Google Earth is a
virtual
globe,
map and
geographic information program that was
originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by
Keyhole, Inc, a company acquired by
Google in 2004. It maps the Earth by the
superimposition of images obtained from
satellite imagery,
aerial photography and
GIS 3D globe. It is available under three
different licenses: Google Earth, a free version with limited
functionality; Google Earth Plus (discontinued), which included
additional features; and Google Earth Pro ($400 per year), which is
intended for commercial use.
The product, re-released as Google Earth in 2005, is currently
available for use on
personal
computers running
Windows 2000 and
above,
Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above,
Linux Kernel: 2.4 or later (released on June
12, 2006), and
FreeBSD. Google Earth is also
available as a
browser plugin which was released on May 28, 2008. It was
also made available on the
iPhone OS on
October 27, 2008, as a free download from the
App Store. In addition to releasing an updated
Keyhole based client, Google also added the imagery from the Earth
database to their web based mapping software. The release of Google
Earth in June 2005 to the public caused a more than tenfold
increase in media coverage on
virtual
globes between 2005 and 2006, driving public interest in
geospatial technologies and
applications.
Overview
Google Earth displays satellite images of varying resolution of the
Earth's surface, allowing users to visually see things like cities
and houses looking perpendicularly down or at an
oblique angle, with
perspective (see also
bird's eye view). The degree of resolution
available is based somewhat on the points of interest and
popularity, but most land (except for some islands) is covered in
at least 15 meters of resolution.
Melbourne, Victoria
, Australia; Las Vegas, Nevada
; and Cambridge,
Cambridgeshire
include examples of the highest resolution, at
15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to
search for addresses for some countries, enter coordinates, or
simply use the mouse to browse to a location.
For large parts of the surface of the Earth only 2D images are
available, from almost vertical photography. Viewing this from an
oblique angle, there is perspective in the sense that objects which
are horizontally far away are seen smaller, but of course it is
like viewing a large photograph, not quite like a 3D view.
For other parts of the surface of the Earth 3D images of terrain
and buildings are available.
Google Earth uses digital elevation model (DEM) data
collected by NASA
's Shuttle Radar Topography
Mission (SRTM). This means one can view the Grand Canyon
or Mount
Everest
in three dimensions,
instead of 2D like other areas. Since November 2006, the 3D
views of many mountains, including Mount Everest, have been
improved by the use of supplementary DEM data to fill the gaps in
SRTM coverage.
Many people use the applications to add their own data, making them
available through various sources, such as the
Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) or
blogs mentioned in the link section below.
Google Earth is able to show all kinds of images overlaid on the
surface of the earth and is also a
Web
Map Service client. Google Earth supports managing
three-dimensional
Geospatial data through
Keyhole Markup Language
(KML).
Google Earth has the capability to show a 3D buildings and
structures (such as bridges), which consist of users' submissions
using
SketchUp, a
3D
modeling program. In prior versions of Google Earth (before
Version 4), 3D buildings were limited to a few cities, and had
poorer rendering with no textures.
Many buildings and structures from around
the world now have detailed 3D structures; including (but not
limited to) those in the United States, Canada, Ireland, India,
Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Pakistan
and the
cities, Amsterdam
and Alexandria
. In August 2007, Hamburg
became the
first city entirely shown in 3D, including textures such as
façades. The Irish town of Westport
was added to Google Earth in 3D on January 16,
2008. The 'Westport3D' model was created by 3D imaging firm
AM3TD using long-distance laser scanning technology and digital
photography and is the first such model of an Irish town to be
created. As it was developed initially to aid Local Government in
carrying out their
town planning
functions it includes the highest resolution photo-realistic
textures to be found anywhere in Google Earth. Three-dimensional
renderings are available for certain buildings and structures
around the world via Google's 3D Warehouse and other
websites.
Recently, Google added a feature that allows users to monitor
traffic speeds at loops located every 200 yards in real-time. In
version 4.3 released on April 15, 2008,
Google Street View was fully integrated
into the program allowing the program to provide an on the street
level view in many locations.
On January 17, 2009, the entirety of Google Earth's ocean floor
imagery was updated to new images by SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, and
GEBCO.
