Google Earth Community: The Sightseer February 2007 Issue

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February 2007 Issue

In This Issue:

Highlights:
New Google Earth Search Capability
Remote Controlled Aerial Photography for Google Earth
Spreading the Word on Human Rights Issues
Satellite Photography from NASA in Google Earth

Explore Further:
Show us your University Campus in 3D
Google Earth Used to Fight Logging Proposal
Placemarks of the Month
February Calendar

*Please note that Google Earth 4 was released on January 8, 2007. Make sure you download the latest version. Some content mentioned in this newsletter will only work properly on Google Earth 4.

Where in the world is this rarely visited rocky carapace? Click here to submit your best guess for the location and country. We'll email the winners and post the results here. The first five correct submissions will win a Google Earth t-shirt.

New Google Earth Search Capability

Search is at the heart of everything we do here at Google. That's why we're excited to announce a new search innovation that's available today in Google Earth. Now you can now search through all of the world's Keyhole Markup Language (KML) files, making the millions of Google Earth KML files on the Web instantly accessible for geobrowsing and exploration.

The new search capability can be found within Google Earth. It allows you to find relevant Google Earth content related to the place you are looking at in your Google Earth View. For example, if you search for "Lord of the Rings" in the "Search->Fly-To", while looking at New Zealand, the search results panel on the left will show 2 sets of results: red bubble icons for results from Google's local business search index, below that, web results in green globe placemarks, which include a small snippet (like web URLs with snippets on Google.com) and are checked off by default.

In the information bubble for a placemark from the web search results, you'll find a link at the top to the KML/KMZ file that contains it. Click this link and you'll instantly open the file, which shows up under Temporary Places in the Places panel. You can then browse the content by clicking on the files's various placemarks, much as you'd browse links on a web page. So in the above example, you can open the search result for "Lord of the Rings Tour" and browse through locations of, and information about, 37 different scenes.

Remote Controlled Aerial Photography for Google Earth

Last year, David Riallant of France released a Google Video showing the deployment and use of a drone (a remote controlled small aircraft) with a digital camera mounted to take aerial photos viewable in Google Earth. The drone can be controlled while simultaneously viewing the flight using virtual reality goggles. Since the drone can fly at low altitudes, it can take very high resolution photos. A company called Pict'Earth was formed to sell the technology; they've released an example of high-res photography of a gravel pit taken from a drone which you can see now in Google Earth

. Turn on the loaded network link and as you zoom in you'll see higher resolution photos using a KML feature called regions. They've highlighted each photo tile, so you can see how regions work. Flying one of these drones with the goggles must be a blast!

Spreading the Word on Human Rights Issues

International organizations that track human rights issues are using Google Earth to illustrate evidence of abuse visible from space. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), for instance, recently released dramatic before/after satellite photos showing villages which have been destroyed in Darfur (example

- turn on/off the layers "March 2006" and "November 2006" to compare the areas marked in red) and similar destruction in Zimbabwe (example

- turn on/off the loaded layer to compare areas marked in red). There are also examples of damage from the conflict between Israel and Lebanon (see example

of damages in Beirut). The AAAS data involved collaboration with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Read more on the AAAS web site.

Satellite Photography from NASA in Google Earth

Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have released some unique imagery for viewing in Google Earth using the Web Mapping Service (WMS) capability of GE 4. First, NASA has links for recent imagery from NASA's Terra and Aqua Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellites. These links allow you to view the beautiful imagery taken during the last 24 hours at up to 250 meters/pixel resolution. The resolution is good enough to see current weather and large scale environmental conditions (such as dust storms, fire/smoke, etc.), which is precisely NASA's focus with these satellites. NASA also has produced a GE 4 version of its Blue Marble Next Generation photos, which show processed versions of the Earth from space without clouds for each month of the year. You can use the time slider in GE 4 to view each month and see the effects of the season on the Earth.

Show us your University Campus in 3D

The Build Your Campus in 3D Competition has launched! This spring, higher education students in the US and Canada can honor their campus turf and hone their 3D design skills by modeling their campus buildings in Google SketchUp, geo-referencing them in Google Earth, and submitting them through the competition website. Winners will get a visit to the Google campus, all expenses paid.

Students can team up with other students, or take the project on themselves (for the best results, we recommend including a faculty advisor). The deadline for entries is June 1, and the winning entries will be posted to the 3D Warehouse by July 10. Good luck and happy sketching!

Google Earth Used to Fight Logging Proposal

Rebecca Moore is a member of the Google Earth team who has made the news by using Google Earth to help fight a proposed logging plan in her neighborhood near Los Gatos, California. The plan, proposed by San Jose Water Co., is to log 1,000 acres of timberland in the Los Gatos Creek watershed, which contains redwood and Douglas fir trees. Last year Rebecca produced a Google Earth file documenting the layout of the area showing the trees, creeks and streams, schools, and homes which would be effected by the plan. The file helped gain considerable support in the fight against the logging plan (even Al Gore showed his support after seeing the proposed plan). A few months ago, Rebecca and a local helicopter aerial photographer jointly performed extensive photo analysis of the area. On January 31, a presentation by opponents to the plan was made at a public hearing using a movie (Quicktime, no audio) which reveals through photo analysis that the proposed logging exceeds a California legal requirement by possessing too much commercially viable land to qualify for an open logging plan. The fate of the plan will be decided soon.

There are examples of other citizens concerned about logging issues using Google Earth to present their cases; see, for instance, the logging plans for the Victorian rainforest, and the island of Tasmania.

Placemarks of the Month

Groundhog Day (read story)
Ramsses Statues in 3D (read story)
Blue Whale Skeleton (read story)

February Calendar

Click on the links below to fly to places associated with this month's events. Don't forget to click on the Placemarks in Google Earth to read the descriptions.

February 2 - Ayn Rand Born
February 3 - The Day the Music Died
February 6 - Bob Marley Born
February 10 - Release of Nelson Mandela
February 15 - Dale Earnhardt Wins Dayton 500
February 19 - Battle of Iwo Jima
February 22 - Miracle on Ice
February 26 - Grand Canyon Park Established

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