imagery update

Google has recently done an imagery update. Here are a few sights we have found so far.

Plane crash in Kyrgyzstan
On January 16, 2017, a Turkish cargo plane, Turkish Airlines Flight 6491, crashed into a residential area just short of the runway of Manas International Airport, Kyrgyzstan. All four crew members and 35 people on the ground were killed in the crash. Read more about it here and on Wikipedia.

The aircraft was travelling from left to right in the above image.

Zooming out a bit we can see how close it was to getting to the runway.

Derailed train in Cameroon
On October 21st, 2016, a passenger train derailed in Eséka, Cameroon, killing at least 79 people and injuring 550. The DigitalGlobe image was captured ten days later so some cleanup has already been done, but we can see where the accident happened and some of the carriages by the side of the track. There are more carriages next to the station which may have already been transported there from the accident site. Read more about it here and on Wikipedia.

 
Fireworks explosion in Mexico
On December 20th, 2016, a fireworks explosion occurred at the San Pablito Market in the city of Tultepec, Mexico, killing at least 36 and injuring 84. The imagery is from January 4th, and the area has been cleaned up. See a video here and read about it on Wikipedia

Before and after of the San Pablito Market.

World Series parade, Chicago
The Chicago Cubs, a Major League Baseball club, won the 2016 World Series after a 108-year drought. To celebrate they held a parade on November 4th, 2016, which was attended by an estimated 5 million people. DigitalGlobe captured an image showing the crowds in Grant Park, the final destination of the parade.

To find the above locations in Google Earth download this KML file.

Google has recently updated the ‘historical imagery’ layer in Google Earth. Unfortunately, because the Google Earth Plugin/API was shut down last month we can no longer make maps of imagery updates.

The Kaikoura earthquake, New Zealand
On November 14th, 2016, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the South Island of New Zealand with an epicentre near the town of Kaikoura. We have previously had a look at the resulting landslides as seen in low resolution Sentinel-2 imagery. Now Google has added some DigitalGlobe imagery of the region captured soon after the earthquake. Most of the imagery is black and white, but we can clearly see landslides that blocked the coastal roads out from Kaikoura.

Wildfires, Chile
In late January and early February, 2017, Chile was ravaged by what have been called the worst wildfires in its modern history. There are a number of black and white DigitalGlobe images of the region, but unfortunately they do not cover the worst affected areas. We did, however, manage to find a number of burnt buildings and a fire still burning.

A wildfire in Chile.

Before and after of some buildings destroyed by wildfire in Chile.

The map data for that region of Chile is not good at all. There are a number of ‘town’ markers in Google Earth that point to locations where there are only one or two houses or no buildings at all. Meanwhile, the town of Santa Olga, which was devastated by the fire and which we found with the aid of Wikipedia, has no marker at all and could not even be found through search.

Other locations
There is a low quality image of Washington D.C., United States, dated January 19th, the day before the presidential inauguration.

There is an image of Manila in the Philippines relating to a shanty town fire that left 15,000 people homeless. The image quality is so poor that not much can be seen. We think we were able to identify the location based on a church that can be seen in one of the photos.

To find the locations mentioned above in Google Earth download this KML file.

A big thank you to GEB reader André who sent us a list of locations he has found that now have 2017 imagery:

Africa
Angola – Malange – 2017-01-16
Angola – Menongue – 2017-01-06
Angola – Xangongo – 2017-01-10
Algeria – Mecheria – 2017-01-17
Ethiopia – East of Bishoftu – 2017-01-13
Kenya – Nanyuki – 2017-01-07
Nigeria – Makurdi – 2017-01-05
Nigeria – Ibadan – 2017-01-01
Nigeria – Ilorin – 2017-01-02
Rwanda – Kigali – 2017-01-15
Uganda – Entebbe – 2017-01-18

Asia
Bangladesh – Dhaka – 2017-01-12/18
Bangladesh – Jessore – 2017-01-19
Cambodia – Kampong – 2017-01-01
Indonesia – Banda Aceh – 2017-01-10
Indonesia – Subang – 2017-01-01
Myanmar – Pyay – 2017-01-16
Myanmar – Loikaw – 2017-01-18
Myanmar – Hainggyikyun – 2017-01-03
Myanmar – Pakokku – 2017-01-02
Myanmar – Magway – 2017-01-02
Taiwan – Taipei – 2017-01-02

Middle East
Bahrain – Manama – 2017-01-03
Iran – Gachsaran – 2017-01-04
Iran – Dezful – 2017-01-23
Kuwait – Kuwait City – 2017-01-14

Americas
Cuba – South of Havana – 2017-01-18
Cuba – San Pedro – 2017-01-26
Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo – 2017-01-25
Guatemala – Quetzaltenango – 2017-01-09
Guatemala – Guatemala City – 2017-01-03/22
Guatemala – Retalhuleu – 2017-01-02
Honduras – Comayagua – 2017-01-06
Honduras – Trujillo – 2017-01-06
Panama – David – 2017-01-07
Venezuela – Barquisimeto – 2017-01-02

Google has recently updated the ‘historical layer’, this time including the southern hemisphere, which we previously noted had been missed in the last update. Unfortunately, due to the recent demise of the Google Earth plugin/API we are unable to create a map of the updates. However, we can still track down some interesting sights where the imagery was captured as part of DigitalGlobe’s FirstLook program.

Google has also pushed out a large number of new 3D areas.

Crater?
There is some imagery on the east coast of India dated December 3rd, 2016, which was captured in response to cyclone NADA-16 which made landfall in late November. Although it does look wetter than usual, it is a naturally we region with a lot of lakes and flooded fields and we didn’t find any flooded houses. We did, however, come across the circular feature below:

Do any of our readers know whether this is an impact crater or some other geological phenomenon?

Indonesian Earthquake
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Aceh province, Indonesia, on December 7th, 2016. There is quite a lot of DigitalGlobe imagery of the region from December and January. According to Wikipedia 104 people were killed and over 1000 injured. Although it was reported that 686 structures were either destroyed or damaged, we were not able to positively identify any in the imagery as it is not very high resolution.

Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
There is some black and white imagery of Sydney harbour relating to the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race which took place on December 26th, 2016. As far as we can tell, the actual race was not captured in the imagery.

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

If you come across any interesting sights in the imagery do let us know in the comments.