Alternative Medicine, also called unconventional medicine, therapeutic practices, techniques, and beliefs that are outside the realm of mainstream Western health care. Alternative medicine emphasizes therapies that improve quality of life, prevent disease, and address conditions that conventional medicine has limited success in curing, such as chronic back pain and certain cancers. Proponents of alternative medicine believe that these approaches to healing are safer and more natural and have been shown through experience to work. In certain countries, alternative medical practices are the most widely used methods of health care. However, many practitioners of modern conventional medicine believe these practices are unorthodox and unproven.
sidebar HISTORICAL ESSAYS Health-Care Systems in Post-Colonial Africa Encarta Historical Essays reflect the knowledge and insight of leading historians. This collection of essays is assembled to support the National Standards for World History. In this essay, Oliver Osborne of the University of Washington argues that post-colonial rule and turmoil in Africa has not diminished the continent’s diverse health care systems but rather demanded collaboration among them. open sidebar
By some estimates 83 million United States residents use alternative medicine, spending more than $27 million a year. Reports from Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia also indicate a widespread interest in alternative therapies.
A special report prepared for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Alternative Medicine: Expanding Medical Horizons, categorizes alternative medicine practices into six fields. The first field, mind-body intervention, explores the mind’s capacity to affect, and perhaps heal, the body. Studies have shown that the mental state has a profound effect on the immune system, and these studies have provoked interest in the mind’s role in the cause and course of disease. Specific mind-body interventions include meditation, hypnosis, art therapy, biofeedback, and mental healing.
Bioelectromagnetic applications, the second field of alternative medicine, make use of the body’s response to nonthermal, nonionizing radiation. Current uses involve bone repair, nerve stimulation, wound healing, treatment of osteoarthritis, and immune system stimulation.
The third field is alternative systems of medical practice. Each of these systems is characterized by a specific theory of health and disease, an educational program to teach its concepts to new practitioners, and often a legal mandate to regulate its practice. Examples include acupuncture, Ayurvedic medicine, homeopathy, and naturopathy.
Touch and manipulation are the mainstays of the manual healing methods, which constitute the fourth field of alternative medicine. Practitioners of chiropractic and massage therapies such as Rolfing structural integration believe that dysfunction of one part of the body often affects the function of other, not necessarily connected, parts. Health is restored by manipulating bones or soft tissues or realigning body parts.
The pharmacological and biological treatments that make up the fifth field of alternative medicine consist of an assortment of drugs and vaccines not yet accepted in mainstream medicine. Compounds such as antineoplastins (from human blood and urine) for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), various products of the honey bee for arthritis, and iscador (a liquid extract from mistletoe) for tumors have not been scientifically evaluated because of the expense of conducting safety and effectiveness studies.
Many licensed drugs used today originated in the herbal traditions of various cultures.
Throughout the ages people have turned for healing to herbal medicine, the sixth field of alternative medicine. All cultures have folk medicine traditions that include the use of plants and plant products. Many licensed drugs used today originated in the herbal traditions of various cultures, such as the medication commonly used for heart failure, digitalis, which is derived from foxglove. In the United States, herbal products may be marketed only as food supplements. Since they are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there is no guarantee of their purity or safety. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 4 billion people, or 80 percent of the world’s population, use herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care.
II POPULAR THERAPIES
A Acupuncture
Acupuncture Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine that stimulates specific points in the body in order to restore a proper balance of various chemicals. This practice is used to treat a range of conditions, including chronic pain, drug addiction, arthritis, and mental illness.The Image Works/W. Hill, Jr. Acupuncture, a Chinese traditional medicine dating from 3000 to 2000 bc, involves stimulating specific points in the body for therapeutic purposes. Puncturing the skin with a needle is the usual method of application, but acupuncturists may also use heat, pressure, friction, suction, or impulses of electromagnetic energy to stimulate acupuncture points. Stimulated acupuncture points alter the chemical neurotransmitters released and the therapeutic effects result from the associated changes in the chemical balance of the body. Acupuncture is used for many ailments, including chronic pain, drug addiction, arthritis, chemotherapy-induced nausea, and mental illness.
dynamic timeline Chinese Develop Acupuncture
In the past 40 years acupuncture has become a well-known and widely available treatment in both developed and developing countries. More than 50 schools of acupuncture in the United States are accredited or candidates for accreditation by the National Accreditation Commission for Schools and Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Many conventionally trained physicians take courses in acupuncture and incorporate it into their practices. Licensure or registration in acupuncture is available in 35 states plus the District of Columbia. It is estimated that some 12 million health-care visits per year are for acupuncture.
Acupuncture is one of the most thoroughly researched and documented alternative medical practices. In 1998 an NIH panel reviewed scientific studies of acupuncture and concluded that the technique is effective at relieving nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy and surgical anesthesia. Good evidence suggests that it also relieves nausea during pregnancy and pain after dental surgery. Controlled studies have also demonstrated some positive effects of acupuncture on a variety of other conditions, but so far the statistical results have not been conclusive.
B Homeopathy
Homeopathy is a 200-year-old system of medicine that uses pills or medicinal drops made from diluted extracts of herbs and other substances. Developed by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, homeopathy is based on two main principles. The first states that a substance that can cause certain symptoms when given to a healthy person can cure those same symptoms in someone who is sick. The second states that, contrary to teachings of modern chemistry and physics, the more a substance is diluted, the more potent it becomes. Proponents of homeopathy claim there remains a so-called molecular memory of the original substance. Critics say water molecules vibrate and change constantly, so that any impressions made by a substance previously dissolved in them are quickly lost.
Each year in the United States 2.5 million people use homeopathy and make 5 million visits to homeopathic practitioners. The number of homeopathic practitioners in the United States has increased from less than 200 in the 1970s to approximately 3,000 in 1996. The FDA allows homeopathic products to be sold as long as specific health claims are not made in advertising or on product labels.
