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July 2008 Imagery Update for Google Earth

July 12, 2008

I’ve started getting reports of new imagery available in Google Earth today! The update is occurring as I write this because not everyone is seeing the new images yet, but it will probably be fully deployed within a few hours. Here are a few places I’ve confirmed (I will update this list as people tell me about other places – leave comments below please):
[UPDATED 1130, 1143, 1150, 1410, 2220 EDT – Thanks to all the input from GEB readers around the world!]
[UPDATED July 15: Wow, looks like GEB readers got it right. Check out the official details on this imagery update from Google (a pretty close match to our list – actually, ours is a little more informative).]

  • Catalonia/Spain – My story about 3D Roses is a popular story right now, and that’s where people first started reporting the new imagery. The entire Catalonia area has new imagery mostly dated September 2006 by the Institut Cartográfic de Catalunya. Also, Murcia, Zaragoza, Toledo, Granada, Cuenca and Cáceres (see comment below). Also, Valencia. Also: Lleida, Tarragona, Barcelona
  • Portugal – Looks like areas in Portugal have new imagery.
  • Czech Republic – entire country has Spot Image (medium resolution 2.5 meter)
  • Slovakia – entire country with Spot Image
  • Hungary – entire country with Spot Image
  • Croatia – Notheastern part
  • Australia – All of western Australia has Spot Image as well! Also, some new low resolution imagery for the Great Barrier Reef area off North Eastern Australia (see dark colored imagery). Adelaide, Brisbane, Tasmania
  • USA – Looks like all of New Mexico has high resolution now. Credits to NMR GIS dated July 2005.
  • Mexico – Central Mexico has Spot Image imagery
  • Italy – Rome, Naples
  • Venezuela – Maracaibo (Thanks Gerardo!)
  • Germany – center of Munich
  • Canada – Quebec, Southern Ottawa
  • California – Areas around San Francisco, San Diego, Benicia, Solano County, Monterey, Palo Alto, Los Angeles (unconfirmed)
  • England – Bristol, Worcester, Evesham
  • Cote d’lvoire – Bouaké

You can confirm whether the imagery is new by clicking on the “View in Google Maps” icon in GE – the imagery in Google Maps isn’t showing the new data yet. If you find new areas not in my list above, please leave a comment and I’ll update the list.

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.

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Filed Under: Google Earth News, Sightseeing

Reader Interactions






PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

Comments

  1. chasky says

    July 12, 2008 at 11:26 am

    There is also new high-resolution imagery in Murcia, Zaragoza, Toledo, Granada, Cuenca and Cáceres (Spain)

  2. chasky says

    July 12, 2008 at 11:33 am

    More things: most imagery for Catalonia is not new, it has just been re-coloured. However, imagery for Lleida, Tarragona, Barcelona and some Catalan coastline is in fact new and hi-res

  3. Iñigo says

    July 12, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Rome and Napoli has been updated too

  4. Roy says

    July 12, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    Greater San Diego and areas around San Fransisco, but not the city itself
    Just a report on what I found 😉

  5. Iñigo says

    July 12, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    Australia: Adelaide and Brisbane 🙂
    Canada: Quebec

  6. Dawid H. says

    July 12, 2008 at 12:42 pm

    Those Spot Images also covered the area in southern Poland where I live 😀 I mean many counties in southern Silesian voivodeship, in the middle of Katowice – Kraków – Ostrava triangle, quite densely populated.

  7. Rafski says

    July 12, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    Looks like some of the border areas of Poland have also been updated.