The
new images have caused smaller islands, such as some atolls in the
Maldives
, to be rendered invisible despite their shores
being completely outlined.
On October 21, 2009, whole Poland territory imagery was updated
(many places were impossible to overview, in low resolution, now
they're updated), and - in places - downgraded (in very good
resolution, now with medium).
Languages
Since version 5.0 Google Earth is available in 37 languages (four
of which in two variants):
Features
Wikipedia and Panoramio integration
In December 2006 Google Earth added a new layer called "Geographic
Web" that includes integration with
Wikipedia and
Panoramio.
In Wikipedia, entries are scraped for coordinates via the . There
is also a community-layer from the project
Wikipedia-World.
More coordinates are used, different types are in the display and
different languages are supported than the built-in Wikipedia
layer. See: *
dynamic resp.
static layer. Google announced on May 30, 2007
that it is acquiring
Panoramio.
Flight simulator
Since Google Earth v4.2, a flight simulator has been included as a
hidden feature.
Depending on the system, it can be accessed by pressing
Control+Alt+A, Control+A, or
Command+Option+A. After this feature has been
activated at least once it appears under the tools menu. Since v4.3
the option is no longer hidden by default. Currently the
F-16 Fighting Falcon and the
Cirrus SR-22 are the only aircraft that can be
used, in addition to a few airports. It is also possible to control
the simulator with a mouse or joystick, although not all models are
currently supported.
The Google Earth flight simulator features the ability to fly to
any supported locations of the world. The pilot can choose any
location to start a flight or attempt to land a flight in the
world. Fly time is not very accelerated, as it takes the F-16 at
highest speed at least 60 minutes to fly from coast-to-coast in the
US. Aircraft can land on any level surface in the world (including
under the ocean in Google Earth 5.0) as long as the aircraft is
below 250
knots and is falling at less
than per minute when touching ground.
Featured planes
- F-16 Fighting Falcon - A
much higher speed and maximum altitude than the Cirrus SR-22, it
has the ability to fly at speeds of almost 1,300 knots near ground
level.
- Cirrus SR-22 - Although slower and
with a lower maximum altitude, the SR-22 is much easier to handle
and is preferred for up-close viewing of Google Earth's
imagery.
Sky mode
Google Earth in Sky Viewing Mode
Google Sky is a feature
that was introduced in Google Earth 4.2 on August 22, 2007, and
allows users to view
stars and other
celestial bodies.
It was produced by
Google through a partnership with the
Space
Telescope Science Institute
(STScI) in Baltimore, the science operations center
for the Hubble Space
Telescope. Dr.
Alberto
Conti and his co-developer Dr.
Carol
Christian of STScI plan to add the public images from 2007, as
well as color images of all of the archived data from Hubble's
Advanced Camera for Surveys. Newly released
Hubble pictures will be added to the Google Sky
program as soon as they are issued. New features such as
multi-wavelength data, positions of major satellites and their
orbits as well as educational resources will be provided to the
Google Earth community and also through Christian and Conti's
website for Sky. Also visible on Sky mode are
constellations, stars, galaxies and animations depicting the
planets in their orbits. A real-time Google Sky
mashup of recent
astronomical transients, using the
VOEvent
protocol, is being provided by the
VOEventNet collaboration. Google's Earth maps
are being updated each 5 minutes.
Google Sky faces competition from
Microsoft WorldWide Telescope
(which runs only under the
Microsoft
Windows operating systems) and from
Stellarium , a free open
source planetarium that runs under Microsoft Windows,
Mac OS X, and
Linux.
On March 13, 2008, Google made a web-based version of Google Sky
available at http://www.google.com/sky/.
Street View
On April 15, 2008 with version 4.3, Google fully integrated its
Street View into Google
Earth.
Google Street View provides 360° panoramic street-level views and
allows users to view parts of selected cities and their surrounding
metropolitan areas at ground level. When it was launched on May 25,
2007 for
Google Maps, only five cities
were included. It has since expanded to more than 40 U.S. cities,
and includes the suburbs of many, and in some cases, other nearby
cities. Recent updates have now implemented Street View in most of
the major cities of Australia and New Zealand as well as parts of
Canada, Japan, Spain, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy,
Switzerland, Portugal, and Taiwan.
