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Explore Google Earth on Earth Day

April 21, 2016

April 22nd is Earth Day, which we traditionally celebrate by looking back at some of the environment related stories of the past year.

NASA and Japan make ASTER imagery available for freeJapan and NASA made the imagery from ASTER available to the public for free. Thank you to GEB reader ‘sanchezpaus’ for letting us know that the ASTER imagery is better resolution than satellite imagery at 15 m per pixel for ASTER imagery vs. 30 m per pixel for Landsat. This means the vast imagery database will be of significant interest to people doing environmental research that requires satellite imagery.

The Oklahoma EarthquakesWe had a look at the increased frequency of earthquakes in Oklahoma. Google Earth combined with data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) makes an excellent tool for studying the geographic distribution of earthquakes with time.
 
 

Watching Antarctic Ice Sheets Crack with Landsat ImageryWe heard about an ice sheet in Antarctica slowly cracking and used Landsat imagery to watch it crack in Google Earth.
 
 
 
 

Fairy circlesWe had a look at a phenomenon known as ‘fairy circles’ and earlier in the year had a look at the patterns made by ant and termite nests.
 
 
 
 

Google’s Skybox Imaging renamed Terra BellaGoogle’s Skybox Imaging was renamed Terra Bella to indicate a change of focus from just a satellite imaging company to pioneering the search for patterns of change in the physical world. We expect to see a number of environment related projects come out of Terra Bella in the future.
 

New Sea Floor Map for Google EarthGoogle updated the Google Earth sea floor map with higher resolution data from a variety of sources, including the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
 
 

OpenForis a Google Earth based applicationWe had a look at a tool called Open Foris that works with Google Earth to make mapping land use and land use change easier.
 
 
 
 

Wild Dogs and the Google Earth APIWe had a look at a tool that is very similar to Open Foris, but uses the Google Earth API. It was used to map land use in East Africa to aid in the study of African Wild Dogs.
 
 
 

NASA Near Earth Observations in Google EarthNASA Near Earth Observations (NEO) data is a large collection of multi-year global datasets. We had a look at how to import them into Google Earth and make animations from them.
 
 
 

Tracking wild fires in Google EarthWe had a look at various resources for tracking wild fires in Google Earth and also had a look at the scars left behind by some large wild fires in California using Landsat imagery.
 
 
 

Celebrate World Oceans Day with the Catlin Seaview SurveyThe Catlin Sea View Survey is a project to document the worlds reefs in 360 degree panoramic photography. The results can be seen in Street View. We had a look at it on World Oceans Day last year.
 
 
 

Average Cloud Cover Map and Map ProjectionsWe had a look at some average cloud cover maps from NASA.
 
 
 
 
 

Technology and sustainabilityRebecca Moore, Engineering Director for Google Earth and Earth Engine & Outreach wrote an interesting article about three projects (Global Forest Watch, Project Sunroof and Methane Maps) that Google is doing in collaboration with others using technology to achieve sustainability goals. We discussed the possible reasons why Google Earth was not used in these cases.

Filed Under: Site News Tagged With: earth day

Explore Google Earth on Earth Day

April 22, 2015

April 22nd is Earth Day which we traditionally celebrate by looking back at some of the environment related stories of the past year.

geo-canadaWe looked at Google Earth Outreach and how they are helping a number of Canadian non-profits with environmental impact monitoring.
 
 
 
 
 
indonesia-firesWe looked at how DigitalGlobe is helping to track damage to tropical forests caused by fire.
 
 
 
 
 
methane_mapsWe 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. 
 
 
 
 
Rampholeon-Maspictus-Credit-William-R-BranchWe looked at how Google Earth was instrumental in discovering a new chameleon species.
 
 
 
 

ArcticSeaIceSept2014We saw maps of the fluctuations in polar ice caps produced by the US National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC). 
 
 
 
 

tribesWe 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.

