Google Earth 

is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called

EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a company acquired by Google in 2004. It maps the
Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial
photography and GIS 3Dglobe. It was available under three different licenses, 2 currently: Google Earth,
a free version with limited functionality; Google Earth Plus (discontinued),[1][2] which included additional
features; and Google Earth Pro ($399 per year), which is intended for commercial use.[3]

The product, re-released as Google Earth in 2005, is currently available for use on personal
computers running Windows 2000 and above, Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above, Linux kernel: 2.6 or later
(released on June 12, 2006), and FreeBSD. Google Earth is also available as a browser plugin which was
released on May 28, 2008.[4] It was also made available for mobile viewers on the iPhone OS on October
28, 2008, as a free download from the App Store, and is available to Android users as a free app on
the Android Market. In addition to releasing an updated Keyhole based client, Google also added the
imagery from the Earth database to their web-based mapping software, Google Maps. The release of
Google Earth in June 2005 to the public caused a more than tenfold increase in media coverage on virtual
globes between 2004 and 2005,[5] driving public interest in geospatial technologies and applications

Overview

A high resolution of Downtown Los Angeles as viewed in Google Earth in 3D buildings layer

A rendering of the Flatirons in Boulder, Colorado by Google Earth

Google Earth displays satellite images of varying resolution of the Earth's surface, allowing users to see
things like cities and houses looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle (see also bird's eye
view). The degree of resolution available is based somewhat on the points of interest and popularity, but
most land (except for some islands) is covered in at least 15 meters of resolution.[6] Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Cambridge, Cambridgeshire include examples of the highest
resolution, at 15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses for some countries,
enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location.

For large parts of the surface of the Earth only 2D images are available, from almost vertical photography.
Viewing this from an oblique angle, there is perspective in the sense that objects which are horizontally
far away are seen smaller, but of course it is like viewing a large photograph, not quite like a 3D view.

For other parts of the surface of the Earth 3D images of terrain and buildings are available. Google Earth
uses digital elevation model (DEM) data collected byNASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM).
[7]
 This means one can view the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions, instead of 2D like
other areas. Since November 2006, the 3D views of many mountains, including Mount Everest, have
been improved by the use of supplementary DEM data to fill the gaps in SRTM coverage.[8]

Many people use the applications to add their own data, making them available through various sources,
such as the Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) or blogsmentioned in the link section below. Google Earth is
able to show all kinds of images overlaid on the surface of the earth and is also a Web Map Serviceclient.
Google Earth supports managing three-dimensional Geospatial data through Keyhole Markup
Language (KML). Google Earth is simply based on 3D maps, it has the capability to show 3D buildings
and structures (such as bridges), which consist of users' submissions using SketchUp, a 3D
modelingprogram software. In prior versions of Google Earth (before Version 4), 3D buildings were limited
to a few cities, and had poorer rendering with no textures. Many buildings and structures from around the
world now have detailed 3D structures; including (but not limited to) those in the United States, Canada,
Australia, Ireland, India, Japan, United Kingdom,[9] Germany, Pakistan and the
cities, Amsterdam and Alexandria.[10] In August 2007, Hamburg became the first city entirely shown in 3D,
including textures such as façades. The Irish town of Westport was added to Google Earth in 3D on
January 16, 2008. The 'Westport3D' model was created by 3D imaging firm AM3TD using long-distance
laser scanning technology and digital photography and is the first such model of an Irish town to be
created. As it was developed initially to aid Local Government in carrying out their town planning functions
it includes the highest resolution photo-realistic textures to be found anywhere in Google Earth. Three-
dimensional renderings are available for certain buildings and structures around the world via Google's
3D Warehouse[11] and other websites.
Recently, Google added a feature that allows users to monitor traffic speeds at loops located every 200
yards in real-time. In version 4.3 released on April 15, 2008, Google Street View was fully integrated into
the program allowing the program to provide an on the street level view in many locations.

On January 16, 2010, the entirety of Google Earth's ocean floor imagery was updated to new images by
SIO, NOAA, US Navy, NGA, and GEBCO. The new images have caused smaller islands, such as some
atolls in the Maldives, to be rendered invisible despite their shores being completely outlined.[12]

[edit]Languages

Since version 5.0 Google Earth has been available in 37 languages:

 Arabic  Greek  Russian

 Bulgarian  Hebrew  Serbian
 Bangla  Hindi  Slovak
 Catalan  Hungarian  Slovene
 Chinese (Traditio  Indonesian  Spanish (Spain)
nal)  Italian  Spanish (Latin
 Chinese (Simplifi  Japanese America)
ed)  Korean  Swedish
 Croatian  Latvian  Thai
 Czech  Lithuanian  Turkish
 Danish  Norwegian  Ukrainian
 Dutch  Polish  Vietnamese
 English (America  Portuguese
n) (Portugal)
 English (British)  Portuguese
 Filipino (Brazil)
 Finnish  Romanian
 French
 German
[edit]Uses

This section requires expansion.