  8. Schmidti says

    July 12, 2008 at 1:42 pm

    Germany: center of Munich

  9. Schmidti says

    July 12, 2008 at 1:42 pm

    center of Munich

  10. Rene73 says

    July 12, 2008 at 1:44 pm

    – Benicia, CA. (stealth ship Sea Shadow 38° 4’9.96″N 122° 6’4.61″W)
    – Solano County, CA. (Boeing E-6 “Mercury” at Travis AFB 38°15’34.12″N 121°55’25.34″W)

  11. Joe Rees says

    July 12, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    Bristol, (England) has been updated! 🙂

  12. Justin says

    July 12, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    It appears the sattelite image of southern Ottawa (Canada) has been re-colored. It is the exact same image but it looks like it was taken at a different time of the day.
    I wonder why Google would change the color of a sattelite image instead of update it: In google maps it is a dark green/blue color, where as in Earth it is now a bright pinkish tint.
    Odd.

  13. brch says

    July 12, 2008 at 4:24 pm

    CROATIA – northeastern part

  14. none says

    July 12, 2008 at 5:27 pm

    1 new tile for Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire (West Africa)

  15. Ernst M. Kofler says

    July 12, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    Austria: Spot image near Czech Republik, Slovakia and Hungary. Quite a big area in Lower Austria and in Styria.

  16. smokeonit says

    July 12, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    monterey , CA

  17. smokeonit says

    July 12, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    palo alto, CA

  18. smokeonit says

    July 12, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    los angeles, CA

  19. Different says

    July 13, 2008 at 4:18 am

    A part of Croatia has also been updated (Drvenik, Podaca, Gradac, Ravca, Trpanj, Oskorusno, Donja Vrucica etc.)

  20. Luke W says

    July 13, 2008 at 7:07 am

    I never expect much from Google. As far as I can see, there has been no update for Victoria, Australia. It is still good to see new SPOT imagery added, especially to the Northern Territory (having a bright yellow spot in the middle of Australia was the first thing I noticed when i started up GE). Good to see Adelaide and Brisbane also receive high resolution imagery. Adelaide’s is less than 5 months old! and the surrounding area standard resolution is only 6 months old! 5 capitals down, Perth, Hobart and Canberra to go.

  21. Ezra says

    July 13, 2008 at 11:09 am

    great stuff!
    BTW, we made pretty much all the Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese high-res stuff for G.
    G also has the entire Netherlands and some Belgian data from us.
    More to come 😉
    Cheers,
    Ezra
    http://www.aerodata-surveys.com

  22. Somebody902 says

    July 13, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Western Romania has also been updated quite a bit…and the images are fairly recent because you can see the construction site from the Transylvania Motorway

  23. chris says

    July 13, 2008 at 4:11 pm

    In the UK it is good to see at least two more areas with excellent coverage flown in April 2007, when conditions for photohaphy were exceptional – you can spot the extensive new rectangle between Malvern and Stratford on Avon, including the city of Worcester, by the yellow of the many fields of flowering oilseed rape.
    But not for the first time on this blog – why nothing in Scotland, not even any decent new coverage, let alone updates?
    With about 5% good high resolution plus 5% poorer, the rest only basic, and a good part of that under cloud, Scotland is bottom of the GE European league along with Norway.

  24. Joseolgon says

    July 13, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    Braga in Portugal as a brand new imagery. The date is June 26, 2007. Before the imagery was from 21 March 2004.

  25. Joseolgon says

    July 13, 2008 at 4:19 pm

    There is a small problem with the new imagery: The 3D buildings, panoramio dots and wikipedia (I think Everything) are not in place, but some meters to west.
    This in Braga, Portugal, Do you know about the other places?

  26. Splat says

    July 13, 2008 at 5:17 pm

    Austin and Travis County, TX are sadly still outdated (March 2003). Nearby San Marcos is even older (Feb. 2002), but what really disappoints me is that the label for Austin Bergstrom International Airport is *STILL* incorrectly pointing to the long-defunct Robert Mueller Airport. Even using the March 2003 date for the imagery, Robert Mueller Airport had been closed for nearly 5 years. Oh, well; I only have the free version so I shouldn’t complain too much. Otherwise, I’m very pleased with GE.

