3D Models

Explore Mars in Google Earth

October 2, 2015

This has been a big week for Mars with the new NASA discovery of flowing water on the red planet, and the release of a blockbuster movie “The Martian” based on the New York Times best seller of the same name by Andy Weir and starring Matt Damon. An excellent book by the way! So, this is a good time to remind everyone that Google Earth also can portray Mars just like it does for the Earth. Mars in Google Earth has a fantastic archive of data from NASA (and other sources) from orbital imaging platforms, and Mars landers including 3D terrain, global imagery, high resolution orbital imagery, lander photos, and even lander 360 panoramas. The lander locations and tracks can be viewed, as well as their last known positions. Most of the data is current showing even the latest position of Curiosity and Opportunity. Mars for Google Earth only works in the desktop application (not on Google Earth for mobile).

To get started, you simply look for the little planet icon at the top center of Google Earth and click on it for a list of options including Mars (you’ll see there are also versions for Sky and Moon). Click on Mars, and the Earth globe will turn into Mars. Mars was released in February 2009 (see original Mars review).

See below for my original video review of what Mars for Google Earth is really like:

You can spend hours exploring Mars and the layers Google created to explore the data from the various landers and orbiters. I especially enjoy the panoramas by Opportunity and Curiosity. An important tip if you want to explore the panoramas is that you might need to expand the time slider selectors that appear in the upper left so they show the full time span. Otherwise the panoramas may load up invisible until you find the time when it was taken.

And here’s a cool trick even long-time users of Google Earth might not have discovered. Fans know that Google Earth has a built-in flight simulator (read more), well you can also use the flight simulator on Mars! Kind a fun to fly around the crater at the top of Mons Olympus, or through the huge canyon of Valleris Maneris. Just look for the menu choice “View->Flight Simulator”. I recommend the F-16 for faster flying. You’ll need to learn the flight simulator a bit to fly well. Here’s a view of flying on Mars.

I’m planning to see the movie this weekend. Can’t wait to see it!

Google Rolling out 3D at an Extraordinary Rate

May 12, 2015

As we mentioned in our month-end post, over the last couple of months, Google has stepped up the rate at which they are releasing 3D imagery.

Most notably in the last week Google has added areas in three new countries: South Africa, Kosovo and Montenegro. The imagery in the three new countries appears to have been captured in the second half of 2014.

As usual, you can see the extent of Goolge’s 3D coverage with our KML file and let us know about new areas in the comments of this post. Keep in mind that it can take us several days to add new finds to the KML. As always, a big thank you to Anton Rudolfsson for tracing the areas for the KML, and to all the GEB readers who find new areas.

Although Google has removed its 3D Imagery map from the Google Maps Gallery, the map still exists and Google has updated it with the latest additions. You can use this KML file to view it in Google Earth.

Google pays special attention to bridge models, such as this interesting design in Podgorica, Montenegro.

Some unusually colourful buildings at a sewage plant in Gottingen, Germany.

For the above locations, and a couple of other places of interest in the new imagery, download this KML file.

The flag on Devil’s Peak

March 12, 2015

While looking around Cape Town, South Africa in Google Earth recently, we noticed a 3D model of a large South African flag on Devil’s Peak. It is the old type of 3D model from the Sketchup 3D warehouse. It looks like Google’s quality checks missed it when it got added. There is actually no flag at that location, or at least not of that size. We measured it using Google Earth Pro’s measuring tools at approximately 123m tall. Although flags have been temporarily erected by hikers at that location in the past, as can be seen in the last image in this blog post, there is no permanent flag there. Also of interest is that the model was uploaded to the 3D warehouse on September 28th, 2013, just a few days before Google stopped accepting models from the 3D warehouse.

The flag on Devil’s Peak, Cape Town.

This is not the first 3D model to have incorrectly got into Google’s 3D buildings layer. Back in 2009, for example, a model of the Burj Dubai (later renamed the Burj Khalifa) was incorrectly placed in Melbourne, Australia. There are a few other models that do not reflect reality, but can be considered Easter Eggs rather than mistakes. These include the Blues Brothers Bridge Jump and the Tardis. The Tardis even includes Street View inside it, although it doesn’t seem to be possible to view it using Google Earth. Both these locations now have Google’s new 3D mesh, but if you switch to historical imagery, they can still be seen.

The Blues Brothers Bridge Jump

To find these locations in Google Earth download this KML file.

3D Fireworks in Google Earth

December 31, 2014

By the time you read this, it will already be 2015 in the Line Islands of Kiribati, as it is the first location on Earth to celebrate the new year. It is an interesting fact about the peculiarities of the dateline, that London, Kiribati (GMT+14), will celebrate its New Year before Alofi, Niue (GMT-11), begins its New Year’s Eve. For more on the oddities of the world’s time zones, see this YouTube video on the subject.

Here at GEB we have been celebrating the new year with virtual fireworks since January 2011, when Steven Ho, whose work we have featured a number of times, created an animation of the 2011 Taipei 101 fireworks as a Google Earth tour.

View it in Google Earth by downloading this KML file.

Santa’s village on Google Earth

December 25, 2014

We have in the past shared our holiday greeting card in the form of a KML file you can download and view in Google Earth.

This year, for Christmas, we have taken inspiration from our Halloween Pumpkin Earth decoration, originally created by Frank back in 2006. With additional inspiration from the Google Santa tracker, we created a model of Santa’s village to decorate Google Earth.

To view it in Google Earth download this KMZ file.

Village and Santa’s sleigh model design by my nephew Sipho Mateke
Santa model by David James.