In a bit of a surprise move, rather than allowing us to discover new imagery in Google Earth, Google has pre-announced an imagery update that is due out later this week.
[UPDATE: The imagery is now live in Google Earth. See the bottom of this post for a list of updated areas.]
Part of the update will include some high-quality imagery from Abbottabad, Pakistan, which was captured in May, 2010. They’re offering a preview of that imagery via this KML file.
In addition, the very new GeoEye imagery of Abbottabad that we mentioned yesterday will be available in the historical imagery feature of Google Earth soon. Remember, historical imagery is sometimes newer than the base imagery.
It sounds like it’s quite a major update, and we’ll be sure to let you know when it goes live. Here is the full list of areas that will be getting fresh imagery:
High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA: Brookshire, TX; Brownsville, TX; Dallas, TX; Ft Stockton, TX; Hebbronville, TX; Houston, TX; Laredo, TX; McAllen, TX; Milwaukee, WI; Padre Island, TX; Wharton, TX; Zapata, TX;
Australia: Central Coast, New Castle, and Salamander Bay
Norway: Buskerud, Fredrikstad, and OsloCountries/Regions receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Algeria, Angola, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Gambia, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, West Bank, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
wohoooooo 😀
excited
new imagery arrived allready! i spotted houston and oslo!
KML is also updated. Quite a large update. Although the Netherlands update is a 1 km² section of a German imagery update.
Manhattan Island needs an update! Imagery in New York City is five years old and still counting! Update Soon please
New York City population: 16 million people
^ Not quite. The City of New York has a population of 8.2 million while the New York metropolitan area is over 18 million
If this prior announcement sets the pattern for future updates, instead of early reports of new imagery, GEB readers could help the wider GE using community by picking out poor quality new imagery – too frequent recently – and specifying the problem(s), on the assumption that Google do read this Blog.
^ sounds cool
Why post it here instead of using their own reporting tool?
http://earth.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=21417
It has been there for many years. You can find that page from Google Earth by choosing Help->Help Resources. Then in the list ‘Fix a problem’ you’ll see ‘Data and Imagery’ listed. That will take you to the page I linked above.
The page allows you to report out of date imagery. I strongly suggest using this page to report imagery issues.
Very nice new recent imagery of Houston. Our last update was in August with imagery from January. It’s nice this time around to be able to look at brand new features around here. I guess I am spoiled with yearly Houston updates while some people have to wait several years.
Poland? whole country… please don’t write that bulshit. There is only few places and cities with new images not the whole country…
@ Munden – thanks for the reminder about ‘fix a problem’, which is the right route for specific problems.
But I was thinking mainly about systematic issues – clouds where there were none before, false colour, deep shadows and very dark imagery – as if no one looks before publication. Just one example from the latest update is a new patch in the NW of Ireland so dark that the only fix would be to ditch the lot, and I’m not sure that is what ‘fix a problem’ is about.
When will the new imagery (and new historical imagery along with this update )will appear in Historical Imagery?
It says here that Brazil has received an update. What area/region/city?
Sao Paulo needs desperately a new imagery update! Since the last two years after the last addition, there has been made hundreds of miles of very important new highways and roads (like the Rodoanel Sul), 5 new subway stations and new train lines, new bridges, commercial centers and towers…
In Ireland Slieve League has finally an imagery, but only in historical data.
What is going on with Liechtenstein? The whole country now only has lowres and no historical imagery anymore?
Hasn’t always been like this has it?
What’s up with Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I can see the new image clearly since it’s yellow, more low res, and not natural color. Looks awful. Anyone would agree.
About Santo Domingo, it is high res, but that yellow shade plus high brightness sure is killing it.