In addition to obvious uses, Google Earth is useful for many day-to-day and other purposes.
 Google Earth can be used to view areas subjected to widespread disasters if Google supplies up-
to-date images. For example after the January 12 2010 Haiti earthquake images of Haiti were made
available on January 17.

 With Google's push for the inclusion of Google Earth in the Classroom,[13] teachers are adopting
Google Earth in the classroom for lesson planning, such as teaching students geographical themes
(location, culture, characteristics, human interaction, and movement)[14] to creating mashups with
other web applications such as Wikipedia.[13][14]

 You can explore and place placemarks on the moon, and Mars.
[edit]Features

[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.
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.[15] Google
announced on May 30, 2007 that it is acquiring Panoramio.[16] In March 2010, Google removed the
"Geographic Web" layer. The "Panoramio" layer became part of the main layers and the "Wikipedia" layer
was placed in the "More" layer.

[edit]Flight simulator

Downtown Toronto, as seen from a F16 Fighting Falcon during a simulated flight.

In Google Earth v4.2 a flight simulator was included as a hidden feature. Starting with v4.3 it is no longer
hidden. Initially the F-16 Fighting Falcon and theCirrus SR-22 were the only aircraft available, and they
could be used with only a few airports. In addition to keyboard control, the simulator can be controlled
with a mouse or joystick.[citation needed] Google Earth v5.1 and higher crashes when starting flight simulator
with Saitek and other joysticks.
If a user maneuvers carefully, the user can also fly underwater. To fly underwater, the user needs to hit
the ocean or sea at a very low angle, so that the user can be almost parallel with the water. Controls are
the same underwater, but the altitude meter will be in the negatives. Just like above ground, the user
needs to look out for mountains and continental shelves, rises, and slopes. If a user hits the ocean at
about more than about 15 degrees, the user will crash and have to start over.
[edit]Featured planes

 F-16 Fighting Falcon – A much higher speed and maximum altitude than the Cirrus SR-22, it has
the ability to fly at a maximum speed of Mach 2. The take-off speed is 280 knots, the landing speed is
170~290 knots.

 Cirrus SR-22 – Although slower and with a lower maximum altitude, the SR-22 is much easier to
handle and is preferred for up-close viewing of Google Earth's imagery. The take-off speed is 75
knots, the landing speed is 150 knots[17]

The flight simulator can be commanded with the keyboard, mouse or plugged-in joystick. Broadband
connection and a high speed computer provides a very realistic experience.[18] The simulator also runs
with animation, allowing objects (for example: planes) to animate while on the simulator. Image
overlays can also be added to make it look like the cockpit of a plane.

[edit]Sky mode
Main article:  Google Sky

Google Earth in Sky Viewing Mode

Google Sky is a feature that was introduced in Google Earth 4.2 on August 22, 2007, and allows users to
view stars and other celestial bodies.[19] It was produced by Google through a partnership with the Space
Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, the science operations center for the Hubble Space
Telescope. Dr. Alberto Conti and his co-developer Dr. Carol Christian of STScI plan to add the public
images from 2007,[20] as well as color images of all of the archived data from Hubble's Advanced Camera
for Surveys. Newly released Hubble pictures will be added to the Google Sky program as soon as they
are issued. New features such as multi-wavelength data, positions of major satellites and their orbits as
well as educational resources will be provided to the Google Earth community and also through Christian
and Conti's website for Sky. Also visible on Sky mode are constellations, stars, galaxies and animations
depicting the planets in their orbits. A real-time Google Sky mashup of recent astronomical transients,
using the VOEvent protocol, is being provided by the VOEventNet collaboration. Google's Earth maps are
being updated each 5 minutes.

Google Sky faces competition[21] from Microsoft WorldWide Telescope (which runs only under

the Microsoft Windows operating systems) and fromStellarium, a free open source planetarium that runs
under Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

On March 13, 2008, Google made a web-based version of Google Sky available
at http://www.google.com/sky/.

[edit]Street View
Main article:  Google Street View

On April 15, 2008 with version 4.3, Google fully integrated its Street View into Google Earth. In version
6.0, the photo zooming function has been removed because it is incompatible with the new 'seamless'
navigation.

