Sightseer
Registered: 07/13/06
Posts: 47
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The Google Earth Sightseer
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September 2006 Issue |
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New Imagery & Data Updates 
 At the end of August we updated the Google Earth Community (GEC) layers. Posts that were made to the supported GEC forums are now a part of the built-in Google Earth Layers, which you can turn on in the layer panes on the left side of GE (open the folders to see the different categories). When the layers are turned on, you'll see many "i" placemarks almost anywhere you look on Earth, each one representing information posted by someone at the forums. Select a placemark to see more information or a link to the original post.
On September 9th we updated our aerial and satellite imagery with new high resolution areas and updates to existing ones. The entire states of California, Montana, Connecticut and Georgia have higher resolution, and the countries of Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Japan have had cities, or larger areas, updated to high resolution. Many other countries and U.S. states and cities have had minor updates as well.
On September 13th we made significant further updates to the GE layers. Here are a few of them. 3D Buildings - many cities in Japan now have 3D buildings. Roads - new countries with road data; more countries have data for Travel and Tourism, Dining, Parks and Recreation, and Lodging. Transportation - there's a new improved rails sub-layer, along with the new Featured Content layer for GE (here's a press release about some of these exciting new layers). We encourage you to turn on these layers as you're exploring new places; you'll find pictures and links to other information, address information and telephone numbers, and sometimes links to video content as well. Keep an eye on the layers as we continue to provide as much access as possible to useful geo-referenced information. |
Looking for Earth Help?
Google Earth has a fun and intuitive interface: just grab the Earth with your mouse, click the mouse button and start moving around. You can play with the navigation controls to get new views and zoom down to look closely at satellite and aerial photos. If you want to learn more about our advanced features, here are some links to useful online documentation:
If you're having technical difficulties, check out the GE support forums with separate forums for the different versions of GE (Free, Plus, Pro, Mac OS X, and Linux).
For KML developers, here's the KML documentation page. You can post your questions and either Google or the many helpful Google Earth fans will try to answer them. |
Going Bananas Blogging in Google Earth
 The newly updated Jane Goodall Institute's Gombe Chimpanzee Blog is the first blog to be available entirely from within Google Earth. The Gombe blog documents researcher stories about the chimpanzees living near the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania. Researchers have given names to each of the chimpanzees they're observing, and each story is geo-located where it happened. The blog has been added to the "Featured Content" layer (available in the lower left in GE). Select "Jane Goodall Institute: Gombe Chimpanzee Blog" and double-click to fly to the area. Click on the "monkey" icons for bios of the chimpanzees. Click on the "binocular" icons for samples of blog entries. You can also try a recent blog entry this way  . Finally, you can view additional information such as the locations of streams, park trails, and roads (which includes roads for much of Tanzania). We encourage you to explore these excellent resources and study this interesting community of chimpanzees. |
GPS Use and Google Earth
 GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) devices enable you to determine the coordinates of your location within a few meters, and sometimes check built-in maps as well. These devices are becoming increasingly common with cars, cell phones and even digital cameras starting to offer built-in GPS technology. You can also buy a wide range of hand-held GPS devices that enable you to upload your position to your computer - where you can easily view your track in Google Earth.
 First, your GPS unit may have software which can output your track directly to GE (for example, Garmin's MapSource software, provided with many of its handheld GPSes, has a "View in Google Earth" option). You can also output your track(s) to a GPX file (GPS exchange format). Go to the GE "File" menu and select "Open" then choose the file type of ".GPX, .LOC". Find your file and open it and you should see your GPS track. Here's a simple example track of a drive in St. Louis.
One very useful (and free) tool for doing more with your GPS tracks, the GPSVisualizer, uses this form to let you upload your file and do things like colorize your track by altitude. Once you're done with the form, select "Create KML file" to get a file you can open with Google Earth for your track. Here's a GPS track of a ski trip at Snowbird in Utah.
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X PRIZE Cup Using Google Earth
The X PRIZE Cup is Earth's great space exposition. This year's Cup features three spectacular competitions with over $2.5 million in prizes, multiple high-powered rocket launches, the unveiling of the Rocket Racing League's X-Racer, static engine test firings live on the field, fly-overs by the T-38 astronaut trainer and a variety of other surprises, both in the air and on the ground. X PRIZE Cup will be using Google Earth before and during Cup events to help people learn more about space. The Cup will be held on October 20-21 at the Las Cruces Airport in New Mexico |
3D Buildings Out of Paper
 Google SketchUp is a free, powerful and fun tool for creating 3D models, and this story discusses a particular innovative way to make 3D buildings for Google Earth. Dr. Andrew Hudson-Smith created a 3D building of the Bank of China (GE 4 required), which he says was based on plans for a paper model off a web site. Normally you'd print a copy of the paper design of the building, cut the dotted lines and paste the model together. Dr. Hudson-Smith says: "Our cutting and gluing skills are quite frankly limited, but by placing the texture in SketchUp you can cut and fold digitally. Combine this with the ability of Google Earth Beta 4 to import textures and you can quickly create a 3D model which can be exported and viewed in context." Dr. Hudson-Smith works at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, and his blog regularly documents intriguing technology related to representing city buildings in 3D. Nice work.
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Back to School - Google Earth in the Classroom
 Teachers around the world are discovering how GE can be used to enhance their classrooms. They're publishing lesson plans for geography activities, and others are publishing GE-related spins on works of literature (see, for instance, places quoted in Shakespeare from this BBS post). Here's a summary of some of Google Earth's educational uses and resources.
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