Google Earth Blog

One of the great things about Google Earth is the unique vantage point that we gain from it, as viewing objects from above often shows them in a whole new light.

Among other great items to view from above are corn mazes. They can be fun to trek through in real life, but viewing them from above can be quite neat as well.

While corn mazes only exist for a brief time each year, you can find hundreds of them in Google Earth thanks to the amazing historical imagery feature. Because any particular area can have a handful of views from different dates, the odds of finding a time where a corn maze was present increases dramatically.

To find mazes for yourself, a good place to start is in this old thread in the GEC (and this related KML file).

Many of the mazes are now gone, though you can track them down using the historical imagery slider in each location. You can also find mazes in this old post that Frank wrote or by searching for "corn maze" on Google Earth Hacks.

One of my favorites is this corn maze found in Ditzingen, Germany. Grab the KML file to see it for yourself.

What I'd love to see next is a full corn maze in Street View! Given the variety of Street View devices, such as the trike and the trekker, it seems like something that Google might do at some point.

The closest I've seen in the past is this 3D maze in London. It's easy to cheat (no collision detection), but it's a neat use of the "ground level view" in Google Earth.

What is your favorite corn maze in Google Earth?

One of the great things about Google Earth is the unique vantage point that we gain from it, as viewing objects from above often shows them in a whole new light.
Among other great items to view from above are corn mazes. They can be fun to trek through in real life, but viewing them from above can be quite neat as well.

While corn mazes only exist for a brief time each year, you can find hundreds of them in Google Earth thanks to the amazing historical imagery feature. Because any particular area can have a handful of views from different dates, the odds of finding a time where a corn maze was present increases dramatically.
To find mazes for yourself, a good place to start is in this old thread in the GEC (and this related KML file).
Many of the mazes are now gone, though you can track them down using the historical imagery slider in each location. You can also find mazes in this old post that Frank wrote or by searching for “corn maze” on Google Earth Hacks.
One of my favorites is this corn maze found in Ditzingen, Germany. Grab the KML file to see it for yourself.

What I’d love to see next is a full corn maze in Street View! Given the variety of Street View devices, such as the trike and the trekker, it seems like something that Google might do at some point.
The closest I’ve seen in the past is this 3D maze in London. It’s easy to cheat (no collision detection), but it’s a neat use of the “ground level view” in Google Earth.
What is your favorite corn maze in Google Earth?

The post Exploring corn mazes in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Our family is in Chattanooga, Tennessee today on a brief spring break trip, so I thought I'd spend some time exploring the city in Google Earth.

Chattanooga is only the fourth-largest city in Tennessee, yet it has some of the fastest internet speeds in the country thanks to amazingly fast fiber network throughout the city. Inside of Google Earth Chattanooga has very solid 3D building coverage, though the city hasn't yet received the new "3D Imagery".

Our first stop was at the Tennessee Aquarium last night. Despite living in Atlanta and having their awesome aquarium nearby, the Tennessee Aquarium is still a great place to visit. The 3D model of the building isn't bad either!

You can view the aquarium in Google Earth by using this KML file.

Our primary destination today is Lookout Mountain, which none of us have visited before. We'll ride the "Incline Railway" up the 72.7% slope to the top of the mountain, which offers views of seven different states (Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama). It's quite a view!

Check it out for yourself by using this KML file.

Have you visited Chattanooga before? What is your favorite aspect of the city?

Our family is in Chattanooga, Tennessee today on a brief spring break trip, so I thought I’d spend some time exploring the city in Google Earth.
Chattanooga is only the fourth-largest city in Tennessee, yet it has some of the fastest internet speeds in the country thanks to amazingly fast fiber network throughout the city. Inside of Google Earth Chattanooga has very solid 3D building coverage, though the city hasn’t yet received the new “3D Imagery“.

Our first stop was at the Tennessee Aquarium last night. Despite living in Atlanta and having their awesome aquarium nearby, the Tennessee Aquarium is still a great place to visit. The 3D model of the building isn’t bad either!

You can view the aquarium in Google Earth by using this KML file.
Our primary destination today is Lookout Mountain, which none of us have visited before. We’ll ride the “Incline Railway” up the 72.7% slope to the top of the mountain, which offers views of seven different states (Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama). It’s quite a view!

Check it out for yourself by using this KML file.
Have you visited Chattanooga before? What is your favorite aspect of the city?

The post Exploring Chattanooga in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Located just south of Montreal, this colorful and oddly-shaped barn is a fun 3D model to check out in Google Earth.

The model can be found in the 3D Warehouse here, and you can view it in Google Earth by downloading this KML file.

The model was built by a user named Jean, who has created quite a few amazing models. Among them is the amazingly detailed Chateau Frontenac, also found in southeastern Canada, seen here:

Jean has created some awesome models and I encourage you to check them all out in the 3D Warehouse.