A number of studies in reputable scientific journals have suggested that homeopathic remedies are useful for diarrhea, asthma, hay fever, influenza, and migraine headaches. However, critics claim that these studies were flawed and that more scientifically rigorous investigations would likely show no benefit.
C Chiropractic
Chiropractic Exam Practitioners of chiropractic believe that many ailments and diseases can be healed by the manual adjustment of bone and tissue. Chiropractors offer non-surgical remedies for back and neck pain, headaches, and other conditions. Chiropractic is also considered a preventative health-care method.Photo Researchers, Inc./Art Stein/Science Source The field of chiropractic was founded by David Daniel Palmer in the 1890s. He believed that joint subluxation, or a partial dislocation, is a causal factor in disease and that removal of the subluxation by thrusting on the bony projections of the vertebrae restores health.
In addition to manipulating and adjusting bone and tissue, particularly in the spinal column, chiropractors use a variety of manual, mechanical, and electrical treatments. Chiropractors are most widely recognized for providing drug-free, non-surgical management of back and neck pain as well as of headaches. Some chiropractors also treat a variety of other ailments—such as bladder infections, arthritis, and depression—with spinal adjustments and other manipulations. Disease prevention and health promotion through proper diet, exercise, and lifestyle are other important features of chiropractic medicine.
There are about 80,000 licensed chiropractors in the United States. Licensing is required in all states. Chiropractors are allowed to use manual procedures and interventions but not surgery or chemotherapy.
D Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a treatment method that uses monitoring instruments to provide patients with physiological information of which they are normally unaware. In the 1960s, experimental psychologist Neal Miller demonstrated that the autonomic nervous system—which controls heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow to various organs, and gastrointestinal activity—is entirely trainable. In succeeding decades the validity of Miller’s observations was documented in thousands of articles and books, leading to widespread application of this technique. Today, biofeedback is used to treat a wide variety of conditions and diseases including stress, drug addiction, sleep disorders, epilepsy, fecal and urinary incontinence, headaches, and high blood pressure.
By watching a monitoring device, patients learn by trial and error to adjust their mental processes in order to control bodily processes. Electrodes are attached to the area of the patient being monitored—for instance, to the involved muscles during muscle therapy, or to the head during brain-wave monitoring. These electrodes feed the electrical information to a small monitoring box. The results are registered by a tone that varies in pitch or by a visual meter that varies in brightness as the function being monitored changes. The patient engages in mental exercises, in an attempt to reach the desired result, such as muscle relaxation or contraction. Voluntary control may be achieved in as few as ten sessions, although chronic or severe disorders may require longer therapy. Eventually, patients may learn to control symptoms without the use of the monitoring device.
E Naturopathy
sidebar SIDEBAR Guide to Herbal Medicine Kenneth R. Pelletier, clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and director of Stanford’s Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program, explains why many herbal medicines hold promise but also why they should be taken with caution. Pelletier details problems in the labeling of herbal medicines, inadequate regulation of the industry, lack of scientific studies on safety and effectiveness, and possible harmful interactions with other medicines. open sidebar
Naturopathy was founded in the beginning of the 20th century by a group of therapists who were followers of Sebastian Kneipp, a 19th-century proponent of the healing powers of nature. At the height of its popularity, there were more than 20 naturopathic medical schools (today there are only three) in the United States and naturopathic physicians were licensed in most states. The practice of naturopathic medicine declined as the use of pharmaceutical drugs increased. However, in the past several decades there has been a resurgence of interest in naturopathy.
Naturopathic medicine integrates alternative medical practices—such as botanical medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, and Oriental medicine—with modern scientific diagnostic methods and standards of care. Naturopathic physicians are trained in conventional medical disciplines as well as in alternative approaches. They integrate this knowledge according to principles that recognize the body’s inherent ability to heal itself, the importance of prevention, and the possibility of therapeutic use of nutrition to promote health and fight disease.
Most of the research on naturopathy has been based on observation of treatments rather than on controlled clinical trials that compare naturopathic therapy with no treatment (a placebo) or with an alternative treatment.
III CURRENT OUTLOOK
sidebar SIDEBAR The Debate Over Alternative Medicine Alternative medicine is rapidly gaining popularity in the United States. Members of the mainstream medical establishment, however, have long cautioned that many alternative cures have not undergone vigorous testing. In this November 1999 Encarta Yearbook special report, journalist and author Shari Roan explores both sides of the debate over alternative medicine. open sidebar
There remains considerable skepticism among practitioners of conventional medicine and among biomedical researchers regarding the efficacy of alternative medicine. Many of the claims made by practitioners of alternative medicine have not been supported by rigorously controlled scientific study. However, in recent years many scientists have begun to conduct such studies to evaluate alternative therapies. A division of the NIH, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM, originally the Office of Alternative Medicine), was established by the Congress of the United States in 1992 to facilitate the fair scientific evaluation of alternative therapies. The NCCAM seeks to reduce barriers that may keep promising alternative therapies from gaining widespread use. Physicians are also gaining more confidence in alternative therapies. By the late 1990s, some 75 U.S. medical schools had incorporated courses in alternative medicine into their curricula. It is possible that what was considered alternative in the past will become mainstream in years to come.
© 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
GOOGLE EARTH
Formerly known as Earth Viewer, Google Earth was developed by Keyhole, Inc., a company acquired by Google in 2004. The product was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and is currently available for use on personal computers running Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, or Vista; Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above; Linux (released on June 12, 2006); and FreeBSD. 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 caused a more than tenfold increase in media coverage on virtual globes between 2005 and 2006,[3] driving public interest in geospatial technologies and applications.
Denver, Colorado, viewed in Google Earth, now almost completely modeled with high-quality 3D models.
