth and SketchUp Classes Available - Alex Oliver of school (which does great SketchUp Training DVDs and samples on their site - see GEB review), has written to let me know they are the first Google Authorized Training Center (ATC) in the US. They now offer live training classes for SketchUp and Google Earth! The Google Earth class is currently being taught in 17 locations around the country and more being added each week. Here is the schedule of classes available. More details on the classes are on this page.

• Sea Ice Update - The folks at the Snow and Ice Data Center have updated their Sea Ice Extent KML file. This file shows a time animation of the extent of ice at both poles. There is a magenta colored line which shows the average ice extent for comparisons. The new file not only includes the new March data, but also has a new option to turn off the layer when not in use. This makes it easier to keep the network link in your Place pane. See the GEB review of the Sea Ice Extent file. NOTE: there's also a new "Greenland Annual Surface Ice Melt" file at their GE page.

• Bergen Terrain - Here's an interesting tip. A GEB reader from Norway named Ove Daae Lampe wrote to let me know the recent upgrade to the data layers included a high resolution terrain map for Bergen, Norway. This is very high resolution terrain - possibly from LIDAR? So high that buildings were captured and show up as bumps in the terrain. However, overall, the terrain looks very good, and makes me want to visit Bergen someday! The bumps in the terrain from the buildings will make it interesting when they go to put 3D models of the buildings. According to Mr. Lampe, they will soon have 3D buildings for the entire city as well.

• 

  Waldo - An artist in Vancouver, Melanie Coles, wrote me an E-mail last week about her efforts (along with other art students) to place a huge 55' tall "Where is Waldo" character on the top of a building (see the blog). The idea being it would be caught by a satellite (or aerial photo) and placed in Google Earth someday. To help things along, they took their own aerial photo of it. I was able to find the location where they did it based on the photo, and I've added their photo as an image overlay in Google Earth . Their photo was taken at an angle (not straight down), so it isn't stretched properly over the scenery. But, you get the idea. Turns out her project has grabbed the attention of the media. Unfortunately, Google recently updated the imagery for Vancouver (although I've had reports they used four or more year old imagery). So, I have no idea how long it will be before they get new imagery. Hopefully someone will get a decent straight-down shot for Google to include. This isn't the first time Waldo has appeared in Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:01 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

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More entries for this category:

