[EDIT: 20-April-2006 20:10]
As mentioned last night, Google has updated their databases. See the details they announced last night here. There are a number of details not fully itemized in the list. This blog entry will be updated as new items are found by the community. If you find data updates not on this list (or the one announced by Google) please leave a comment here, or leave me a message.
NOTE: The planes in flight database is a good way to determine whether data has been updated. When planes are not in the location placemarked it most likely means that photo was updated. ‘Cyclonic’ maintains that database at the GEC.
The list of other areas with new high resolution satellite or aerial photography:
- Areas around Stonehenge, including Boscombe Down Airport – Found by ‘Cyclonic’
- Boston, MA, USA – Found by ‘Cyclonic’
- Lots of areas in Spain updated – Found by ‘Cyclonic’
- New AeroData photos in Netherlands have “speckled” data for military sites. I saw this at airport near Assen last night, someone else saw a place in The Hague (52.0785,4.316) [Michael]. Previous data had these sites in the clear.
- Placenames in Netherlands reportedly a bit buggy (see comment by ‘Michael’ )
- Errors reported by Marc B. in photo placement for areas in Spain.
- New “unofficial” or “temprorary” colored borders for Gaza strip, moroccan border, Kashmir zones, etc. – See comment from ‘draner’.
- County lines are now seen as green lines when “Borders” layer is on and visiting USA. And the county names even appear at certain zoom-levels/altitudes.
- Many areas in Eastern Europe also updated. According to ‘Szabolcs’ in his comment, many more areas in Romania have been added, although big cities are still in low-res.
- Significant updates to Belgium according to belgeoblog (in dutch, includes placemarks to new locations)
- Reykjavik, Iceland is in hi-res now according to ‘mucbarney’ in the comments.
- Areas in Bulgaria and Greece added in high resolution. See comment from Stefan.
Here are my observations on the data updates:
- The GE Community Layer has been updated to refine the way the thousands of placemarks appear while viewing in GE. One change is that the labels don’t show up until you get closer. This helps reduce the clutter some.
- The new place names under the “Populated Places” layer seem a bit more refined than the earlier data. You can select what level of population you prefer in the folder. The new “Alternate Place Names” in alternative languages help fix the problem where names that are common in one country’s language are provided in parentheses as well for the language you select. Also, there are many islands around the world now named which were not named before. And finally, the new borders data makes it a lot easier to find islands – especially in the Pacific. Just turn on “Borders” layer and you’ll see what I mean.
- New York’s GIS organization has provided hi-res photos to Google Earth for several counties that is in this update. Unfortunately, Bergen, Norway’s data didn’t make it in this data move.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
Unfortunately, the ‘improvements’ have resulted in far worse coverage for my area – Cornwall, England.
Many high resolution areas have been added for Eastern Europe, some of them are winter images.
Until yesterday only Arad and Timisoara (Temesvar) had high-res imagery in Romania, now many more regions have been added, however, most of the bigger cities are still in low-res.
Hi! Portugal had some areas updated too. “coimbra”,”Leiria”,”Faro”,etc were cities updated last night.
Isle of Elba, Toscana, Italy
is now nearly completly in High Res
See my summer holliday house at 42
The UK has seen some minor improvements over towards the Yorkshire Dales but Cornwall appears to be under heavy snow at the moment!
Nice to see the updates coming though
South East of Spain had some areas updated (Lorca, Cartagena, Almer
The aerea of Reykjavik, Iceland is in hi-res now
Not sure if it’s from this update or the previous one, but in Switzerland there are new hires images for Geneva, Lausanne and a patch in the central alps.
see http://www.googleearthhacks.com/dlfile17154
Bulgaria is now in high resolution – lots of it! Thank you Google Earth!
Greece, too. See the Cyclades – Tinos island, Mykonos, Syros, Andros… and the city of Patrai in western Greece. Well done!
If only my city of Lom, Bulgaria 43.8265N,23.2317E was in hi res I wouldn’t want anything else. Still, good job
There are plenty of new hi-res areas in Finland, including the cities of Savonlinna and Jyv
I notice they have updated the Chernobyl area as well. At least, it was not this high res a week or so ago…
51 23’18.58N
30 07’34.96E
Thanks to you I have located a major archaelogical site in County Wicklow containing bronze age barrows and hut sites with field boundaries etc and possibly a ruined passage tomb.
Fieldwalking on the ground has located 2 types of quern which clinches the dating. Keep up the good work and please add more sattelite photos when you can.
Please would you like to set LIER-ANTWERPEN in belguim in a high resolution
Thnx for the rest
I love Google Earth!!! I can see my house in Canada, I moved to Cyprus in 2004 but I could not see my house there I came into high resolution in the 8th of June, I can see many cities in Cyprus now, but I live in the capital, Nicosia, and it is still not in high resolution, i hope the next updates come with a surprise!!
Google Earth is great! But i am sad because Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki(Salonika) is in quite low resolution as well as the whole region of Macedonia! Let’s hope that any next update will bring better images of northern Greece!
Please clear the map of Allahabad, India. It has been left in the main city area.
The Civil Lines area of Allahabad, India which is the main region of the city is not visible.
Anyone know when the last time the satellite Passed over Springfield MA, USA. I am Looking for the date the Pictures where taken. They look over 5 or 10 years old.
Well this is really excellent experience to see your home town on the map through google earth. But unfortunately the images are not update (even clear to see my home town and home, located in pakistan Toba Take Singh vicinity and Faisalabad).
Isn’t it possible to update the images on regular basis?
Kindly augment the images related to the city Allahabad, India….and if its not possible then kindly state the reason..
Well, the resoliution on my hometown is very bad. Dobrich ( In Bulgaria) Can someone fix this. Please mail me!
Name: Velizar Todorov E-mail:helitoo@abv.bg
I’d be very happy if I could see my town in high resolution. It’s Mocambo-PE, Brazil and Itapetim-PE, Brazil.It’s extremely important to me to see this area refined as others.
Thanks
Ronaldo Oliveira
Brazil
Hello,
I need help concerning satellite photos of my grandparents’ little village in South Greece. I found the photos on google earth, but I don’t know when the last update was.
Can you please help me regarding how old these photos are? Does anyone know . It’s on the Peloponnese, South Greece. the co-ordinates are: 37’15’50.15″N and 22’41’07.92″E.
Many thanks, georgia
I want to locate my village in google earth permanently, so that it can be viewed by every one so please let me know procedure to be followed to place mark permanently
LOKESHA