Google Street View, when operated, displays photos that were
previously taken by a camera mounted on an automobile, and can be
navigated by using the mouse to click on photograph icons displayed
on the screen in your direction of travel. Using these devices, the
photos can be viewed in different sizes, from any direction, and
from a variety of angles.
Ocean
Introduced in version 5.0 (February 2009), the
Google
Ocean feature allows users to zoom below the surface of the
ocean and view the 3D
bathymetry beneath
the waves. Supporting over 20 content layers, it contains
information from leading scientists and
oceanographers.
On April 14, 2009, Google added underwater
terrain data for the Great
Lakes
.
Historical Imagery
Introduced in version 5.0, Historical Imagery allows users to
traverse back in time and study earlier stages of any place. This
feature is very useful for research purposes that require analysis
of past records of various places.
Mars
Google Earth 5 includes a separate globe of the planet Mars, that
can be viewed and analysed for research purposes. The maps are of a
much higher resolution than those on the browser version of
Google Mars and it also includes 3D
renderings of the Martian terrain. There are also some extremely
high resolution images from the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's
HiRISE camera that are of a similar
resolution to those of the cities on Earth. Finally, there are many
high resolution panoramic images from various Mars landers, such as
the
Mars Exploration Rovers,
Spirit and
Opportunity, that can be viewed in a
similar way to
Google Street
View. Interestingly enough, layers on Google Earth (such as
World Population Density) can also be applied to Mars. Layers of
Mars can also be applied onto Earth.
Moon
One of the lunar landers viewed in
Google Moon
On July 20, 2009, the 40th anniversary of the
Apollo 11 mission, Google introduced the Google
Earth version of
Google Moon, which
allows users to view satellite images of the
Moon.
It was announced and demonstrated to a group
of invited guests by Google along with Buzz
Aldrin at the Newseum in Washington,
D.C.
.
Influences
The Google Earth interface bears a noted similarity to the ‘Earth’
program described in
Neal
Stephenson's
sci-fi classic
Snow Crash.
Indeed, a Google Earth co-founder claimed
that Google Earth was modeled after Snow Crash, while
another co-founder said it was inspired by the short science
education film Powers of
Ten
. In fact Google Earth was at least partly
inspired by a Silicon Graphics demo
called "From Space to in Your Face" which zoomed from space into
the Swiss
Alps
then into the Matterhorn
. This launch demo was hosted by an
Onyx 3000 with
InfiniteReality4 graphics,
which supported
Clip Mapping and was
inspired by the hardware texture paging capability (although it did
not use the Clip Mapping) and "Powers of Ten". The first Google
Earth implementation called Earth Viewer emerged from
Intrinsic Graphics as a demonstration of
Chris Tanner's software based implementation of a
Clip Mapping texture paging system and was spun
off as Keyhole Inc. Earth Viewer was the inevitable ultimate
realization of the capabilities of a seamless texture paging system
and many of the individuals working on Earth Viewer were Silicon
Graphics alumni.
Technical Specifications
Detailed release notes/history/changelog are made available by
Google.
Imagery and coordination
- Coordinate System and Projection
- The internal coordinate system of Google Earth is geographic
coordinates (latitude/longitude) on the World
Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84) datum.
- Google Earth shows the earth as it looks from an elevated
platform such as an airplane or orbiting satellite. The projection
used to achieve this effect is called the General Perspective. This is
similar to the Orthographic
projection, except that the point of perspective is a finite
(near earth) distance rather than an infinite (deep space)
distance.
- Baseline resolutions
- Czech Republic: 0.1 - 0.5 m (by Eurosense / Geodis Brno)
- Slovakia: 0.5 m (by Eurosense / Geodis Slovakia)
- Hungary: 2.5 m SPOT Images (May be adopted to: 0.1 m - 0.5
m)
- Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, U.K., Andorra,
Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City: 1 m or
better
- Balkans: 2.5 m (medium resolution)
- U.S.: 1 m (excludes Alaska & Hawaii)
- Global: Generally 15 m (some areas, such as
Antarctica
, are in extremely low resolution), but this depends
on the quality of the satellite/aerial photograph
uploaded.
