April 22nd is Earth Day which we traditionally celebrate by looking back at some of the environment related stories of the past year.
We looked at Google Earth Outreach and how they are helping a number of Canadian non-profits with environmental impact monitoring.
We looked at how DigitalGlobe is helping to track damage to tropical forests caused by fire.
We looked at how Street View cars are being used to find minor gas leaks, which are not a direct threat to health, but do contribute to global warming.
We looked at how Google Earth was instrumental in discovering a new chameleon species.
We saw maps of the fluctuations in polar ice caps produced by the US National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
We looked at how scientists are using Google Earth to help protect uncontacted tribes in the Amazon.
Additionally, the past year has seen a growth in satellite imaging, making it easier to monitor the environment. This includes projects like Google’s Skybox for Good program, the availability of Landsat data on Amazon AWS and companies like Planet Labs that are launching fleets of satellites to provide global coverage at higher resolutions than the Landsat imagery.
Google Street View is doing its part by going off-road and allowing us to explore remote places, such as the forest canopy in the Amazon jungle and under the ocean in a steadily increasing number of locations around the globe.
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.