Google Street View provides 360° panoramic street-level views and allows users to view parts of selected
cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas at ground level. When it was launched on May 25, 2007
for Google Maps, only five cities were included. It has since expanded to more than 40 U.S. cities, and
includes the suburbs of many, and in some cases, other nearby cities. Recent updates have now
implemented Street View in most of the major cities of Australia and New Zealand as well as parts of
Canada, parts of South Africa, Denmark, Mexico, Japan, Norway, Spain, Sweden, France, the UK,
Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Taiwan, and Singapore.

Google Street View, when operated, displays photos that were previously taken by a camera mounted on
an automobile, and can be navigated by using the mouse to click on photograph icons displayed on the
screen in your direction of travel. Using these devices, the photos can be viewed in different sizes, from
any direction, and from a variety of angles.

[edit]Water and ocean

Introduced in version 5.0 (February 2009), the Google Ocean feature allows users to zoom below the
surface of the ocean and view the 3D bathymetry beneath the waves. Supporting over 20 content layers,
it contains information from leading scientists and oceanographers.[22] On April 14, 2009, Google added
underwater terrain data for the Great Lakes.[23]

[edit]Historical Imagery
Introduced in version 5.0, Historical Imagery allows users to traverse back in time and study earlier stages
of any place. This feature is very useful for research purposes that require analysis of past records of
various places.[24]

A side-by-side comparison of The Ziggurat and Raley Field in West Sacramento, California from 1993 on the left and 2009
on the right. As shown in the 1993 side both the Ziggurat and Raley Field do not exist.

[edit]Mars
Main article:  Google Mars

Google Earth 5 includes a separate globe of the planet Mars, that can be viewed and analysed for
research purposes. The maps are of a much higher resolution than those on the browser version
of Google Mars and it also includes 3D renderings of the Martian terrain. There are also some extremely
high resolution images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera that are of a similar
resolution to those of the cities on Earth. Finally, there are many high resolution panoramic images from
various Mars landers, such as the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, that can be viewed in
a similar way to Google Street View. Interestingly enough, layers on Google Earth (such as World
Population Density) can also be applied to Mars. Layers of Mars can also be applied onto Earth. Mars
also has a small application found near the face on Mars. It is called Meliza, and features a chat between
you and an automatic robot speaker. It is useful for research on Mars, but is not recommended for normal
conversations.

[edit]Moon
Main article:  Google Moon

One of the lunar landers viewed in Google Moon

On July 20, 2009, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, Google introduced the Google Earth
version of Google Moon,[25] which allows users to view satellite images of the Moon. It was announced
and demonstrated to a group of invited guests by Google along with Buzz Aldrin at
the Newseum inWashington, D.C..[26][27]

[edit]Google Earth Engine

Google Earth Engine is a separate product, not a part of Google Earth.

[edit]Influences

Google Earth can be traced directly back to a small company named Autometric, now a part of Boeing.
Autometric created a visualization product named Edge Whole Earth and demonstrated this to Michael T.
Jones. Chris Tanner, and others at SGI in 1996. Several other visualization products using imagery
existed at the time, including Performer-based ones, but Michael T. Jones stated emphatically that he had
"never thought of the complexities of rendering an entire globe..." The catch phrase "from outer space to
in your face" was coined by Autometric President Dan Gordon, and used to explain his concept for
personnel/local/global range. Edge blazed a trail as well in broadcasting, being used in 1997 on CBS
News with Dan Rather, in print for rendering large images draped over terrain for National Geographic,
and used for special effects in the feature film Shadow Conspiracy in 1997. In 2000, Edge Viewer was
made available through the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for free.

Mr. Gordon was a huge fan of 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,
[28]
 while another co-founder said it was inspired by the short science education film Powers of Ten.[29] In
fact Google Earth was at least partly inspired by a Silicon Graphics demo called "From Outer Space to in
Your Face" which zoomed from space into the Swiss Alps then into the Matterhorn.[30] This launch demo
was hosted by an Onyx 3000 with InfiniteReality4[31] graphics, which supported Clip Mapping and was
inspired by the hardware texture paging capability (although it did not use the Clip Mapping) and "Powers
of Ten". The first Google Earth implementation called Earth Viewer emerged from Intrinsic Graphics as a
demonstration of Chris Tanner's software based implementation of a Clip Mapping texture paging system
and was spun off as Keyhole Inc. Earth Viewer was the inevitable ultimate realization of the capabilities of
a seamless texture paging system and many of the individuals working on Earth Viewer were Silicon
Graphics alumni.