- Typical high resolutions
- Altitude resolution:
- Surface: varies by country
- Seabed: Not previously applicable, but since the introduction
of "Ocean", elevation data has been introduced (a colorscale
approximating sea floor depth is "printed" on the spherical surface
at views from high altitudes).
- Age: Images dates vary. The image data can be seen from squares
made when DigitalGlobe Coverage is enabled. The date next to the
copyright information is not the correct image date. Zooming in or
out could change the date of the pictures. Most of the
international urban image dates are from 2004 and have not been
updated. However, most US images are kept current. Google announces
imagery updates on their LatLong Blog in form of a quiz, with hints
of the updated locations. The answers are posted some days later in
the same blog.
Hardware and software
Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware
configurations. The
most recent system requirements update document
these minimum configurations:
The most likely mode of failure is insufficient video RAM: the
software is designed to warn the user if their graphics card is not
able to support Earth (this often occurs due to insufficient
Video RAM or buggy graphics card drivers).
The next most likely mode of failure is Internet access speed.
Except for the very patient,
broadband Internet (Cable, DSL, T1, etc.)
is required.
Linux Specifications
- Minimum System Requirements:
- Kernel: 2.4 or later
- CPU: Pentium III, 500 MHz
- System Memory (RAM): 128 MB
- Hard Disk: 400 MB free space
- Network Speed: 128 kbit/s
- Screen: 1024x768, 16 bit color
- Tested and works on the following distributions:
Web browsing
As of Google Earth 5, the contents of description balloons, which
are created in KML using
JavaScript and
iFrames, are rendered with an embedded
WebKit engine
KML Reference Documentation - .
Versions and variations
Release timeline
Illustrates timeline of KML and Google
Earth history
- Keyhole Earthviewer 1.0 - June 11, 2001
- Keyhole Earthviewer 1.4 - 2002
- Keyhole Earthviewer 1.6 - February 2003
- Keyhole LT 1.7.1 - August 26, 2003
- Keyhole NV 1.7.2 - October 16, 2003
- Keyhole 2.2 - August 19, 2004
- Google Earth 3.0 - June 28, 2005
- Google Earth 4.0 - June 11, 2006
- Google Earth 4.1 - May 9, 2007
- Google Earth 4.2 - August 23, 2007
- Google Earth 4.3 - April 15, 2008
- Google Earth 5.0 - May 5, 2009
- Google Earth 5.1 - November 18, 2009
Mac version
A version for
Mac OS X was released on
January 10, 2006, and is available for download from the Google
Earth website. With a few exceptions noted below, the Mac version
appears to be stable and complete, with virtually all the same
functionality as the original Windows version.
Screenshots and an actual binary of the Mac version had been leaked
to the Internet on December 8, 2005. The leaked version was
significantly incomplete. Among other things, neither the Help menu
nor its "Display License" feature worked, indicating that this
version was intended for Google's internal use only. Google
released no statement regarding the leak.
The Mac version runs only under Mac OS X version
10.4 or later. There is no embedded browser,
no direct interface to
Gmail and no full
screen option. As of January 2009 there are a few bugs concerning
the menu bar when switching between applications and a few bugs
concerning annotation balloons and printing.
From version 4.1.7076.4558 (released on May 9, 2007) onward Mac OS
X users can, among other new features, upgrade to the "Plus"
version via an option in the Google Earth menu. Some users reported
difficulties with Google Earth crashing in the then current version
when zooming in.
Linux version
Starting with the version 4 beta Google Earth functions under
Linux, as a native port using the
Qt-toolkit. It is
proprietary software specifically in
order to impose
Digital Rights
Management ; the
Free
Software Foundation consider the development of a free
compatible client for Google Earth to be a
High Priority
Free Software Project.
iPhone OS version
A version for the
iPhone OS, which runs
both the
iPhone and
iPod Touch, was released for free on the
App Store on October 27, 2008. It makes use of the
multi-touch interface to move on the
globe, zoom or rotate the view, and allow to select the current
location using the iPhone integrated
Assisted GPS. This version, however, does not
feature layers like computer versions do. Like Google Maps, it only
integrates the Wikipedia and Panoramio layers.