The viewer will show houses, the color of cars, and even the shadows of people and street signs. The degree of resolution available is based somewhat on the points of interest, but most land (except for some islands) is covered in at least 15 meters of resolution[4]. Las Vegas, Nevada and Cambridge, Massachusetts include examples of the highest resolution, at 15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses (for some countries only), enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location.
Google Earth also has digital elevation model (DEM) data collected by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This means one can view the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions, instead of 2D like other map programs/sites. Since 23 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[5]. In addition, Google has provided a layer allowing one to see 3D buildings for many major cities in the US and Japan.
Many people using the applications are adding their own data and making them available through various sources, such as the 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 Web Map Service client.
Google Earth supports managing three-dimensional geospatial data through Keyhole Markup Language (KML). It is available in a free version, and in licensed versions for commercial use.
Downtown Los Angeles, using the 3D Warehouse feature.
Google Earth has the capability to show 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 countries, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, United Kingdom,[6] Germany, Pakistan and the cities, Amsterdam and Alexandria[7]. Three-dimensional renderings are available for certain buildings and structures around the world via Google's 3D Warehouse[8] and other websites.
[edit] Sky mode
In version 4.2, released August 22, 2007, Google Earth added a Sky tool for viewing stars and astronomical images.[9] Google Sky is produced by Google through a partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the science operations center for Hubble. Dr. Alberto Conti and his co-developer Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute, plan to add the public images from 2007,[10] 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. Also visible on Sky mode are constellations, stars, galaxies and animations depicting the planets on their orbits.
[edit] 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 Coord templates. If the options to show Wikipedia or Panoramio entries are selected, users will be presented with clickable dots in their current Google Earth view. When any of these dots are selected, the user will be shown the Wikipedia or Panoramio entry right in Google Earth. 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 30th, 2007 that it is acquiring Panoramio.[11]
[edit] 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 Powers of Ten.[12]
[edit] Specifications
Google Earth comes with atmosphere effects and seabed
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.[13]
Baseline resolutions
U.S.: 15 m (some states are completely in 1 m or better)
Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, England, Andorra, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City: 1 m or better
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
U.S.: 1 m, 0.6 m, 0.3 m, 0.15 m (extremely rare; e.g. Cambridge and Google Campus, or Glendale)
Europe : 0.3 m, 0.15 m (e.g. Berlin, Zürich, Hamburg)
Altitude resolution:
Surface: varies by country
Seabed: Not applicable (a colorscale approximating sea floor depth is "printed" on the spherical surface).
Age: Images are usually less than 3 years old. The date next to the copyright information is often cited as the date the picture was taken, but this practice is incorrect.
Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware configurations. The most recent downloads available document these minimum configurations:
Pentium 3, 500 MHz
128 MB RAM
400 MB free disk space
Network speed: 128 kb/s
16MB 3D-capable graphics card
Resolution of 1024x768, 16-bit High Color
Windows XP or Windows 2000 (not Windows ME compatible), Linux, Mac OS X
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.
[edit] Mac version
Google Earth (Mac OS X)
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 a month previously, 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.
Currently, the Mac version runs only under Mac OS X versions 10.4 and 10.3.9. There is no embedded browser and no direct interface to Gmail. There are a few bugs concerning the menu bar when switching between applications and a few bugs concerning annotation balloons and printing.
The latest version, 4.1.7076.4558, released on May 9, 2007, features, among other things, a new user interface and the option for Mac OS X users to upgrade to the "Plus" version.[14] Some users reported difficulties with Google Earth crashing in the latest version when zooming in.[15]
[edit] Linux version
Google Earth 4(beta) Running on Ubuntu 6.06
Starting with the version 4 beta, Google Earth functions under Linux, as a native port using the Qt-toolkit.
Minimum System Requirements[16]
Kernel: 2.4 or later
CPU: Pentium 3, 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:
Ubuntu 5.10/6.06/6.10/7.04
SUSE 10.1/10.2
Fedora Core 4/5/6/7
Linspire 5.1
Gentoo 2006.0
Debian 3.1/4
Red Hat 9
Slackware 11.0
FreeBSD 6.1/7.0 with Linux Emulation
Arch Linux 0.7.2 Duke
Xandros 3.0.3 Business Edition
Mandriva 2007
Sabayon Linux 3.26
PCLinuxOS 5.0
[edit] Resolution and accuracy
The Isles of Scilly, showing the very low resolution of some islands. The islands (green area) are about 10 km across.
The west side of Gibraltar, tilted view showing the sea rising up the Rock of Gibraltar - claimed altitude of the sea just off the beach at Elliots Memorial, 252 m.
Google Earth is a complex application representing two and three dimensional data, vector data, integer and real numbers, and a variety of geometric projections. The imagery comes from a variety of sources and the processing of the imagery is done both by machine and humans. In addition, there are many terabytes of information from a variety of sources involving many people. As a result, there are bound to be inaccuracies in the data. Google is continuously taking input and improving the existing data.
Most land areas are covered in satellite imagery with a resolution of about 15 m per pixel. 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; most notably, Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, and the Isles of Scilly off southwest England, are at a resolution of about 500 m or less. These pictures are provided by Terrametrics.
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 Europe, though not including Ireland where imagery remains extremely limited.
Greenland with an odd black line and cut off fire.
An error causing part of Paris to appear as a hill due to the height of the Eiffel Tower.
The images are not all taken at the same time, but are generally current to within three years. 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, like 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 the 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 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, elevations below sea level are presented as sea level; i.e. Salton City, California; Death Valley; and the Dead Sea are all listed as 0 ft when Salton City is approx −200 ft; Death Valley is −286 ft; and the Dead Sea is −1,378 ft.
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.
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.
The Arctic polar ice caps are 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. There is very low resolution coverage of the Antarctic continent (1m resolution images of some parts of Antarctica were added in June 2007 for the first time). 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.
