Google Earth is a wonderful "killer application." Its success depends on excellent data, software, and support. This BBS provides a low-cost Quality Assurance (QA) group of immense size, dedication, and energy. Very few companies evoke similar volunteer resources. This posting and its subpostings attempt to gather the current problems and insure they have been reported to Google.

IMAGERY

• Image Errors are problems which can or must be solved by manual intervention.
  ---- Camera artifacts
  ---- Duplicate Images
  ---- Misalignments
  ---- Missing Images
  ---- Orthorectification
  ---- Spurious Images
• Image Blemishes are problems which require new imagery
  ---- Blue Bubbles minor
  ---- Clouds & Shadows serious
  ---- Contrails moderate
  ---- Discolorations moderate
  ---- Hairlines minor
  ---- Ice & Snow serious
  ---- Newton's Rings minor
  ---- Pock Marks moderate
  ---- Reflections minor
  ---- Shaky & Blurred serious
  ---- Smoke & Emissions serious
  ---- Squiggles minor
  ---- Swaths moderate
  ---- Underwater Buildings minor
  ---- Watermarks minor
• Censorship

TERRAIN (Altitude)

LAYERS (vector data)

• Place Names (Toponomy)
• Roads
• Other Layers
• Wikipedia

Outlines, rather than pinpoints, have been provided so that the same problem need not be reported at each road disjuncture, etc. This has been done for such area-related problems as misalignments, pock marks, duplicate images, false mountains and trenches, missing terrain data, and censorship.

Special thanks to bebop, Noisette, sasroodkapje, simon_a, and syzygy for their help in identifying problems, other users' related postings, and evaluations of errors.

Data Problems > Image Errors
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Image Errors are problems which can or must be solved by manual intervention.

(Blemishes are image problems which require new imagery.)

• Latitude-Longitude
  
• Missing Images
  
• Duplicate Images
  
• Spurious Images
  
• Misalignments
  
• Needless Images
  
• Camera artifacts
  
• Orthorectification
  
• Miscellaneous
  

Get a network link HERE to selectively download the latest version of each Data Problems category.

Post deleted by PriceCollins

Data Problems > Image Errors > Missing Images

The Compendium Table of Contents contains a single network link which enables you to download the latest version of the entire Compendium in a single file of about 1.2 megabytes.
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These are usually just areas which were not photographed. However, while some of them are not in "important places", such omissions breed conspiracy theories. (What are "they" hiding?)

• Bahrain: Missing bridge
  
  
• Canada: Nunavut 1, 2 and 3 and Quebec 4
  
  
• Canada-Alaska, USA border 530514-617330 Partially fixed wih Digital Globe overlay, 19 September 2007.
  
  
  
• Denmark
  ---- Greenland 1: This was a small triangle before new global images of 23 March 2006.
  ---- Greenland 2
  
  
  
• France
  ---- Illies
  ---- Rouen
  
  
• Greece Saronic Gulf islands missing
  
  
• Nicaragua Little Corn Island
  
  
• UK:
  ---- Huddersfield
  ---- Scilly Isles
  
  
• USA
  ---- Lexington, Kentucky
  ---- Oak Grove, Florida
  ---- Yona, Guam
  
  
• "Missing" Coastal Images:
  Technically, these images are NOT MISSING. They are a byproduct of the visual methods used to portray coastal waters in the low-resolution background imagery. The water colors progress very gradually from BLUE in the oceans to BLACK at the coastlines.
  
  If an area near the shore which is already black (in a bay, for example) becomes surrounded by high-resolution overlays, the remaining black area appears to be a missing image, and it raises many BBS queries, with some users suspecting censorship.
  

Notes:
---- Generally, we cannot list missing offshore islands. Too many were lost globally in the March-April 2006 change to the TerraMetrics basic 15-meter background images.

Data Problems > Image Errors > Misalignments

The Compendium Table of Contents contains a single network link which enables you to download the latest version of the entire Compendium in a single file of about 1.2 megabytes.
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Recent high resolution updates to downtown metropolitan areas are generally well aligned. However, the suburbs are often left badly misaligned. See Amsterdam (Netherlands), Baghdad (Iraq), Belgrade (Serbia), Granada (Spain), Lima (Peru), Luxembourg City, Milan (Italy), Munich (Germany), Prague (Czech Republic), San Jose (Costa Rica), and San Salvador (El Salvador)

• Africa Megaflyover
  ---- When high-resolution images are introduced behind an image from the "Africa Megaflyover" Featured Content layer, they are not jointly aligned. The photos were taken at significant angles, so they need orthorectification.
  ---- Where airport runways are located in the same images, they are diplayed, and they show that the problems are in the misalignment of the Megaflyover images, in locations, compass directions, and viewing angles. (Note the wedge-shaped area on the ground covered by the Flyover image because of its viewing angle, approximately 45�.)
  
