Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


New Imagery Google Earth – 28-February-2009

[UPDATED 4-MAR – Google has finally released the full details on this imagery update. GEB readers found the majority of the locations as shown below. But, one new part of the update not covered was new 3D terrain: Wollongong, Whitsunday Islands, Perth, Hobart, Geelong, Canberra, Cairnes, Adelaide, Honolulu, LA, and Santa Rosa.]
GEB Reader David S. was the first to report new imagery in Google Earth. He reported new imagery in Scotland, China, South Korea, and the US States of South Dakota and Wisconsin. I’ve also noticed strips of new GeoEye imagery in Niger, Mali and other African countries. See below for more details on new imagery found so far (I will update reports of other finds during the next couple of days until Google reports the official details). Many other updates listed below. Thanks to the commenters below for many other finds.
New imagery reported so far:

  • Scotland – Areas between and around Glasgow and Edinburgh have new aerial imagery. Also north of Edinburgh. Thanks to David S. Also, Ayrshire (south of Glasgow) – according to ‘Stephen Mackenzie’. Several other areas reported in the comments.

  • China – As David S. points out, Hainan Island – the location of a nuclear submarine base – has been updated. At least one sub is visible.

  • Africa – Strips of GeoEye across northern Africa. Vertical strips across Mali , Niger and Mauritania have been confirmed so far. Also, Morocco – New strips of DigitalGlobe and GeoEye satellite imagery; Angola – new GeoEye strips. Other strips of satellite imagery around Africa.

  • US – States of Wisconsin and South Dakota.

  • South Korea – Ulsan is now highres. David S. said this now shows the location of one of the world’s largest shipyards.

  • Mongolia – Strips of GeoEye satellite imagery.

  • Iceland Akureyri, Vestmann Islands. Also Iceland has finally gotten
    roadmaps. Thanks to AKB

  • Sweden Helsingborg, Karlstad, Uppsala, Umea,
    Lulea     – just to name a few (according to GEB reader M.F.)

  • France – Isère department, also Haut-Rhin, Haute-Saône, Vendée, Ille-et-Vilaine, Indre-et-Loire. (thanks to ‘mortimer’). Also Pyrenees-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrenees, Isere, Jura, and Haute-Saone according to ‘M.F.’.

  • Norway – Trondheim, Moss – GEB reader Aqwis says the new imagery for Trondheim is higher resolution, but dark and “foggy”.

  • Turkey – Eastern-half of Turkey now has Spot Image medium resolution imagery.

  • Brazil – the North-central (rainforest areas near the Amazon river) of Brazil have new strips of GeoEye satellite imagery. And other areas of Brazil as noted in comments below.

  • Bangladesh – Chittagong – thanks to ‘Saikat’

  • Italy – Brescia (thanks to ‘storaz’).

  • Uruguay – Strips of GeoEye (thanks to ‘Elagus’).

  • Qatar – Doha – Updated DG (thanks to ‘oSDDo’).

  • Canada – Montreal updated to Aug. 2008 (thanks to ‘Sebastien’).

  • England – York (thanks to ‘Tom’) Other areas around England as well as seen in comments.

  • Argentina – Buenos Aires (thanks to Forke)

  • Maldives – The Maldives have new and updated imagery. Islands which went missing in the January bathymetry update for this island chain are back. Thanks to ‘Alsay’ and other commenters.

  • Greenland – Major cities in this country updated. (thanks to ‘Sladys’)

  • Mexico – Another area of medium resolution Spot Image satellite imagery in southwestern Mexico.

Note: Google still has not restored all the islands which disappeared when they added the new bathymetry back in January. Islands like the Isles of Scilly in the UK, Montagu island in the south Atlantic, and many others are still missing. However, the Maldives have islands restored and are even better than before. Another important note: There are reports of lots of new historical imagery added in this update. Probably more new imagery to be found there than all the new imagery visible in the normal mode.

