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Imagery Update: Google Earth Using Spot Image Satellite Photos in Europe

[UPDATE 2:30PM ET: Spot Image has released a press release about their multi-year agreement with Google to provide new imagery such as the new data described below.]
Google has updated imagery for Belgium, France, Portugal, and France to use CNES/Spot Image satellite imagery at 2.5 meter resolution imagery instead of the old Terrametrics/NASA 15 meter resolution base imagery. So, in other words the low resolution areas are 6X better resolution. Stefan Geens at OgleEarth got the details from Spot Image:

It covers France, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. It is made of imagery from our SPOT5 satellite : 2.5m in resolution. The images are selected from our existing catalog (most recent and cloudfree). They are then combined to make one single uniform image. To cover France, we need roughly 500 SPOT5 images which are of course taken at various date, sunlight, angles, etc…

Stefan also says some new high resolution DigitalGlobe strips are in Belgium. I am quickly researching to see if other areas have been updated in high resolution. Please drop a comment here if you find new imagery.
By the way, this is the first Spot Image satellite imagery in GE I’ve seen. It’s interesting to see Google is expanding it’s source of imagery data to another commercial satellite provider. A few days ago DigitalGlobe‘s newly acquired GlobeXplorer announced it was selling data to Microsoft. And now this happens. Probably just a coincidence, since I’m sure it took more than a few days to implement this imagery.

News Roundup: GlobeXplorer Acquired by DigitalGlobe, Conferences, Google Telescope

  • GlobeXplorer Acquired by DigitalGlobe – Reuters reports on this acquisition which is interesting because DigitalGlobe is the primary provider of satellite imagery for Google Earth. GlobeXplorer provides software for distributing imagery and also previously acquired an aerial photography business. All Points Blog has a podcast interview with DigitalGlobe’s CEO Jill Smith.
  • Conferences – John Bailey of the Alaska Volcano Observatory is maintaining a calendar of conferences, workshops, short courses, etc. that are targeted at scientific uses of virtual globes. John also helped organize the special sessions on virtual globes at AGU.
  • Google Telescope – Google has been recruited to help solve a massive data challenge for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope which will be built and operational in 2013. The telescope will survey the entire sky creating 30 Terabytes of data each night. Google hasn’t determined whether the data will be organized in a specific product, like the popular Google Earth, said company spokesman Jon Murchinson.

New Imagery Update for the Holidays – Awesome!

Google not only updated the Google Earth 4 beta this weekend, but just today released a huge imagery update. And guess what? Google Earth Blog now has its own aerial photos included within Google Earth. You’ll find a couple of aerial photos I took in a small plane during the X PRIZE Cup in October at the Las Cruces, New Mexico airport (read about the photo here). And also a couple of practice photos I took of the Sanford – Lee County airport in North Carolina (see here ). Even the copyright message says “Google Earth Blog”. Pretty neat!

In addition, Google added a 3 meter resolution terrain mesh for Mount Saint Helens (much higher than what you normally find – you should use the “Tools->Options->Terrain Quality” setting to adjust the quality). (NOTE years later: The higher resolution terrain was removed by Google.)

Here’s the announcement at the GEC about the imagery update:

  • DigitalGlobe updates all over the globe with the most notable being large content additions in Somalia and Australia
  • Updated US states: Indiana and Delaware
  • Miscellaneous high res cities and counties in North America: Monterey Bay, CA; Yakima County, WA; Summerland, Canada; Greater East Wenatchee, WA; Polk County, IA; Warren County IA; and Bay County, FL
  • Small high-res updates in the UK (Swansea, Edinburgh, Doncaster, Gwent) and expanded London coverage
  • High-res update in Bremerhaven, Germany.
  • Newer imagery for Lanzarote (Canary Islands)
  • Google Earth Blog-supplied XPrizeCup flyover and the Sanford, NC airport
  • Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
  • Foo Camp @ O’Reilly Headquarters in Sebastapol, CA

New Google Earth Imagery and Terrain Data for Thanksgiving – Thanks!

[UPDATE 24-Nov 0830: Google included an aerial photo of the Firefox Logo Crop Circle , read more about it here.]
Google released new terrain data which fixes some of the holes in places like the Matterhorn and Mt. Everest to improve the resolution. They also have added new imagery in many places around the globe. I’m too full from Thanksgiving dinner to go look, so here’s a summary of the changes from ‘PenguinOpus’ at the Google Earth Community (he is one of the developers of Google Earth):

This morning, a terrain update occurred that corrects many of the holes in the SRTM data. This greatly improves the appearance of Mt. Everest, Matterhorn, and others in South America, Asia, and Europe.
Also included are imagery updates:

  • 12 high-resolution cities in Germany (Bayreuth, Bochum, Castrop-Rauxel, Fulda, Hof, Mannheim, Marburg, Potsdam, Schweinfurt, Siegen, Unna Froendenberg, Wuerzburg)
  • 6 high-resolution regions in the UK (Bridgend, Cleveland, Dundee, Plymouth, Poole, Rochford)
  • 31 city updates from DigitalGlobe
  • entire island of Oahu
  • Imagery from individual cities/counties: Grants Pass, OR; City of Kent, WA; Salem, OR; Douglas County, WA; Hartford County, MD; Jackson County, OR; Summit County, OH;
  • Expanded/updated coverage for the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Indiana, and Florida
  • Darfur
  • 66 Islands
  • improved SF/Bay area water

Aerial Photography Getting Boost from Google Earth

A recent article in the Scottsdale Times talks about the influence Google Earth, Google Maps, and other mapping tools showing aerial and satellite photography has boosted the business of aerial photographers. After you ignore the bit of sensational speculation at the beginning of the article (speculations about using aerial photography for spying), there are some very interesting points. The aerial photography business has traditionally only been accessible to firms who could afford the high cost of aerial photography which involves flying planes, processing expensive photographic and positional data, and managing huge databases. Ian Erickson of AnalyGIS says: "What Google Earth has done is put that technology up for free, to the world."
What does this mean to the aerial photography business?

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