Filed Under: Site News Tagged With: earth day

Exploring Earth Day on Google Earth

April 22, 2014

Earth Day in Google EarthToday is Earth Day, a time to sit back and think about our wonderful planet, and some of us will be out picking up some trash, or just enjoying nature.

For those of you stuck inside due to weather, work, or other reasons – perhaps you might want to spend the day exploring our wonderful planet through the power of Google Earth. Here are a few links of stories from Google Earth Blog in the past year describing environmental related content available for viewing in Google Earth:

  • Using Google Earth to prove a case of illegal waste dumping
  • Giving a “pulse” to the Colorado River
  • Using Google Earth to predict sea level rise
  • Explore the Colorado River in Google Earth
  • Viewing the GEBCO Global Ocean Map in Google Earth
  • The Topography of Plate Tectonics in Google Earth
  • View global warming trends with this new tool from UEA CRU
  • Viewing the polar vortex in Google Earth

For more, you can check out our posts from 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 or 2009 and read stories that go back even further.

Filed Under: Environment Tagged With: earth day

Explore Google Earth on Earth Day

April 22, 2013

Earth Day in Google EarthToday is Earth Day, a time to sit back and think about our wonderful planet, and some of us will be out picking up some trash, or just enjoying nature.

For those of you stuck inside due to weather, work, or other reasons – perhaps you might want to spend the day exploring our wonderful planet through the power of Google Earth. Here are a few links of stories from Google Earth Blog in the past year describing environmental related content available for viewing in Google Earth:

  • Teaching about the ocean floor with Google Earth
  • Researchers rediscover lost butterfly species with the help of Google Earth
  • Watching our watersheds in Google Earth
  • Street View goes underwater
  • Saving elephants with Google Earth
  • Beautiful images from Google Earth Outreach

For more, you can check out our posts from 2012, 2011, 2010 or 2009 and read stories that go back even further.

Filed Under: Science, Sightseeing Tagged With: earth day

Using Google Earth on Earth Day

April 20, 2012

Earth Day in Google EarthThis Sunday is Earth Day, a time to sit back and think about our wonderful planet, and some of us will be out picking up some trash, or just enjoying nature.
For those of you stuck inside due to weather, work, or other reasons – perhaps you might want to spend the day exploring our wonderful planet through the power of Google Earth. Here are a few links of stories from Google Earth Blog (GEB) in the past year describing environmental related content available for viewing in Google Earth:
• Saving the tigers of Sumatra — Saving the Indonesian Tiger.
• The Living Oceans Society — An interactive map focusing on oil risks to Canada’s Pacific coast.
• Disney’s Worldwide Conservation Fund — The areas around the world that Disney is helping to protect via their fund.
• The Tallest Mountain to the Deepest Ocean Trench — A journey from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench
• Mapping the world’s sea turtles — A massive database of sea turtle nesting sites around the globe.
• The Japanese Tsunami created some massive icebergs — Imagery showing icebergs created in Antarctica as a result of the Japanese tsunami.
• Tracking Bluefin Tuna across the Pacific — Interesting ways to view their migration patterns.
• Sea Ice Extent Animation updated for 2011 — An update to the annual sea ice extent animation from the NSIDC.
• Increasingly high-resolution imagery in Antarctica — The quality of imagery in Antarctica continues to improve.
• Tracking wave-powered robotic gliders across the Pacific — Small wave gliders that can track ocean data without requiring a ship to collect them.
• Track Sea Turtle migrations — Tracking Jklynn, a female Hawksbill sea turtle.
• 100 years since the Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica — Exploring the 1912 expeditions to Antarctica.
• The tales of the Arctic Tern and the Sea Grapes — Tracking the annual migration of Arctic Tern.
• Using maps to help protect coral reefs — View coral reef threat levels around the globe.
• Google Street View now covers the Amazon — View Street View-type imagery in the Amazon.
• The Perpetual Ocean — A neat way to view ocean surface currents.
For more, you can check out our posts from 2011, 2010 or 2009 and read stories that go back even further.

Filed Under: Environment, Science, Sightseeing Tagged With: earth day, NSIDC

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