The atmosphere in Google Earth is greatly exaggerated. Comparisons with actual photographs show the Google Earth atmosphere to be 20 times thicker.[citation needed]
The stars in the background are not random. Google Earth uses a real star map to render the background. [verification needed]
[edit] National security and privacy issues
The software has been criticized by a number of special 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.[17] Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites.[18]
The Indian Space Research Organisation has said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.[19]
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.[20]
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.[21][22]
The Area 51 base in the Nevada desert is clearly visible, with no evidence of intentional obstruction or blurring. The base's runways and even a number of planes are visible, but sources confirm that the government has knowledge of all nearby photography satellites, and personnel are instructed to cover any vital technology and stay within the buildings at all times when one is within range.
Morocco's main Internet provider Maroc Telecom has been blocking Google Earth[23] since August 2006 without giving any justification for it.
Operators of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, New South Wales asked Google to censor high resolution pictures of the facility.[24] However, they later withdrew the request.[25]
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[26].
Blurred out image of the Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands.
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 is obscured through pixelization in Google Earth and Google Maps. The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are readily available on the Internet elsewhere.[27] 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".
[edit] Google Earth Community
The Google Earth Community is an online forum[28] which is dedicated to producing placemarks of interesting or educational perspectives. It may be found on the Google Earth webpage or under the Help section on the program itself. After downloading a placemark, it will automatically run Google Earth (if not opened), and fly to the area specified by the person who placed it. Once there, you can add it to your "My Places" by right clicking on the icon and selecting "Save to My Places". Additionally, anyone can post a placemark for others to download; as long as you have an account.
Google earth also can be used to locate "disasters". Currently a user can find these items within the google earth community. An example is a capsized ship off of the shore (69°15′32.22″N 33°14′17.11″E / 69.25895, 33.2380861) or a burning car, on A3 autobahn near Gieslenberg, N of Leverkusen, Germany (51°4′47.04″N 6°59′17.77″E / 51.0797333, 6.9882694).
[edit] 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[29]. By contrast, images created with NASA's globe software World Wind using 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, re-distributed and used for commercial purposes.
[edit] 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.
These used to cost extra in addition to the $400 fee but have recently been included in the package.[30]
[edit] See also
[edit] Related information
Web mapping
Geoweb
NASA World Wind
Yinchuan - subject to an Internet phenomenon originating on Google Earth forum.
[edit] Google mapping services
List of Google services and tools
Google Maps
Google Moon
Google Mars
[edit] Other providers
DigitalGlobe — the provider of high resolution imagery to Google Earth
EarthSat
GeoEye
GlobeXplorer
Pictometry
Spot Image
ViewGL - updated aerial imagery for Google Earth
Denver, Colorado, viewed in Google Earth, now almost completely modeled with high-quality 3D models.
The viewer will show houses, the color of cars, and even the shadows of people and street signs. The degree of resolution available is based somewhat on the points of interest, but most land (except for some islands) is covered in at least 15 meters of resolution[4]. Las Vegas, Nevada and Cambridge, Massachusetts include examples of the highest resolution, at 15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses (for some countries only), enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location.
Google Earth also has digital elevation model (DEM) data collected by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This means one can view the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions, instead of 2D like other map programs/sites. Since 23 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[5]. In addition, Google has provided a layer allowing one to see 3D buildings for many major cities in the US and Japan.
Many people using the applications are adding their own data and making them available through various sources, such as the 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 Web Map Service client.
Google Earth supports managing three-dimensional geospatial data through Keyhole Markup Language (KML). It is available in a free version, and in licensed versions for commercial use.
Downtown Los Angeles, using the 3D Warehouse feature.
Google Earth has the capability to show 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 countries, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, United Kingdom,[6] Germany, Pakistan and the cities, Amsterdam and Alexandria[7]. Three-dimensional renderings are available for certain buildings and structures around the world via Google's 3D Warehouse[8] and other websites.
[edit] Sky mode
In version 4.2, released August 22, 2007, Google Earth added a Sky tool for viewing stars and astronomical images.[9] Google Sky is produced by Google through a partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the science operations center for Hubble. Dr. Alberto Conti and his co-developer Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute, plan to add the public images from 2007,[10] 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. Also visible on Sky mode are constellations, stars, galaxies and animations depicting the planets on their orbits.
[edit] 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 Coord templates. If the options to show Wikipedia or Panoramio entries are selected, users will be presented with clickable dots in their current Google Earth view. When any of these dots are selected, the user will be shown the Wikipedia or Panoramio entry right in Google Earth. 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 30th, 2007 that it is acquiring Panoramio.[11]
[edit] 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 Powers of Ten.[12]
[edit] Specifications
Google Earth comes with atmosphere effects and seabed
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.[13]
Baseline resolutions
U.S.: 15 m (some states are completely in 1 m or better)
Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, England, Andorra, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City: 1 m or better
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
U.S.: 1 m, 0.6 m, 0.3 m, 0.15 m (extremely rare; e.g. Cambridge and Google Campus, or Glendale)
Europe : 0.3 m, 0.15 m (e.g. Berlin, Zürich, Hamburg)
Altitude resolution:
Surface: varies by country
Seabed: Not applicable (a colorscale approximating sea floor depth is "printed" on the spherical surface).
Age: Images are usually less than 3 years old. The date next to the copyright information is often cited as the date the picture was taken, but this practice is incorrect.
Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware configurations. The most recent downloads available document these minimum configurations:
Pentium 3, 500 MHz
128 MB RAM
400 MB free disk space
Network speed: 128 kb/s
16MB 3D-capable graphics card
Resolution of 1024x768, 16-bit High Color
Windows XP or Windows 2000 (not Windows ME compatible), Linux, Mac OS X
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.