6. Links: Digital Urban Booklet, GE OSX UI Tweak, Peru Meteor Strike - March 31, 2008
7. Wilkins Ice Shelf, Sea Ice Extent Animation - March 28, 2008
8. Brightest Object Ever Observed in Google Sky - March 25, 2008
9. Global Temperature Trends for Google Earth - March 24, 2008
10. Sir Arthur C. Clarke - R.I.P. - March 19, 2008
11. Australian Geologist Accidentally Discovers Meteor Crater in Google Earth - March 18, 2008
12. Links: SR22 Cockpit, Jane Austen, Magnetic Pole, Taiwan GE Bonanza, Tutorial, VE3D on Mac - March 17, 2008
13. Google Sky Wavelength Slider Mashup - March 13, 2008
14. Links: Games, KML, Data, and more - March 04, 2008
15. Live Orbit Tracker in Google Earth - March 03, 2008
16. WorldWide Telescope vs Google Sky - February 28, 2008
17. UK Earthquake - View Data in Google Earth - February 27, 2008
18. Links: Outreach Showcase, Spreadsheet mapping, Geo Test, KML Lesson Talk - February 26, 2008
19. NOAA Weather Data in Google Earth - February 25, 2008
20. Predict Tonight's Lunar Eclipse with Google Earth - February 20, 2008
21. Dinosaurs Once Again Walk the Earth - February 04, 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. Links: Zillow News, Virtual Volcanology, Design in GE, GearthHacks News, Ski Time, VE Geocoding - January 18, 2008
25. Google Sky - The Next Generation (Updated) - January 09, 2008
26. Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
27. AGU Fall Meeting - Day 2 Highlights - December 20, 2007
28. Links: Daily Earth Imagery, Antarctica Photos, Panoramio Searchable, Santa Sleigh - December 18, 2007
29. Montserrat Volcanic Island in Google Earth - December 17, 2007
30. Google Sky with a Maps API - December 16, 2007
31. AGU Fall Meeting - Day 1 Highlights - December 13, 2007
32. Earthquake Activity Time Animation - December 12, 2007
33. Links: Maps Terrain in GE, GPS Trip Planning, Geo Lessons, and more - December 11, 2007
34. Space Shuttle STS 122 Ascent Profile in Google Earth - December 06, 2007
35. Large Hadron Collider Visible in Google Earth - November 28, 2007
36. Arctic Ice Melting Animation in Google Earth - November 26, 2007
37. Earth at Night from Rosetta - November 21, 2007
38. Links: Virtual Globes at AGU, Your Town in 3D, MGD Monitor Layer - November 02, 2007
39. Links: Mac Leopard, Earthquakes, 3D Warehouse, MODIS SuperOverlays - November 01, 2007
40. Comet Holmes Gets Bright - October 25, 2007
41. Astronomy Picture-Overlay of the Day in Google Sky - October 10, 2007
42. World's Largest Radio Telescope May Close - October 09, 2007
43. 2007 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup - October 08, 2007
44. Links: Ohio Class Sub, Galactic Delight, Constellation Drawings - October 05, 2007
45. Links: GE for scientists, Human body, Burma, Census Explorer, Virtual Earth, Cleanup Weekend - October 02, 2007
46. Volcano Eruption Kills 8 - Jabal al-Tair, Yemen - October 01, 2007
47. Beautiful Sky in Google Earth - September 26, 2007
48. Links: Planet Orbits, SuperOverlay 2.0, GEC 1 million, Google Social Network - September 24, 2007
49. News Roundup: Poles Overlays, Rocket Garden, Army Topos, Astronomy, Roads - September 20, 2007
50. Planets Add-on for Google Earth's Sky - September 19, 2007
51. Supernova Explosion in Google Earth Sky - September 17, 2007
52. New Google Maps Moon Update - September 13, 2007
53. Sky News Roundup: New Horizon, SpaceNavigator, Google plans for Sky - September 12, 2007
54. Back to School - Educational Uses with Google Earth - September 11, 2007
55. Sky Goodies: Hubble Tracker, Sky KML Guide, Horizon Add-on - August 30, 2007
56. Google Earth 4.2 Roundup - August 27, 2007
57. Video Showing New Google Sky Feature of Google Earth 4.2 - August 22, 2007
58. Video Showing Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth - August 20, 2007
59. News Roundup: Peru Earthquake, Virtual Earth Update, Stefan's Alps Hike - August 16, 2007
60. Scientific Ocean Drilling Database in Google Earth - August 14, 2007
61. Virtual Globes at AGU 2007 - Call for Papers - August 08, 2007
62. Rising Water Effects for Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro - July 31, 2007
63. Improved International Polar Year Content for Google Earth - July 30, 2007
64. Herbarium Data of Chile in Google Earth - July 26, 2007