Please report any new imagery you find by leaving a comment here. You can confirm new imagery in Google Earth at the moment by zooming into a suspected area in Google Earth and clicking on the “View in Google Maps” icon at the top center. This will open Google Maps at the same zoom level. Since Google Maps does not yet have the new imagery, you can compare the imagery seen there. If it doesn’t match at the same zoom level, then the imagery is new.
Also, it seems that the Roads layer has been updated to reflect the recent upgrades of road data in Google Maps which included data from the Google Maps Maker project. Specifically, after turning on the Roads layer and zooming in to countries like Bolivia, Dominica, Guam, Philippines, Mauritius, Vietnam – and other countries mentioned in the Google announcement – they now all some of them appear to have detailed road vectors. Maybe Google was waiting for this update before they announced the new roads information would also be available in Google Earth. Also note that the Roads layer information is updated, but I have yet to see the other “Places of Interest” sub-layers to reflect new data (such as Dining, Parks, Places of Worship, etc.)

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.

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

  2. M.F. says

    Many swedish citys got HiRes – Helsingborg, Karlstad, Uppsala, Umea, Lulea – just to name a few.

  6. Aqwis says

    Trondheim, Norway has been updated with a new imagery from April 1, 2008. New imagery is higher-resolution, but very dark and foggy/uncontrasty.

  7. M.F. says

    France – The departments Vendee, Ille-et-Vilaine, Pyrenees-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrenees, Isere, Jura, Haute-Saone, Haut-Rhin.

  18. Dunk says

    A long 50×7 mile strip running to the west of Newcastle, England, down to the West of Durham, England.
    Includes Stamfordham, Prudhoe, Stocksfield, Consett, Wolsingham ,and Barnard Castle.

  20. Dunk says

    Newcastle and Gateshead, England has new imagery dated 23rd July 2008. This extends outwards for around 20 square miles to include the North East Coastline to Blyth in the North, and Seaham in the south.

  24. brian t says

    I’m seeing lots of new imagery in central parts of South Africa, some as recent as Jan 2009 incl. the Durban area, some from earlier but only added to GE now. The little town of Dannhauser (NW Natal), where I lived for years, is much improved over Maps, while the nearby town of Dundee was missed last year.

  31. Eduardo Bilemjian Neto says

    Brasil: not only “the North-central (rainforest areas near the Amazon river)” (as mentioned) have new satellite imagery, but the city of Goiânia, capital of the state of Goias, has new satellite imagery too.

  34. Mike Rivest says

    The New Edmonton and Montreal images came from the new satellite,WorldView-1 it seems sharper, also the date for Montreal is wrong, it is in September, 2008 (look at place des arts and you can see the car-free day festivities and the awful traffic.)

  36. Pete says

    I notice the Scilly Isles off the coast of Cornwall (south west UK) have disappeared completely with the new imagery. If I enable the historical layers it reappears….

  37. Chris says

    SCOTLAND – any extension in the country with the worst GE coverage in the FU is welcome, and the new 2008 imagery of Edinburgh is excellent
    However, some of the new coverage dates from 1999 so is only “new” in the sense that it wasn’t on GE before. Also the vast majority of the country is still at very poor resolution, and half the Orkney Isles are still completely missing after the Ocean updates.l

  40. SpiderX22 says

    And parts of the Suez Canal. Lot’s of random ocean strips too. I’ll post a more complete selection as I update my file relating to those areas.

  41. Alsay says

    the Maldives has got a big update, although high resolution imagery update is only for the capital island Malé, the whole country, apart from high resolution areas, now has low resolution (very low resolution actually)imagery from US geology survey google earth says. and with this update, the islands lost in the last Google Earth update is back. and now the imagery is trimmed nicely around the atolls.

  44. GEfan says

    Brasil: 40km W of the city São Paulo, East of São Roque. Unfortunately ends 400 meters from my vacation home!

  46. Tempest says

    Zimbabwe has been updated too.
    Please seperate African countries like you are doing with the rest of the world. Don’t bundle them under the same bullet.
    I check you blog everyday. Very informative – keep up the good work.
    Tempest.

  50. RJG says

    After a long wait, imagery for a narrow strip of Nepal has been added (although the resolution is not that good). Wish GoogleEarth wouldn’t take so long to cover the rest of Nepal, since it appears that DigitalGlobe does have more imagery covering other parts of this country.