[edit] Mac version
Google Earth (Mac OS X)
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 a month previously, 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.
Currently, the Mac version runs only under Mac OS X versions 10.4 and 10.3.9. There is no embedded browser and no direct interface to Gmail. There are a few bugs concerning the menu bar when switching between applications and a few bugs concerning annotation balloons and printing.
The latest version, 4.1.7076.4558, released on May 9, 2007, features, among other things, a new user interface and the option for Mac OS X users to upgrade to the "Plus" version.[14] Some users reported difficulties with Google Earth crashing in the latest version when zooming in.[15]
[edit] Linux version
Google Earth 4(beta) Running on Ubuntu 6.06
Starting with the version 4 beta, Google Earth functions under Linux, as a native port using the Qt-toolkit.
Minimum System Requirements[16]
Kernel: 2.4 or later
CPU: Pentium 3, 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:
Ubuntu 5.10/6.06/6.10/7.04
SUSE 10.1/10.2
Fedora Core 4/5/6/7
Linspire 5.1
Gentoo 2006.0
Debian 3.1/4
Red Hat 9
Slackware 11.0
FreeBSD 6.1/7.0 with Linux Emulation
Arch Linux 0.7.2 Duke
Xandros 3.0.3 Business Edition
Mandriva 2007
Sabayon Linux 3.26
PCLinuxOS 5.0
[edit] Resolution and accuracy
The Isles of Scilly, showing the very low resolution of some islands. The islands (green area) are about 10 km across.
The west side of Gibraltar, tilted view showing the sea rising up the Rock of Gibraltar - claimed altitude of the sea just off the beach at Elliots Memorial, 252 m.
Google Earth is a complex application representing two and three dimensional data, vector data, integer and real numbers, and a variety of geometric projections. The imagery comes from a variety of sources and the processing of the imagery is done both by machine and humans. In addition, there are many terabytes of information from a variety of sources involving many people. As a result, there are bound to be inaccuracies in the data. Google is continuously taking input and improving the existing data.
Most land areas are covered in satellite imagery with a resolution of about 15 m per pixel. 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; most notably, Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, and the Isles of Scilly off southwest England, are at a resolution of about 500 m or less. These pictures are provided by Terrametrics.
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 Europe, though not including Ireland where imagery remains extremely limited.
Greenland with an odd black line and cut off fire.
An error causing part of Paris to appear as a hill due to the height of the Eiffel Tower.
The images are not all taken at the same time, but are generally current to within three years. 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, like 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 the 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 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, elevations below sea level are presented as sea level; i.e. Salton City, California; Death Valley; and the Dead Sea are all listed as 0 ft when Salton City is approx −200 ft; Death Valley is −286 ft; and the Dead Sea is −1,378 ft.
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.
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.
The Arctic polar ice caps are 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. There is very low resolution coverage of the Antarctic continent (1m resolution images of some parts of Antarctica were added in June 2007 for the first time). 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.
The atmosphere in Google Earth is greatly exaggerated. Comparisons with actual photographs show the Google Earth atmosphere to be 20 times thicker.[citation needed]
The stars in the background are not random. Google Earth uses a real star map to render the background. [verification needed]
[edit] National security and privacy issues
The software has been criticized by a number of special 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.[17] Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites.[18]
The Indian Space Research Organisation has said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.[19]
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.[20]
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.[21][22]
The Area 51 base in the Nevada desert is clearly visible, with no evidence of intentional obstruction or blurring. The base's runways and even a number of planes are visible, but sources confirm that the government has knowledge of all nearby photography satellites, and personnel are instructed to cover any vital technology and stay within the buildings at all times when one is within range.
Morocco's main Internet provider Maroc Telecom has been blocking Google Earth[23] since August 2006 without giving any justification for it.
Operators of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, New South Wales asked Google to censor high resolution pictures of the facility.[24] However, they later withdrew the request.[25]
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[26].
Blurred out image of the Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands.
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 is obscured through pixelization in Google Earth and Google Maps. The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are readily available on the Internet elsewhere.[27] 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".
[edit] Google Earth Community
The Google Earth Community is an online forum[28] which is dedicated to producing placemarks of interesting or educational perspectives. It may be found on the Google Earth webpage or under the Help section on the program itself. After downloading a placemark, it will automatically run Google Earth (if not opened), and fly to the area specified by the person who placed it. Once there, you can add it to your "My Places" by right clicking on the icon and selecting "Save to My Places". Additionally, anyone can post a placemark for others to download; as long as you have an account.
Google earth also can be used to locate "disasters". Currently a user can find these items within the google earth community. An example is a capsized ship off of the shore (69°15′32.22″N 33°14′17.11″E / 69.25895, 33.2380861) or a burning car, on A3 autobahn near Gieslenberg, N of Leverkusen, Germany (51°4′47.04″N 6°59′17.77″E / 51.0797333, 6.9882694).
[edit] 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[29]. By contrast, images created with NASA's globe software World Wind using 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, re-distributed and used for commercial purposes.
[edit] 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.
These used to cost extra in addition to the $400 fee but have recently been included in the package.[30]
[edit] See also
[edit] Related information
Web mapping
Geoweb
NASA World Wind
Yinchuan - subject to an Internet phenomenon originating on Google Earth forum.
[edit] Google mapping services
List of Google services and tools
Google Maps
Google Moon
Google Mars
[edit] Other providers
DigitalGlobe — the provider of high resolution imagery to Google Earth
EarthSat
GeoEye
GlobeXplorer
Pictometry
Spot Image
ViewGL - updated aerial imagery for Google Earth
GOOGLE EARTH
Formerly known as Earth Viewer, Google Earth was developed by Keyhole, Inc., a company acquired by Google in 2004. The product was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and is currently available for use on personal computers running Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, or Vista; Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above; Linux (released on June 12, 2006); and FreeBSD. 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 caused a more than tenfold increase in media coverage on virtual globes between 2005 and 2006,[3] driving public interest in geospatial technologies and applications.