Google Earth Plus
Discontinued in December 2008, Google Earth Plus was an
individual-oriented paid subscription upgrade to Google Earth that
provided customers with the following features, most of which are
now available in the free Google Earth:
- GPS integration: read tracks and waypoints
from a GPS device. A
variety of third party applications have been created which provide
this functionality using the basic version of Google Earth by
generating KML or KMZ files based on user-specified or
user-recorded waypoints. However, Google Earth Plus provides direct
support for the Magellan and
Garmin product lines, which together hold a
large share of the GPS market. The Linux version of the Google
Earth Plus application does not include any GPS functionality.
- Higher resolution printing.
- Customer support via email.
- Data importer: read address points from CSV files; limited to 100
points/addresses. A feature allowing path and polygon annotations,
which can be exported to KML, was formerly only available to
Plus users, but was made free in version 4.0.2416.
- Higher data download speeds
Google Earth Pro
For a $400 annual subscription fee, Google Earth Pro is a
business-oriented upgrade to Google Earth that has more features
than the Plus version. The Pro version includes add-on software
such as:
- Movie making.
- GIS data importer.
- Advanced printing modules.
Originally, these features cost extra in addition to the $400 fee,
but more recently have been included in the package.
Unlike the free version of Google Earth, the professional version
does not work on Linux.
Google Earth Enterprise
Google Earth Enterprise is a version of Google Earth designed for
use by organizations whose business could take advantage of the
program's capabilities.
Portable version
A
portable version of Google Earth, made with
VMware ThinApp is available.. A
Portable version for Linux is also available,
using the
RUNZ format.
Google Earth Plug-in
The Google Earth API is a free beta service, available for any web
site that is free to consumers. The Plug-in and its JavaScript API
allows users to place a version of Google Earth into web pages. The
API does not have all the features of the full Google Earth
Application but still allows you to build sophisticated 3D map
applications.
The Google Earth Plug-in is currently available for the following
web browsers and operating systems:
Microsoft Windows (2000, XP, and Vista)
- Google Chrome 1.0+
- Internet Explorer 6.0+
- Firefox 2.0+
- Flock 1.0+
Apple Mac OS X 10.4 and higher (Intel and PowerPC)
To date the plug-in supports the following layers:
- Terrain
- Roads
- Buildings
- Borders
- 3-D Buildings
It also supports 'Sky Mode', 'Photo Overlays', and provides much of
the same controls and information bar as the full application.
Resolution and accuracy
Most land areas are covered in satellite imagery with a resolution
of about 15 m per pixel. This base imagery is 30m
multispectral Landsat
which is
pansharpened with the
15m [panchromatic]
Landsat imagery. However,
Google is actively replacing this base imagery with 2.5m
SPOTImage imagery and several higher resolution
datasets mentioned below. Some population centers are also covered
by aircraft imagery (
orthophotography)
with several pixels per meter.
Oceans are covered at a much lower
resolution, as are a number of islands; notably, the Isles of
Scilly
off southwest England, were at a resolution of
about 500 m or less, however this has now been
addressed.
Google has resolved many inaccuracies in the vector mapping since
the original public release of the software, without requiring an
update to the program itself.
An example of this was the absence from
Google Earth's map boundaries of the Nunavut
territory in Canada, a territory that had been
created on April 1, 1999; this mistake was corrected by one of the
data updates in early 2006. Recent updates have also
increased the coverage of detailed aerial photography, particularly
in certain areas of western and central Europe.
The images are not all taken at the same time, but are generally
current to within three years. However with the release of Google
Earth 5.0, it has historical images dating back to the 1940s in
some spots. Image sets are sometimes not correctly stitched
together.
Updates to the photographic database can
occasionally be noticed when drastic changes take place in the
appearance of the landscape, for example Google Earth's incomplete
updates of New
Orleans
following Hurricane
Katrina, or when placemarks appear to shift unexpectedly across
the Earth's surface. Though the placemarks have not in fact
moved, the imagery is composed and stitched differently. Such an
update to London's photography in early 2006 created shifts of
15-20 metres in many areas, noticeable because the resolution is so
high.
