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EPA data now featured in Google Earth Outreach

Last month, we showed you the KMZ file that the EPA released that had a ton of data about the Gulf oil spill.

epa.jpg

Google has now featured that data on their Google Earth Outreach site. The depth of information available in this file is quite remarkable, and it’s a superb resource for those that need more information about the spill.
Information available in the KMZ includes:

  • View EPA air, surface water, sediment and waste sampling locations in Google Earth, which are linked to explanations and information throughout this site.
  • See EPA air monitoring locations and results for total Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Particulate Matter (PM).
  • Link to EPA data, aerial photography and other information collected by our air sampling plane, the ASPECT.
  • Get National Geospatial – Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) map of boom locations and daily tracking updates of the oil spill.
  • See aerial photography and satellite images from NASA, NOAA and the European Space Agency’s satellite ENVISAT.

To keep up with the latest items featured by Google Earth Outreach, you can check out their website or follow them on Twitter at @EarthOutreach.

Google Earth Outreach Upgrade

Google Earth Outreach is a group within Google dedicated to providing assistance to non-profit organizations wanting to use GE to reach their target audiences with visualizations about their favorite subjects. During the past three years, the Outreach team has created many useful tools and tutorials to help anyone create better Google Earth content, and to understand how to use more advanced features.
Outreach has just upgraded their web site with a new design and lots of interesting new content. They have a new version of their showcase which highlights content from non-profits who have used Outreach. They also have a section to help non-profits find grants and join the community of non-profits working with GE. And Outreach has their own grants program that some organizations may be able to utilize. And finally, GE Outreach has updated their tutorials section with several new tutorials such as this one on “Creating narrated Tours in Google Earth”:


via Google Lat Long blog

Links: Outreach Birthday, Bullit Chase Scene, NIN Downloads, KMLWiki

  • Outreach Birthday – Google has mentioned the first birthday of the Google Earth Outreach program. This excellent program helps organizations leverage Google Earth/Maps and other Google products to get the word out about their causes. Many great layers like Crisis in Darfur, Appalachian Voices, and many others found in the Global Awareness layer folder came from the program. Being included in the Outreach program can have a profound effect to helping get global visibility on an issue. I attended the formal announcement of the Outreach program in New York last year.

  • Bullit Chase Scene – This is a really cool example of using Seero which lets you geo-locate a video dynamically and show the position on a map while the video is playing. There’s nothing like watching the most classic car chase scene and see where it takes place at the same time. Except, I’d like to see this done with the Earth plugin in 3D! (I’ve already sent Seero an E-mail).

  • NIN Downloads – The Nine Inch Nails band has published a Google Earth file showing the geographic distribution of the 1.4 million downloads of their latest album The Slip. I kind of like how they used what looks like red “nails” to represent the number of downloads for each location.

  • KMLWiki – Martin Meggle-Freund writes to let me know about his current project called KMLWiki. The idea is to let people share locations and write about them. He is now making use of the Google Earth plugin. The German version, KMLwiki.de, is more active and has more content. Kind of similar in some ways to EarthSwoop.

Links: Outreach Showcase, Spreadsheet mapping, Geo Test, KML Lesson Talk

  • Outreach Showcase – The Google Earth Outreach Showcase is Google’s current favorite method of sharing what it considers the best global awareness KML content for Google Earth. New content with particular significance get a special post at the Google Lat Long blog or even the official Google Blog. Today Google posted about the UNEP South China Sea Project which has developed a KML file for Google Earth describing the project (see earlier GEB post). See it in Google Earth here . I wonder if Google will continue using the Global Awareness layer, or will do something else?

  • Spreadsheet Mapping – Google posted more details about the Spreadsheet mapping tool version 2.0 which is part of the Outreach program. The tool is designed to make it easier for non-developer types to create good-looking KML content. The post mentions that one of the Outreach showcase files was created using the spreadsheet tool – the EDGE of Existence for Mammals which shows placemarks for the 100 most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) mammalians world-wide. See it in Google Earth here .

  • Geo Test – One of the participants in the GE Outreach program shared how she is making basic geography tests to introduce her biology students to her material using Google Earth. She offered five example questions which you can try yourself. And, the next day Google posted the answers. This is the kind of thing I think makes Google Earth great for learning. Related: try my favorite geography quiz (it’s about Asia) done by National Geographic Magazine.

  • KML Lesson Talk – Last week, Google conducted the first in a series of talks called the Google Geo Developer Series. These talks are intended to help folks looking to develop applications using Google Earth and Maps. The first talk was entitled “Quick and Dirty KML Creation” by Googlers Mano Marks and Pamela Fox. You can watch the entire talk on You Tube. Definitely worth watching if you’re looking to learn more about KML development. A very informal hands-on talk with everyone using their laptops to try out lesson material.

Big Update to Google Earth Outreach

The Google Earth Outreach program was announced last June in a media-filled room at the NewYork Google Offices (which I attended). The purpose of Outreach is to provide assistance to a variety of non-profit organizations to illustrate their causes using Google Earth. But, it’s not just about the tool, it’s also about the platform of millions of users combined with Google’s brand to gain greater visibility to their campaigns. The Outreach program in the last few months has provided a number of very useful tutorials and highlighted some of the organizations making the best use of the Google Earth platform to date. These tools are in most cases very useful to anyone developing Google Earth content.
Last night, the Google Earth Outreach team announced some big updates to their site including:

To help illustrate the organizations wanting to get involved with Google Earth Outreach, they have added a map on the main page. You can add your organization to the map. I’m really glad to see these updates to the site. The Outreach program also highlights a number of Google Earth visualizations you should see. Check out the Outreach Showcase on Environmental Science, Current Affairs, and Public Health. By the way, qualifying non-profit US organizations can get Google Earth Pro grants as well.