Google Earth

 Introduction

Google Earth is simply based on 3D maps, with the capability to show 3D buildings and structures (such as bridges), which consist of users' submissions using SketchUp, a 3D modeling program software. 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, Mexico, India, Japan, United Kingdom, Spain, 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 '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^[14]and other websites. In June 2012, Google announced that it will start to replace user submitted 3D buildings with auto-generated 3D mesh buildings starting with major cities. Although there are many cities on Google Earth that are fully or partially 3D, more are available in the Earth Gallery. The Earth Gallery is a library of modifications of Google Earth people have made. In the library there are more than just modifications for 3D buildings there are models of earth quakes using the Google Earth model, 3D forests, and much more.^[15]
Recently, around 2009, 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.^[16]
On January 31, 2010, 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.

Uses

Google Earth is useful for many day-to-day and other purposes.

• Google Earth can be used to view areas subjected to widespread disasters if Google supplies up-to-date images. For example, after the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake images of Haiti were made available on January 17.
• With Google's push for the inclusion of Google Earth in the Classroom,^[18] teachers are adopting Google Earth in the classroom for lesson planning, such as teaching students geographical themes (location, culture, characteristics, human interaction, and movement)^[19] to creating mashups with other web applications such as Wikipedia.^[18][19]
• One can explore and place location bookmarks on the Moon, and Mars.
• One can also get directions using Google Earth, using variables such as street names, cities, and establishments. But the addresses must by typed in search field, one can't simply click on two spots on the map.
• Google Earth can also function as a hub of knowledge, pertaining the users location. By enabling certain options, one can see the location of gas stations, restaurants, museums, and other public establishments in their area.
• One can create custom image overlays for planning trips, hikes on handheld GPS units.
• Google Earth can be used to map homes and select a random sample for research in developing countries^[20] 

All of these features are also released by Google Earth Blog.

 

Sky mode

Main article: Google Sky

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.^[29] 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,^[30] 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.^[31] 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^[32] collaboration. Google's Earth maps are being updated each 5 minutes.
Google Sky faces competition^[33] 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, OS X, and Linux.
On March 13, 2008, Google made a web-based version^[34] of Google Sky available via the internet.

 

Street View

Main article: Google Street View

On April 15, 2008 with version 4.3, Google fully integrated its Street View into Google Earth. In version 6.0, the photo zooming function has been removed because it is incompatible with the new 'seamless' navigation.
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 Canada, Mexico, Denmark, South Africa, Japan, Spain, Norway, Finland, Sweden, France, the UK, Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Taiwan, and Singapore.
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 the user's direction of travel. Using these devices, the photos can be viewed in different sizes, from any direction, and from a variety of angles.

Buildings in 3D

Further information: SketchUp, Google Building Maker, and Google 3D Warehouse

Shows many 3D computer building models in many cities, 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.

Any real world building can be created for Google Earth via a number of avenues:

• Users can create their own 3D buildings with Building Maker. This browser based tool allows users to match 'boxes' to aerial imagery of certain cities. Low learning curve resulting in lower quality 3D buildings.
• Users can download SketchUp a 3D modeling application that allows users to create detailed digital representations of real world buildings. Provided the models meet Google's criteria, they can then be uploaded to the 3D warehouse and accepted to Google Earth
• There are now several companies, certified by Google,^[99] that provide a service creating and maintaining 3D buildings for customers. These companies generally provide high detail models.

In 2009, in a unique collaboration between Google and the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the museum selected 14 of its most important paintings to be photographed and displayed at the ultrahigh resolution of 14,000 megapixels inside the 3D version of the Prado in Google Earth and Google Maps.^[100][101]
In June 2012, Google announced that it will be replacing user made 3D buildings with an auto-generated 3D mesh. This will be phased in, starting with the larger cities. The reason given is to have greater uniformity in 3D buildings, and to compete with other platforms already using the technology such as Nokia's HERE maps and Apple's iOS maps. – This has resulted in much disappointment among geo-modelers worldwide who have been contributing thousands of models.
Locations available with the auto-generated 3D mesh:

 

Hardware and software

Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware configurations. The most recent system requirements update^[52] document these minimum configurations:

• Pentium 3, 500 MHz
• 256 Megabytes of RAM
• 400 MB free disk space
• Network speed: 128 kbit/s
• 64 MB DirectX9 and 3D capable graphics card
• Resolution of 1024x768, 16-bit High Color – DirectX 9 (to run in Direct X mode)
• Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Linux or OS X

The most likely cause 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.