Place name and road detail vary greatly from place to place. They
are most accurate in North America and Europe, but regular mapping
updates are improving coverage elsewhere.
Errors
sometimes occur due to the technology used to measure the height of
terrain; for example, tall buildings in Adelaide
, Australia cause one part of the city to be
rendered as a small mountain, when it is in fact flat.
The
height of the Eiffel
Tower
creates a similar effect in the rendering of
Paris. Also, prior to the release of version 5.0 in
February 2009, elevations below sea level were presented as sea
level, for example: Salton City, California
; Death Valley; and the
Dead
Sea
were all listed as 0 m when Salton City is −38 m;
Death Valley is −86 m; and the Dead Sea is −420 m.
Where no 3
arc second digital elevation data was
available, the three dimensional images covering some areas of high
relief are not at all accurate, but most mountain areas are now
well mapped. The underlying digital elevation model has been placed
3
arc seconds too far north and up to
3 arc seconds too far west. This means that some steep mountain
ridges incorrectly appear to have shadows extending over onto their
south facing sides.
Some high resolution images have also been
misplaced, an example is the image covering Annapurna
, which is misplaced by about 12 arc seconds.
Elevation data was recently updated to 10-meter (1/3-arc-second)
resolution for much of the United States from the previous 30-meter
(1-arc-second) resolution.
The "Measure" function shows that the length of
equator is about 40,030.24 km, giving an error
of −0.112% compared with the actual value of 40,075.02 km
Earth; for the
meridional
circumference, it shows a length of about 39,963.13 km, also
giving an error of −0.112% compared with the actual value of
40,007.86 km.
On December 16, 2007, most of Antarctica was updated to a 15 m
resolution using imagery from the Landsat Image Mosaic of
Australia; (1m resolution images of some parts of Antarctica were
added in June 2007); however, the Arctic
polar ice cap is completely absent from the
current version of Google Earth, as are waves in the oceans.
The
geographic North
Pole
is found hovering over the Arctic Ocean and the
tiling system produces artifacts
near the poles as the tiles become 'infinitely' small and rounding
errors accumulate.
Cloud cover and shadows can make it difficult or impossible to see
details in some land areas, including the shadow side of
mountains.
Controversy/Criticism
The software has been criticized by a number of special interest
groups, including national officials, as being an invasion of
privacy and even posing a threat to national security. The typical
argument is that the software provides information about military
or other critical installations that could be used by
terrorists. The following is a selection of such
concerns:
- Former Indian president APJ Abdul
Kalam has expressed concern over the availability of
high-resolution pictures of sensitive locations in India. Google
subsequently agreed to censor such sites.
- The Indian Space
Research Organisation has said Google Earth poses a security
threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.
- Google marks all the northern Indian borders in red color
including those that are not disputed. Northern borders of Himachal
Pradesh, Uttarakhand that are never discussed in border disputes
with China are marked red demonstrating uninformed partiality.
- The
South Korean government has expressed concern that the software
offers images of the presidential palace and various military
installations that could possibly be used by their hostile neighbor
North
Korea
.
- In 2006, one user spotted a large topographical replica in a
remote region of China. The model is a small-scale (1/500) version
of the Karakoram
Mountain Range
, currently
under the control of China but claimed by India. When later
confirmed as a replica of this region, spectators began
entertaining military implications.
- Morocco
's main Internet provider Maroc Telecom has been blocking Google Earth
since August 2006 for undisclosed reasons.
- Operators of the Lucas Heights
nuclear reactor in
Sydney
, New South
Wales
, Australia asked Google to censor high resolution
pictures of the facility. However, they later withdrew the
request.
- In July 2007, it was reported that a new Chinese navy
Jin-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine was photographed at the Xiaopingdao Submarine Base south
of Dalian.
- Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have
reportedly used Google Earth to plan Qassam rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza
(See: List of Qassam
rocket attacks.)
- The lone surviving gunman involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks admitted to
using Google Earth to familiarise themselves with the locations of
buildings used in the attacks.
Some citizens may express concerns over aerial information
depicting their properties and residences being disseminated
freely. As relatively few jurisdictions actually guarantee the
individual's
right to privacy, as
opposed to the state's right to secrecy, this is an evolving, but
minor, point.