Denver, Colorado, viewed in Google Earth, now almost completely modeled with high-quality 3D models.
The viewer will show houses, the color of cars, and even the shadows of people and street signs. The degree of resolution available is based somewhat on the points of interest, but most land (except for some islands) is covered in at least 15 meters of resolution[4]. Las Vegas, Nevada and Cambridge, Massachusetts include examples of the highest resolution, at 15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses (for some countries only), enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location.
Google Earth also has digital elevation model (DEM) data collected by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This means one can view the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions, instead of 2D like other map programs/sites. Since 23 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[5]. In addition, Google has provided a layer allowing one to see 3D buildings for many major cities in the US and Japan.
Many people using the applications are adding their own data and making them available through various sources, such as the 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 Web Map Service client.
Google Earth supports managing three-dimensional geospatial data through Keyhole Markup Language (KML). It is available in a free version, and in licensed versions for commercial use.
Downtown Los Angeles, using the 3D Warehouse feature.
Google Earth has the capability to show 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 countries, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, United Kingdom,[6] Germany, Pakistan and the cities, Amsterdam and Alexandria[7]. Three-dimensional renderings are available for certain buildings and structures around the world via Google's 3D Warehouse[8] and other websites.
[edit] Sky mode
In version 4.2, released August 22, 2007, Google Earth added a Sky tool for viewing stars and astronomical images.[9] Google Sky is produced by Google through a partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the science operations center for Hubble. Dr. Alberto Conti and his co-developer Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute, plan to add the public images from 2007,[10] 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. Also visible on Sky mode are constellations, stars, galaxies and animations depicting the planets on their orbits.
[edit] 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 Coord templates. If the options to show Wikipedia or Panoramio entries are selected, users will be presented with clickable dots in their current Google Earth view. When any of these dots are selected, the user will be shown the Wikipedia or Panoramio entry right in Google Earth. 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 30th, 2007 that it is acquiring Panoramio.[11]
[edit] 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 Powers of Ten.[12]
[edit] Specifications
Google Earth comes with atmosphere effects and seabed
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.[13]
Baseline resolutions
U.S.: 15 m (some states are completely in 1 m or better)
Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, England, Andorra, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City: 1 m or better
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
U.S.: 1 m, 0.6 m, 0.3 m, 0.15 m (extremely rare; e.g. Cambridge and Google Campus, or Glendale)
Europe : 0.3 m, 0.15 m (e.g. Berlin, Zürich, Hamburg)
Altitude resolution:
Surface: varies by country
Seabed: Not applicable (a colorscale approximating sea floor depth is "printed" on the spherical surface).
Age: Images are usually less than 3 years old. The date next to the copyright information is often cited as the date the picture was taken, but this practice is incorrect.
Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware configurations. The most recent downloads available document these minimum configurations:
Pentium 3, 500 MHz
128 MB RAM
400 MB free disk space
Network speed: 128 kb/s
16MB 3D-capable graphics card
Resolution of 1024x768, 16-bit High Color
Windows XP or Windows 2000 (not Windows ME compatible), Linux, Mac OS X
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.
[edit] Mac version
Google Earth (Mac OS X)
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 a month previously, 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.
Currently, the Mac version runs only under Mac OS X versions 10.4 and 10.3.9. There is no embedded browser and no direct interface to Gmail. There are a few bugs concerning the menu bar when switching between applications and a few bugs concerning annotation balloons and printing.
The latest version, 4.1.7076.4558, released on May 9, 2007, features, among other things, a new user interface and the option for Mac OS X users to upgrade to the "Plus" version.[14] Some users reported difficulties with Google Earth crashing in the latest version when zooming in.[15]
[edit] Linux version
Google Earth 4(beta) Running on Ubuntu 6.06
Starting with the version 4 beta, Google Earth functions under Linux, as a native port using the Qt-toolkit.
Minimum System Requirements[16]
Kernel: 2.4 or later
CPU: Pentium 3, 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:
Ubuntu 5.10/6.06/6.10/7.04
SUSE 10.1/10.2
Fedora Core 4/5/6/7
Linspire 5.1
Gentoo 2006.0
Debian 3.1/4
Red Hat 9
Slackware 11.0
FreeBSD 6.1/7.0 with Linux Emulation
Arch Linux 0.7.2 Duke
Xandros 3.0.3 Business Edition
Mandriva 2007
Sabayon Linux 3.26
PCLinuxOS 5.0
[edit] Resolution and accuracy
The Isles of Scilly, showing the very low resolution of some islands. The islands (green area) are about 10 km across.
The west side of Gibraltar, tilted view showing the sea rising up the Rock of Gibraltar - claimed altitude of the sea just off the beach at Elliots Memorial, 252 m.
Google Earth is a complex application representing two and three dimensional data, vector data, integer and real numbers, and a variety of geometric projections. The imagery comes from a variety of sources and the processing of the imagery is done both by machine and humans. In addition, there are many terabytes of information from a variety of sources involving many people. As a result, there are bound to be inaccuracies in the data. Google is continuously taking input and improving the existing data.
Most land areas are covered in satellite imagery with a resolution of about 15 m per pixel. 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; most notably, Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, and the Isles of Scilly off southwest England, are at a resolution of about 500 m or less. These pictures are provided by Terrametrics.
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 Europe, though not including Ireland where imagery remains extremely limited.
Greenland with an odd black line and cut off fire.
An error causing part of Paris to appear as a hill due to the height of the Eiffel Tower.
The images are not all taken at the same time, but are generally current to within three years. 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, like 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 the 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 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, elevations below sea level are presented as sea level; i.e. Salton City, California; Death Valley; and the Dead Sea are all listed as 0 ft when Salton City is approx −200 ft; Death Valley is −286 ft; and the Dead Sea is −1,378 ft.