65. The Solar System in Google Earth - July 18, 2007
66. Solar Eclipses in Google Earth - July 17, 2007
67. Solar System Moons in Google Earth - July 15, 2007
68. Quasi-global Near real-time Rainfall in Google Earth - July 03, 2007
69. Visualizing LIDAR with Google Earth - July 02, 2007
70. Google Earth Outreach Announcement Video - June 28, 2007
71. Notes from the Google Earth Outreach Announcement in NYC - June 27, 2007
72. Gallery Update - June 18, 2007
73. News RoundUp: Football Game, VesselTracker, Antarctic Bases, Egyptian Digs, 3D Cities Help, Chimps, Gallery - June 12, 2007
74. ISDE Day 3 Summary - June 08, 2007
75. International Symposium on Digital Earth - Day 1, Part 1 - June 05, 2007
76. Rising Water Effects for NYC in Google Earth - Part III - May 25, 2007
77. News Roundup - Nokia N95, gCensus US, Greensburg Radar Animation - May 14, 2007
78. News Roundup 2 - Science Visualization, Netherlands GIS, Flu Map, Nokia SportsTracker - May 06, 2007
79. News Roundup - Chile Border Crisis, Caribou, Gumball Rally, Emotions - April 30, 2007
80. Stephen Hawking Flies in Zero G - April 27, 2007
81. Maverick Waves Explained - Illustration in Google Earth - April 23, 2007
82. New California Marine Protected Areas in Google Earth - April 20, 2007
83. News Roundup: My Maps/YouTube, Nokia N95, Census, Arc2Earth, Show-n-Tell - April 13, 2007
84. New Blog - Google Earth Library; Moon and Mars Overlays - April 09, 2007
85. Utah Geo Sightseeing in Google Earth - April 04, 2007
86. NSF Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge - March 27, 2007
87. New Snow and Ice Data for Google Earth - March 05, 2007
88. Happy International Polar Year! Google Earth Presentation - March 02, 2007
89. NASA Releases More Earth Data for Google Earth - February 22, 2007
90. News Roundup - FreeGeoTools, Sprol, Subsurface, conferences, Magnalox - February 12, 2007
91. Underwater Roman Village? - February 08, 2007
92. Google Earth Critical Tool in Fight Against Logging Plan - February 06, 2007
93. News roundup: Google vs. Microsoft, 3D San Jose, Endurance, Weather, Off the Map - January 23, 2007
94. Daily NASA MODIS Satellite Imagery for Google Earth - January 20, 2007
95. NOAA Releases Estuarine Bathymetric Data for Google Earth - January 12, 2007
96. Upper Green Valley Environmental Issues Illustrated with Google Earth - January 10, 2007
97. News Roundup: GlobeXplorer Acquired by DigitalGlobe, Conferences, Google Telescope - January 08, 2007
98. Update on NASA/Google Press Briefing - December 18, 2006
99. Interesting Satellite Visualizations for Google Earth - December 15, 2006
100. Virtual Globes Sessions at AGU - Day 1 - December 13, 2006
101. Avian Flu Tracker Updated - December 12, 2006
102. NASA Goddard Publishes Huge Google Earth Time Animations - December 10, 2006
103. NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab Publishes Google Earth Content - December 08, 2006
104. The Malaria Map Project in Google Earth - December 06, 2006
105. View Melting Glaciers in Google Earth - December 03, 2006
106. Maplecroft Risk Analsysis Global Maps in Google Earth - November 22, 2006
107. Protecting Rainforests in Victoria, Australia Using Google Earth - November 21, 2006
108. Blue Marble Time Animation in Google Earth - November 15, 2006
109. NY Times on New Theory of Higher Frequency of Large Meteor Impacts - November 14, 2006
110. Google Supports Geography Awareness Week - November 13, 2006
111. Jupiter Clouds in Motion in Google Earth - November 12, 2006
112. Earth on Fire - November 04, 2006
113. News Roundup - Animated 3D, EmerGeo, Altered Oceans, Virtual Airlines - October 29, 2006
114. National Weather Service Releases Radar Loops for Google Earth - October 26, 2006
115. Hawaii Earthquake Data in Google Earth - October 23, 2006
116. Armchair Archeology with Google Earth - October 17, 2006
117. Global Paleogeographic Time Animation - October 16, 2006
118. Flight of Space Ship One Depicted in Google Earth - October 12, 2006
119. Space Atlas for Google Earth - October 10, 2006
120. News Roundup - October 09, 2006
121. Wirefly X PRIZE Cup Showcases 3D Space Models for Google Earth - October 05, 2006
122. Maps for Global Hunger / Poverty in Google Earth - October 04, 2006
123. UNEP's New Environment Layer in Google Earth - September 21, 2006