Perhaps aware of these critiques, for a
time, Google had Area
51
(which is highly visible and easy to find) in
Nevada as a default placemark when Google Earth is first
installed.
As a
result of pressure from the United States government, the residence
of the Vice
President at Number One Observatory Circle
was obscured through pixelization in Google Earth and Google Maps, but has since been lifted.
The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as
high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are
readily available on the Internet elsewhere.
Capitol Hill
used to also be pixelized in this way but this was
lifted.
Critics have expressed concern over the willingness of Google to
cripple their dataset to cater to special interests, believing that
intentionally obscuring any land goes against its stated goal of
letting the user "point and zoom to any place on the planet that
you want to explore".
Recent versions of Google Earth software require a running in the
background software that will automatically download and install
updates. Several users expressed concerns as there is not an easy
way to disable that.
Copyright
Currently, every image created from Google Earth using satellite
data provided by Google Earth is a
copyrighted map. Any derivative from Google Earth
is made from copyrighted data which, under
United States Copyright Law, may
not be used except under the licenses Google provides. Google
allows
non-commercial personal use of
the images (e.g. on a personal website or blog) as long as
copyrights and attributions are preserved.By contrast, images
created with NASA's globe software
World
Wind use the
Blue Marble,
Landsat or USGS layer, each of which is a terrain
layer in the
public domain. Works
created by an agency of the United States government are public
domain at the moment of creation. This means that those images can
be freely modified, redistributed and used for
commercial purposes.
Layers
Google Earth also features many layers as a source for information
on businesses and points of interest, as well as showcasing the
contents of many communities, such as
Wikipedia,
Panoramio and
YouTube. Google updates with new layers
often. Many Google Earth layers, such as Panoramio and Google Earth
Community layers, are updated daily with entries from the
respective websites.
Geographic Web
- Panoramio: Shows many of the most
relevant pictures uploaded onto Panoramio's website
- Places
- Places: A general overview of many notable places around the
globe. Some placemarks have been taken from Google Earth Community's featured
posts and some Wikipedia articles.
- Preview: Shows short summaries of some of the content in
the layers. If a new layer has been added, the preview
layer will be turned on as a default the next time it is
run.
Roads
Displays available road networks. The colors and signs displayed
vary depending on the type of roadway.
- Limited-access freeways and tollways that
are part of widespread networks such as the International E-road network,
United States Interstate
Highways and many other national road networks are represented
by orange lines.
- Other freeways are marked with pale orange lines.
- Some roads in Japan are indigo.
- Other important roads, generally those most travelled, highest
capacity, or bearing a road number, are
labeled with yellow lines.
- All other roads are labeled white.
- Some pedestrian walkways and private roads are signified by transparent white lines, especially when greatly
resembling a road intended for public automotive traffic.
3D Buildings
Shows
many 3D buildings in major cities, such as New York City or
Hong
Kong
, in these styles:
- Photorealistic: Shows many buildings in a realistic style,
with more complex polygons and surface images.
- Gray: Low-detail models of city buildings designed for
computers that may not have the capability of showing the
photorealistic models.
Google Street View
Shows
placemarks with 360 degree panoramic views
of streets of many cities in Australia, France, the United Kingdom,
Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the United States, and recently
Portugal, The
Netherlands
, Taiwan
, Sweden,
Switzerland and Canada.
Borders and labels
Contains borders for countries/provinces and shows placemarks for
cities and towns.
- Borders: Marks international borders
with a thick yellow line, 1st level administrative borders
(generally provinces and states) with a lavender line, and 2nd level administrative
borders (counties) with a cyan line. Coastlines appear as a thin yellow
line. Displays names of countries,
1st level administrative areas, and islands.
- Populated Places: Displays labels for cities, towns,
villages, census designated
places (CDPs), and hamlets.
- Alternate Place Names: Many cities in non-English countries
were labeled in their native languages to avoid the need of
extensive localization.
This layer shows such names in English.
- Labels: Displays labels for large bodies of water, such as
oceans, seas, and bays.
