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New Imagery & Layers: Historical Maps, African Tracks and Natural Disasters
We have added new imagery and enhancements to the terrain. This new imagery includes 12 high resolution cities in Germany, 6 new regions in the UK, 31 city updates worldwide, and many updates to states, counties and cities in the US. For details on the update see this post.
There is new information in the "Featured Content" layer, including the "Rumsey Historical Maps" sub-layer which allows you to compare historical maps from as far back as 1680 to the new world (this layer requires the latest version of GE 4). To enable the Rumsey maps, go in the Layers panel, open the Featured Content folder and open the Rumsey Historical Maps folder. Choose the map you want to view or choose Map Finder to display icons for other available maps. See David Rumsey's own comments about the collection. Here are more "Featured Content" layers:
- Tracks4Africa - maps created by using GPS data and digital photos to document places in Africa.
- Spotlight on Africa - basic information on each country in Africa such as climate, population, and legal system.
- European Space Agency - a collection of satellite photos documenting natural disasters around the world.
Google teamed up with My Wonderful World, a National Geographic-led campaign for geographic literacy, to support Geography Awareness Week (with more details on the layers mentioned above). Google Earth was used as an educational tool to help build awareness
about the diversity of the population and the
extraordinary places around the world. This year, the focus was on Africa. |
Amazon Natives use Google Earth to Protect Rainforest 
 Google has teamed with the Amazon Conservation Team to help save the Amazon forest. ACT has been working with Amazon Indian tribes (Amerindians) in the tropical forests of Brazil, Colombia, and Suriname to develop better methods for conserving the bio-diversity, health, resources, and cultures. The indigenous groups know these lands better than anyone and have been trained to use hand-held GPS devices to mark places such as hunting grounds, rivers, sacred sites, and also locations where illegal mining, deforestation, and pollution are occurring. By using features in Google Earth Pro the team is able to import their data and easily share the resulting maps and annotations with government officials. In addition, new high resolution imagery of the areas now in Google Earth is helping the team and officials identify other locations for further investigation. For more details, please click here to read this story. |
Time Animations in Google Earth
The new time capability added in Google Earth 4 beta has resulted in some interesting animations (we recommend you download the latest version of GE 4). For tips on using the new time gadget in GE 4, read this article from our last issue. Here are just a few more interesting animations developed by GE enthusiasts:
- Jupiter Cloud Animation
 (7.1 Megabytes) - Turns the Earth into Jupiter and shows the clouds in motion. Read this post on the Google Earth Community for some good tips on how to use it. For the best view, turn off "View -> Atmosphere".
- Global Paleogeographic Animation - This animation shows how the continents evolved over millions of years. Read some tips on how to use the animation. Click here to read the posting.
- Ferris Wheel - An animation of a ferris wheel in Vienna. Read this post for some instructions.
- Blue Marble (5.4 Megabytes) - This time animation shows 12 monthly views of the Earth from space produced by NASA as part of their Blue Marble Next Generation project. Click here for the time animation with instructions.
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New Google Earth Support Blog
We have a new blog for Google Earth! John Gardiner, a Technical Writer for Google, is the author of the Using Google Earth blog. He writes about new features and highlights tips and tricks for navigating Google Earth. Here are just a few of the interesting blog entries:
John began with a number of basic tips and tutorials, and plans to provide both basic and advanced guidance as the blog evolves. On a related note, check out the new tutorials available as part of the GE 4 user guide. |
Where on Earth is Santa?
 'Tis (almost) the season, and when Christmas Eve finally arrives, Santa Claus fans all over the world will be able to track his minute-to-minute whereabouts, with the help of some friendly elves and Google Earth. Be sure to visit earth.google.com/santa starting on December 12th to learn more.
Santa Tracker is a KML file, viewable in Google Earth that shows a 3D SketchUp model of Santa flying around the world delivering presents on the evening of December 24th, Christmas Eve. This year, Santa will also be hiding some giant toys in Google Earth. Beginning on December 12th, Santa will leave a clue outside of his house at the North Pole up until his flight on December 24th. Each clue can be used to find a city where a giant SketchUp model of a toy is hidden. Each day, the location of the toy from the day before will be revealed. Don't forget to visit the website on December 12th to see Santa. |
Armchair Archaeology
Last year, an Italian computer analyst named Luca Mori discovered the remains of a Roman villa when viewing the satellite photos near his home in Google Earth. After reading about Luca's discovery, Scott Madry (a professor at the University of North Carolina) decided to have a look at Google Earth. "Frankly, I was floored," Madry said. "I was shocked at the results that I was able to get." He has been making discoveries using the aerial and satellite photos of France in Google Earth - an area he had been researching for years. In just a few months, Madry has placemarked over 100 suspected locations where there are signs of Roman-era roads, houses, temples, and other historic sites. See an example site visible in GE. Many of these locations are new discoveries and archaeologists plan to further examine the sites. Read more about Dr. Madry's innovative research at the National Geographic News. |
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