  52. Masonicmoron says

    the historical layers have been updated also
    too many to mention
    best regards
    MM

  53. glynne jones says

    The long-missing strip to the south of Al Fintas in Kuwait has arrived!!!
    I can now see where I lived for most of the 1990s…

  56. fatboyJ says

    Imagery now covers Karlskrona, Sweden.
    New imagery in:
    Athens, Greece
    Genoa, Italy

  57. smokeonit says

    still no update for the Heidelberg, Germany, region, bummer;-(
    the footage in Google Maps. Earth is from 2000… almost 10 years old now…
    and there’s footage much better resolution available, the GIS site run by the city of heidelberg has good footage, but it seems that google and the city of heidelberg have a problem talking to each other to get this footage into GE/GM… i don’t get it…

  60. mantoz says

    Updated imagery:
    Dominican Rep., Samana “El Catey” international airport now in high-res (but seems old imagery, the airport still seems incomplete), together with other sparse tiles in the Dominican Republic.
    Now the country has road info, too!

  61. Damien Richard McBarron says

    I’d like to thank Tom for the heads up about the updated terrain imagery in York. This has led me to update my latest version of York Minster to work with the new imagery. Cheers 🙂

  62. Rene73 says

    Russia: Samara, Ulyanovsk, Sochi, Komsomolsk-on-Amur
    Cyprus: Limassol
    Sweden: Västerås
    Canada: Fredericton

  64. Dan says

    I was pleased to read about the update to Fife (Scotland)but have just noticed that the imagery is seriously out of date. It provides consistent coverage for Fife but it must be at least 6 years old (we got our v.visible trampoline more than 6yr ago!)
    Somewhat confused since the image copyright says Getmapping 2009 and the ‘Show Historical Imagery’ button doesn’t provide any other imagery.

  65. Sladys says

    Not only the major cities in Greenland are updated. Also several small villages (bygder) are updated. An update of interesting places to around 80% now.

  66. smokeonit says

    @ mantoz: thnx for the DR info, it seems google earth has full streets now, santo domingo is now even online with street names!
    but in google maps you can only zoom in to city level, if you want to zoom in further an error message appears, weird…???

  67. smokeonit says

    and the new highway santo domingo – samana is not showing in the street layer!
    that highway is new, but now it must be 2 years in service?

  69. Chris says

    SCOTLAND – old images for new?
    Examination of the history layer suggests that older images have replaced newr images in parts of Scotland. If so this is odd, as Google must still have the licences to be able to include them in history.
    An example is Ayr (SW of Glasgow) where (good) images dated 1999 seem to have replaced a couple of (poorer) but later sets, backed by the evidence from building developments.
    Can this be confirmed by someone in Scotland; is this happening elsewhere; and is there an explanation?

  73. smokeonit says

    frank: what dominca do you mean? there island of dominca has no roads in google earth…
    did you mean the domincan republic? the island is hispaniola…
    Dominica is a tiny island about 500 miles south-east of the Domincan Republic…
    Dominican Republic: 50.000 square kilometers
    Dominca: 750 square kilometers…
    just to put it in perspective…
    State of New Jersey: 23.000 square kilometers…

  74. Frank Taylor says

    @smokeonit: No, I meant the country of Dominica. But, apparently that country did not get the roads update from Mapmaker yet. So, I took it off the list. But, many of the other countries from the LatLong post about Mapmaker have the new Roads in GE.

  75. smokeonit says

    The Dominican Republic did get roads in GE and GM, but as of late GM isn’t fully zoom-able… but in GE it is! The Capitol, Santo Domingo, is fully covered, as are all cities. The only thing missing is the new highway from Santo Domingo to Samana, but that’s forgivable, it’s only a few years old now…
    Maybe whoever told you about Dominica meant the Dominican Republic;_)
    It definitely is worth mentioning;-)

  76. Ernie says

    Google lat-long has posted their answers to the update quiz:
    http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-in-world-is-answers.html
    They mention that Santa Rosa has “new terrain”. If you do a search in GE for “santa rosa”, the only hit is Santa Rosa, California. Go there and check out the freeway overpasses. It’s cool how the roadway draps between the two halves of the overpass’ built up approaches.
    Since this looks like pretty fine granularity on the terrain mapping, I wonder what that “granularity” is? Any idea how or if that can be determined?

