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If you read enough to find those tems, look a little further for orthorectification and you will have just about the full glossary of the behind the scenes work in Google Earth's data production process for images. Of course, there is also work in the terrain, data layers, and 3D buildings processes as well. The goal, though, is that all of this is invisible to end-users who just type in an address and enjoy the fact that it all works as expected. ;-)

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Ack, don't say orthorectification! :-) The org where I work is just now working with a vendor to get a new set of orthos, this time using LIDAR data in the post-processing. Between difficulties with the LIDAR and delays in flying due to clouds, it is all several months behind schedule. For a short while when I first began here I was doing quality control on incoming orthos. Thankfully, now I just get to watch the trainwreck from a distance.

The details of satellite-made imagery are pretty new to me. I'm used to seeing airplane/film errors.. even things like bits of lint on the film. Now I have to learn a whole new set of ways for things to go wrong!

As an application, Google Earth keep surprising me in how well it works; but sometimes what seems really novel is the global community of people talking about geography and remote sensing. After years of hearing about the sad state of geographic education, who knew all it takes is a fun tool and a way for people to talk to each other?

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