  
  
• Antarctic 644026 image-stretching in four areas of significant swaths: 35�-45�W, 51�-62�W, 146�-180�W, and 164�-180�E
  
  
• Arctic
  ---- 617415 Canada, Ellesmere Island misaligned 10 kilometers
  ---- 617416 Denmark, Greenland, misaligned 15 - 30 kilometers
  ---- 617419 Norway, Svalbard, Nordaustlandet misaligned 12 kilometers
  ---- 617421 Russia, Franz Josef Land misaligned 12 kilometers
  ---- 617426 Russia, Ushakov Island misaligned 6 kilometers
  ---- 617424 Russia, Komsomolets Island, Severnaya Zemlya misaligned 10 kilometers
  
  
  
• Australia
  ---- 617429 Adalaide misaligned 550 meters---- 617437 Brisbane misaligned 20 - 200+ meters. The area has too many overlaid images for analysis. We illustrate here the use of airport runways which are published to hundredths of a second
  
  ---- 617438 Gold Coast misaligned 200 meters: 1% FIXED in March 2007; 35% FIXED in June-July; the rest is NOT FIXED
  ---- 644193 Jervis Bay misaligned 80 meters west
  
  
• Austria, Vienna misaligned various distances up to 30 meters.
  
  
• Bahamas, Eleuthera Island misaligned 15 meters at north end (617539), 100 meters in center (617554), 400 meters in south end (617555), analyzed by comparing with airport runways.
  
  
• Botswana, 4990 Ghanzi misaligned 1350 meters west
  
  
• Brazil
  ---- 607979 �guas Lindas de Goi�s 200 misaligned 200 meters west
  ---- 3267 Brasilia misaligned 200 meters northwest
  ---- 644068 Lauro de Freitas misaligned 90 meters east Partially Fixed
  ---- 664064 Salto de Cima misaligned 120 meters south
  
  
• Canada
  ---- 6129 Kingston misaligned 50 meters east
  ---- 3635 Mount Hector misaligned 70 meters east
  
  
• Denmark, We show examples of the many areas which use a unique stretching method to smooth misaligned adjacent images. The misalignments are sometimes 40+ meters, unusual for European high-resolution aerial imagery. Odense has a great array of such misalignments
  
  
• France
  ---- Chaumont misaligned 100 meters southeast, 19 June 2007
  ---- Gac� misaligned 85 meters southeast, 26 June 2007
  
  
• Hungary, 5298 Budapest misaligned 25 meters east
  
  
• India, 617643 Southern India misalignments 100 to 300+ meters Some fixed 19 September 2007
  
  
• Ireland
  ---- Sligo misaligned 20 meters east. Although this is not excessive, the Sligo Roads layer needs many updates (see THIS POSTING), so correcting this misalignment would assist in that effort.
  
  
  
• Italy
  ---- 5353 Addolorata misaligned 40 meters east
  ---- 644203 San Benedetto del Tronto misaligned 400 meters west
  
  
• Japan
  ---- Tokyo harbor image rotated 180�
  
  
• Luxembourg
  ---- Bettendorf, 30 to 50 meters NE, noted 27 July 2007
  ---- 644070 Strassen, 334 meters SW
  
  
• Mauritius, Agalega Islands misaligned 3.5 kilometers northwest.
  
  
• Portugal, 617662 Pa�o de Arcos (suburban Lisbon) misaligned 40 meters
  
  
• South Africa
  ---- 5079-80 Bloemfontein. Covers several significant misalignments -- Boyden Hill 847 m WSW (verified by Observatory correspondents), Bloemfontein airport 280 m NNW, Kelly's View 750 m SW, Kromdraai 277 WNW, and New Tempe airport 25 m ESE
  ---- 7394 George 30 m W misaligned
  
  
• Spain
  ---- 641686 Agres misaligned 400 meters west
  ---- Granada suburbs misaligned 440 meters (compare with ROADS). Two new images were added April 2006 which corrected central Granada.
  
  
• Switzerland
  ---- 4827 Basle misaligned 35 meters northwest
  
  
• UK
  ---- 617727 Dundee misaligned 30+ meters
  ---- Leigh, double switchback misalignment
  
  ---- 617742 Slough misaligned 50 meters, though slightly smaller after October 2006 updates
  
  
• USA
  ---- 777959 California, Sequoia & Kings Canyon park areas misaligned about 400 meters westward, creating also a duplicated image area on the eastern side, Partially Fixed 29 July 2007
  ---- California, Watsonville misaligned 70 meters SWS
  ---- Colorado, Aspen misaligned 50 meters SW
  ---- 3697 New Mexico, Santa Fe misaligned 400 m W
  ---- Nevada, Area 51 misaligned 350 meters.
  ---- New York-New Jersey image overlaps
  ---- 643988 Oklahoma, Tulsa misaligned 20 to 40 meters.
  ---- 644089 South Dakota, Beresford misaligned 20 meters southwest. The area had originally included Sioux Falls, but was reduced 27 July 2007
  ---- 643972 Tennessee, Oak Ridge misaligned 87 meters.
  ---- 617774 Texas, Plano misaligned 58 meters.
  ---- US Virgin Islands: Saint Croix (35 m W) and Saint Thomas (60 m W
  ---- Wyoming, Muddy Gap misaligned 420 meters west
  

Data Problems > Image Errors > Duplicate Images

The Compendium Table of Contents contains a single network link which enables you to download the latest version of the entire Compendium in a single file of about 1.1 megabytes.
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Duplications in high resolution images

• France
  ---- 1031121 (was 26135) Lamouroux
  
  
• Germany
  ---- 5606 Ennetb�hl a most unusually shaped duplicate image, and very hard to perceive
  ---- 927381 (was 8102) Hammer an der Uecker
  
  
• Mexico
  ---- 8062 San Lucas
  
  
• Tanzania
  ---- 617306 duplicated and rotated very high-resolution images from the African Flyover which have been made a part of the Google Earth database, rather than remaining user overlays. Four Flyover icons have been employed.
  