(via SketchUp Island)

Located just south of Montreal, this colorful and oddly-shaped barn is a fun 3D model to check out in Google Earth.

The model can be found in the 3D Warehouse here, and you can view it in Google Earth by downloading this KML file.
The model was built by a user named Jean, who has created quite a few amazing models. Among them is the amazingly detailed Chateau Frontenac, also found in southeastern Canada, seen here:

Jean has created some awesome models and I encourage you to check them all out in the 3D Warehouse.
(via SketchUp Island)

The post Walbridge Barn appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

All of us use Google Earth in different ways. Some use it to look for new homes, some use it for tracking satellites, some use it to explore far corners of the world and some use to to plan missions to space -- like NASA.

Matt Deans, who is with NASA's Intelligent Robotics Group, recently held a Google Tech Talk to discuss how NASA makes use of tools such as Google Earth.

In particular, Matt discusses the following:

Did you know that NASA uses Google Earth for mission planning and real-time mission operations? Are you curious about the software NASA is developing to carry out future human and robot missions? Would you like to know how modern Web frameworks can be used for data-driven field science?

The Exploration Ground Data System (xGDS) is a suite of reusable software tools for human and robotic missions. xGDS supports mission planning, ingesting and managing geo-referenced and time-series data, and visualization/analysis. xGDS is highly modular, Web-based and makes extensive use of Apache, Django, the Google Earth plug-in, JQuery, and MySQL.

In this talk, I will discuss the use cases that xGDS was designed to support and describe how it is implemented. I will show how the Intelligent Robotics Group has used xGDS for exploration missions involving astronauts (Arizona), planetary rovers (Canada and Hawaii), and personal submarines (British Columbia and Florida). And, I'll briefly talk about how xGDS can be used for other applications, such as crisis and disaster response.

You can watch the full video here:

All of us use Google Earth in different ways. Some use it to look for new homes, some use it for tracking satellites, some use it to explore far corners of the world and some use to to plan missions to space — like NASA.
Matt Deans, who is with NASA’s Intelligent Robotics Group, recently held a Google Tech Talk to discuss how NASA makes use of tools such as Google Earth.

In particular, Matt discusses the following:

Did you know that NASA uses Google Earth for mission planning and real-time mission operations? Are you curious about the software NASA is developing to carry out future human and robot missions? Would you like to know how modern Web frameworks can be used for data-driven field science?

The Exploration Ground Data System (xGDS) is a suite of reusable software tools for human and robotic missions. xGDS supports mission planning, ingesting and managing geo-referenced and time-series data, and visualization/analysis. xGDS is highly modular, Web-based and makes extensive use of Apache, Django, the Google Earth plug-in, JQuery, and
MySQL.

In this talk, I will discuss the use cases that xGDS was designed to support and describe how it is implemented. I will show how the Intelligent Robotics Group has used xGDS for exploration missions involving astronauts (Arizona), planetary rovers (Canada and Hawaii), and personal submarines (British Columbia and Florida). And, I’ll briefly talk about how xGDS can be used for other applications, such as crisis and disaster response.

You can watch the full video here:

The post How NASA uses Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Since the creation of this blog in 2005, our page featuring satellites in orbit around Earth has remained our most popular page on the site with over 650,000 page views in the past eight years.

There have also been a number of other excellent satellite-tracking programs that we've featured on here, such as SES Astra and SightSpaceStation.

Now we're introducing you to the GE Satellite Tracker from Joseph Armbruster, which is a bit different; instead of showing you various satellites in Google Earth, it allows you to add your own.

It allows you to calculate the orbits, generate the KML and configure it via single python file and one configuration file. Joseph is continually improving and streamlining the program, which is completely free to use.

You can try it for yourself and read the full documentation on the GE Satellite Tracker site.

Since the creation of this blog in 2005, our page featuring satellites in orbit around Earth has remained our most popular page on the site with over 650,000 page views in the past eight years.
There have also been a number of other excellent satellite-tracking programs that we’ve featured on here, such as SES Astra and SightSpaceStation.
Now we’re introducing you to the GE Satellite Tracker from Joseph Armbruster, which is a bit different; instead of showing you various satellites in Google Earth, it allows you to add your own.

It allows you to calculate the orbits, generate the KML and configure it via single python file and one configuration file. Joseph is continually improving and streamlining the program, which is completely free to use.
You can try it for yourself and read the full documentation on the GE Satellite Tracker site.

The post The Google Earth Satellite Tracker appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Clement Valla is known for digging into Google Earth to find and document anomalies, as we first showed you back in January. He's back with a site called Postcards from Google Earth that highlights snapshots from Google Earth in odd-looking situations.

