 |
What's New in Google Earth?
Each month we highlight the newest additions to Google Earth content. If you haven't been subscribing to Sightseer for long, check the forum for previous editions.
New Imagery
 In mid-July we released a substantial update to the aerial and satellite imagery for Google Earth. Included are new broad coverage areas in medium resolution imagery for Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Western Australia, and Central Mexico. And, there is new and updated high resolution imagery in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, England, and the US. More specific details available here.
Cities in 3D Release
 In March, we introduced the Cities in 3D Program, empowering local governments to contribute their own 3D models to Google. Since our original announcement, we have expanded the program to Europe and been working closely with several local governments in the US to get their models published to Google Earth. After four short months, the models from our first round of participants are available. Check out the models at the following locations: Amherst, MA; Greenville, SC; McMinnville, TN; Nanaimo, British Columbia; Nashville and Davidson County, TN; Jamestown, NY; and Washington, D.C. Also read why one city chose to participate in the program. Read more.
Winners of Model Your Campus Competition
The winners of the Google 2008 International Model Your Campus contest were announced on July 9th. Congratulations to the talented students who took on such a challenging project. You can see their individual collections in our 3D Warehouse, or just fly to each campus  in Google Earth and turn on the 3D Buildings layer. The winning campuses were: Johns Hopkins University, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Nicolas Copernicus University, Stockholm University and KTH, Cardiff University, Bournemouth University, and Peking University. More details. |
Beijing Summer Games 2008
Today, the 2008 Summer Games will commence in Beijing and will run until August 24th. You may have noticed that we recently updated our satellite imagery in Beijing, have added detailed bilingual maps in China, and have created a collection of 3D stadiums using Google Sketchup.
In addition to all of this, we've launched our 2008 Summer Games site. It's a one-stop shop for viewing live updates from the Games, including up-to-date medal counts by country, events by date, and results by sport.
 As a bonus, we've included a way to view sports stadiums and venues in 3D. By clicking the 'Earth' tab, PC users can access the Google Earth plug-in and virtually explore the Beijing Village. Not a PC user? No problem. All users are also able to preview the venue information and 3D fly-through videos within the map.
If you'd rather track the games from your desktop, we've also launched a Google Earth KML for the Summer Games that highlights similar information and provides a unique virtual experience. To whet your palate, here's a video tour of the 3D Village. |
Canary Islands GIS
 The Canary Islands Spatial Data Infrastructure (IDE in Spanish) has released Google Earth access to some of its geographic information system (GIS) data. The files provide multiple zoom levels of detail for Topographic Maps 1:5.000, Streetmaps, Vegetation Map, Land Use Map and Protected Areas Map. And, they plan to add more maps in the coming months. The maps were posted at the Google Earth Community by Jorge Rosales. You can download the Canary Islands maps here . As you zoom in, more information will be queried from their server and then drawn as an overlay in Google Earth. The default map is the topographical map. You can look under the IDECanarias folder for other maps to view.
|
Live Hurricane Hunters
 Hurricane reconnaissance is the most accurate way to get a read on the condition and strength of a tropical storm or hurricane. In the US, special aircraft known as Hurricane Hunters, are equipped with weather instruments, and a brave complement of scientists and aviators, who fly right through these huge storms to measure the winds, temperature, air pressure, etc. Weather forecasters use the data to get more accurate information to improve forecast models on the storms.
The people at Tropical Atlantic, have put together Google Earth files letting you watch live hurricane reconnaissance (recon for short) missions, or see the results from recent missions. If you go to their special recon page, you can see links to their recon archive, or to the current live recon data  for Google Earth. Once you open a recon file, you will see colored wind barbs which indicate the strength of the winds for the storm at that position as the plane flew through that part of the storm. A legend in the upper left gives you an indication to the strength of the winds based on the color. The wind barbs also indicate the strength by the number and shape of the barb for each position. And, finally, you can click on a wind barb with the left mouse button and get details on the reading for each position (which also includes, temperature, pressure, altitude of the plane, etc.).
This is a great way to get insight on how weather forecasters gather their data for tropical storms. Tropical Atlantic also has a special Google Earth file which provides you with a wide range of weather data for Atlantic weather including satellite photos, sea surface temperatures, wind and wave analysis, and much more. You can find other storm tracking tools for Google Earth which let you see all active storms globally and a variety of overlays to help understand the weather. |
Tips & Tricks: Using Alternate Public Imagery
The WMS (Web Mapping Service) feature allows you to access publicly available geo data and import it into Google Earth as an image overlay. These images are provided through a WMS over the Internet. Often, this data displays interesting imagery, such as geological formations, alternate high resolution satellite pictures and more.
To learn about using this feature, view the Google Earth user guide. |
|
|