  77. Ernie says

    I wonder how it is that Santa Rosa, California has gotten what seems to be special treatment. Some months back, Santa Rosa was listed in an imagery update, and now it’s listed in a terrain update. The result is that you can see great detail – houses and cars are very sharp – and great 3D terrain.
    Did the city of Santa Rosa provide this imagery and terrain data to Google? How can other cities do something like this?
    I look forward to the day when all of GE’s imagery and terrain is as good as that in Santa Rosa.
    I mention Santa Rosa because it seems to be an average city. I know that Las Vegas has had very high resolution imagery and terrain data for some time – San Diego too – but those places are much higher profile cities.

  78. Karl says

    For Greenland it is all towns and settled villages with aerial photos from 2000 – the larger towns for 2006-7. Only small settlements and unhabitated areas are not included.

  79. Carlos Vanegas says

    Medellín, Colombia, has new aerial imagery. It seems to be about eight months old. It covers the entire city and some towns of its metropolitan area.

  80. Tommy Wylie says

    I really hope to see much more of Scotland in the next update, especially Orkney where I live. I can’t understand why so little of Scotland is available in high resolution, especially with 99% of England and Wales in very high quality for over a year.

  82. Magnus says

    What I can see, the new imagery show updates on the following cities in SWEDEN. The new imagery shows up as not necessarily as pure squares, but edited areas covering the centers of the cities.
    Stenungssund
    Uddevalla
    Vänersborg
    Lidköping
    Falköping
    Kristinehamn
    Karlstad
    Sunne
    Säffle
    Göteborg (west of the centre)
    Alingsås
    Kungsbacka
    Varberg
    Falkenberg
    Laholm
    Båstad
    Ängelholm
    Höganäs
    Klippan
    Hässleholm
    Värnamo
    Nässjö
    Eksjö
    Vetlanda
    Alvesta
    Älmhult
    Växjö
    Eslöv
    Lund
    Trelleborg
    Kristianstad
    Karlshamn
    Ronneby
    Karlskrona
    Visby
    Oskarshamn
    Västervik
    Vadstena
    Motala
    Finspång
    Katrineholm
    Eskilstuna
    Arboga
    Köping
    Västerås
    Enköping
    Strängnäs
    Uppsala
    Norrtälje
    Gävle
    Avesta
    Hedemora
    Borlänge
    Falun
    Hudiksvall
    Härnösand
    Östersund
    Lycksele
    Boden
    Arvidsjaur
    Haparanda
    Gällivare
    Kiruna

  83. vishal says

    when will the Indian maps be updated & in particular the Punjab Maps? i am looking the same maps from last 2 years.

  84. Suha Islam says

    I would like to see Saudi Arabia images updated. What is available is already more then 2 years old and it is a very fast developing country with many buildings and roads and villages being established. When can we expect to see an update for Saudi Arabia?

  85. margaret says

    La Paz, B.C.S., is an older version than it used to be, as evidenced by development(disappearance) of Lomas del Centenario. Any explanation?

  86. unweb says

    The region I live in Switzerland was not updated since over 13 years (Riedt near Erlen CH-8586).
    Can I expect an update of my hometown?

  87. Bluefuse says

    Dominica is a small but perfectly formed English speaking commonwealth Island completely unrelated to the Dominican Republic and I wish people would stop confusing the two. There are roads shown for Dominica in Google Earth and Google Maps

  89. nikhil says

    Ariel images for south India (Tamil Nadu) updated. I can see my college now. ^_^
    Eagerly awaiting updates for New Delhi

  90. tony says

    The images of mid Hampshire SO24 are now 8 years old with no updates since Feb 2001. When will up-to-date images be available?

  91. mercy pa says

    Please update the district capital of Mizoram, viz. Aizawl, Lunglei, Saiha, Serchhip, Kolasib, Mamit, Champhai



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.