burning man

Google Earth Imagery Updates, Italian Earthquake, Burning Man, Train Crash

January 5, 2017

Google recently updated the ‘historical imagery’ layer in Google Earth and we have done a series of posts on the various interesting sights:
Wildfires in the US
More US wildfires, US floods and a Tornado
Floods around the world and the Calais Jungle Migrant camp

Today we are looking at a few more locations around the world.

Italian Earthquakes
Italy suffered two major earthquakes last year in August and October, which we have covered previously (August earthquake, October earthquake. There is now some DigitalGlobe imagery of some of the worst affected areas.

Amatrice, Italy was near the epicentre of the August earthquake.

2016 Burning Man Festival

There are a couple of images of last year’s Burning Man Festival.

Texas train crash
On June 28th, 2016, there was a fiery train crash in Texas involving two freight trains. The Google Earth imagery is from July 3rd, 2016 after some cleanup has been done.

To see the above locations in Google Earth download This KML file.

Burning Man goes 3D

December 8, 2014

Over the last week or so, Google have pushed out a significant amount of new 3D imagery. If you don’t have it already, be sure to grab our our map of areas covered so far.

One of the most interesting new additions is Black Rock City, Nevada, location of the Burning Man festival that we covered back in August and later saw animated gifs of that Skybox Imaging created. The actual festival only lasts a couple of weeks each year and is in a slightly different location each year, with different street layouts and physical structures. The imagery was essentially out of date just days after the photography was captured. There was a lot of movement, with many cars, trucks, caravans and even light aircraft moving around. There were new structures going up, tents and other structures with moving coverings and intricate shapes. All of this causes problems for the technique used to capture the imagery, which involves imagery captured from multiple angles during several passes, that works best on solid, unmoving structures with no overhangs.

To fly to Black Rock City in Google Earth, open this KML file. Be sure to turn on the 3D buildings layer.

[Update: As pointed out by Ron in the comments, the 3D imagery is from the 2013 event.]

One of several structures with intricate detail that Google must have put extra effort into modelling.

Skybox Imaging captures Burning Man

September 22, 2014

Last month we covered the Burning Man festival, and how the event has been captured by satellite imagery a number of times, with the images available in Google Earth’s Historical Imagery. It turns out that this year’s event was also captured on 8 different days – this time with Google’s own satellites! Thanks to GEB reader Eric for letting us know.

The images were taken by SkySat-1 and SkySat-2 owned by Skybox Imaging, which Google acquired earlier this year. Skybox have released the images via the Maps Gallery, as well as creating a number of animated gif images shown on their official blog. You can also read more about it on TechCrunch.

A gif animation of the Burning Man festival created by Skybox Imaging.

It is possible to view the images in Google Earth using this kml file from the Maps Gallery.

Skybox currently has two satellites, but is planning a constellation of 24. SkySat-1 also captured the first HD resolution video of Earth from space as seen in the YouTube video below. For the best results be sure to watch it in high resolution and full screen.

Burning Man 2014

August 29, 2014

We have talked about Burning Man a number of times before (2013, 2011,2010, 2007, 2006).

Burning Man is a cartographer’s nightmare, because it is a city that is built within a matter of days, lasts for a couple weeks, then completely disappears, only to re-emerge the next year in a slightly different place, with a slightly different layout, and altogether new street names.

The official website provides an official map for this year, and for previous years. However, there is an unnofficial version to be found on Google Maps Engine here. When viewed in Google Maps, it is rather clunky unless you deselect most of the points of interest. However, it can be viewed in Google Earth by downloading this KML file. The Google Maps street map has also been updated to this year’s layout and street names, so remember to turn on the ‘roads’ layer.

Also be sure to check out Google Earth’s historical imagery showing the event in 2006, 2009 (two different days), 2010 (four consecutive days) ,2012 and 2013.

You can also watch a live webcast of Burning Man on USTREAM. (Warning: includes audio and may contain bad language.)

Burning Man 2013

August 25, 2013

We’ve discussed the famous Burning Man event quite a few times in the past (2011, 2010, 2007, 2006) as Google often features aerial imagery from the event in Google Earth. In fact, by using the historical imagery feature in the Black Rock, NV area you can find imagery from many of their events over the past few years.

This year’s festival begins tomorrow and Google has gone even further and created a detailed map of every street at the event. The roads are viewable in Google Earth, but are easier to use in Google Maps in this case.

You can see it for yourself in this map on Google Maps, or read more on Google Maps Mania.