This video has some behind-the-scenes information about the making of Google Mars and Google Moon. Two of the creators talk about what went into the programs.
Google Earth can become a powerful tool for people and organizations that are striving to help the environment. Google has applauded their efforts by featuring some of their work in a collection of videos.
The Google Earth Blog reports that the new 5.1 release of Google Earth is much faster to load and perform. In addition there are several other major improvements.
The Utah Geological Survey created a three-dimensional visualization of their geologic map of the St. George 30′ x 60′ quadrangle in southwest Utah. This visualization utilizes Google Earth to create interactivity and dramatically show the relationship between geology and topography.
Google Earth can be a great program to use in the classroom for both lecture demonstrations and student investigations. Google has a getting-started page with links to a number of resources. Google maps provide another opportunity for interactive learning.
The USGS has been helping Google and NASA to update the Moon in Google Earth software. The datasets were released to the public on July 20, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Scribble Maps is a website with Google maps that you can easily customize and share. There are tools to draw lines and shapes on the maps, insert markers and text, embed the map on your website, and more.
Brian Romans has a brief posting about Chesapeake Bay bathymetry and how you can view it in Google Earth. He also points to NOAA’s Estuarine Bathymetry website where you can get lots of data about estuaries of the United States.
Google street views is a 3-D photography project that allows you to zoom in on a map location and then view a 360 panorama of the landscape from archived photos. CNN reports that a number of people in a UK village blocked a Google street view photography vehicle from entering their neighborhood motivated by security concerns.
Here is a website where you can view and print as many USGS topographic maps as you want for free. You can also switch back and forth between Google Maps and Google satellite images.
Google has updated the Mars facet of Google Earth. They have added historical maps, tours of the planet, and a new collection of satellite images from the THEMIS camera, with more images being added as they are transmitted to Earth.
A member of the California Assembly introduced a bill that might limit the resolution of satellite images and aerial photos shown in online mapping services such as Google Earth which anyone can download for free. The bill calls for a number of facilities to be blurred on those images before they are released to the public.
“Arizona’s statewide geologic map is now available online, free-of-charge! The map may be viewed using a web browser, or viewed and queried using either Google Earth or ESRI’s ArcGIS explorer. In addition, the data are published as a KML, ArcGIS, WMS and WFS web services for use in other client applications.” Quoted from the AZGS website.
Google is creating a tool to help people save energy in their homes: Google PowerMeter. The tool will show the amount of energy the household is using with frequently updated data, which can be viewed on a personal computer.
Ron Schott has a blog post that envisions a geology layer for Google Earth…. “What I’d like to do here, with the help of the geoblogosphere (via the comments to this post, initially), is to set out some goals, examples, and use cases that could guide the development of a Google Earth geology layer.” Quoted from Ron’s post.
Google reports that over one million people signed up for their free Google Latitude service during the first week that it was available. Latitude is a mobile phone application that allows you to see the location of your friends, and share your location on a Google Map that can be accessed on a mobile phone or personal computer.
MapQuest was the original heavyweight of online mapping websites. Now, over the past year, Google Maps has been rapidly gaining marketshare. Could the new features that MapQuest added in October help keep them in the #1 market share position?
Send a unique message to your friends with the geoGreeting website. Your text will be spelled out with aerial views of buildings and other things from an interactive Google map. For example, a circular stadium would be used to represent the letter “O”. Give it a try!
A new service has been introduced for Google Maps: Google Latitude. Users can opt to see each others’ locations on their mobile phone or computer screen.
Google, NASA and others have teamed up to add yet another feature to the Google Earth program. Google Mars 3D gives people the opportunity to “fly” around and get a close-up look at the planet. It is part of Google Earth 5.0, which also includes ocean layers and other upgrades.
Google has developed a new facet to their Google Earth program: Google Ocean. Users will be able to explore parts of the ocean and sea floor with a variety of interactive features. This article includes a short video.
On the Cutting Edge has a good website for teachers who are interested in teaching with Google Earth. This is a rich resource. Here are a few of the topics…
1) What is Google Earth?
2) Becoming Familiar with Google Earth
3) Why Teach with Google Earth?
4) How to Teach with Google Earth
5) Google Earth User Guide
6) Resources and References
Masterpieces from the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain can now be viewed in Google Earth. There is a zoom function that allows users to see high-resolution detail of the paintings.
GeoEye is a two-year old company that is getting a lot of attention over its high-resolution satellite image and remote sensing programs. Some of this attention is a result of their images being used in the popular Google Earth and Google Maps programs. This article summarizes the history and current activities of the company.
A large number of people are uploading nice photos of classic geological sites. You can now get a look at almost any famous location by just browsing there on Google Maps and turning on the photo option.
Google added another 1/2 million photographs to their Google Earth and Google Maps databases bringing their total image count to over 15 million. The screenshot below shows a few photos from Grand Canyon National Park. Before you start looking, know that different zoom levels show different numbers of images.
GeoEye is a satellite launched in September, 2008 to collect high resolution images of earth. Many of these images are already being used in Google Earth, Google Maps and many other applications. They recently obtained images of the pirated Saudi tanker as it was anchored off the Somali coast. You can see a gallery of interesting images on their website.
Zoom in on the San Andreas Fault with this Google map by David Lynch and Bradley Cole. The red line on the map marks the approximate trace of the fault across California. Switch between a map and satellite images to see where the fault crosses roads, subdivisions, buildings and other features.
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