  27. smokeonit says

    July 13, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    that footage was updated shortly before the football euro cup 2008, austria, tirol.
    footage is supplied by the state run GIS office, if you check innsbruck, austria, the info shows “Geoimage Austria” as the source and copyright holder, i think it’s the whole state of tirol that was updated, at least where that state office has shot aerial footage. date of the footage is 2006/2007.
    there’s a new funicular station in innsbruck, called hungerbahn, and the new tracks are not on the new footage. on the old footage construction for that funicular was included, now it’s gone… but overall it’s better to have the new high resolution aerial footage!
    probably all the cities in austria have gotten that treatment where there’s aerial coverage by Geoimage Austria…!!!
    since it’s very high resolution data austria is now one of the high rez countries;-)

  28. Kevin says

    July 14, 2008 at 7:37 am

    “Scotland is bottom of the GE European league along with Norway.” Add Ireland to that too!

  29. pystl says

    July 14, 2008 at 8:41 am

    The border between eastern United States and Québec has been corrected with the true coordinates from the International Boundary Commission (http://www.internationalboundarycommission.org).

  30. Ronald Money says

    July 14, 2008 at 10:04 am

    What is happening to ‘my’ Google Earth? After about 30 seconds, the whole earth turns blue! All the movements are a series of jerks and jumps. NOTHING is working right. Anyone have any solutions? This all started with the new 4.3 version.

  31. Marc B. says

    July 14, 2008 at 11:26 am

    One important thing:
    Kosovo borders are now displayed as first level (independent country) borders. Yellow in general zoom, orange/red (disputed area) in closed zoom.

  32. Alex Jilitsky says

    July 14, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    Google Lat Long blog published the usual quiz today.
    Most (8/9) answers are here:
    http://delpieroge.blogspot.com/2008/07/120708-imagery-update-confirmed.html

  33. John M says

    July 15, 2008 at 1:25 am

    Reply to Ronald Money: “What is happening to ‘my’ Google Earth?”
    Uncheck feature under Layers>Gallery>NASA>Earth City Lights. This option seems to flood out most other details in self-preference, though it is an interesting display at a more global view.

  34. jared says

    July 15, 2008 at 10:09 am

    Parts of Zanzibar were updated 🙂

  35. Andrzej says

    July 15, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Is it possible to update the Budapest Airport (Hungary) area? I live in the neighboring city of the Budapest Ferihegy International Airport (Vecsés, which is 2-3 kms from the Airport) and the satelite image is at least 5 years old. There were plenty developments, huge constructions even major roads have been changed, but the image remains very old. Unfortunately the announced upgrade in Hungarian images is not comprehensive.

  36. rick s says

    July 15, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    Where can we find the date of the latest sat image?

  37. csabax says

    July 16, 2008 at 4:27 am

    Baja Hungary 🙂

  38. Chris, Dublin says

    July 16, 2008 at 10:48 am

    “add Ireland to that list”
    BIG TIME
    Still no updates for us, theres scattered parts of sat imagery in farm lands, dublin one of the richest capitals in europe stops just outside lucan, the M50 roundabout at the palmerstown exit is nearly 3 years old cause the old roundabout is still there, its not like were a huge country, theres full states in america done and we have nothing,
    with technology these days, it must be really hard to take a few pics of the whole country, oh and don’t blame our weather!
    mite check back in a few months to see if were updated, for now il stick to VE since i can even see my house in birds eye, yet nothing in google earth

  39. smokeonit says

    July 17, 2008 at 10:31 am

    you guys complain about old or low rez footage?
    heidelberg, germany, (my hometown) footage is 8 years old! try to beat that!!!

  40. smokeonit says

    July 17, 2008 at 10:34 am

    Ezra: please do a flyover over heidelberg, germany! i would be very thankful;-)

  41. chris says

    July 17, 2008 at 4:23 pm

    “I’ll stick to VE [for Dublin and Ireland]”
    Not sure that VE offers any significant improvement in coverage and updates in Ireland, as in Scotland.
    It would be really interesting to have some informed advice on what is holding up improvement in these two countries. It may be the prevalence of cloud, as the patches of hig res are often photographed in poor conditions – Dublin in VE has very long shadows – grabbing just about any clear weather.