  
  
• UK
  ---- 927382 (was 10857) Brixham
  ---- 927415 (was 7657) Hutton Cranswick, an unusual duplication of just a single four-house building, probably to fix a slight image problem. Compare Google (left) with Microsoft:
  
  ---- 6802 Plymouth harbor barrier duplicated. The southerly image is correct.
  ---- 23926 Red Lodge, another manually-created set of multiple duplications
  
  
• USA
  ---- Arkansas, Johnson, four identical images apparently manually introduced
  ---- 799754 Arkansas, Viola
  ---- 901825 (was 10758) Montana, Augusta duplicate image
  ---- 6092 South Carolina, Kingstree, three pairs of duplicate images
  
  

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Duplications in TerraMetrics global background images We show here just one instance in the Philippines.

• Brazil
  ---- 530516 Agua Boa: A horizontal rectangle 375 kilometers wide and 1.5 kilometers tall is duplicated incorrectly above itself. ALSO duplicated in Microsoft's Virtual Earth
  ---- 617280-617282-663998 Alto Para�so de Goi�s. A horizontal rectangle 311 kilometers wide and 1.1 kilometers tall is duplicated incorrectly above itself. ALSO duplicated in Microsoft's Virtual Earth
  
  
• Brazil-Bolivia,
  ---- 617281-664002 , border duplication. A horizontal rectangle 280 kilometers wide and 1.1 kilometers tall is duplicated incorrectly above itself in the border region ALSO duplicated in Microsoft's Virtual Earth
  
  
• China
  ---- 530516, Six horizontal rectangles 340 kilometers wide and 1.5 kilometers tall are duplicated incorrectly above themselves. ALSO duplicated in Microsoft's Virtual Earth where we illustrate the northernmost.
  
  
• New Zealand
  ---- 22238 Pirongia, NZ duplicate image
  ---- 3585 Point Gore duplicate images
  
  
• North Korea
  ---- Over a large area 35 kilometers wide by 50 kilometers tall, the Brazil duplication above is repeated maybe 20+ times. NOT duplicated in Microsoft's Virtual Earth
  
  
• Philippines
  ---- Area in Botak 5 kilometers wide by 0.5 kilometers tall duplicated, but NOT duplicated in Microsoft's Virtual Earth and NOT duplicated in Yahoo Maps
  ---- Cagamcam
  ---- Cayaponga
  ---- Latian
  ---- Lacaron
  ---- Maybio
  ---- Pagtilaan
  ---- Unidad
  
  
• Russia
  ---- 530516-643985-664023 Kedon. ZOOM IN. Over a very large area 380 kilometers wide by 270 kilometers tall, the Brazil duplication above is repeated maybe 100+ times. NOT duplicated in Microsoft's Virtual Earth
  
  

Data Problems > Image Errors > Camera Artifacts

The Compendium Table of Contents contains a single network link which enables you to download the latest version of the entire Compendium in a single file of about 1.1 megabytes.
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• Cenada
  ---- Artifacts in Notre-Dame-des-Bois and St-Venant-de-Paquette
  
  
• Denmark
  ---- Copenhagen, "camera tab" artifact
  
  
• Netherlands
  ---- De Lier
  
  
• UK
  ---- Ashwell, UK camera artifacts
  ---- Cockerham crosshairs
  ---- 617298 Laycock crosshairs
  ---- Liverpool Bay camera artifact
  ---- 617298 Oakworth compass rose
  
  
  
• USA
  ---- 617316 Alaska, Anchorage, 18 crosshairs
  ---- 871901 Colorado, Eagle County camera artifacts
  ---- 617318 North Carolina, Hillsborough, camera strip
  ---- 9422 New Jersey, Fort Lee camera artifact
  ---- 644032 New Jersey, Haddenfield
  ---- Utah Mayfield, "camera tab" artifact,
  ---- 617317 Washington, East Wenatchee, contains a camera registration number "0901-0-2..." Partially fixed 27 July 2007
  

---- Antarctica image-stretching moved to "Misalignments."
---- UK, Blackpool piers moved to "Missing Images."
---- South Carolina waters moved to "Spurious Images."
---- US Kingman Reef problem moved to "Borders & Coastlines."
---- Brazil's Rio Curu�a slippage moved to "Misaligned Swaths."

Data Problems > Terrain Errors
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Terrain Errors have been grouped as follows:

• Below Sea Level
  
• Polar Depressions
  
• Gobal Summary
  

Get a set of network links HERE to selectively download the latest versions of every Data Problems category.

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