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May 2009 Imagery Update for Google Earth

May 9, 2009

[UPDATE 14-May: Google released more details on this update.]
Last night Google pushed out an imagery update. The previous update was Easter weekend. First GEB reader to report was ‘AKB’ followed quickly by ‘Rafael S.’. Below are the reported locations so far of new imagery. I’m sure there are many more places yet to find. If you see what you think is new imagery, use the “View in Google Maps” option in Google Earth and compare the imagery. The update has not yet been pushed to Google Maps so you can make comparisons. Leave a comment below if you find a new location. Thanks!
Here’s the current list [UPDATED 1345 ET]:

  • Scotland – Large percentage covered now. Thanks AKB, Munden

  • Brazil – Porto Alegre. Thanks Rafael S.

  • USA – State College, Pennsylvania; Watauga Lake, TN; Savoy and Champagne-Urbana, IL; Newport News and Norfolk, VA; – Thanks Munden. Easter Washington – Palouse, WA; – Thanks David Zuhn. Parts of South Dakota including Hill City; Thanks Munden.

  • England – Southwest part. Thanks Munden. Isles of Scilly and the Orkney Isles are back. Also, I’ve found several areas all over England with updated imagery.

  • Norway – Oslo. Thanks Munden

  • Spain – Rota and Cadiz. Thanks Munden

  • France – A “lot” of areas including départements: Yonne,
    Rhône, Saône et Loire, Haute Savoie, Aube…; – Thanks Romain.

  • French Guyana – Kourou Space Center now high resolution; – Thanks Munden

  • Martinique – Entire island high res now. Thanks Steven

  • Paraguay – Areas of western Paraguay now have medium resolution Spot Image imagery.

  • India – Southern tip of India now has medium resolution Spot Image imagery.

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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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. twist3r says

    May 9, 2009 at 11:10 am

    I’m not sure why but I can’t see any of the above locations with newer images. They are the same as in Google Maps.

  2. david zuhn says

    May 9, 2009 at 11:16 am

    Parts of eastern Washington state have better imagery, in particular Palouse, WA.

  3. Romain says

    May 9, 2009 at 11:41 am

    Hello,
    I notice a lot of imagery update in France. Some départements (Yonne, Rhône, Saône et Loire, Haute Savoie, Aube…)

  4. Munden says

    May 9, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    The coast of French Guinea has also been updated. One excellent result of this is that the entire Kourou Space Center is now in high resolution.

  5. Steven says

    May 9, 2009 at 12:25 pm

    Martinique also has new imagery.

  6. Tom says

    May 9, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    100% coverage of Scotland is a bit exaggerated. The whole northern half is only low res.

  7. Munden says

    May 9, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    Parts of South Dakota have been updated. Some of the older satellite imagery has been replaced with newer images from .. the USDA Farm Service Agency apparently. The area that caught my eye to point this out was Hill City, SD where the 1880 Steam Train is located.

  8. Jimmy says

    May 9, 2009 at 2:31 pm

    The San Bernardino area in Southern California has updated imagery.

  9. Karl says

    May 9, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    An hour ago, I saw the new imagery. Now there’s only the old imagery. I deleted the cache, but no difference. Strange!

  10. Matt says

    May 9, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    After a quick look, it appears that Michigan has been filled in completely, probably from the state’s DOQ database.

  11. Chris says

    May 9, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    SCOTLAND – great to see about 80% civerage in high res, with terrain in places like the Cuillins of Skye, and even the remote island of St Kilda covered. At last most of the clouds have cleared!
    Incidently, the Orkneys, where more of the islands ate in high res, are part of Scotland.
    ENGLAD – may be Maps are catching up, but so far I have only confirmed updates to the western part of East Sussex and Cornwall, with the wonderful Isles of Scilly at high res for the forst time. Any other identified areas of new coverage?

  12. Roy says

    May 9, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    Large portions of Nevada, Oregon and Texas. Possibly Spot Images.

  13. Roy says

    May 9, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    Minnesota and Michigan were also updated.

  14. arash says

    May 9, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    why Iran is not ??? why ?!!!! every month we hope to see Iran in high resolution but we are sorry .. why ??

  15. Bill Clark says

    May 9, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    Shrivenham, UK

  16. pitcard says

    May 9, 2009 at 9:22 pm

    North Korea imagery appears to be updated – zoomed into Pyongyang and its labeled copyright 2009.
    On Iran mentioned above – my best guess is that they cant get hi-res for civilian use due to the political situation. Hi-res probably exists but is being reserved for military analysis.

  17. Watauga Native says

    May 9, 2009 at 11:29 pm

    Watauga Lake looks spiffy.