  42. Leah says

    July 17, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    Is Oklahoma out of the question as far as having descent imagery is concerned?

  43. Doug says

    July 17, 2008 at 7:49 pm

    When the HELL is someone going to update Metro Vancouver?!!! The images are at least 4 years old. Come on people! There were more recent layers back in Dec 07.
    VANCOUVER IS AN OLYMPIC CITY AND MANY CHANGES ARE OCCURING THERE THERE.
    DOES SOMEONE HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST CANADIANS?

  44. terry says

    July 18, 2008 at 7:53 pm

    I was very happy with google earth until an update several months ago. Now Google earth is so pathetically slow I will delete it unless you have suggestions how i can speed it up.

  45. cristi says

    July 22, 2008 at 9:24 am

    please,update satelite images for bucharest and if you can please at a higther resolution:D

  46. Ken Sharps says

    August 3, 2008 at 8:41 pm

    I look up info for NC and Fl, but the data is well past 6 years old. The unimproved streets shown on the map I looked at today are now paved with house build? Also, can I get a live version of Google Earth? Watch traffic movie etc? Like some of the viewcams that update every 30 seconds or so? Is this available?

  47. Bryan says

    August 3, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    Hebei and Beijing provinces in China including the Great Wall of China

  48. Lanny Morris says

    August 7, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Looking for updates in Aiken,S.C.and how do I update it

  49. Billy says

    August 17, 2008 at 10:35 am

    Sure would be nice to get some updates around pensacola florida

  50. sfumato6 says

    September 6, 2008 at 7:48 pm

    I’m actually seeing some gross degradation of quality specifically around my area of massachusetts, USA. When I compare the old (google maps) to the new (google earth) it’s shocking how poor the new images look. No detail, contrast all blown out. What the heck happened? I was just starting to get into geocaching and using the decent quality pics my area afforded. This is useless now.

  51. Nico Pieters says

    November 4, 2008 at 8:28 am

    This is the MOST fascinated program i have ever
    worked with. I am amazed about your technology.

  52. Rob says

    November 21, 2008 at 3:19 am

    Mary Esther Florida and fromwhat i can tell every thing else in the U.S is dated 2005

  53. Iqbal Zaidi says

    November 21, 2008 at 11:39 am

    I m a big fan of goggle earth and visit it frequantly but i have found that so many areas are not upgraded since a long time like i visited Murre, Punjab pakistan it is very old and so many new develpments in that area is not in goggle earth will u kindly upgrade that area?

  54. Kimberly says

    November 21, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    I have the updated version of Google Earth but,
    go to certain places in other states were I used to live and,am getting old Images from as far back as June 2004. Could this be updated for us?
    I appreciate it.
    Thanks,
    Kimberly Curnutt

  55. Kenneth Anderson says

    December 1, 2008 at 1:29 pm

    When & How does one get up-dates to Google Earth?

  56. deepak grawal says

    May 15, 2009 at 5:05 am

    please give the picture of country INDIA of year 2009

  57. Shirish says

    May 29, 2009 at 3:12 am

    Myself based at Aurangabad (M.S.) India, when the map will be updated as on date i can see the imag dated Mar 26, 2007 it is too old.

  58. Danie says

    June 8, 2009 at 9:02 am

    South Africa and Hampshire, London UK

  59. Lin Olen says

    December 19, 2009 at 4:44 am

    Hi there,
    Much of the east coast of Australia, especially new south wales, is very old and low definition. Some highway improvements made ten years ago not yet shown. Dissapointed.
    Cheers, Lin.

  60. Shan - Adelaide says

    October 24, 2010 at 11:27 pm

    Been great for us, the high res of Adelaide



PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

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