Skip to main content

Google Earth


Recently, Google released a new map system to allow for a 3D Earth view. The new maps depict Earth as a 3D planet, and allow users to explore mountains and cities in 3D.  At first, Google Earth could be downloaded and installed on a computer, but now it is available at maps.google.com for Google users to use without downloading it.

To try the new maps, sign in to your Google account and go to maps.google.com. In the tab on the left, click "Get it now" where it describes the new Google maps. If you do not see the button, try  typing "new maps" into the search bar and pressing Enter. The "Get it now" button should appear above the results.

My photograph of the Grand Canyon on left, Google Earth's Grand Canyon on right
(same location)

I really like the new maps. Besides being able to explore the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest, I especially like what happens when I zoom out all the way: Earth becomes visible with a lit side and a shadowed side, and the blackness around the planet is filled with stars that correspond to the actual positions of stars in the sky. The dark side of the planet is filled with city lights, just as the real planet would have, and both the light and dark sides of the planet contain clouds in the actual positions of clouds on the real planet. It is amazing.

The lighting of the planet, as well as the position of the sun relative to the other stars, is beautifully accurate. I was very impressed that Google even included the planets in the starry sky.

When I start to zoom in on the planet (using the mouse scroll-wheel), all this changes. The clouds are still there, but the stars disappear and the planet no longer has a dark side. This allows for easier navigation of the globe. The clouds fade away after zooming in further.

At closer zoom levels, finer details are visible. In most places, only the terrain is 3D, and the houses are steam-rolled flat to the ground. In other places, however, Google used a special algorithm using visual data to detect 3D structures such as houses or trees. In these areas, the scenery is much more impressive. It may look like a cheap video game, but when you realize that the houses and trees were built using computer software and photographs, it is very amazing.

Racine, WI, near Lake Michigan; notice the 3D structures
The main problems I found are the following:
1. Sometimes, adjacent satellite images are tinted differently, resulting in a striped landscape
2. The bumps on the ocean floor are treated as mountains, so when viewing the ocean at an angle, it looks bumpy and unrealistic
3. There's no way to hide the labels
4. Countries look the same in Summer as in Winter, even when zoomed out completely

So that's what I have to say about Google Earth. Have anything you'd like to add? Leave a comment!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Major Change of Ideas

Edit: April Fool's. The article completely fails to answer for the benefits of math and science (including medicine and natural disaster prediction). It grossly exaggerates the negative aspects of math and science. Incidentally, math and science have made a large positive difference in my life. Good morning, everybody! I decided to write a blog post to say that I will be completely changing the way I view knowledge and the purpose of life. Photo credit: my sister Basically, "higher" knowledge (including logic, science, mathematics, etc.) is completely useless. There is no point in learning these subjects, which is why I have dropped all my college classes and will not be going to school today. Instead, we should go to the fields, with a shovel and a rake, and grow crops. I will therefore end my blog and begin life as a worker at a ranch in Wyoming. Why this sudden change, you might ask? A few days after my last post (which nobody seemed to read), I came upon a realizatio...
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Methods for Approximating Pi

Happy super-π day! π-day falls on March 14 every year, because the month-day combination results in 3-14, which are the first 3 digits of π. But this π-day is particularly special: include the year, and you get 3-14-15, the first 5 digits of π. We won't get another π-day like this for another 100 years, so you better enjoy this one! A particularly special time will be at 9:26:53 PM tonight, when we'll get 3-14-15 9:26:53, or the first 10 digits of π. In honor of the occasion, I'm going to post 5 simple methods for approximating the value of π. 1. String and Tape Measure Draw a circle with a diameter of 1 foot and put a piece of string around the edge. Cut the string until it's the right length, and then measure it with a tape measure. The string should be about π feet long. This can be implemented more accurately using a computer program: take the arc length of √ (1 - x 2 ) on the interval (-1, 1). The result should be π. var pi = 0; var step = 0.0001; var previous = 0...
Post a Comment
Read more

2014 in Photos

The year of 2014 is over; the year of 2015 has begun. Over the past year, I took a lot of pictures - more than 1200 photos of clouds, bugs, plants, rocks, and more. I deleted most of the low-quality and repetitive photos. Then, I selected 20 of the remaining photos which I thought were the most interesting or significant. In this post, I'll include those photos, in chronological order. Spring 1. Cold Hummingbird I took this photo after a late snowstorm in Spring. In the days leading up to the storm, it was warm and sunny and the fields were green, so the snow came rather unexpectedly. During the storm, one of the hummingbirds at our feeder was covered in ice and could barely fly. This hummingbird was more fortunate, but unlucky nevertheless. 2. Green Landscape I took this photo on the side of a biking trail. I didn't edit or crop the photo - this is how it looked. 3. Indian Paintbrush The Indian Paintbrush is an unusual flower. What appear to be flower petals are actually brigh...
Post a Comment
Read more