Interestingly, of the 100 or so images on the site literally every single one of them involves a road, most of which are crossing a body of water. While this has been a known issue in Google Earth for years, 3D models/imagery are beginning to fix the issue. For example, take this image of the Hoover Dam from his site:

Then turn on the 3D Models layer:

Quite a difference! The only downside with the 3D model is that you can still see the old imagery (and the road) running beneath it. This is largely alleviated with the new 3D Imagery, such as this before/after of the Golden Gate Bridge:

It's not perfect, but it's far better than the article would lead you to believe. That said, it's fun to dig around and find these kinds of oddities, and the new 3D Imagery certainly creates some interesting artifacts when you zoom in close.

Check out the full gallery on the Postcards from Google Earth site.

(via Co.DESIGN)

Clement Valla is known for digging into Google Earth to find and document anomalies, as we first showed you back in January. He’s back with a site called Postcards from Google Earth that highlights snapshots from Google Earth in odd-looking situations.
Interestingly, of the 100 or so images on the site literally every single one of them involves a road, most of which are crossing a body of water. While this has been a known issue in Google Earth for years, 3D models/imagery are beginning to fix the issue. For example, take this image of the Hoover Dam from his site:

Then turn on the 3D Models layer:

Quite a difference! The only downside with the 3D model is that you can still see the old imagery (and the road) running beneath it. This is largely alleviated with the new 3D Imagery, such as this before/after of the Golden Gate Bridge:


It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than the article would lead you to believe. That said, it’s fun to dig around and find these kinds of oddities, and the new 3D Imagery certainly creates some interesting artifacts when you zoom in close.
Check out the full gallery on the Postcards from Google Earth site.
(via Co.DESIGN)

The post Surreal postcards from Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

A few days ago the 2013 Taiwan Ultra Marathon kicked off, a 14 day race that covers an astonishing 1100km. The runners are all carrying a Leadtek GPS device, and the organizers have put together this simple map to help track them.

However, Steven Ho (who has created tours such as this mountaineering trip and a neat tribute to Steve Jobs) wanted to be able to follow the race in Google Earth. Steven tried to get the organizers to produce a KML file of the runner's data, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he built a handful of tours to help show off the race and included "rabbit" data to show the approximate location of the runners.

You can read more about Steven's work on his blog and try it for yourself by clicking the image at the top of that page.

Along with that Google Earth Plugin integration, Steven has built a handful of KMZ files to help keep up with the event. You can use this KMZ to see a map of the course, this KMZ for a guided tour of the course, or this KMZ to see the current location of the rabbit.

Great work Steven!

A few days ago the 2013 Taiwan Ultra Marathon kicked off, a 14 day race that covers an astonishing 1100km. The runners are all carrying a Leadtek GPS device, and the organizers have put together this simple map to help track them.
However, Steven Ho (who has created tours such as this mountaineering trip and a neat tribute to Steve Jobs) wanted to be able to follow the race in Google Earth. Steven tried to get the organizers to produce a KML file of the runner’s data, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he built a handful of tours to help show off the race and included “rabbit” data to show the approximate location of the runners.

You can read more about Steven’s work on his blog and try it for yourself by clicking the image at the top of that page.
Along with that Google Earth Plugin integration, Steven has built a handful of KMZ files to help keep up with the event. You can use this KMZ to see a map of the course, this KMZ for a guided tour of the course, or this KMZ to see the current location of the rabbit.
Great work Steven!

The post Tracking the International Tour de Taiwan Ultra Marathon in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Google Earth has consistently been improving on mobile devices over time and last year's update to version 6.2 brought a giant new feature to it -- KML support.

While Google Earth on mobile supports KML and KMZ files, there still isn't a native sync between your desktop and mobile versions of Earth. Here are some ways to help you load and view your favorite KML files on your mobile device.

First, of course, find and save the placemarks that you want to view into a KMZ file and save that file somewhere on your computer. From there you have three main options.

1 - Email

The easiest way is likely to just email the file to yourself, then open it from the email account on your mobile device. This should work on most versions of Android and iOS.

2 - Sync it to another application

If you use Dropbox or Google Drive, you can save your file in there, open that application on your mobile device, then have it open the KMZ file with Google Earth. On Android you can also use an alternate file manger such as "Astro" to save and open the file.

3 - Sync it via Google "My Maps"

This last option doesn't use Google Earth, but is a nice way to view KML content on the go. First, open Google Maps on your desktop and click "My Places" at the top of the left column. Create a new map, select the "Import" option at the top, and then import the KMZ file into that map. After you have saved the it you can open Google Maps on your device and choose the "Layers" button. Look for "My Maps" and you should find your new map in the list and can open it.

Google Earth on mobile is getting more powerful all the time, if for no other reason than because devices are becoming increasingly powerful with higher resolution screens. Google Earth on my Nexus 10 is stunning and will only get better as faster and sharper devices are released.

What is your favorite feature of Google Earth on your mobile device?