124. More Innovative Time Animation Examples for Google Earth - September 19, 2006
125. Anousheh Ansari Blasts off to Space - September 18, 2006
126. Google Earth 4 Time Feature Example - September 14, 2006
127. Huge New Layers Update in Google Earth - September 13 - September 13, 2006
128. Back to School - Educational Uses with Google Earth - August 29, 2006
129. News Roundup: Tides, Scientific visualization, Geody, Movie Times - August 24, 2006
130. Jane Goodall Gombe Chimpanzee GeoBlog V2.0 - August 21, 2006
131. Moon Trees in Google Earth - August 10, 2006
132. Homemade Network of Real-time Lightning Data - See it in Google Earth - August 09, 2006
133. News Roundup - New GE Book, GE and Science, 3D Model, GIS Day, Another Chance - August 02, 2006
134. Google Saturn - July 30, 2006
135. Lava Flows in Google Earth - July 27, 2006
136. ReefBase - Status of the World's Coral Reefs - July 25, 2006
137. Weather Symbols in Google Earth - July 18, 2006
138. New Tsunami Hits Southern Java Indonesia - July 17 - July 17, 2006
139. Bus Live Tracking at USC - Research Project - July 14, 2006
140. News Roundup - July 04, 2006
141. New Volcano Layer in Google Earth - June 20, 2006
142. FCC Data Visualization in Google Earth - June 06, 2006
143. Avian Flu Outbreak Map Update - Human Cases in Indonesia - June 01, 2006
144. Global Volcanoes by Smithsonian Institution for Google Earth - May 20, 2006
145. Decrease in Avian Flu Spread During Last Month - May 19, 2006
146. Mount Merapi Volcano in Google Earth - May 15, 2006
147. Real-time Stream Flow Sensor Net in Google Earth - May 14, 2006
148. Kennedy Space Center Placemarks and Webcams - May 11, 2006
149. Gulf Impact - Analysis of Damage to Oil/Gas Industry from Hurricanes - May 09, 2006
150. Map of Projected Sea Level Rise Effects on Vancouver - May 08, 2006
151. Chernobyl Radiation Visualization in Google Earth - April 29, 2006
152. Near Real-time Ocean/Weather Data - April 28, 2006
153. USGS Releases Geologic Maps for Google Earth - April 25, 2006
154. Earth Day - Google Earth Style - April 22, 2006
155. Glacier Melt in Google Earth - April 20, 2006
156. Space Elevator in Google Earth - April 17, 2006
157. NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Adds Google Earth Data - April 13, 2006
158. State of Our Ecology in Google Earth - April 12, 2006
159. Discovery Channel Releases Video Links for Google Earth - April 07, 2006
160. USGS Releases Awesome 1906 Earthquake Documentary Using Google Earth - April 06, 2006
161. USGS Using Google Earth for Historic Documentary on 1906 Quake - April 05, 2006
162. Google Jupiter - April 03, 2006
163. Enhanced Avian Flu Outbreak Tracker - March 27, 2006
164. User Develops Mars Add-on for Google Earth - March 13, 2006
165. USGS Virtual Tour of Hayward Fault in California - March 11, 2006
166. Jane Goodall Chimpanzee GeoBlog - March 09, 2006
167. Marine-related Google Earth Files - March 08, 2006
168. New Crater Discovery Using Google Earth? - March 06, 2006
169. Huge Crater Discovered in Saharan Desert - March 05, 2006
170. Avian Flu Preparedness Using Google Earth - February 23, 2006
171. Update on Nature Magazine Google Earth Stories - February 16, 2006
172. Earthquake Monitoring - February 07, 2006
173. More Satellite Environmental Data in Google Earth - January 31, 2006
174. NASA Annual Day Land Temperatures of the Earth - January 30, 2006
175. Global Fire Data in Google Earth - January 26, 2006
176. Arctic and Antarctic Ice Floes in Google Earth - January 25, 2006
177. Environmental Groups Leveraging Google Earth - January 16, 2006
178. Solar Eclipse Paths in Google Earth - January 12, 2006
179. Aurora Viewing Map in Google Earth - January 05, 2006
180. Tracking Birds with Google Earth - November 25, 2005
181. Nature Magazine's Avian Flu Outbreak Map - November 16, 2005
182. Avian Flu Outbreak Map in Google Earth - November 03, 2005
183. Impact Structures (Craters) in Google Earth Continued - October 26, 2005
184. Hidden Logging in Tropical Forests Revealed - October 22, 2005
185. Storm Tracking Tools - Hurricane Wilma - October 19, 2005
186. Meteor Craters on Earth - October 18, 2005
187. The Ants Go Marching One by One - October 01, 2005
188. Asteroid Occultations - September 15, 2005

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