Traffic
Displays colored indicators along those roads where real time
traffic conditions are measured. Green indicators are used for good
traffic conditions, yellow for slower speeds, and red for poor
traffic conditions. By clicking on an indicator, the user can see
the name of the road and the speed along that road. It is not clear
with what frequency the indicators are updated.
Weather
- Clouds - Displays cloud cover based on data from both
geostationary and low Earth-orbiting satellites. The clouds appear at their
calculated elevation, determined by measuring the cloud top
temperature relative to surface temperature.
- Radar - Displays weather radar
data provided by weather.com and
Weather Services International, updating every 5–6
minutes.
- Conditions and Forecast - Displays local temperatures and
weather conditions. Clicking on an indicator displays a
full local forecast provided by weather.com.
- Information - Clicking Information allows users to further
read up on where Google Earth gets weather information.
Gallery
Ocean
Global Awareness
A collection of services spreading global awareness. The layer was
provided by
Google Earth
Outreach.
Places of Interest
A collection of business listings provided by many local services.
Sky Layers
Layers for
Google Sky.
- Welcome to Sky: An introduction to the Sky
mode.
- Current Sky Events
- Our Solar System: Shows locations, orbits and information of the Solar System.
- Backyard Astronomy:
Shows information about constellations and other space sights visible
from a backyard telescope.
- Featured Observatories
- Education Center
- Historical Sky Maps
- Rumsey Star Maps
- Hevelius Constellations
- Sky Community: Posted KML
files in the Sky forum in the
Google Earth Community.
Mars Layers
- Featured Satellite Images
- Place Names
- Global Maps
- Spacecraft Imagery
- Mars Gallery
- Rovers and Landers
- A Traveler's Guide to Mars
See also
Image providers
References
- Google Earth Coverage: Maps showing a visual
representation of Google Earth coverage
- Skyscraper News Google Earth
- infopot.tk
- 3D Warehouse
-
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2009/01/new_view_of_ocean_floor_in_google_e.html
- Marco's Blog: Google Earth Flight
Simulator
- Celestial add-on points Google Earth at the stars -
tech - August 22, 2007 - New Scientist Tech
- http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9881229-1.html
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7865407.stm
-
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2009/07/look_at_the_moon_in_google_earth_-.html
-
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2009/07/google_earth_event_on_july_20th_in.html
-
http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/07/fly-yourself-to-moon.html
- Web User - Google Earth interview
- Avi Bar-Ze’ev (from Keyhole, the precursor to
Google Earth) on origin of Google Earth
- Google Earth: From Space to Your Face…and
Beyond
- Infinite Reality Technical Report
- Google Earth Release Notes / Changelog
History
- Google Earth
- Google Earth
- [1]:FSF:High Priority Free Software Projects
-
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2008/10/google_earth_for_the_iphone_release.html
- http://earth.google.com/enterprise/earth_enterprise.html
- Portable Applications (Windows)
- Message au monde - Message to the world
- Google Earth used to target Israel
- "Mumbai attacks: Indian suit against Google Earth
over image use by terrorists", The Daily Telegraph, December 9,
2008.
- Privacy Lawsuit Against Google Earth, Spatial
Law blog, 2008-04-09
- Google Earth Help Center: Can I post images to the web?
-
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2008/08/august_geographic_web_layer_update.html
- Google Earth: Weather layer, information link -- accessed: 03
March 2009 v5.0.11337.1968 (beta)
- Google Earth/SketchUp and Oracle Spatial
External links
Official and related sites
Unofficial guides and tips
Placemarks and overlays
Tools
- GeoServer - Server to generate KML from
Shapefiles, ArcSDE, Oracle, PostGIS, MySQL, GeoTiff, ArcGrid, with
support for Network links, superoverlays, time and custom
pop-ups.
- GPSVisualizer - Will convert GPS data for use
in Google Earth.
- GoogleEarthToolbox - Matlab & Octave functions
that output KML.
- geolyzer - Software-based usability-lab for Google
Earth
: Shows many satellite images taken of
Earth.
Magazine: Shows many features from the National
Geographic Magazine.
Tourism
Mountaintop removal
Chimpanzee
Blog
: World is Witness
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search
