Google Earth Tips

Ten Years of Amazing Google Earth Visualizations

June 29, 2015

Google Earth was first released on June 28, 2005. Now, in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Google Earth’s release, we would like to share just a few examples of the best user applications of Google Earth over the years. As any regular reader of this blog can tell you, Google Earth is a fantastic way to share content and tell stories about the Earth (and other planets and places). The desktop versions of Google Earth (GE) include a lot of features for annotating the map including basic placemarks, GPS tracks, image overlays (for maps, weather satellite photos and more), photo placemarks, time animations, 3D models, and much more. After over a billion downloads of Google Earth, millions of people have shared a vast array of content, and continue to do so after 10 years of the world’s most accurate 3D globe. Google also added many powerful features to GE over the years to allow people to create applications via their browser-based plugin and API, time animations, and even a scripting tour mode inside Google Earth.

Millions of people have found all kinds of strange and interesting sights when viewing Google Earth imagery. A few examples include: marriage proposals on roofs, heart-shaped lakes, guitar-shaped pools, African animals, bizarre hidden military objects, and many more. Thousands of people have found planes in flight and there’s a huge collection curated by the Google Earth Community.

Google Earth is a great way to tell stories in a geo-spatial context. Want to read about the harrowing tale, and see the locations, of explorers in the early 1900s whose ship was trapped in ice in Antarctica and the successful rescue by their daring captain who managed to get help from thousands of miles away? Want to see and hear the places and stories from a famous book called “Sailing Alone Around the World” by Joshua Slocum?

Did you know Google Earth has a built-in flight simulator? Very few people realize just how fluid you can move inside the program. You can fly while looking at the world’s most complete and current model of the Earth. In fact, back in 2007 when I produced a cool demonstration of the first detailed terrain model of the Swiss Alps, by mimicing a video of a Swiss Figher Jet through the mountains, it impressed Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt (now Chairman) so much that Google decided to produce the flight simulator mode. An even better way to fly in Google Earth is with a 3D mouse called SpaceNavigator which gives you the ultimate control.

The time animation feature, which Google added a year after it was first released, empowered all sorts of dynamic content and data visualizations. For example, one guy produced an animation of the clouds of Jupiter in motion. Another classic example was a visualization of Hurricane Katrina showing just when it grew the strongest and shows satellites views as it approached and struck New Orleans.

The advent of the browser plugin version of Google Earth enabled developers to create applications using Google Earth. One of my favorite scientific applications is one that helps you visualize eclipses when the Moon and Earth dance with the Sun. Google produced a cool demonstration of the plugin with Monster Milktruck. But, my favorite is a game which lets you play like you are doing a lunar landing of the NASA Apollo 11 Eagle on Tranquility Base – complete with sound (see video).

One of the most important uses of Google Earth has been to help raise awareness of issues facing humanity and the Earth’s environment. Google formed Google Earth Outreach with a team of top Google engineers to help organizations use Google Earth to create tools and visualizations to highlight issues such as environmentally destructive coal mining, effects of massive deforestation, dangers and conditions of coral reefs, and human genocide. In 2009 Google introduced the Google Earth Ocean layers to help raise awareness and explore the Ocean and highlight issues like overfishing, climate change, and pollution.

Google Earth has been a fantastic tool used throughout the world for a multitude of purposes. It has been used in schools countless times to help teachers educate the minds of the young about the Earth. And Google Earth is the best way to explore and learn about places you may never reach otherwise, or to help you plan your own travels to those places. Google Earth has been one of the most popular applications on Earth. We hope Google will continue to develop and further advance this fantastic tool for everyone.

Adobe Flash in Google Earth

June 24, 2015

In our post on UrtheCast earlier this week, we incorrectly stated that Google Earth’s internal browser does not support flash content. It actually does and has done so since version 4.2.

To test whether Flash is working in Google Earth check the popups in the layer Ocean‑>National Geographic‑>Magazine Quiz, as they contain flash content. If you see the quiz questions and answers then Flash is working. If you see a message telling you to install the Flash player, then here is how to install it if you are on Windows. Other operating systems should be similar:
Go to this website in a browser. Select the link that says ‘Download the Adobe® Flash® Player system plug-in.’ On the next page, if you do not want it to install a copy of ‘McAfee Security Scan Plus’ then be sure to un-tick that offer. Then click ‘install now’. Run the file it downloads. When the installation is complete restart Google Earth and you should find Flash content is now working.

Once you have Flash working, you can view the UrtheCast videos from within Google Earth using this KML file

While identifying the location of the Barcelona, Spain, video, we discovered that it includes footage of the Montjuïc Castle, parts of which are censored in Google Earth. Not only is the aerial imagery for the location blurred, but the 3D imagery of Barcelona gives it a wide berth, clearly for censorship reasons.

Censored area in Barcelona, Spain, captured in uncensored HD video by UrtheCast.

Also of note is that since our recent post on UrtheCast, they have made two major announcements on their blog. Firstly, they plan to build and launch their own constellation of imaging satellites and secondly, they plan to acquire two already existing satellites, Deimos 1 and 2, together with their existing imagery archives.