We've been big fans of Meograph since we first discovered it last May. Their "four-dimensional storytelling" makes it very easy to create digital stories that include audio, video, images, text and map them all as the story progresses.

Since their launch last year, they've added more than 26,000 users to the site who have created over 36,000 meographs. Even more impressive is that it has been used in over 1,300 schools and is growing by 30 percent each month!

To help generate some revenue from the growing service, Meograph is now launching some paid plans for educators, starting at $19.99/year. The plans include features such as ad removal, private sharing, class management and a few other items. Of note is that the free plans remain intact for everyone, whether they're in an educational environment or not.

All in all, it seems to be a nice way to handle the move to paid licenses. The free product remains available and feature-rich, but there are now some nice add-ons for those that use the product heavily in their classroom.

Congrats to founder Misha Leybovich on the continued success of Meograph! Try it out for yourself at Meograph.com, or learn more about these new educational features in this article on TechCrunch.

Because of the irregular terrain around the world and the inability for wireless signals to penetrate it, planning wireless technologies can be difficult. A few years ago we saw how Clif Guy used Google Earth to plot locations that needed access, but today we're looking at the Wireless Networks Planning Tool (WiNPT) that makes excellent use of Google Earth terrain to help with network planning.

In short, their Radio Coverage Prediction Tool uses Google terrain elevation data to calculate the coverage for each wireless base station. The user can see easily which are the better places to build the base stations, along with the possible terrain obstacles. Here's a video showing a bit more about how it works:

You can learn more about WiNPT on their website, their Facebook page, or on their Google+ page.

Last month we showed you a creative visualization of the Parting of the Red Sea that MyReadingMapped had put together. They've also assembled a collection of files to help teach users about the ocean floor, while providing various charts and graphs to help explain things.

They've put together various resources to make this tool worthwhile, including a Google Map, a downloadable KML file and a blog post with more information.

Their original blog post is fairly old, but they've written a new one titled "Understanding the Ocean Bottom in Google Maps" that gives some great tips. They've also created a blog entry and video (below) that discuss the 342-foot tsunami in the Strait of Magellan in 1969.

(via Google Earth Hacks)

We told you earlier this year about the launch of the Landsat 8 satellite and now the first images captured by that satellite are starting to arrive.

NASA's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) page has quite a bit of detail about the imagery including the following:

But the work is only beginning for validating the data quality and getting ready for normal mission operations. These images were processed using pre-launch settings, which must be checked and adjusted now that LDCM is in orbit to ensure that the data accurately measure the intensity of reflected and emitted light received by the instruments. The mission operations team also needs to ensure that each pixel is accurately located on Earth's surface.

LDCM's normal operations are scheduled to begin in late May when the instruments have been calibrated and the spacecraft has been fully checked out. At that time, NASA will hand over control of the satellite to the USGS, which will operate the satellite throughout its planned five-year mission life. The satellite will be renamed Landsat 8, and data from OLI and TIRS will be processed and added to the Landsat Data Archive at the Earth Resources Observation and Science Center in South Dakota, where it will be distributed for free over the Internet.

There is no specific timeframe for when imagery from this satellite may arrive in Google Earth, but it's certainly coming. You can read more about this imagery on the LCDM site or the Google Geo Developers Blog.

Google has just pushed out a large imagery update to much of the world. Thanks to Ali Shareef for being the first to let us know about it. Also thanks to 'Andreas', 'Catalin' and 'Munden' for pointing out other areas with updates.

As is almost always the case, you can use Google Maps to determine for sure whether or not a specific area is fresh. This new imagery isn't in Google Maps yet, so you can compare Earth vs. Maps to see what's new; the fresh imagery is already in Google Earth, but the old imagery is still in Google Maps. If you compare the two side-by-side and they're not identical, that means that you've found a freshly updated area in Google Earth!

Some of the updated areas include:

• Algeria: Arzew, Mers El Hadjad, Mers El Kebir
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Travnik
• China: Cengangzhen, Dalian, Miaolingzhen, Nanyaowan, Qingdao, Shanghai
• Dubai: Palm Islands
• Egypt: Alexandria, Aswan
• Greece: Iraklio
• India: Kochi, Lucknow
• Libya: Benghazi, Sirte, Tripoli, Tubruq
• Maldives: Addu City, Gan, Male
• Netherlands: Small area of Amsterdam
• New Zealand: Auckland
• Qatar: Doha
• Romania: Barlad, Bucharest
• Russia: Moscow, Vladivostock Harbor
• Tunisia: Al Munastir, Bizerte, Nabeul, Tunis
• United States: Alabama (Birmingham), Arizona (western Grand Canyon areas), California (Hidden Hills Ranch solar project), Florida (Fort Walton Beach, Freeport, Santa Rosa Beach), Hawaii (various areas), Mississippi (Jackson)

If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!