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.
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.
The Arctic polar ice caps are 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. There is very low resolution coverage of the Antarctic continent (1m resolution images of some parts of Antarctica were added in June 2007 for the first time). 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.
The atmosphere in Google Earth is greatly exaggerated. Comparisons with actual photographs show the Google Earth atmosphere to be 20 times thicker.[citation needed]
The stars in the background are not random. Google Earth uses a real star map to render the background. [verification needed]
[edit] National security and privacy issues
The software has been criticized by a number of special 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.[17] Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites.[18]
The Indian Space Research Organisation has said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.[19]
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.[20]
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.[21][22]
The Area 51 base in the Nevada desert is clearly visible, with no evidence of intentional obstruction or blurring. The base's runways and even a number of planes are visible, but sources confirm that the government has knowledge of all nearby photography satellites, and personnel are instructed to cover any vital technology and stay within the buildings at all times when one is within range.
Morocco's main Internet provider Maroc Telecom has been blocking Google Earth[23] since August 2006 without giving any justification for it.
Operators of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, New South Wales asked Google to censor high resolution pictures of the facility.[24] However, they later withdrew the request.[25]
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[26].
Blurred out image of the Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands.
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 is obscured through pixelization in Google Earth and Google Maps. The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are readily available on the Internet elsewhere.[27] 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".
[edit] Google Earth Community
The Google Earth Community is an online forum[28] which is dedicated to producing placemarks of interesting or educational perspectives. It may be found on the Google Earth webpage or under the Help section on the program itself. After downloading a placemark, it will automatically run Google Earth (if not opened), and fly to the area specified by the person who placed it. Once there, you can add it to your "My Places" by right clicking on the icon and selecting "Save to My Places". Additionally, anyone can post a placemark for others to download; as long as you have an account.
Google earth also can be used to locate "disasters". Currently a user can find these items within the google earth community. An example is a capsized ship off of the shore (69°15′32.22″N 33°14′17.11″E / 69.25895, 33.2380861) or a burning car, on A3 autobahn near Gieslenberg, N of Leverkusen, Germany (51°4′47.04″N 6°59′17.77″E / 51.0797333, 6.9882694).
[edit] 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[29]. By contrast, images created with NASA's globe software World Wind using 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, re-distributed and used for commercial purposes.
[edit] 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.
These used to cost extra in addition to the $400 fee but have recently been included in the package.[30]
[edit] See also
[edit] Related information
Web mapping
Geoweb
NASA World Wind
Yinchuan - subject to an Internet phenomenon originating on Google Earth forum.
[edit] Google mapping services
List of Google services and tools
Google Maps
Google Moon
Google Mars
[edit] Other providers
DigitalGlobe — the provider of high resolution imagery to Google Earth
EarthSat
GeoEye
GlobeXplorer
Pictometry
Spot Image
ViewGL - updated aerial imagery for Google Earth
Denver, Colorado, viewed in Google Earth, now almost completely modeled with high-quality 3D models.
The viewer will show houses, the color of cars, and even the shadows of people and street signs. The degree of resolution available is based somewhat on the points of interest, but most land (except for some islands) is covered in at least 15 meters of resolution[4]. Las Vegas, Nevada and Cambridge, Massachusetts include examples of the highest resolution, at 15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses (for some countries only), enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location.
Google Earth also has digital elevation model (DEM) data collected by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This means one can view the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions, instead of 2D like other map programs/sites. Since 23 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[5]. In addition, Google has provided a layer allowing one to see 3D buildings for many major cities in the US and Japan.
Many people using the applications are adding their own data and making them available through various sources, such as the 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 Web Map Service client.
Google Earth supports managing three-dimensional geospatial data through Keyhole Markup Language (KML). It is available in a free version, and in licensed versions for commercial use.
Downtown Los Angeles, using the 3D Warehouse feature.
Google Earth has the capability to show 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 countries, the United States, Canada, India, Japan, United Kingdom,[6] Germany, Pakistan and the cities, Amsterdam and Alexandria[7]. Three-dimensional renderings are available for certain buildings and structures around the world via Google's 3D Warehouse[8] and other websites.
[edit] Sky mode
In version 4.2, released August 22, 2007, Google Earth added a Sky tool for viewing stars and astronomical images.[9] Google Sky is produced by Google through a partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the science operations center for Hubble. Dr. Alberto Conti and his co-developer Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute, plan to add the public images from 2007,[10] 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. Also visible on Sky mode are constellations, stars, galaxies and animations depicting the planets on their orbits.
[edit] 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 Coord templates. If the options to show Wikipedia or Panoramio entries are selected, users will be presented with clickable dots in their current Google Earth view. When any of these dots are selected, the user will be shown the Wikipedia or Panoramio entry right in Google Earth. 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 30th, 2007 that it is acquiring Panoramio.[11]
[edit] 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 Powers of Ten.[12]
[edit] Specifications
Google Earth comes with atmosphere effects and seabed
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.[13]
Baseline resolutions
U.S.: 15 m (some states are completely in 1 m or better)
Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, England, Andorra, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City: 1 m or better
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
U.S.: 1 m, 0.6 m, 0.3 m, 0.15 m (extremely rare; e.g. Cambridge and Google Campus, or Glendale)
Europe : 0.3 m, 0.15 m (e.g. Berlin, Zürich, Hamburg)
Altitude resolution:
Surface: varies by country
Seabed: Not applicable (a colorscale approximating sea floor depth is "printed" on the spherical surface).
Age: Images are usually less than 3 years old. The date next to the copyright information is often cited as the date the picture was taken, but this practice is incorrect.
Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware configurations. The most recent downloads available document these minimum configurations:
Pentium 3, 500 MHz
128 MB RAM
400 MB free disk space
Network speed: 128 kb/s
16MB 3D-capable graphics card
Resolution of 1024x768, 16-bit High Color
Windows XP or Windows 2000 (not Windows ME compatible), Linux, Mac OS X
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.
[edit] Mac version
Google Earth (Mac OS X)
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 a month previously, 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.
Currently, the Mac version runs only under Mac OS X versions 10.4 and 10.3.9. There is no embedded browser and no direct interface to Gmail. There are a few bugs concerning the menu bar when switching between applications and a few bugs concerning annotation balloons and printing.
The latest version, 4.1.7076.4558, released on May 9, 2007, features, among other things, a new user interface and the option for Mac OS X users to upgrade to the "Plus" version.[14] Some users reported difficulties with Google Earth crashing in the latest version when zooming in.[15]
[edit] Linux version
Google Earth 4(beta) Running on Ubuntu 6.06
Starting with the version 4 beta, Google Earth functions under Linux, as a native port using the Qt-toolkit.
Minimum System Requirements[16]
Kernel: 2.4 or later
CPU: Pentium 3, 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:
Ubuntu 5.10/6.06/6.10/7.04
SUSE 10.1/10.2
Fedora Core 4/5/6/7
Linspire 5.1
Gentoo 2006.0
Debian 3.1/4
Red Hat 9
Slackware 11.0
FreeBSD 6.1/7.0 with Linux Emulation
Arch Linux 0.7.2 Duke
Xandros 3.0.3 Business Edition
Mandriva 2007
Sabayon Linux 3.26
PCLinuxOS 5.0
[edit] Resolution and accuracy
The Isles of Scilly, showing the very low resolution of some islands. The islands (green area) are about 10 km across.
The west side of Gibraltar, tilted view showing the sea rising up the Rock of Gibraltar - claimed altitude of the sea just off the beach at Elliots Memorial, 252 m.
Google Earth is a complex application representing two and three dimensional data, vector data, integer and real numbers, and a variety of geometric projections. The imagery comes from a variety of sources and the processing of the imagery is done both by machine and humans. In addition, there are many terabytes of information from a variety of sources involving many people. As a result, there are bound to be inaccuracies in the data. Google is continuously taking input and improving the existing data.
Most land areas are covered in satellite imagery with a resolution of about 15 m per pixel. 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; most notably, Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, and the Isles of Scilly off southwest England, are at a resolution of about 500 m or less. These pictures are provided by Terrametrics.
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 Europe, though not including Ireland where imagery remains extremely limited.
Greenland with an odd black line and cut off fire.
An error causing part of Paris to appear as a hill due to the height of the Eiffel Tower.
The images are not all taken at the same time, but are generally current to within three years. 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, like 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 the 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 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, elevations below sea level are presented as sea level; i.e. Salton City, California; Death Valley; and the Dead Sea are all listed as 0 ft when Salton City is approx −200 ft; Death Valley is −286 ft; and the Dead Sea is −1,378 ft.
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.
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.
The Arctic polar ice caps are 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. There is very low resolution coverage of the Antarctic continent (1m resolution images of some parts of Antarctica were added in June 2007 for the first time). 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.
The atmosphere in Google Earth is greatly exaggerated. Comparisons with actual photographs show the Google Earth atmosphere to be 20 times thicker.[citation needed]
The stars in the background are not random. Google Earth uses a real star map to render the background. [verification needed]
[edit] National security and privacy issues
The software has been criticized by a number of special 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.[17] Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites.[18]
The Indian Space Research Organisation has said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.[19]
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.[20]
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.[21][22]
The Area 51 base in the Nevada desert is clearly visible, with no evidence of intentional obstruction or blurring. The base's runways and even a number of planes are visible, but sources confirm that the government has knowledge of all nearby photography satellites, and personnel are instructed to cover any vital technology and stay within the buildings at all times when one is within range.
Morocco's main Internet provider Maroc Telecom has been blocking Google Earth[23] since August 2006 without giving any justification for it.
Operators of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, New South Wales asked Google to censor high resolution pictures of the facility.[24] However, they later withdrew the request.[25]
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[26].
Blurred out image of the Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands.
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 is obscured through pixelization in Google Earth and Google Maps. The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are readily available on the Internet elsewhere.[27] 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".
[edit] Google Earth Community
The Google Earth Community is an online forum[28] which is dedicated to producing placemarks of interesting or educational perspectives. It may be found on the Google Earth webpage or under the Help section on the program itself. After downloading a placemark, it will automatically run Google Earth (if not opened), and fly to the area specified by the person who placed it. Once there, you can add it to your "My Places" by right clicking on the icon and selecting "Save to My Places". Additionally, anyone can post a placemark for others to download; as long as you have an account.
Google earth also can be used to locate "disasters". Currently a user can find these items within the google earth community. An example is a capsized ship off of the shore (69°15′32.22″N 33°14′17.11″E / 69.25895, 33.2380861) or a burning car, on A3 autobahn near Gieslenberg, N of Leverkusen, Germany (51°4′47.04″N 6°59′17.77″E / 51.0797333, 6.9882694).
[edit] 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[29]. By contrast, images created with NASA's globe software World Wind using 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, re-distributed and used for commercial purposes.
[edit] 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.
These used to cost extra in addition to the $400 fee but have recently been included in the package.[30]
[edit] See also
[edit] Related information
Web mapping
Geoweb
NASA World Wind
Yinchuan - subject to an Internet phenomenon originating on Google Earth forum.
[edit] Google mapping services
List of Google services and tools
Google Maps
Google Moon
Google Mars
[edit] Other providers
DigitalGlobe — the provider of high resolution imagery to Google Earth
EarthSat
GeoEye
GlobeXplorer
Pictometry
Spot Image
ViewGL - updated aerial imagery for Google Earth
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