Google Earth Elevation Profiles

April 21, 2015

An often overlooked feature of Google Earth, elevation profiles were first introduced in version 5.2. The feature is easy to use, all you need is a path selected in your ‘My Places’ then go to the ‘Edit’ menu and select ‘Show Elevation Profile’.

If you want the elevation profile of a slice through a mountain or valley, simply draw a straight line using the ‘Add Path’ tool on the Google Earth toolbar. But it is not restricted to straight lines and much more often you will be interested in the elevation profile of a hike you are planning, or bicycle route. In this case, you can draw out the path as before, or if it is a route on roads/paths already marked on Google Earth, you can use the Get Directions feature right-click (CTRL click on Mac) on the blue line and select ‘Show Elevation Profile’.

Elevation profile of a route in the Swiss Alps.

If you hold your mouse over the elevation profile, it will show a red arrow on the map marking the location, and also display the height above sea level and gradient at that point.

Keep in mind that Google Earth’s elevation data is not very high resolution and should not be taken as anything more than a rough guide. We also discovered that on the route shown above there were several tunnels and bridges and the route in Google Earth that is used for the elevation profile follows the ground and not the actual road surface resulting in large bumps and dips in the elevation profile.

Understanding Google’s Imagery Updates map part 3: 3D imagery

April 10, 2015

In the last couple of posts (1) (2) we looked at Google’s Imagery Updates map and some of the intricacies around aerial and satellite imagery.

Thank you to GEB reader Chris for pointing out in the comments that Google’s new 3D imagery adds some further complications to the story.

Google’s 3D imagery is created from aerial imagery captured from different directions then combined to create 3D models. In some cases, Google has included a set of aerial imagery captured at the same time in the ‘historical imagery’ layer. The easiest way to identify such imagery is to look for a construction site in the 3D imagery and then try to find a matching image in ‘historical imagery’.

Left: 3D imagery of a construction site in Berlin, Germany. Right: The same location as seen in the aerial imagery dated May 20, 2013 seen in ‘historical imagery’.

When Google adds 3D imagery, the additions are not outlined on the Imagery Updates map, but instead, Google publishes a map specifically for 3D imagery. They update the map rather infrequently and it shows locations but not exact outlines. So, we at GEB maintain a KML file showing the outlines of all areas discovered so far that have the new 3D imagery. It is maintained with the help of GEB readers who let us know about new additions in the comments of this post and the assistance of GEB reader Anton Rudolfsson who marks out the outlines of the newly discovered imagery. A big thank you to all contributors.

The new Google Maps and the latest Android version of Google Earth display the 3D imagery by default and do not have a means of turning it off. As a result, locations with 3D imagery will look different in Google Maps and Google Maps Classic. In Google Earth, to hide the 3D mesh, you can either switch to ‘historical imagery’ (which turns off the new 3D imagery and shows any legacy 3D buildings) or turn off the 3D buildings layer.

Left: Google Maps Classic. Right: New Google Maps.

Above we can see a construction site in Pardubice, Czech Republic. In Google Maps Classic we can see aerial imagery including 45° imagery captured in December 2008. In the new Google Maps we see 3D imagery captured circa September 2013. In Google Earth we can see the same 3D imagery, or switch to ‘historical imagery’ and see a whole range of dates up to June 2014.

To find the locations mentioned in this post download this KML file
.

Further comments on understanding Google imagery updates

April 9, 2015

Yesterday we looked at Google’s Imagery Updates map and what it tells us. We mentioned that the imagery being added is not always current imagery. So you may be asking why Google would add old imagery and why imagery is not always added to the default layer.

Google gets its imagery from a variety of sources. Google captures quite a lot of aerial imagery itself, especially in the US and Europe, including, we believe, the imagery used to create the new 3D imagery. However, a large amount of the aerial imagery that can be found in Google Earth was obtained from other sources. For example, the US has a complete set of black and white imagery mostly captured in the 1990s, provided by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and more recent imagery from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency.

Google gets its satellite imagery from providers such as Digital Globe and Airbus Defence and Space and for the low resolution image used when you zoom out, Landsat imagery is used. If you look at the copyright notices in Google Earth you can tell where the imagery comes from. Note that many of the copyright notices refer to the sources of other map data, such as the street maps or ocean floor data.

We don’t know the exact details of any agreements Google has with the imagery providers, but presumably many of the providers wish to sell imagery to their customers first, before making it essentially freely available in Google Earth. So if you want up-to-date imagery of a specific location, you will need to purchase it directly from an imagery provider. Only a small fraction of the imagery they capture ever makes its way into Google Earth.

When Google receives imagery, it assess both the age and quality of the imagery and decides whether it is better than the imagery currently at that location in Google Earth. If Google Earth already has aerial imagery that is of higher quality, newer satellite imagery will often be put straight into ‘historical imagery’ leaving the aerial imagery as the default. So if you notice an area has fairly old imagery and you want something newer, be sure to check ‘historical imagery’ to see if there is anything more recent available.

Another common reason for adding imagery only to the ‘historical imagery’ layer is when it is of poor quality, but something of interest. In some cases such images really stand out due to the large amount of cloud cover.

An unusual patch of cloudy imagery.

If you see something like the image above in ‘historical imagery’ then it is likely there was something of particular interest at that location. In this case, is was damage caused by a tornado that hit the town of Pilger, Nebraska.