  18. Brent says

    May 10, 2009 at 1:23 am

    It looks like fairly large sections of Oregon (and Washington) got updates too. The Columbia River Gorge (east of Corbett, OR) is now in higher resolution. Before it was just large green blobs, now you can almost count trees. Central Oregon area around Three Sisters and Mt. Bachelor is also now in higher res. The area surrounding Mt. Rainier got updated too. I’ve only spent a few minutes looking around Oregon (and Wash.) but I bet there’s a lot more I haven’t noticed.

  19. Dayton says

    May 10, 2009 at 4:39 am

    Eastern Shore of Virginia is updated, high res too.

  20. Jonas says

    May 10, 2009 at 4:52 am

    I hope Belgium will get updated soon, because 70-80ù of the country is still low res.

  21. Fromage. says

    May 10, 2009 at 6:53 am

    Over France, the yesterday new imagery is gone…
    Did you notice the same in other places ?
    Strange.

  22. Edi says

    May 10, 2009 at 7:28 am

    I don’t see any updates. Strange! Scotland, for example, is not updated at all. Also the images of Porto Alegre in Brazil are of 2005, not 2009. What’s wrong?

  23. twist3r says

    May 10, 2009 at 8:04 am

    Is there to figure why I don’t see any of new imagery ? I use the latest Google Earth (5.0.11733.9347) and this kind of problem never occured before. None of the places mentioned in your list has newer imagery in my Google Earth.

  24. Munden says

    May 10, 2009 at 10:26 am

    Trieste, Italy got an update too.

  25. fromage. says

    May 10, 2009 at 1:14 pm

    Imagery’s back again…

  26. Tom says

    May 10, 2009 at 2:23 pm

    Seems this update didn’t get pushed out to all users at the same time. I now can see Scotland almost fully in high res and I had my cache cleared yesterday.

  27. Thomas says

    May 10, 2009 at 7:04 pm

    Hello, others french départements updated like Cantal, Charente, Charente-Maritime, Haute-Vienne, Sarthe, Vienne, Vosges …

  28. Thomas says

    May 10, 2009 at 7:30 pm

    Other départements of France : Aveyron, Calvados, Haute-Normandie …

  29. Nicholas says

    May 10, 2009 at 8:39 pm

    FINALLY we have Porto Alegre in high resolution. Thank you Google Earth. :~ Make Gramado and São Miguel das Missões and I’ll ask no more.
    …well, I’ll ask. What about the Rio Grande do Sul state full in high definition?

  30. twist3r says

    May 11, 2009 at 2:49 am

    I’m not sure if this is because of the new Google Earth verios or something else. Yesterday I was able to see the new imagery. But today, all came back and I see the old imagery again. Something is wrong with Google Earth. I see another poster (Karl) had the same problem.

  31. Ilia says

    May 11, 2009 at 8:22 am

    Switzerland – Locarno – images from 6 may 2008 !!!

  32. Ken Grabach says

    May 11, 2009 at 9:44 am

    I have understood that new imagery was supposed to be used for Buter County, Ohio. Some areas have good resolution, but other parts, including east portion of Oxford Township, are still at very low resolution, imagery that was used before changing to version 5.

  33. Eloi Raiol says

    May 11, 2009 at 10:00 am

    I would very much like that in Bethlehem, BR was in high resolution (the images
    are present behind the historic images) so that I can do
    better 3D models.
    Thank you very much.
    Eloi Raiol

  34. Erik says

    May 11, 2009 at 6:18 pm

    Hamilton, New Zealand got some really high quality images.

  35. Glendon Tatu says

    May 11, 2009 at 7:46 pm

    Contra Costa County, CA has new 3D terrain

  36. Ted says

    May 11, 2009 at 8:37 pm

    Orkney islands finally have major coverage, but Kirkwall and much of the main island still has the old imagery

  37. Valentin says

    May 12, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    New imagery for Mayotte.

  38. Merijn says

    May 12, 2009 at 11:11 pm

    Vancouver, Canada has also been updated (Olympic Speed Skating Venue is now vissible)

  39. Kevin says

    May 13, 2009 at 10:48 am

    I believe upstate New York (Addirondacks) also has some new high-res imagery dated 2006. Lake Pleasant area, Hamilton County.

  40. Innes Ross says

    May 14, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    RE: Scottish coverage. Noticed that Elgin & Forres, both in Moray are now in LOWER resolution and images are from 2004. Previously the higher resolution images were from Feb 2007. Strangely parts of the Feb 2007 images in that are still shown.

  41. Come on says

    May 19, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    Update South Florida. Come onnn. Nobody is going to look at farms in Dakota.

  42. Indianink says

    May 20, 2009 at 2:35 am

    Are you sure they have updated the image resolutions for south india? because i am not seeing any difference in my google earth….the images are not updated for chennai, india…

  43. Phil Emerson says

    May 20, 2009 at 4:04 pm

    I am interested in the home town of my wife which is Butuan City Philippines. The same image has been there for a long time. Wondering when or if there are plans to change it?
    Thanks,



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